Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

~ e "n C1. '" N .... Cl M c " ..., ~ ~ w Z W ..J U >- U - - -- - - - - - - R .A.C.E. at Coron a - - - - - - - - - - By Bu zz Baty CO RONA , CAL., May 29, 1972 - A day p atterned after Death Valle y tempe ra tu re w ise , a field of good rider s sm all en ou gh to give eve ryone all the riding th ey wan te d (Some , with t ounges hanging a u t, mo re than they had bar gained for. ) in cluding three Powder Puffers, w ere all to pped off w ith a five h und red dollar p urse fo r a good day of raci ng. Bob Messer , that we ll k now n Ossa rider of so me fame, or shou ld th at be in fam y ?, p ut in an appearance at th is co urse o f be au ty and am bience, Corona Rac ew ay . 1.0 an d beh old , that clever devil Messer d id n' t show t o ride, he was rid in g shotgun for hi s pre t ty bird , Cory Madiso n . Co ry, rid ing a Yam ah a of un kn ow n owners hip , 125c c varie ty , w on th ree m o tos and first ove rall . There 's a style for every rid er but Marty T rip es, even t ho ugh h e rides like an y other rider with o ne fo ot on th e left side an d one fo o t o n th e righ t sid e an d b oth hands on th e han d le b ar s, does it with suc h sty le and grac e , that it 's easy to p ick him out in any pack . Marty w as late ge tt ing to the trac k today, and di d n ' t have t ime to practice , so he we nt to school d u rin g the first m o t a for th e 25 0 Ex perts. It too k him a few laps t o ge t th in gs p u t in th eir proper order. After the first mo t a , it see med t o b e no co n test , Mar ty p ushing h is Yamaha to first ove ral l, G ay lon Mosier on hi s Maico seco nd, Chuck L un de third on h is CZ . Wh en th e final resu lts we re tal lied , less th an thirty,points separated the firs t three p laces with th e Bultacos of Zahrt an d Hrynkiewicz topping th e DKW of Mark Dobbs . (Resu lts on p age 4 0 ) By Buzz Baty CO RONA , CA L ., J une 1, 19 72 - The Flyin 'Hawa iian has fo und a track th a t, in h is words , he had h ear d a lo t abou t an d fell in love with the first tim e he saw it. T hat tr ack is the beautifu l, exper t ly main tained, d us t-free , an d super challe ng ing Coron a Ra ce way. Tonigh t was J ohn' s second appearance a t Corona and also his secon d win in the 5 0 0 Exper t divisio n . Big J oh n vo wed t o mak e th e T hursday nigh t Coron a mo tocross sce ne every week, t he Lord willin ' and th e creek d on't rise. He really d oes di g it! In fact, Jo h n was a lit tl e bit la te ton ight, d ue to an all day conference with Kaw asaki Motors Corporati on th a t incl uded Brad Lackey . Lackey was at th e trac k to nigh t with J ohn, bu t di d n ' t co m pete. I tri ed very h ard to get the details of t he ir arrange me nt wi th Kaw asak i, b u t all Big J ohn would say was, th at th ey had signed a ve ry sa tisfac to ry agreement. J o hn unload ed his C Z, an d went righ t to w o rk, winning th e 5 00 Expert class over the Candy Man , Bob Her sh ey. Gary Grif fin g to o k th e th ird overall spot o n his Maico. · ~ The Candy Man n ot on ly co u ld n ' t fin d the handle o n h is CZ ' s tonigh t , but fo und th at it d id n' t start to o fast. S tar ter Dale Teu bner go t a little exasperated with th e 250 Ex pe rts trying to jum p th e fla g and gave th em a dead engine sta rt. I read a let ter to the edi tor in last we ek 's Cycl e New s th at said J oh n DeS o to is a " lo oser (sic) ." Of co urse, th e four signees d idn ' t h ave the gu ts to . sign th eir re al names. Bu t then I im agin e if the y w ere to sign their real name s, we wou ld k now th a t th ey've ru n behind John in so man y races th at the le tter was pure so ur grapes . Tr ouble wit h wai ting. OLD CAMPAIGNERS 'TOP FRENCH GP May 23, 19 72 Dear AMXT foll owers, Team members Bob Grossi and Mark Blackwell h it the Frenc h 500 G P at Co rseul wit h fo rce . Alth ou gh they both had th eir trouble s, the p ro m ote rs we re p le ased with the Ame rican sho wing . Th e day before the, race , Cap ta in Bryan Kenney forfei te d hi s p lace on the lin e to Grossi. A mi x -u p of paperwork led to on ly two avai lab le p laces fo r Americans o n th e program. With hi s injured hand still cutting down on throttle act ion, Bryan dec ide d to leave the racing to Bob. In ste ad h e acted as te am m anager in a h aggle w ith th e o rgan izers over the start mo ney at th e end of the day . The promoter-in-chief, celeb ra ting a successful day with too m u ch wine , turned greedy at the pay-off. It was a du sty track with several shock-bottoming jumps, a d ay fo r the experienced men of moto cro ss. Paul Friedri chs won b oth motos: A dolf Weil w rapped up second p lace. Unde r th rea te ni ng sk ies , so me 3 0,000 sp ecta tors pou red in to th e in field . As the ' st art ing ga te fe ll o n th e first m o ta , Ro lf T ibblin lit up like a firecracker. Pr otege Grossi had streaked to th e firs t drop-o ff right among th e to p n umbers . Un fortu na tely , a lin e to o far o ver in th e gra ss sen t Bob slid ing into th e fence, .se tting him q uickly bac k ' from a h igh p ositio n to n ex t to last. With 48 GP rid ers in fron t o f h im , it was a m iss ion im po ssible L work up a thro ugh the traffic. Meanwh ile , Mark pretty we ll was buzzin g alo ng positioned when the Hu sk y seized solid. Up a t the fro nt of th e p ack, Friedrichs was showing the yo u ng ' un s th a t age don 't me an no thi n' . Not far be h in d 33 -year-old Weil was seconding the motion . Bengt Aberg was h ol d in g dow n third place . Willie Bauer's Maico , afte r z oo p in g up some top pain ts in th e fir st three GP's , lay o n th e side of the tr ack with a bro ken gearbox. Poi nts lea de r Roger DeC oster crashed in the blinding dust the first lap an d h ad to battle h is way up toward the front. He fini sh ed fif th b u t only six seconds away fro m being lapped by Fr iedrichs. Between mo L s the wren che s got a o work a u t, an d all rid er s were o n th e lin e - - - - - - - - - CRC at Running Spi-ings - - - - - - - - By Christop her Os tlin d R UNN I!'lG SPRINGS , CAL., May 28, 19 72 - With th e Memorial Day fiasco at full t ilt, 180 riders showed up to day an d were rewarded w ith 90 d egree su nsh ine, a super track and so me ou trageo us co mpe titi on ; The unseasonab le h ea t and alt itude reall y took its to ll as 45 riders d id n ot co mpe te in th e th ird moto. 5 00 BSA rider Bill Rep p got hi s th um p er .go in g an d co o ked off two st rai gh t m o ta wins fo llowed b y a secon d to t ak e th e Open N ovice class with ou t a co n test. For tw o mo tos Do u g Flo rke (Hod) and Don Lothringer (Ka w) had a su per d u ke-o u t go ing as each rid er h ad a first an d sec on d pl ace. However, th e th ird mo to showdown never materialized as Lo th rin ger ap p aren tly wen t down in th e first lap an d Florke coaste d to th e overall ti tie. ' T he 250 N ovices h ad some st ran ge th ings happening in their ranks as con sisten t Russ Turner (Yam) copped th ree st rai ght seco nd p laces fo r th e overall victory fo llowed by Ro y , Hoish eimer (C Z) who sn atched up firsts in the final tw o motos but co uld on ly get an eighth pl ace in the fi rst round. The o ther half of the 25 0 Novices h ad J im Latendresse (CZ) and Mike Ch astain (Mai) d o in g their th in g exch an ging mota wins wi th Chast ain ee ki n g o u t the win . (R esu lts o n p age 40) By Ch ris top he r Ostli n d RUNNI NG SPRINGS , CAL., May 2 7, 19 72 - He avyweigh t J oe Fraz ier isn't the only one who co mes a u t smo kin'. Von Peter so n wh o rid es a 250 CZ, joined th at crew today as h e totally b lit zed the opp osit ion at th e CRC's regul ar Saturday MX . R iding in the 25 0 Novice class, Peterson made , a shambles o f all co mers as he' gui ded h is h ot bike around t he co urse sometimes as much as 20 seconds ahe ad o f the rest of th e mo b . When y ou thin k th at th is gu ys is unde r 16 , it's not dange ro us t o p redict a fine ra cing career forhim if he stay s wi th it. T he o th er 250' s we re also having q uite a time as Beginner s Bill Patton (Yam) and Ch ris Sh aw (Bu l) exch anged the top two sp o ts in the fir st tw o m otos w hich made fo r a very in teres tin g third mota. Shaw gra bbed the lead an d h is Bul was really singing as he charged aro und the track w ith Patt on h ot o n h is back t ire . It stayed that w ay un til th e las t lap wh en Patton made his move, slip p ing by Sh aw with abou t 3 00 y ar d s t o go and takin g the overa ll win Some o f th e ex citemen t m u st h ave ru bbe d o ff on th e 125 classes as they put on a show ' of their o wn . DK W·mo unted David Ho pkins grabbed up the firs t two motos ah ead o f Rick Clark (Y am) an d slid in a co ol sec ond t o Clark in th e th ird to main tain hi s ove ra ll win in th e Nov ice b rac ket. in time for th e second m ota . Again it was the German s, Weil and Fr iedrich s o u t front. After several excit mg ex ch anges, Friedric hs came ou t ahead and began to stretch o u t h is lead . Det ermin ed DeCoster worked up from ab ou t lOth plac e to ch allenge th e to p runners b u t b roke a ch ain , spoiling his chances of co llecting any points for the day . T his mota , Grossi reall y turned on the p ow er and p laced somewh er e betwee n II th an d 14 tl1. The res ul ts af ter lOth un d erw en t a series of changes and varied with eac h so urce. Bo b 's fir st mo ta crash took away ch ances of scoring a point. He w ou nd up about 16th overall. Blackwell was running o n a new engine th is ro und and co uldn 't afford to pu sh it. He passed the checkered flag in 18th p lace . The GP sce ne is getting very tense now that so me of th e ta bles are tu rning. Ake Jonsson shou ld be back , t o race in Russ ia af te r b reaking a few rib s. DeCos ter will de fini tely ' b e ou t to win. As for Ab er g an d Mik ko la, th ey ar e sti ll strong can ten ders. The AMXT is spli tting up th is week for in tern ati on al even ts - Bob and Mar k in Sw it zer land an d Bry an in Fr ance. Nex t week Bo b takes the 74 7 hom e to be gin the summer series . Looks like we'll skip th e R ussian GP unl ess we can charte r an airplane . Cz echoslo va kia is a littl e closer and sh ould be Mark an d Bryan's nex t GP attack in th ree wee ks. As lo ng as th ere are r;oo visa pro blem s, th is trip will b e a s" per AMXT effo rt . -T h e days are getting w arme r, an d the racing heavier . Bry an bough t an eigh t spe ed bicycle for du rin g th e wee k training. I've even been promised a baske t on th e fra n t. Signing . o ff for now, CIAO Hot Shoe RES U LTS O F T H E F R E N C H sooee GR A N D PRI X , MAY 22 1. Paul F ri ed ri ch s, Ea st Germa ny 2. A d o lf We ll, West Germany 3. Ben gt A be rg, Swede n 4 . H el k k l Mikko la , Fin lan d 5 . Gerri t wo tstnk, H o lla nd 6 . Va n Ve it h oven , Belg ium 7. 8. 9. 10 . V la st inill V a le k, C zech oslo vak ia E f fm ov , R usst s C hr ister H a m m ergre n , S w ed en D av e NI cOli, E nglan d l!' Pre-race in t ros, Bryan Kenney . Mark Blackwell and Bob G r o ssi. CZ Mal Hus Hu s H us CZ CZ

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