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HISTORY'S BIGGEST MOTOCROSS
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endu ro so me w he re for his fat her . The
Fac to ry .
Six tcen.year .old Greg Rob er tso n of
Sou thern Ca liforn ia d efe ated fam ous
Brad Lac key o n ide ntica l '125cc CZ 's,
es tablish ing h im sel f as a new lumin ar y
among th e motocross star s.
*
'.
By Chuck Clayton
TWIll: FALLS, IDAHO, May 6 & 7,
1972 - There were fifty rac es, nearly
700 ra cers an d a whopping 525 ,000 -
SNAKE
the richest motocross purse ever. the
best mo tocrossers in the United States.
and
there
was
Evel
Knievel,
un ch arac teristi cally humble in his ro le
RIVER CANYON
JUMP SITE
:ED
p
Evel and Olympia put up the prize,
America's best turned up to race
and the CMC had to shake a leg
(but they didn't have to break it)
Lucky Knieve l and not -50-lucky Stu .
Th e 200·lb . GS Product s CZ has on e-qall on gas ta nk und er hu ge seat.
*
*
Eve n
though
the
co urse
wa s
super -smooth and fas t for m oto cross.
Wei n ert managed to des troy his rear
whe el in th e first qualifying m o to . He
rac es h ard and if the eq uip men t breaks,
he figures, like Kn ievel , that the fau lt
lies w ith the manufa cturer . So lining up
fo r ' th e final qualifier. it was do-or-die
for th e lik eable young cham pi o n.
Getting o ff to his usu al awful start,
Weinert came aw ay sec ond-to-last , D.
Kaufman led it, followed by T. Croft, J.
DeSoto and D. Full er (Calif. Mote-sport
Club likes ini tials). Those fou r left the
rest of the pack behind like unhitched'
trai lers, all except Mr. Weinert. By lap
four h e is up to second alrea d y , carving
through the tra in on a track all his own.
Weinert rides wit h seldom more th an
one wheel to uching ground, and it's
always d riving. Gad , DeSoto loses a
footpeg wh ile third and Mike Runyard,
excuse,l\1. R unyard, zaps th e Suzu ki.
\Vei nert passes Kau fman , both men
lashing their Yam ah as lik e chariot
horses neck an d neck , heading for the
mon ey line . It ' s kn ob by by a n ose !
T hat puts Wein ert in th e Final , where
for . o nce he gets a dece nt sta rt only to
have B. Lac key and J . Po meroy m ove
him o ver rather ab ru ptly, h ips th rusting
in the h airpin tum. It is sava ge ra cing .
Th e size of th e prize makes men vicious.
R obertson , the 125 w inn er of the day
befo re ,
goes
down
and
get s
ce n terp un ch ed , Maybe it was the dust.
T he race roars o n w ith G. J ones an d
the Yamah a lead in g. Jones, Lackey ,
Po me roy an d Weinert force aro un d th e
course as a tigh t, snarling wa d , sp itting
di rt o n so me 4,000 spectators . Even the
announcer pi cks up on wh at is
ha ppening . After 20 mi nutes of the
half-hour m o ta they are lappin g the fast
guys! Lackey gains suddenly , passes
Jones, the n incredibly drops it! One
mo re lap, Weiner t has the lead . He is the
one .
Onlv the 500 Final remains to be run,
J . DeSoto is the fa vo rite fo r it is a
Suzuki-type course: heavy o n the
horsepower
and never mind the
handling. A t the green flag DeSoto
snap s to the lead with our frie nd G .
J ones on the b ig Yamaha righ t beh ind.
There is very much dust. DeSo to reels
the horses ou t. disappearin g from the
tired.d etermined Jones brother. In five
minu tes Lackey has ove rtaken Jones bu t
B. soon falls back behind the o nslaugh t
o f R. lIershey. Trying to get back a t the
leader s, Lackey collides with a spec tator
crossing the co u rse . lie throws the CZ
lackey spri nts to comf ort injured spectator giving up payi ng posit ion in the race.
