Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

WEI E T SHINES W ILE COO .... C KS " '" '" e, N .... ~ N >- " ::;; en ;: w Z W ...J U \l .", By Kevin Hill OL YMP IA , WASH ., April 16, 1972 - A few h ar d y sp ec ta to rs and 38 even hardier riders b raved som e incredible weather conditions for today's running of the Northwest's version of an AMA qualifying race for next fall's Trans-AMA series. April showe rs are to be expected in this u su ally damp portion of the world, bu t this was ridiculous! Hailstorms and freezing rain alternated with b right su nshine, howling winds a nd d ead calm s to cause the tem p era tu re t o vary as much as 20 degree s in th e cou rse o f th e day . Later o n , it got mo re co ns iste nt. It just p lain froze. James Weinert d idn't seem to mi n d the cold though . Hi s su p e r aggressive riding totally dominated th e 25 0 class with victories in every mo to . He was a real crowd pleaser too, no sla cking off after building a big lead for this b oy . He flat poured it on th e wh ol e time in each 30-minute mo to. Meanwhile, back in the pack , the battl e raged for se cond and third b etween Mike Weiland, Bu ck Murphy , Dave L ongcor, and Bob R ush . The constan t dueling and shuffling o f positions o f these four was th e m ain reason n o o ne of them got in to a p o siti on to seri ously challe nge Wein e rt on his Yamah a. Murphy , wh o fin ished second in tw o mo to s and le d o n several o ccassions, was un able ro do better than six th overall due to a poor sh owing in the fir st moto. Mike Weiland, an other fin e comp e ti to r, lo oked like a winner ill the first moto when h e developed a he althy lead only to fal l back steadily later on with what seemed to b e a less than full strength Maic o. He ended up with fourth ove rall . Se co nd and third spots went to co nsistency ex pe rts Bob Rush and Dave Longco r. The re al su rp rise in the 250 even t was th e failure of De Way ne J ones on th e proto -type Yamaha to m aterializ e as th e pace-se tter in this even t. He was fast en ough b u t was plagued b y m ech an ical p ro b lems a nd falls and wa s never seriously in the co mpetition. A no ther exciting ace, J im Pomero y, was knocked o u t o f th e race in the th ird m o to just as he was m a k in g a stro ng bid for th e lead . Coming off the h ighest ju m p on th e course in h is typical h igh-flying fash io n , he land ed hard a t the botto m an d simp ly broke h is Bu lt aco in two . No t the wh o le bik e ac tually , just th e fro nt d own tu be , but it su re looked funny with the e ngine dragging on the ground. I The Open class appeared a t first t o b e a two man race between factory riders John DeSoto fo r Suzuki and Gary Jones for Yamah a. Bill C o ok, an in d ep en dent Mai co rider h ad other id eas. Originally , Bill was scheduled to ride th e 250 class while Rick Po ulin w as set to ride Bill's 400 Maico in the Open even t. However, at th e last min ute , the 250 lunched a casing from a thrown chain leavin g Bill without a mo unt. This w as c o rrec te d b y . swit ch in g with R ic k y, getting Bill in t o the Open lin eup righ t under the wire. Bill went on to win the whole ball of wax ov er two of the b est riders in th e co u ntry. J ohn DeS oto led th e fi rst mo to fro m wire to wi re and t o o k th e c heckered flag with a co m mand in g lead o ver Bill C o o k. H owe ve r , th e Fly in ' Hawaiian h ad jumped th e start an d was p en alized o ne positi on , givin g th e win to Co ok. J ones was a disappoin ting sixth af ter stopping on th e course with a min or prob lem while running a strong second. I n the sec o nd moto th e fan s were tre ated to a tremendous duel for fir st place between DeSoto and J ones. Th e fact ory riders built up an in su rmo u ntab le le ad ov er th e rest o f th e pack as th ey d iced a lo ng , fl a t o u t , over the muddy, r oll er-c o as ter lik e cou rse. DeS oto h eld off Jones m o st o f th e wa y . Then , in the closing minu tes , DeS o to was forced to sto p briefly fo r some problem. John got th e b ig Suzu ki b ack in action q uickly bu t not quick enough to keep G ary fro m taking th e lead and the race . Way , way back behind these two , Bill Cook had managed t o p ass several people, one of which being R ich T horwaldson , an d p lace himself in third place for th e moto and a tie for first with J ohn DeS o to. Interes t was high at th e sta r t' o f the final m oto w ith lo cal fav orite Bill Co ok tied o n p oints with international st ar J o h n DeS oto. J ones was a d istan t th ir d due t o h is six th place in th e first m o to , In to th e first tu rn it was J ones, De S oto, an d C o o k. T hen, di saste r fo r Co o k ! From out of n owh ere so meone came u p an d kn o cked h im flying in to the a nkle de ep mu d . When he got b ack up an d runnin g he was dead last . Up fron t , meanwhi le, J ones and DeS oto were sta gin g their n ow familiar act, this time wi th J ones leading and DeS oto in pursu it . It d id n' t last lo ng. With a h earty ru sh and a cry of " Hi-yo, Suzuki" Big J ohn we nt flying, literally , past the Yama h a star over th e m o st tr each e rous on the course . Downrigh t ju m p breath ta k in g. John was really fi re d up now a nd was heard to y ell "Yahoooo o" as he flew off th e t op of th e big, big jump. Then, wi th a com fortab le lead and only ab ou t ten minutes t o go , th e big Suzuki just barfed it's engine an d refused to budge ano ther in ch . DeSoto was disgusted bu t was still ab le to push his m achine ov er th e fin ish line to salv age six th p lace and third ove ral l. That ' s h ow b ig th e lead was. Gary J on es, in sp ite o f seve ral st op s to p ick ro cks out of h is gear changer, was ab le to wi n the m oto a nd acc umulate enough points for sec o nd place. Big w inner Bill C o o k, overloo ke d by m o st fans du e to the heavy action up front, h ad stead ily th re ad ed his way through the weary crowd an d moved into second pl ace when the checke re d fla g fell o n J ones. This finish cinch ed his first ov erall and guaranteed him the lio n's sh are o f th e S 1,000 Open class purse. Despite a day filled with d i s app i on t me n t s , DeSoto had acom p lished h is m ain objective of qualifying fo r th is Fall 's AMA series. The Jones b oy s had had their share o f troubles bu t a t least would not walk away em pty-handed thanks to Gary's second. And it wasn 't ex actly a to ta l lo ss for J im Wein e rt and Bill C ook ei ther. A s for the fans, I'm su re th at b y the time th ey got h ome an d thawed out they would have to agree it was worth it all to h ave witnessed such a fine di spl ay of ra cing b y so me of the best in the busi ne ss. At the end of the day the weather became co nsiste nt. It froze. (R esu lts on p age 36) >o

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