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/141033
'" '" l N .... Cl 0" N " ::> .., c ~ w Z W ..J U >- U By Art Fried man Ph o to s By Nancy & L arry G ro ves IRVI N E, C AL.. Jun e II , 1972 - T hings were supposed to ge t und erway at e ight o'clo ck for the AFM road race at O ran ge County In ternational Raceway , bu t b y the tim e eve ry o ne h ad worked their w ay th rough the m aze of rent-a -cop s, it w as al mo st n ine. Practi ce w as short. acci dent-free, an d n o t ve ry useful. T he first race Was fo r the 0- 125 GI' classes. S teve Froschauer slipped it in to h is pocket w ith a huge lead. Second place was closely con tested. however, by A lan Leo n ar d o n a 12 5 Tohatsu (Toha tsus forever!) an d Mike Sl augh te r o n a like-sized Y amm y. They wen t 'rou n d an d ' roun d and changed p laces a lo t. Leo nard h ad the lead at the flag for sec on d. It was th e same sto rv in th e 250 produ c ti on class. Fred \Valti o n th e Imp ort Moto r Works Y amah a d isappeared an d a di ce devel oped fo r secon d. The re was lead-sw appin g. p eg-s craping, tire sliding , o u t-b ra k ing, and all th at good stuff. A t th e flag John McNei l (K aw) was ahead of Tom Carroll (Yam) . Then th e whole thing happened again. in the 2 5 0 GI' go. Mike S ummer (Yam, of cours e ) cl eared off an d left se cond place to be fo ugh t over b y six people all on Y amah as, n a tch. Bob Endicott kept w orking h is w ay in to sec o n d sp ot and then screwing up an d dropping ba ck . He d o esn 't get along with that tw o- s tro ke or some thin g,' He w as -we ll back wh en the fla g fel l. Steve Frosch auer w as se cond, T o shihik o Ozaki w as th ird , and Ken Edmudson wiggled in for fou rth . We were relieved of having to watch a second place dice in the 350 production event wh en John Lassak (Hon) and Bob Crossman (Yam) dueled the whole way for first. The lead changed twice on the last lap alo ne. The Honda seemed to have a bi t more steam and Lassak won. T he Open produc ti on sa w Bob Endic ott , o n his Honda, win as usu al. Re g Pridmore on a B;\IW w as second . Rudy Ramos w as upse t abou t Bob's 19 -in ch rear rim and protes ted. Nothing ca me o f it . h o weve r. as En dico tt w as listed fo r th e win in th e results. Rudy was p robabl y trying to make a poin t sin ce h e didn't eve n finish an d had n othi n g to gain personally by the Endicott Picks Up Two More at AFM Endicott pursues Judkin s. protest. Back in the pack, I was fortunat e to ge t in vo lved in a dice with J ohn Cr ossman (S u z) and Brian Naran ( Ka w) for the 500 class top p ositi on . Ea ch of us led on several occasio n s. but it was Crossman a t the flag with Naran alm os t along side . After a lap o r tw o of th e 5 OO-Op en GI' e ve nt , Bill J u d kin s took the lead o n hi s 5 0 0 K awasaki. He h eld i t for several laps unti l joined by Endicott (BSA) . Pridmore (BMW) , and Geo rge Ro c he (5 0 0 Kaw). The lead was juggled aro un d a go od deal. On several occasi ons th ey would enter the esses th ree abreas t. Eventu ally, Endicott was able to be in front a t the flag . Roche go t the 500 th ing . The sidecars looked to be a dice b etween the Hummer and Gilbran sen H-D and the Norton o f Pridmore and Co . . Unfortunately , some on e h ad forgotten t o pu t any p etro l in the No rton and it stopped. In the meantime . Bob Braverman, publisher of "Cvcle Guide", be came involved in a fra~as with another hack in turn one and p itched his son over the bars. No one was hurt and they all resta rted . It w as a good day . N o one overshot turn four and got on to th e fr eeway early . The sh o rt races allo wed ev e ryon e to get o u t o f town b efore sundown. (Results on page 46) Hodaka. Hard-to ·find parts, I I won'l run oul of guls before you do. The Hodaka is built for one purpose, T o out -l as t and outper form its competi tion. How eas~·to·get at Valerian's. '. '{lli.~ rn. Q} I I'l little th in gs th at m ul tl-rriode l ma nufa cturers don 't have time to no tice , Ca refu lly e xamine the new Hodaka. Notice the trip-s e t odometer. The fea the r-ligh t clutch operation a nd spring prote cted throttle cable. An d the ru b b er mount ed gas la nk . Little th ings that add up to big th in g s . We o nly buil d one b ike. BUI- we build it b ett er , tha n a nyone el se in the wo rld . i" . HODAKA CONTINUES TO WIN V~ (t { ~~~S~?B~~~rd~a~~~:n~td. Norm Parcel , Tom Bacca a n d Doug Brown swe ep first three 100 Ex pert p lace s at the F ireb irds Me Ha re Scrambles , Jerich o , Ut a h , May 7 , 19 72 Los Angel es. Catit or nia 90064 - Telephone : (2 13) 475-4541 • is this do ne? By re fin ing the sam e ba sic. su peri or desi gn y ear after year. Perf ectin g the Sa les - Se rvi ce - Acc essor .es - Pa rts - Rivett s Champi on Lea ther s HUSOVARNA ' JAWA /C Z · SUZUK I· PENTON' MZ · MON TESA · Z UNDAPP · l,mll .TR Al l S Zac k Bar rett fi rst 100 A m/ E x at Elsino re Raceway TT Sc rambles, May 20 , 19 72 open monday th rough satu rday 1. -. " J a mes Fe rgu so n and Danny Ferguso n take f irst a nd second p lace s a t Monterey Sh o rt Track, May 21, 1972