Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/141023
MAXI· OTOCROSS AT DU ES; RICE ON ROKON
By John Grou t
VALENC IA . CAL.. ~Iay 7, 19 72 Another near-record field of race rs
turned out for today 's ACE -prom o ted
Gran d Prix even t at Indian Du nes Park.
with Senior/Experts scrambling for a
cash
purse. an d f u ll gro up s of
Junior/:-lovices battling for a ch an ce a t
winning a new Kawasaki enduro from
Ed Shaver's sh op in Newhall. It was als o
a day filled with in congruities.
District
ch am p io n , John
"The
lro nman " Rice. had a difficu lt time
ma n agin g a fifth -place finish while
riding the new Rokon in Open Expert
activity: the Junior. Llo yd Joines , who
le ft th e Dunes with the bright orange
Kaw , was not th e gu y wh o won his
particular grind : and Bultaco-mounted
Ray Soffa, though unable to be at 100
N ovi ces, returned to the st arting line fo r
the next 45-minute race - the o ne fo r
100 Experts - and scored a wire -t o -wire
victory again st the " b ig boys ."
Some days. y o u just c an ' t win for
losing! Ask Bob Stephan. who fin ish ed
first in J oines 250 Novice he at. and
won a set of motocross bars fo r his
Bultaco, courtesy of Cycle Parts in
Santa ~l onic a : while
second-place
finish er J oines was loading the box ed
125 Kaw asaki o n to th e b ack o f the
pi ckup truc k. I wonder if he asked
Stephan to lend a hand?
The m anner in wh ich this al l ca m e to
p ass. in any e ve n t. was as foll ows. At
the concl usio n o f th e d ay 's racing
program. names of th e first five rid er s
fro m each of four different N ovice
divisions were dropped into a h elmet
and on ly o ne tic ket ca me o u t. You all
kn ow by this time . th at the tick et had
Lloyd Jo in es' name on it . Son ofagun twice !
Distric t cham p . Joh n Rice , wh o ha d
TO THE HELM ET LAW
Afte r being harassed for a period o f
fo u r years. th er e is fina lly firm hope to
r ep e al
a
F e d e r all y
coerce d
un con stitu ti on al la w . T h is m ean s yo u!
This concerns th e individ ua l to regain
th e right to make a choice. and n ot th e
m otives of bi ased manufacturer s an d
po lit icians.
This case h as been accepted in the
U.S . Fede ral Cou rt - Boston! This is it ,
d on't let th ese b igo tedp eople tr ea t yo u
as a second-rat e ci tize n any lo nger. Yo u
do n't have your hands tied any m o re th er e is a w ay to go . \Ve are rep resen ted
b y Attorn ey Joseph O te ri for th e
N a t i o na l
M o t or c y cl e
Hel met
Committee , Inc. in Federal Court. Hel p
is needed fro m you - your support and
financial help. We need you all . Y ou r
ta lents as an in divi dual an d your
financial hel p is desperately need ed ! No
effort is to o sma ll. no con tr ibu tion is
to o small !
We are b ein g helped by th e followi ng
or ganizations: A bate . Caucu s. Con n ,
M/C As so c., N.Y . M/C Righ ts Org. , N. H.
M/C Riders Assoc., Pa. Cycle R id ers
Assoc. an d V t, Cycle Assoc.
For
fu rther in fo rm a tion
write :
Nat iona l
Moto rcycle
He l met
Committee . Inc.. c/o Motorcyclist's
Pos t. Stiles La ke Avenue. Leicester.
Massachusetts 01524 .
Irw ind ale , Ca. Broadsliding speedway
motorcycle racing roars in to the San
Gabriel Val ley on Thursday nigh t, 1\la y
18 , for the firs t time in two decades.
b ringi ng to t his area the ty pe o f
p ro fess io nal cycle rac ing m o st pop ular
throu gh out th e Euro pean contine nt.
' Und e r th e di rection of ex -rac er
J ohnny Gi bson and World Speedway s
In c., a new oval
in corp ora tes
th e
lat est construction m eth ods in prep arin g
th e smoo th racing surface. T he track is
230 yards aro u nd a t th e pole a nd has
been h ailed as th e fines t racin g track in
th e west by a gro up o f profession al
racers who tes ted the racing surface.
Speedway
racing uses
specially
d esign ed a nd prepar ed ligh tweigh t
racing cycles , and compete in short, fast
four an d five-lap sprint races where the
fas test me th ods aro und the oval tr ack is
for the ride r to throw h is cycle in a
wild. b roadslide an d power-slide his
AMXT CONTRIBUTORS
B.
H. F ER ER. Alexan der ,
B RADLE Y ,
MON TH EI ,
Sp r i n g.
Tex.;
Mi ddle tow n
v a. r
JAM ES
R IC HARD
C onn. ;
RO N
HO RN E R. S o merset, Pa .; pA UL E DWARDS .
O ra nge , c a u r., WO O D EL L ST E RLING, S t.
Lou is, Mo.: V . A . L UC CHEST , H o lly w o Od .
F la . ; M AR K LOO M IS , Harrison , N.V.: ER N I E
JO NAS ,
Sa raso ta ,
F la . : T IM T L E EM AN .
R is on, A r k . : T OM W E SS ELO\NS K I. Wi c hita .
K an s.; SCOTT H A N N E BAUM, In d ia nap o li s,
In d .;
DO N HA WL E YJ.. Gardena , C a li f . ;
LA R R Y E. WORCEST t:.R . Clinton, O hi o;
JERALD D. BLAIR . O dessa. Texas.
N
....
put o n su ch a sp irite d c harge during las t
we ekend's Els in ore Gr and Prix whe n he
moved from 172nd o n lap one to be up
among the lea d e rs o n th e next lap. was
on ce again a tte m p ting to so r t out
problems o n his new 26 6 p ound Rukon ,
which fea tures a uto ma tic trans. mag
,...-heels, sn owmobile engine with a
rec oil . pull st ar te r , and di sc brak es. both
fro n l and b ac k. amo ng o th er good ies .
The bike, howe ver. a ppeared to be
suffering
mainly
fro m
sus pen sio n
di ffi culties ; an d not even the "Iro nman"
can full-bore a problem-h andler for
4 5-mi nu te s with o ut gro wing weary . The
amazing thing was the Rice was- a ble to
cl o se fr om a well -wh ipped ten th -place
position e n te ring the fin al la p , to nail
down fif th o vera ll a t the c hec kers.
That's awe so me d etermin ati on !
Ray S offa of New hall not only
co llec ted still ano th e r set o f moto bars
from Cv cle Par ts , b u t a fter beco ming a
post-pos t e n try among th e swi ft crew of
10 0 Ex pe rts , th e yo ung rider wh o
experien ced tro u ble with his Bullaco
an d was u nab le to fin ish h is firs t race
agains t Novices. wh ile mounted on thc
same bik e. rolle d wire-to -wire a t th e
fro nt e nd o f th e pack, defeati ng Rick
Shirey (Yam ) after a back -and-Iorther
which wen t right down to the final wi re.
by "a quarte r-second m argin .
In the 125 Expert clash three ride rs
were to hold the lead a t differen t stages
of the 4 5-minute b ody-pounder: Chris
Mogensen ( Bu l) . Gary Bevans (Yam )
and Danny LaPorte , wh o was the
even tual winner, and who la p ped third
place Jack S hort (DKW) by the time the
crew had gone eigh t rounds of th e
challe n gin g co u rse .
The 250 Expert battle. which had no
less than six diffe ren t fro n t-ru n ners , was
finally won by J oe Root (Suz) .
Most of the ri ders seemed to enjoy
the long Grand Prix course. wh ich was
not on ly a challenging co u rse . but also
well
designed. ACE officia ls a re
planning more o f these programs in the
very nc ar future .
Another Sen ior/Ju n io r motocross is
o n tap for this Sunday at Indian Dunes.
First post is 9 a.rn.
I
Irwindale in Action--Again
HELP PUT A N END
."
'"
e,
m ach ine aro und the track a t up to is
"m p h ,
A series of impressive ceremonies ar e
planned for opening nigh t at th e
Irwi n dale Speed way. before the first
official racing event is hel d .
AMA MXERS MUST QUALI FY
America n c o mp e t it o rs for th e tw o
upcom ing
American
Motorcycle
Asso ciatiun-sanctioned
International
Motocross se ries (Su m me r Inter·A ~IA
featuring a 500 cc International class)
will be chosen accord in g to th eir
performance in nationwide qu alifying
events.
Fort y start positions wi ll be allo wed
for ea ch international event , with a
maximum of 20 start positions reserved
for foreign competitors . The rest of the
field will be filled by American riders
(both Expert a nd Novice) according to
their performance in 1972 qualifying
eve nts .
A maximum of 80 entrie s will be
allowed in the support class. Ag ain.
riders for th e support class will be
ch o se n by their per fo rma nce in 19 72
qualifying even ts.
I n both se ries. all international class
rid ers will be required to have an F I~I
in te rna tional competitio n license while
all support class riders must have an AMA
professional comp etition license.
SPOR TSMEN RIDE SATURDA Y
Novice, Amateu r, Expert
125 - 250 - Open
$7. 50 per race
PROS RIDE SUNDAY
125 - 25 0 . Open
$ 10 per race
Those Sportsmen rid ing at Saddlebae k Par k a nd Corona
Raceway will be given preference for the Coliseum
Spectacular on July 8 & 9 . BONZAI HILL at Saddleba ck
Park w ill be part of the course for PROS ONLY. It will not
be included in the Sportsmen course.
--------------------------AMA ENTRY BLANK
UNITED
STATES
CUP
CI T V
MOTOCROSS
CHAMPIONSHIPS
AMA NATIONALS • S12,000 PURSE
CAL EXPO
SACRAMENTO
z,p
STA TE
COMP
SPORTSMEN: N ov A m Ex 1 2 5 250 Open
$7 .50/race
PROFESS IONAL , 125 250 Open
$10/r.1ce
-
&,
CARLSBAD RACEWAY
SAN DIEGO
~1;,IIf' o.; II' C k5 1J;l'1'.l tll "
'
M ~\ y
rc LE ISURE rl: CH
M il '; ",0 fI. 2 1
C. 11 l: ~tJu
lvI. y 27 I' 2/\
i
L e e, A!l yl"I p.So
13 1' j.1
.
5 .... ' , lll lf"nl 0
0
l"n tp r ll1Q
INC. tor So.
S,ln 0 1 0
"'0
5. KJdlp l),lC '" P U ll
L , m 'lt' Cl t o l Zf) P ros. .100 Am'l tt'u '
,,,'. "~ I ' lll
-
C

