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/141060
to " '" '" e, M .... ~ '" > '" ::: CIl ~ W Z W ...J U ~ o J. The Carlsbad GP Reads Like a Desert Race, Until the Last Chapter The start o f t he 250 Am/E x. Chec k outth hole shot J im Fishba ck 191 has gotten . e So you wanta' be road racer? No? How about MX? Cross Country? Scrambles? Why not try 'em all? by Dave Schoonmaker Photos by Marcia Holley, Art F riedm an , & Schoonm aker CARLSBAD, CAL., May 5 & 6, 1973 Th e CRC picked up on a gard en spo t fo r Grand Prix (i.e., motocross, aspbalt , s crambles, and cross co untry) at Carlsbad th is weekend. Within the confines of the Carlsbad Raceway pro pert y you will find at least two mo t o c r o ss c o u rses and a road racing/ drag racing asphalt set-up. One of the motocrosses course s is th e fabled ' Intern atio nal' co urse where European mot ocross stars very soon will app ear. The Raceway is in a valley bord eredby hills and the tra ils running along the hillsides fill out th e Grand Prix po tential. In norm al Grand Prix fashion th e start ar ea is on the asphalt. Rows of te n ride rs were released at five to te n secon d in te rva ls. Aft er tr aveling down approximately 1/ 3 miles of pavement , the course turns off into the dirt . The 1/3 mile is just en ough to cause app rehension in th e rider abo ut the state of his motor , but generally not quit e eno ugh to br ing abou t a seizure epidemic. Either that , or a lot of peop le learn ed so me very ex pensive lessons at th e Great Bear GP. There did seem to be quite a few peopl e rolling their t hrottles on and off. After turn ing right o ff t he pavemen t the course bend s right again and heads back parallel t o the asphalt straight. Quickly , th ere is a short, cobby uphill, which is bo rdered by a very large ditch . Said dit ch prod uced untold handling problems for those who att empte d to pass a littl e too wide. For there is it fast stuff, bo rdered by ban ners about six feet apar t, and pu nctu ated by off-ca mbe r,sweep ers and quick jobs. Two lefts bring you past th e pits or in if you have a small ta nk . Another very fast, washbo ardy section leads down to some esses and the scoring area. CRC officials placed flags to make a very tight set of esses right in fron t of their sco rers. Fro m t here it 's onto the Husky mo t o cr o ss t raining course, which incorpor ates a few fast , bu mpy turns, a brace of off-camber, uphill very tight corners, and towa rds th e end some whoop-de-does . By now yo u' re getting down towards the so uthern extents of the property and with a bumpy downh ill and a litt le uph ill, you cross the valley and onto the opposite hillside. Heading back north you come to the roller coaste r hills. They go stee ply up , have a rounded to p and a smooth landin g on the way down. Then it's fast (a nd a bit scarey) paralleling the hillside. Chuck holes," an eroded downhill, and uph ill j ump and some more fast stu ff lead right onto th e Interna tion al motocross co urse. Major features here were some mud and the long bumpy uphill leading to th e longer bumpier do wnhill . Off t he Intern ational course, up the hill again, down a deep and stee p litt le gully ( not for the Novices), sweeping, hard-baked co rners, and it's back to t he pavement. The CRC made good use of th e asphalt, a pleasant surprise. There are co me rs. An off-cambe r down hill right hand er th at kep t everyo ne on th eir toes, a straight-fo rward left hand 180 , up a hill and th en a tricky, slippery 90 degree left hand er leads right back onto th e 1/ 3 mile st raight . Most of the Novices didn't seem too inspired by th e asph alt , bu t the Experts put on quite a sho w of crossed-u p slides and th at sort of stuff. The injury t heory of the horr ible asphalt didn't pan out. There was one asphalt rash acrued du ring the two days. Saturday Sat urd ay morning at , 8 AM the 100/12 5/1 75 Novices boogied off dow n th e asphalt straight. Total rid ers on the grid were about 240 . Th ings went well , if slightly rush-hour -like, un til the non -Novice gully. Someon e figured th at th e Novices could handl e it. In general they were right , bu t unfortunately , one bik e down meant no one else co uld get past. In was instant Friday evening at 5 : 15 at the junction of the Harbor and Santa Mon ica Freeways. Quickly and efficie ntly th e CRC gang rerou ted th e course to avoid the disaster. The co urse was a good one for the small bikes, as i t was, in general , pretty tight. Most of th e litt le bike guys got fairly invigorated in the first hour , and many of t hem ate it. There were lots of dirt y elbows aro und. Marcia Holley was runn ing first girl on her Mett co Pent on (and possibly in th e top 20) when she locke d hand lebars wit h someone in a high speed section an d got ott very hard . She came o ut wit hout major inju ry, bu t very banged up. A long pit stop to bend o ut pieces of mot orcycle put her o ut of the top runners. In the end , very unofficial scori ng had Wayne Rogers (Yam) as th e 125 winner and overall first . Bob Warren was scor ed second 125 and seco nd overall also o n a Yamaha. First 175 was third overall , Richard Barada on a Bultac o. First uno fficial 100 was Mike Leckick on a Hodaka. r- Fishback was just plain f~st and nobody was clos e. At 11:00 the 100/l i5 /175 Am/Ex race turn ed into a Tom Brook s run-away . Brook s was first fro m the first and quickly put the whole length of the asphalt between himself and Cordis Brooks. Tom was, as usual, fast and smooth and had plen ty o f tim e to wave and save his mot or on th e asphalt . Meanwhile, Cordis and Larry Roesoler were swapping places wildly for seco nd and third overall , but mostly for first 100 . The dice ended wit h Cordis Brook s on top and Roesoler a close second 100 . First 175 was Robert Morr ison Pen). He - was also fourth overall. At 2 :00 the 250 Novices were off, and a Rickman brok e into th e lead . He was o n to p for fou r laps when his th rottle cable brok e at th e end of th e straight. 'T he willing hand s of Tom Brook s got th e cable housing off and pushed him o ff again, with cable in hand . So mehow, his ent husiasm waned a littl e, but he did co mplete a co uple mor e laps bef ore cashing it in. Ron Marx (Yam ) took t he op portuntiy in hand and nabbed the lead and the event ual un officia l win. Bob Freeman (CZ) really hustl ed in t he MX stuff and was a not too dista nt second . Sunday Sunday morning started off with the 500 'ovice. A very fast Joh n Chest nut on a modified four-stroke Honda (Didn' t I see that bike run in the 250 Novice t he day befor e?) wor ked his way to the lead . In any event, it was right exciti ng to see and hear him work that Honda round. Ray Banfield (Suz) ran a distance beh ind . It looked like a shoe-in for Chestnut until th e last laps, when Fra nk Fitzgerald (450 Hus) made a banzai charge to get th e win. This is as usual un official, and th ere were a few mu mbles heard . Next week we can find out the truth. At I I :00 Jim Fish back (CZ) blaste d the 250 Ex /Am . If he had kept up his incre dible pace he pro bably would have lapp ed th e wh ole field. Wisely, he coo led it on th e pavement st raight , saved his motor, and lapp ed most of the field anywa y. Floyd Bur k was almost an equal distance ahead of the rest of the ga ng un til he slid o ut on the International mot ocross portion of th e' . track . He did n' t forfei t his position at this time but allowe d Mark Cook (Bul) and Gary Knieper (DKW) to get a bun ch closer. In the lat er minu tes Cook, who seeme d faster in the en d than the beginning, got by Burk for second . Kniepe r turned in a fine ride on his over-bored Duckwa fo r fourth. First Amateur was Pete Kolbet on an AJS, He was good for a fift h overall. It was a right impressive run for him and his Ajay. Ralph Whitn ey an d Russ Jones were the run away sidehack win ners on th eir