Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

N " ~ Q. M .... Cll fIfTY-fOUR MILES Of WHOOP-DE-DOOS «J' c: .., '" '" ~ w Z W ..J U >- U A . C. Bakken 121 motocrosses his H usky around the desert on his way to an overall win that apparent ly makes him Pond erosa champi on. A. C. had to beat this guy to do it: Tom Brooks (DKWI was second "Open " Expert on his t 25. Zowle! A Checker Sled piloted by Kevin Porter. by Al ice Rhea LANCASTER, CAL. , Jan. 7, 197 3 Ah, open we ekend. What do the sh oes do? Stay home and watch T .V .? No, for Rest and Rel ax ation de sert racers go out to the Ponderosa. Now you are undoubtedly conjuring up visions of OUf heroes can tering across the desert on high spirited horses while in the background the music goe s "dum .d i -di -dum -di·di · du m -d i -di du m-di -di-dum-dum ..... but th at isn 't ex ac tly wh at we have in mind. The Ponderosa, located ten miles east of Lancaster on Avenue J, is a motorcycle pl ayground where, for a nominal fee , y ou c an race to y ou r hea rt's c on te n t over nine miles of so me of th e 'world's best (o r worst, depending o n h ow y o u look at it) whoop-dee-does. On an average Sunday y o u ar e privile ged to round this cou rse three times. But this weekend was special: en te r th e Sixth Annual Ponderosa Championship. Saturday was the usual three-lapper. T he sh oes used it for a warm-up, with C .C . Bakken a n d Tom Bro oks one-two-ing it. N obody w as serious ly racin g racing; j ust th e bo ys out having a go od time . Several times both A.C. and T om came to a com p le te st op o n th e co urse, each graci ou sly waiting for the o the r to go ahead. (T ran slates: "I wonder if he kn ow s a fas te r wa y throu gh th is sec tion ?") Sunday dawned and th e rid er s pu t on race-f aces. Off t he lin e , Rich Mark grabbed the lead . On th e o ther side of th e lin e, Bry an Brecke r sho t out to th e fro nt , but later dropped o u t wi th rear-axle p roblems. ' Round th ey came, Rich with a good lead into the sta r t of the secon d lap , fo llo we d by Tom Bro o ks (DK\\'), A.C. Bakken (Hus), J im f ishb ac k (CZ). T odd Cornish (Hus) an d Cordis Broo ks (Ho d) (I told yo u the shoes were th e re!). At the en d o f the second loop , Rich Mark h ad dro pped o u t, lie go t o ff, tweaking the front forks o f his 400 Husky and sin ce he co uld n 't A no ther Nu mber On e: Cord is Brook s was third overall on his mo nstrou s H od aka 100 Trailb ik e. dis cover any way to ride side saddle and stay on the bi ke through th e whoops. he ca lled it a d ay, rode ha ck to th e pits and watched every b ody else h avin g a good time . Fishback w as pu tri ng in a Rood ' showing but he dabbed on ce, som ehow go t his foot tangled up and dum n ear to o k it off. He told himself that pain was n ot a good ex cus e for sto pp ing, but soon d ecided th at it was , indeed, a very good reason. (N o th ing broken and h e will b e out n ext week for Vi kings' ra ce.] No w the race really narrowed down to two people. A.C. Bakken and Tom Brooks changed leads on every lap. A.C . had th e lead on the third lap, pulled in to the pits and watched ' Brooks go screaming by. Brooks' little 125 DKW didn 't need gas (h e hoped) and, as it turned out, at the end of th e race his tank carried over a gallon ou t of th e three h e started with. . On normal weekends you sign up at Ponderosa as "Open" or " T railb ike" , T here is no Ex·Am-N ov clas s div ision. Open class tak es off first and Trail bikes have their own start. For the c h am p ionship , classes were Open, 125.17 5, and Trailbike, T om and Cordis Brooks opted to rid e as Open Experts, as th ey usuall y do wh en riding here. Dean Modesett, this ye ar's 0 ·37 Deser t No. 25c and his dad, Norm , N o. Tc , ca me o u t to race. Dean ran very well fo r a wh ile , but was last sighted head ed fo r the p it s, h is right hand up in th e air. We p ondered on h ow he co uld ride with his th ro tt le h and up in th e air lik e that an d finall y decided th at he must have the th ro ttl e cable in hi s hand . By th e fo ur th lap , the ra ce h ad turned in to a real Eui op ean Scramb les and if y o u hav e ever seen one vall know where it ge ts the name, If vou kne w who the le ad ers were you were in pretty go od shape. A t least you co uld tell when a new lap s ta rted. As for everyb od y el se, only th e lap charts kn ew for sure. On the last lap , A .C. pretty we ll had wired . He came in to the finis h line and sa l talki n g' to friends. A min u re an d jt twenty seconds later Tom Brooks came roaring by, on hi s wa y to a seven th lap . The race was only six laps long, but th e absence of a checkered flag can be somewhat co n fp sin g. The slower riders who had been lapped saw th e crowd at the finish line and decided that since this was a championship , there would be a Grand Prix finish. No such luck. Wes Anderson, Sr., who knows just about everybody by sight, had obviously coun ted each rider as he cam e by . If he had gone only five laps, Wes waved them off and made them take the final lap. (" O h, there is nojustice in the world...another n ine miles of these whoopers and my legs are killing me.") Another minute had elapsed when third place Cordis Brooks bounced in . Cordis had been ob served co ming across the back side ' of the course ans spectators said he was bounding up in the air for all th e world like he was riding a pogo stick. Fourth overall, and this has go t to be good for hi s head, was Novice Jim Eveland o n a 25 0 Yam aha, followed by James H all (Bul) and Tom Cl odt (H us). Monte Le e, Ponderosa regul ar , took this occasion to sign up hi s 125 Yam ah a in th at class and fini shed seven th overall an d first " offocia l" 125. Pe te Ziegler (Yam) an d Norm Mod eset t (I: KW) were second an d third in that div ision . T railbik ers h ad th eir own ra ce go ing. Lee Caldwell (Bul) too k first hon ors in t h a t divi sion foll ow ed b y Sandy Ro b ertson (II od ) an d Mar k Manley (Hod). A ft er th e race, spe ctators an d riders reti red to the Ponder osa's warm bar fo r dri nks, ham burger s and the best part of d esert rid ing - be n ch racing.

• Cover