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. Mark Adent on the mystery displacement DKW took a second in class"b;hind Jim Fishback.
b y Ali ce Rh ea
RED MOUNTAI N . CAL., Jan. 28 , 197 3
.:... Twentv-year-old A.C . Bakken, wh o
has been refering to himself la tely as
"alway s a bridesmaid" , finally got t o be
top d og. After finishing sec o nd to
everybody else in the de~ert, o r so .it
seems to him, A.C . won first ove ral l 10
S BVMC's Hare an d Hound today.
THE PLAYERS
Tom Brooks, ( D KW) riding as usu al
(like he is on fire ) grabbed an earl y lead
an d h el d it until after Check O n e when
he dropped out with bike p ro b lems.
A .C., running in second place, took over
fi rs t and half-way around the first lo op ,
fe lt j ubil an t e nough to pull a wheelie for
th is ph oto graphe r.
Mi tc h Mayes (H us) was pressin g A.C.
h ar d an d A .C. p ull ed ove r and le t him
by , in keepin g with h is de termination
not to get off and h ave to d rop out
altogether, but Mitch go t in trouble on a
d ow nh ill shortly thereafter and A. C . go t
back by him. Mit ch lost his cl utch an d
flattened his fr o nt tire an d . gave it u p at
the pits, al lowin g third p lace Tom Smith
(Yam ) to m o ve into sec o nd place.
Everybody h as been saying that th e
4 50 H uskys d on 't go as fast (Le., the
p ow er doesn 't co m e on as quick ly) as
th e o ld 4 0 0's. But Malcolm S m ith seems
to h ave found t he right com b in ation, as
A.C . was d eli ghted with th e re sp onse his
bi ke h ad today. A .C. stead ily increased
h is lead and spectators in th e p its sai d
he had it won if so mething d idn ' t go
wron g. It w as A .C.'s d ay : Everything
wen t right an d h e finished w it h a wide
m argin over second place Tom Smith,
wh o pulled in behind him to o ffe r
congratu lations.
Jim F ishback h ad th e 250 cla ss al l to
himsel f toda y as nobody in his d ivision
ever got close to h im . Bryan Brecker
(H us) was ahead o f him for a while, but
Bryan is in th e Open class, as is R ich
Mark (H us) who w as ru n ni ng six th
ove ral l j ust beh in d Fishback.
Bill Friant (Puch ) came through
Check T wo d ragging his kick-stand, an d
he didn't m ake it to th e finish lin e. I
hope so me th ing broke on the bi ke.. .and
that he didn't t rip o ver hi s o wn
kickstand.
Steve Staats rode tha t 380 Greeves in
for fourth overall today , third Open
Ex pert. 1 believe Steve h as the only
G reeves p resen tly racin g Distric t 37
deser t in th e Expert class.
Rich Mark (H us) still h as th e tap e on
his n ose from last w eek's rock . Rich has
a broken b one in hi s n o se and eigh t
st itch es, but it didn't slow h im down
m uch as he fin ished fifth o vera ll. He
did ~ention h e was havin g a little
tr ouble breath ing.
Mark Adent showed up nex t o n th at
"fun ny" DKW. Nobody is sa ying
exactl y wh at d isp lacem e n t it is, o r
wh ether it is a prototype or an
ove rb o re , but Mark says it is ov er 176cc
and under 250cc, making it a Div. I
Li gh tweigh t. Mark is doing very w ell on
it, whatever size it is, getting a six th
ove ral l an d second 250 Expert today .
THE OPENING
About 900 rid e rs lined up fo r the te n
o ' clock start an d when the b anne
dropped yo u w ould h ave sw o rn tha t th e
earty unde r you r feet m o ved back six
in ch es. S BVMC laid o ut the firs t loop as
a real riders ' course, according to th e
race rs, with nothing astonishing, j us t
go od old d ese rt that was fu n to rid e ,
with enough rocks t o encourage on e to
stay on his b ike. The second loop w as
easy with lo ts o f fire roads wh ich the
big bikers lo ved an d the little b ik es
hated . Can ' t p lease everybody.
OTHER EVENTS AND HEROES
I'm so rr ty to sa y th at Re sc ue 3 was
unable to atten d , b u t SBVMC d id h ave
International R adio Crew on hand to
provide radio com m u nications, and they
are always go o d to h ave around.
Out of all th o se starters it was David
William s (H us) wh o made o ff wi th the
fir st p lace win in the Am at eurs with
Don Grieve (H us) an d Steve Subith
(Ya m ) b oth in th e 250 class takia g
second an d third Amateur ho nors.
Cord is Br ooks (D KW) put in a no the r
fantas tic ride today : first trailb ik e at
nin th ov erall. Lo o k o ut eve rybod y, th a t
kid is goi ng to be fir st o ve rall one of
these d ay s at th e rate he is scream in g
along.
Chuck C artledge (Hod) w as second
T ra ilh ike E xpert t o finish today, bu t
Chuck lo st his tankcard a nd is h opin g
strongl y tha t th ose gals ma rking th e lap
ch ar ts saw him at every check. I t wo uld
be a shame to ride as hard as Chuck
d oe s an d finish sec on d in yo u r class
onl y to h ave th e victory sna tc hed from
yo u b y the wind o f y o u r o wn p assing.
Jim Wotring (H od ) was third Trail
E xp ert, u n o ffi ciall y .
Lin Pick en s (H us}, fo r th e secon d o r
We always knew so me of tho se desert Nov ices sho uld have training wheels. Here's one who 'll
adm it it .
-
The joy of leading overall. A.C . Bakken on his way to his f irst " beat everybody " w in in 0 -37
third time , did very ~ell. Usually h e
d oe sn't get his name in th e paper, but
Lin was second OJ'en Amateur today.
Steve Alley (Hod) was first Trail
Amateur with Butch Ve ntzke ( R ic)
taking second. Butch has b een having
bike p ro blem s lately b u t see ms to have
s o l v e d - t hem n icely through th e
ex ped iency of b uying a new R ic kman.
Back in the Novice ranks, Ch uck Can
(H us ky ) an d J im Evelan d (Y am) were
having a b at tl e royal fo r first p lace,
trad ing off firs t 'and second pl ace. After
the pits, b o th of them ~isap pe ared, an d
nobody h as see n them smce, Wel l, th ey
d idn 't show up at the finish lin e.
David Brewer (Y am) an d Alan
T hom as (H us) . were the first tw o
N ovices across the finish line. David was
obvi o usly very tired as he headed
straigh t for h is truck an d if it hadn ' t
been for the friendly fol k of SBCMC a t
th e fin ish line, we wouldn't have his
name. David an d Alan obviously had a
go o d fight go ing as they flnish ed righ t
together. I hear that does m a ke it fu n.
Up in the Divi sio n II Expert c1~s,
Scott Haislip (Yam) go t in for th e wm
a t about tw en tieth overall , with Brent
Wal lingsford (DKW) and Andy (o r A J .)
Kir ker ta king sec o nd and th ird. J immy
Jacks (Yam), John Pettis (Pen ) an d
Roger Dub aich (Y am ) d iced it o ut for
th e Div II A mateur wi n finishing in that
ord er.
Meanwhile, back in the Novice ranks,
Ed Johns (Yam) pulled in as first 250
Novices followed b y a pie-pl at er from
San d Fie~ M.C. (Pie p later s d on't ge t
p o in ts... t o o b ad .) so secon d in th at class
goes to Ro n Pini on (Yam) .
R oger R eed (Pe n ) slip pe d in as fi.rst
T rail Nov ice far a nd away (seeme d lik e
h o u rs) ah ead o f th e res t of the Trai l
Novices , Mike Mannin g .(H od) an d Cu r t
Randal l (Pen) took seco nd an d th ird .
A pair o f DKW s one-two'd th e Div II
Novice win; Ph il Harvey ridin g th e first
an d Nick J acovelli on the second. If
Nick's last name is sp elled wrong it is
because so me of th e bikes around th e
finish line we re too lo ud for m e to hear,
but I showed it to hi m an d he nodded.
,..AND HEROINES
Desert Daisy Mary Brooks, (H od )
mother o f Co rd is an d Tom, rode fo r the
firs t ti me in a lo n g time an d finished
firs t girl. That m a ke three m e mbe rs o f
th a t family ra cing n o w. If Tom, Sr.
d eci d es to race again, who is go ing to
p our gas?
T o m Wal t on , a n in e-y ear-old rid in g a
Yamaha Min i-Enduro, fi ished one loop
n
today . C o nsid ering th e cab by starting
area and a course d escribed b y one racer :
as "Bouncing ·C
rom rock to rock," it is
am azin g for such a yo ung man to go so
far . Con gr atulati ons, Tom.
MORE TRUE STORIES
Nob o dy is going jt o believe this, b u t
h ere is a true story , told to m e b y a very
reliab le so urce . (Yo u would n' t make u p
s tory like th at , wo ul d you, Pete ?)
It seem s th at th e whole th in g that
m a kes d esert racing fu n is to pick o ut
someb ody who. go es j ust ab o ut your
speed an d ra ce w ith him. Do esn 't m atter
what everybody else is d oing or whe the r
yo u are runn in g first and second ove rall
or las t an d next-to-last, it is the race
b etween y ou tw o th at c o un ts.
George Zuber was havin g j us t such a
fun ra ce today wh en his rival go t o ff
abou t 2 0 0 yards from the fin ish line.
Geo rge. not to mi ss on e in ch of racin g,
wai ted fo r his frien d to rem o unt and
kic k it over an d th e co n tin ue d thei r
b attle righ t d own t o th e finish lin e.
T his is th e story as swo rn to m e b y
an eye witness.
Tom Sm ith was so excited about being second overall that he also did a whe elie. Even aft er
deciding to be original in his sty le, he heJd on for No.2.
