N
~ PIONEER
'"
RODEO GROUNDS
-
U
A mind shattering burst of power brought Michelle Hoover the w in on the last lap.
by Dave Schoonmaker
As I wandered vagu ely north fro m
Lo s Angeles towards someplace called
Oakdale, California, I watched a black
wall of clo uds loom up before m e.
Taking Route, 9 9 , with berm shots o ff
of Bakersfield , Fresno, Merced, so on , it
be came apparent that what I had
pictured in my mind as " scra mbl es"
wasn't go in g to happen this weekend.
At least not in this p art o f the co u ntry .
Three in ches of hail in Merced brought
out the cold (sic) truth: It looked like a
nice nigh t for a mud run.
In Modesto, I began t o look for
Route ' 10 8 which according to my
Texaco Special California-and-Ne vad a
R o ad -and-M aj or -A ttra ct i ons -map,
w ould take me to O akdale , via
Riv erbank.
"108 huh ? Well, go up five bl o cks,
take a lef t. T hen t ake a right on
McHenry. Go u p about 4 m iles."
. " Yeah ? Well , OK, whatever you
say ."
I go t as far as the five b locks part and
the lef t tum. McHenry st ree t _was in
absentia. I m otored on further, taking
bearin gs o ff th e sun. End o f th e road.
O h, w ell .
.
" If you wan ted t o get to Oa kdale.
h ow woul d you go ?"
"W ell , first of all, S on ny , you're
going the wrong direction. G o up t o th e
' De n n y ' s' and t um left. Follow th e
signs."
" Ah, sir. If th is works, m a y the sp irit
of Sain t VeI o ce tte d e T h rux to n rid e
with you , w he rever you may go." .
·'Huh? "
S u re enough , I made it to Oakdale.
Af ter wandering ar ound and fin ding
places t o buy b oth duct tape and
Bardahl VB A I decided th at Oakdale
wasn't a bad place at a ll. T he A&W
Ro ot Beer stand wasn' t bad either.
Oakdale Pioneer Rode o Grounds is
just what it say s it is. It's near Oakdale .
Ac tually it's lo cated centrally between
Oakdale and Es calon. It m ust be
" pioneer" just be cause that 's the whole
au ra of the co un tr yside for mi les
around. It is d efinit el y a rodeo groun d,
on acc o u n t of the fa ct that the place
where the ride rs ' m ee tin g took pl ace
had a sign which stated, "Ropers
assem ble here."
The track was very wet and being
bulldozed when I arrived. There were a
few riders wanderingaround m umbling
"Knobbies", When the grading crew
finished it looked nice, but it was
obvious that the track would stand up
to about one mini heat before the
tractor would have to attack it again.
Cushion?
People just kept coming and co min g,
the pits filled , the parking lot filled and
cars and trucks began to overflow onto
the road. By race time 430 riders were
to show. That's a bunch forthe Oakdale
Pioneer Rodeo Grounds.
Things got st arted early , in hopes
that the whole program might get
VIKING
MOTO.CROSS
J'ERSEYS
Means Quality
Z)~7tYt
7h, ~ ~UUn. ~.
GUARANTEED.
T he
jersey
only
vented
carryi ng
One -ve ar
a
3
u ncon-
d i t iona! guarantee
aga inst tearing,
color loss , and
, shrinking.
MODELS
TO CHOOSE'
FROM
Bob G rossi Factory Hu sky Rider
Wea rs Vik ing Appa rel Exclusive ly.
Vented Jerseys:
T he most po p ula r jersey ever sold in t he U.S.A.
'7 3 styles now have racing stripes. 15 'styles t o ch oose fro m.
Pro Je rseys: Highest grad e man-made fabric, tough elastic knit with
, racing stripes. T hr ee Co lo rs O N LY: yellow with b lac k sle eves and
racing stri pes, Blue w ith white sleeves and racing stripes. an d Red
with wh ite sleeves a nd racing str ipes,
Road Rider Jerseys: Highest grade man-made fabric with turtle
neck, comes in th ree colors O N LY: Ye llow with black stripe, blue
with white stripe, and red with white stripe.
ASK YOUR LOCAL DEALER or WRITE TO :
INTERNATIONAL ACCESSORIES
.
4225 30th. St reet
San Diego, California 92 104
(7 14) 280·3344
Cay Curtis , 8 250 Novice fr om Salinas.
finished before the II :0 0 curfew. Bill
Spencer b egan getting people out
practicing and I sat down to watch the
gu ys with K70s slide out. Butch
Davidson came out for two lap s of
pra cti ce, went real f as t, and
di sappeared. Alex Jorgenson did about
the same , but for a little longer. I didn 't
n eed an y help to know wh o the y were.
it was obvious. Hot dog, a two-stroke
Honda, to o !
Neil Ma cDannald is a right fine rough
scrambler (wh ich gave him quite a b reak
on the Oakdale track) and Honda
tw o-strokes re ally haul. I .wo uld be
w at ching him intently .
R iders' meeting emr h asized th e fac t
th at there were a lo t 0 riders abou t and
the decision was made to run th ree lap
heat s "an d five lap Mains. Al so, th e minis
lo st their heats . .
A few odds an d e nds fr om th e h ea ts :
Do yl e C o ok's 2 0 0 T riu mp h Cub caugh t
on fire just as he qu ali fied a t th e end o f
hi s heat. H e se em ed vaguel y
disinterested as he walked awa y from
th e flames (m ay be in disbelief). I
dumped a whole bunch of dirt on it
(Thank God for the cus h ion ) and he
took it back t o the pits. I lea rn ed
something from that o ne : Chai n lube
bums.
' ,
Later on. in the 250 Expert heats,
Butch Davidson slid out while leadi n g
co m fo rtab ly . Everyone m o t ored past
' an d Butch sat out the re st of the
evening. Alex Jorgenson won his heat
after a few altercations with Neil
MacDannald on the Honda Elsinore.
Another note : After a first tum crash in
the 250 Expert heat, Roy Winters
(M on) suffered from a partially stuck
thro ttle . In the restart, he q ualified
anyway.
The Mains started o ff with seven
never-ending Mini ra ces . The little ones
brought lots of c h uckles ane! evidenced
so me disparity in ma chine ca pibilities.
The Big Minis (Huh?) went about as fast
as the 100 Novices. Someone next to
me said, HIt can get old after a while."
Mike Ihrig (H od) walked right away
with the win in the 100 N ovice. Len
