Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

·0 WHICH ONE WAS THE.0 EWHO WON??? ~ w 2 ..... w ...J TheGre -- U >- U • ~ Ron Bass, he endoed and did n't do well. Gary Jones gets fla shy on th e newe st Yamaha proto. By J ohn Be th ea CA RLS BAD , CAL ., May 28 , 19 72 Th e lead changed 24 tim es du rin g the seco nd 3 0-min ut e Open ~l o to of the U.S. Cup Moto cr o ss a t C arl sbad Ra ce way, a nd wh en th e c heckered came o u t, th e lap co u nte rs we re bewilder ed as to wh o wo n - Brad Lac ke y o r J ohn DeS oto? It was th at close, Well, wh at do you d o ? Ask them? They did, and Brad and John loo ked a t each o th er an d sm iled . "W e kn ow th at the guy o n the ins ide was six inches ah ead," is reported to . have be en o ne scorer's st atement. " Now which o f y ou was on the inside?" Apparentl y Brad won , but it didn 't upset John , A pre -race " agreemen t" wi th Kawasaki to ok car e o f that. That "agreement" was that if b oth J ohn and Brad, b oth Kaw asa ki m ounled, got into the lead o f any or all mo io s, the firm wo uld m ak e up th e d iffer e nce in the purse . Sin ce th e m achines are p rototy pes , th e factory did n't want the " te amma tes" to get in to a re all y rough an d tough hassl e and de str oy ea ch o th e rs' ch ances. "Th at sounds like a pay-off n ot to go all ou t !" you might exclaim. If you had be en there , you 'd be convi nce d that wasn't so . That little " cool it twixt y o u rsel ves" hassle in mota tw o pushed th e pair in to a tremendous 3Q-scc ond lead o ve r " third place Jim Cooke, Kawasaki mounted t o o ...but he wasn't cooling it. Lap afte r lap h e tried de sperately to keep up with the te am riders. What he wound up doin g was battling with G ary Harri s (H us) fo r the ove ra ll third. Th a t second moto set up an in te resting situation for the finale . After Brad got back from a poor start in th e initial round to scurry into second pl ace on ly to have time run o u t before th e w ire -to-wire DeSoto win. it set up a tic fo r first overall. Round thre e w as th e W ould th e" s ho w d o w n . playin g-whilc-dominating co nt inue o r wou ld th e p air squar e-o ff an d rea lly ge t it on . They reall y go t it on and immediately said farewell to th e rest o f the talent-lo ad ed Open class. The p ace w as st aggering. Brad shot to the lead, held it for several laps, but John got an openi ng and tank-slapped by to the point. Lap after lap, he continued to lead but couldn't sh ake his former CZ te ammate o f a year ago. Then it happened. Brad zipped b y to tak e the lead . This time it wasn 't a narrow o ne. lie began quickly stretch ing it out and was soo n running aw ay from DeSoto , who wa s still len gthening h is lead ahead o f Co oke. Mechan ical problems? Many th ought so , including Jo hn 's wife (she 's expec ting again), Patti . " I think his shock has broken ; he 's definitely not riding like h e was. I t 's han d ling differently ." After Br ad picked up th e easy chec ke re d , John pulled across, patted Brad o n th e b ack, th en cont in ue d o n into the pi ts, leaving Lackey at th e fin ish lin e to ce leb rate hi s lau rels. He pulled up in to the Kaw asa ki cam p , di sm oun ted and p lo pp ed o n a nearb y tool ch est. " Whe w l I just go t tir ed . I go tta get rid o f so me o f th is ," an d he gra b bed so me of th e fla b of hi s stoma ch. "1\0 p roble ms, I' m ju st out o f shape ." Behin d th e Kaw asa k i sweep , Ji m West ro unded out a H usky 4 -5 sp lit overall. I1is wo es turned to ch ee rs after three m otos of h assling with CZ ' s J im Wilso n and Maicos G ary Ch aplin . Greg Smi th whipped o u t an impressive eigh th for h e an d Mai co, Non-teammates G ary J on es (Yam ) and Mike Runyard (Mon ) to ok turns wowing th e 12,000 fa ns o n hand during the tw o-day session. J ones, who unloaded tw o o f the n ine new proto-Y amahas in Americ a when he arrived, ch o se the be st for the first mota and found himself aced b y last week 's 250 winner, Jim Pomeroy ( Bul). J im d id it in fine style. While lead in g, he got j am med behind a slower rid er an d killed the engine, letting J on es into the lead . Stu ck b ack in second (he go t it sta rt ed quickly) , time was ru nn in g out.i.bu t so was the Yamaha's p ower. a nd J ones w as soo n dispat ch ed into second again. where h e fini shed . Wh en Pomeroy's frame b roke wh ile m ovin g up in th e seco nd heat, Jones fac ed a new fo e - Run yard , third in the first. Mike, too , got a bad start (" whe neve r he gets a good st art, he's go n na be tough to h eat," say s his Pop) bu t was pi ckin g up ground o n J o nes, wh o had now swi tched over to his ba ckup m achine. T he d ow n hill was the d iff er en ce. T he re , an d on ly th er e , was where Mike gobb le'd up th e yardage . Ten minu te s remaine d wh en Mi k e c am e up to J o nes' tai lpi p e. Pet e r Lam pp u , being lapped in th e low- lan d esse s, fo ugh t h ar d to retain G ary, b u t J on es got b y with Mike, Lamppu's Montesa ma te. h ot in th e hu n t. Pe ter saw it w as

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