-
U
M ark Cook's bi k e and body tell the story . M ot ocross in th e mud and rain. He doubled up in 25 0
and 500 E xpert for w ins.
h y J o hn Hu erter
Ph otos b y K.C. Brin tnall and Hue rt e r
MOORI'ARK, CAL., Fe b. 4 , 19 73 The S im i Valley M.C. and Muntz Park
co m b ined 10 give d istrict MX er s a
challe ngi ng , well -prepared t ra ck and
true Eu ro pean winter wea th er tha t
tested man and machine in a c on te st
that too many S outhern California
riders wercn 't up to .
It rained during at least one moto for
each class of the weath er-induced light
turnout and co o l. co nsis tent riding paid
off, a lo ng with machine prep and th e
usual large doses of skill exhibited by
this hard c o re of AMA riders. While
most of the Novices struggled to stay
uprigh t and keep th eir machines
running, c ro w d-p le as in g battles were
a cted ou t in both . the 125 and 500
Expert classes. In the 125 d ivision, Er ic
J ensen, Danny Sanch ez andJim Dawson
c h ase d ea ch other, swapping le ad s , for
al l three motos usually no more than a
few bike len gths apart. San chez en d ure d
and opened it up in the final round for
the overall win, but it wa s tight.
Mark Coo k rod e a Bu l to victo ry in
th e 250 E xp ert class and dueled all d a y
with Mike Hanson and Merrill Mill er . a n
Amateur, in side-by-side mudslin gin g to
take th e 500 Expert o n his Bulta c o 350
as a b onus. Mark em erged as the class
rider o f six m 0 1QS run in mud and rain
with trac ti on and t rack co nd itio n
va rying from m oto to moto,
T he c o nd it io n s really separa ted th o se
tire after running away in the fi rst two
rou n d , huild in g u p hal f-lap leads a fte r
two laps.
An oth er outstan ding pe rformance
was turned in b y David Camp (D KW).
jus t m o ved up to Am ateur. wh o
convincingly d ominated that class. It
was cle ar he w as ove rd ue for the mov e
fr om Novice. The ladies ran wi th th e
12 5 A mateur class an d w ere no t scored
se para tel y . A ttrac t ive Ch erry Stock ton
w asn "t in timi da ted as she turned in one
o f h er best D -37 ri des w it h a c on sis te n t
third ove ra ll behind J ack Pritchard
(D KW).
Splitting th e Expert and Am ateur
classes, u sually run together, ga ve th e
y ellow pl ate gu y s a ch ance for m ore
recogniti on and their own mea sure of
p er sonal glory , even it it did result in
abbrev i ated la st moto s. Nob o dy
com p la in ed. Three rounds on the tough
hills and tigh t turns o f the Muntz co urse
was j u st about enough for anybody. Six
Muntz Motocross
b y Mark Mil ford
•
MOORI'ARK, CAL., Jan. 28, 1973 Today 's All -Junior Motocross a t Mun t z
Cycle Park was th e secon d th u s far
und er the direction of a new promoter.
Mar-ke Produ ctions,
d o " most new
M ar -ke . as
o rgani zati ons. c ame in with many new
ideas, and the track . now eas ily tw ice
it' s preivous len gth, was better in lay ou t
a n d cro wd con tro l. Snow fen ces
abo u nded and m arke rs took o ver wh e re
those en ded .
wh o h ad co me to r ace mot ocr o ss fr om
the na t ro u rers as 1 ttriti0r1 rate s ran as
hi gh as 5 0 p erc ent In e ac h c lass. by th e
third moto. Tom Hainley made hi s C Z
go fas ter than any oth er b ike in the 5 0 0
N ov ice class to take th e overa ll, '
finishin g the last moto with a flat re a r
Tom H ainl ey (CZ ) wo n tw o 500 Nov ice motes and rode out the th ird one on a fl at rear t ire fo r
the overall spot .
M s. Cherr y Stoc kt on rod e consiste ntly and
sta ye d upright (m ostly) for an impr essf
ve
fin ish as an Am ateur .
T he d a y , itself, h o wever, w as m arred
b y -b o th fr ee zin g w in ds an d s tarter wh o
fe lt hi s job w as " to ca tc h y o u guys
as leep on th e lin e" hy d ro pping the flag
whi le so me w er e st ill wa rmin g their
en gin es .
The 10 0 Novice riders b rav ed the
ch ill first, on ly 10 h ave. Dave Urgu h a rt
(Yam ) run awa y from a ll o f th em for
th e w in. With this h e in g o n e o f the firs t
races for li ttl e Dave since he le ft his
sponsored l\l in icy cie ride , h e looks t o b e
a swift th reat to othe r six-cu bi c -in c he rs
in the fut ure. Kirk lI a rri s (Yam) t oo k
m oro s prov ed to o many f OT so me wh o
d oubled in classes.
S im i V all e y M . C. is t o be
c on gr a t u la ted fo r a go o d sh o w under
ad verse c o nd itio ns. Mot os we re, fo r the
m ost part , ru n o ff smoo th ly an d th er e
we re plenty of fla gm en and helpful cl u b
members wh os e main co nc ern see med
to be giving t he ra cers lots of good,
h ard, muddy moto cros s. Fai r we ather
racers missed out o n findin g what it
may b e lik e to ra ce in E u rope. Those
who stayed , o r went, home didn 't
improve their moto cros s skills even a
little bit.
_
second in a very Yamaha-dominated
cl ass.
Followin g this were th e 12 5 Novices,
th e fr ont of the pack ap p e ari n g 10 be a
veritable family affai r. The Morrison
broth ers , John and Mik e, both on
Pen t o n s , took first and se cond.
respective ly.
T he more rap id 125 Juniors (R id e rs
were segre gated in to Novice s and
Juniors somewh at arbitrarily, with
N o vices being d efined as th o se with
aro und a year o r less racin g expe rience)
burst on t o th e tra ck .
The m ore hard y spec ta to rs wh o left
their cars bo re wi tness to T om Morris
(I'en ) a newcome r to Munt z, com p lete ly
snu ffin g A lex Solis ( lIod ) , an oc casional
winner in th e past. S cott Farris, also
Pento n m ounted, c ame in m uch furth e r
bac k fo r th ird .
In the two tw enty -min ute rn o t o s of
the 250 Junio r class, a p ai r of C Z ride rs,
Bill Bledsoe and l\li ke R u bl y " ha d a t it"
p o le -t o-pol e an d w e re, by far , th e fas tes t
ar ound t he trac k a ll d ay . Bledsoe rode
the smoo the r, m ore c on sisten t races and
edged Ru b y o ut fo r the overa ll.
