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/141045
C- o '" '" ~ 0M .... ~ a N .0 . 0> u, ~ uJ Z uJ ...J U >U \ h er the first hill , there was a lot of slid ing and pushing. For some smalle r displacement machines. like T omm y Walton's Ind ian 74 , even the f irst hi ll required paddling. T hose desert dudes learned about mud . fi r!;t h;met . by Alice Rh ea RANDSBU RG, CA L., Feb.. I I , 19 73 "You want to know wh at the co urse was like ? Just look righ t here in my eye. I th ink I've got half of the course in there !" " Muddy ." " Fun, bu t" a little muddy . " " Great. Exc ep t for th e mu d." A ninety -mile motocros s." ' "A o ne hundred-mile motocross." So went the com me nts of th e Four Aces' sligh tl y damp Mo ose Run. Some riders started having trouble before they ever got to the race. Highway 14 was flooded in man y places with swift-flowing water and the Highway Partrol was on site, helping people through, or sending them ba ck if they thought the ca rs co uld n ' t make it acros s. A pit racer ne arly killed a ra cer just before th e start. Both were a t fault , doing about fifty miles an hour acc ording to Re scu e 3 , on e wi th n o helmet. The ambulance left to tak e the broken b odies in to town and th e start was del ay ed an hour. At the top o f th e slimey hill where the smoke-borne (wi th real smo ke) was locate d , it was T o m Brooks (DKW). With th e rough starting area, spe cul a ti on was th at T om would be first and he didn' t d iasppoint his fans . Icy rain soaked th e riders as th ey waited fo r th e start and now th ey were rid in g hard, trying to warm up. Nobody recognize d the sec o nd man to the smokebomb, although later, at U At least yo u had good tracti o n on the flat and do wnhills. jhe pits, we got a closer look and of course it was Mark Adent on the 250 DKW , still in sec ond pl ace behind Brooks. Also running well at the bomb were Tom Smith (Yam), Mitch Mayes (Hus), and Larry Pfutzenreuter (Bul). T h is is Larry's first race this year and he looked like h e was making up for lost time. A t the finish lin e, th e Fo ur Aces o ffi cials were fretting. " Brooks sh o ul d h ave be en her e by n ow, " th ey said. "Do you suppose there is tro ub le wh ere we change d the course ?" On the secon d loop th ere w as a th ree- foot -dee p wa ter crossing du e to the heavy rain s and th e Four Aces had bypassed it. Rain also wip ed o u t the lim e, but it did n 't ge t t he arrows . One Novice said he was co unting th e arrows, b ut he lost track af ter 400 0. Tom Brooks , co vered with mu d, held his lead righ t across th e line. " N o , I d id n ' t have any tro uble fo llo wing the co urse ." he said . Brooks had take n off his goggles before h e go t to the pits an d he rode the seco nd loop without them. Mud covered his face, jacket, lea thers, boots and numb er p late. Mit ch Mayes (Hus) really picked up the p ace o n t he second lo op and about five mil es fro m the fin ish he mo ved up from thi rd to second place. l\li tch h as been wo rkin g with Rolf T ibbli n in prepar atio n for the Min t 4 00 an d the exercis es an d rid in g tips a re really paying off, according to Mitch. " Trn not as tired as usual." Mitch declared. Mark Ade n t, rid ing th e 250 DKW, ran second fo r all but five mil es of the race. Unfortunately, th ose five miles were the last and Mark finished th ird overall. However, Mark st ill go t first 250 Exp ert and I believe this is th e best finish he has ever had. Mark has been pretty con sisten tly finishing in the top ten and obviously intends to give Pfutzenreuter and Fishback some co mpeti tio n this year. Bryan Bre cker has star ted the last eleven races. And he has DNF'd the last eleven races with bike problems. Today he showed what h e can do when hi s machine stays together, fini shing fourth ove rall and second Open Expert on his 400CZ. . Bryan took his goggles off to have th em clean ed in the p its and just couldn't wait. he also rode the secon d lo op without goggles, but it didn't seem to bother him an y more than it did Brooks. ' As a matter of fac t, most of th e racers at least dropped th eir gogg les down around their neck s. There was so much mud flying that gogg les became useless. But then the rain st ung their eyes an d th ey th rew up mud with their fro nt tires and ran into that. Ge nerally it was a mess, anyway you loo k at it. i