Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

Grossi goes the route By Steve Castillo LIVERMORE, CAL., Ap ril 16, 1972 Billy Grossi p ut a first and second together to take top spot at the CMC North Mo to cross today at Carnegie Cycle Park: There was n o doubt about it - the 125 Seniors h ad the crowd to its feet in both m o to s. The firs t r ace saw Fred Bennett (Yam) take the lead with Billy (DKW) running second and they really started to do battle while moving away from the rest of the pack. Billy was really getting it on.. .on the b ig straigh taway jump he soared high in the air and came down a hair's breath from Bennett's speeding Yamaha. Try as he migh t, he co uldn't get by. Bennett took the wi n with G rossi settling for second. In the nex t race it looked as thoug h G rossi. wo ul d get the lead position b u t ins tead he dro ve st raigh t off the trac k (reason u nknown ) but recovered to ge t back in last place. Q uic k ly an d wit h grea t precision , G rossi starte d to fig ht his way to th e fro nt. R id er afte r rider lap after lap - Billy gaine d m ore speed and c on trol until h e wa s in secon d pl ace. Fred Ben ne tt was shoc ked, to say th e leas t , to sec Bill y righ t on h is ta il. T he two rid ers fo u gh t h ard - sw it ching th e lead seve ra l ti mes. 1t fi nal ly happened d own th e l ong downhilL.Grossi and Benne tt we re side -b y -sid e wh en Gros si gave it a little more gas (instead of th e usual braking) and scooted ahead to take th e win and first overall. Act io n in the ranks of th e 250 Seniors was ju st as exciting when Henry Hal fback (CZ) , riding ou t of D & R Cycle , took the lead followed b y Perry Klassen (CZ) and Rob Norgaard (CZ). Norgaard m o ved into second and was in hot pursuit of Hallback but H allback dropped it on the long d ownhill; Henry was up and go ing befo re R ob p assed him but somehow go t hi s bike stuc k in third gear. Henry co ul d o n ly h old Rob back so long fi nally to succu m b to th e b adgering. But b ad lu ck hit R ob as h e was going up th e dusty uph ill; some th ing cau sed h im to stop . T hat put the farmer fro m Mad era, J ohn Franklin, in the lead bu t th at d idn ' t last long ei ther as Henry p assed h im back to take the w in ...a11 this and with only third gear? A maz ing . T he second m o to saw Hallback ta king th e lead agai n . Don Sanders (CZ) was runnin g second. Billy G rossi (Suz), wo rking up from a poor start, fough t in t o th ird positio n and that was h ow they fi nis h. The Open Senior action was we ll worth wa tch in g when Norgaard (CZ) took th e lead. T rouble 'again hit Rob when his re ar wh eel gave ou t, le ttin g Franklin take th e lead an d R on Huffman , fro m Trop hy Cycles, take secon d . Norgaard had to settle for th ir d. I n the final Sen ior rou nd, Ron Self (Mai ) and Huffm an, b oth o u t of T r ophy Cycles in Mountain Vi ew , t ook first and second o ff the lin e with N orgaard in third. Coming out of the trees and d own the straightaway for the uphill climb , Norgaard lost it bad ly and injured his knee. Self and Huffman started t o stretch out their lead with Franklin (Mai) running third. Huffman won out ove rall by having two seconds, Franklin took second and D ave Scott (Mai ) took third. This was the third CMC North Carabela Points Meet Race and all things went smoothly as usual: Budd and Lansborough smoke by young Jorgy By Ann Carr LOD!, CAL., April 16, 197 2 - Alex Jorgensen , an 18 -year-old Exper t from Sto ckton , Cal if.. showe d again t o day why h e is a m an t o wa tc h a t Lodi. Young J or gy eas ily ou td ista nced o ther 650 Ex per ts in th e h eat race , bu t a slower start off th e line in th e Mai n forced h im to foll o w very closely on th e pi pe of Castro Valley's Bill Budd for seven laps before using excellen tracing psychology to zip by . Black p la te 4, Budd, held a close lin e on the slick groove with J orgy trying to p ower b y on the o utside. But as Bu dd anticipated ano ther wi d e attem p t, h e hung to th e ou tside aro un d the tree o n th e w h it e flag lap an d J or gen sen an d lucky 13 Bill Landsb o rough slipped underneath for fir st and sec on d place finishes resp ectively. Most other he ats today worked into parades as the sun b ake d course was very slippery an d passing was rare. Modesto's Greg Asbill foll owed h is w in at Fremont with another one in the 250 Expert Main. John Hlebo of Los Gatos jumped into the second spot on lap one and was . never headed. Current point leader, Jeff Davidson, finished a distant fourth. Howard Arnaiz, Stockton's Kawasaki 250 Junior, repeated his first place finish of a few weeks earlier with case. He's now ready for the Expert ranks. A p lea is being sen t ou t for tr ophy d onations for the May 7 Archie Cl ark Memorial, with benefits going to MORE . Donations of an y size can be sent to: Archie Clark Trophies, c / o Lodi Cycle Bowl, Morse Road, Lodi, Calif. (Results on page 44) VVeight Lifting? GET IT UPWITH A 'FLOATER' SUPER LIGHT 211N FRONT WHEEL Steel RIm One lap or 5minutes, whichever comes first By Michael Starr MEDFORD , ORE ., April 16, 1972 The last regular race at Medford Motocross Park saw 134 rid ers and 1200 spec tators tu m out. The ride rs we re taking th e. las t opportunity to try new eq uip men t, trick s and t o ju st p lain p ractice before the season finale, the Orego n S ta te M oto cro ss Ch ampionship s. The races today saw an invasion of riders from California ; th e 250 Junior was just abo u t a co mp lete sh u t out for th e local riders. Bri an Lee (Mail. fresh fr om th e Mint 400, a nd also a Califo rn ia boy , did th e tr ick in th e 25 0 Sen io r class bu t n ot with out a scrap from local h ero Mike Bran non (Y am) . Bob LaF on taine (Mai) als o participated in the Mint and, just to p rove he's the M.R.A.'s N o. I rider, h e picked o ff first in both th e Open Senior and Money Ra ce. A ll six (co u n t ' em) m oto s in both ra ces were n o easy ride fo r LaFont aine . However, Keith Nerseth (CZ) re al ly p u t the pressure o n . As a m atter of fac t, o ne mo to saw Nerseth pull o ff first fo llowed by LaFontaine (w ould you believe b y six inches) wh o nearl y lo st it o n th e las t jump before th e fin ish an d h e had onl y one hand o n it and th e bi ke was in a horrendous speed wobbl e , ke p t the wick on all th e way! Yes sir folks, Bobb y LaF on ta in e deserves that No. I plate . ". O ne of the most in teresting races was a n ew class cal led "The Old Man's R ace," R id ers had to be 35 or older and bi ke size was unlimited. After some dero ga to ry remarks like, "one lap or five mi n u tes, whichever comes first," it w as d ecid ed th at the " b oy s" would run th ree th ree-lap rrfo to s. A 38-year-old y oungste r , Larry Hackworth (Pe n) grabbed first go ld, b u t the action in the m iddle of the pack was best. Position s changed like the Queen's G uard and . m ore than o ne bike d isrespectfully d ism ounted its rid er. With the interest shown it lo o ks like this migh t be a permanent class, maybe other promo ter s should try a class for "old me n ." (Results on page 44) H&Hat25mph AUoy RIm $6995FREIGHT PLUS University Honda Bultaco Kawasaki & ClZ 5908 Roosevelt Way NE seattle Wash 98105 •• SEND FOR FREE CATALOGUE T H E Y'R E HERE AT L AST ! Ultra ligh tweight , European mad e . "Hv lender" alloy 9as ta nks for Husq varna Moto- cross, Desert and Enduro machines. 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' S FIllEST COIlI'EI'ITORS sOlce JIDo'1OR $5 I NTOOolEDIlTE $S PROrrssIOrw. $15 ?;;7/ &/'fd .i~' $3,()Oo.~ POWDERK EG PARK 1000c 1250' 15,150'7'- ROSS C~SI 2 j Dee By Larry Ul ric h BEND, ORE ., April 16 , 1972 Forty-six riders o u t o f 138 starters managed to fin ish two laps of a grueling 75 m ile co urse a t the Cascade M.C. Cross Country Race. Dale Demaris pushed his 360 Yamaha hard and still took five hours 55 minutes to take th e overall win. This is a tw enty-five mile per hour average, so this gives you an idea of how rough the c ou rse was. About the only obst acle th is course did n ot h ave was cactu s. Sage brush, juniper trees, cre ek beds full of wate r, mud, sn ow, hills, rock piles and dusty fire roads. The riders even got up in to the tall p ine timber co u n try. Many , many rid ers gave up after the first lap , too tired to continued. Riders from as far away as British Columbia cam e t o try th ei r lu ck . O ne of them, Dick F ish , was running fi fth ove ral l at th e en d o f the firs t lap and star ted o n h is secon d. Fi sh h ad elec te d n o t t o wear go ggles and n ow th e di r t in his eyes really started to b other him, so rather th an crash on some rock h e co uld n o t see, he turned around a nd rode back to the finish line. Seattle school teacher, Ken Habeck was leading at the end of the first lap with De maris abo ut two min utes b ehind . Man y top cross-co untry riders did no t fin ish . De pendability , n ot getting lo st, an d en d urance had a lot to d o with win n ing. Bill Ave ry, pil oting a 350 H onda, took second ove rall ahead o f rna '!}' Husq varnas, Maicos, a nd g Zs. Ossa rider J oe R oberts fro m The Dalles was fifth overall and first 250. Righ t behind him was Yamaha-mounted Jeff Carrico for first 125 . . (Results on p age 44) $5995 For all Bultaco 5 speeds and can easily be modified to fit other brands. 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