Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
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Costa Mesa - San Bernardino - Ventura - Auburn - Na.a - C.ta M... - San Bernardino - Ventura - Auburn - Na. . - C.ta M... - San I SPEEDWAY WEEK side, past Tom Ferris, Crawford and Faria to take over seco nd pl ace, gi ving Sweeton anything but an easy wi n. One added bonus: his girlfriend was trophy girl. The Scra tch main became one of those speedway controversies! The red flag ca me out and Buddy Robinso n was disqualified after a " ru n in " wi th Duane Yarrow bet ween turns one and two in th e th ird lap. The race was resta rte d, minus Robin son , wit h Duane Yarrow in the lead on the fir st turn, Paul Orlandi was second, Tom Ferris th ird, and that was the finish. T he contro versy? Wh eth er or not to restart. T he " Ref's" decision was to restart, and that's th e end of that! Northern California J u nior Champion of 1981, Bart Bast, won th e Juni or main in a heart-stopping " Division One style" clos e-o ne with Scott Bra nt . John Houston J r. was third . Results _.;!""- Steve Lucero leads Mike Delacy during Speedway Racing at Auburn, CA. Lucero won the Handicap main over visitor John Cook. Hoel, Pieper bounce to win at Arena By Coach DENVER, CO , JULY 9 The regular track preparer at the National Western Arena was on vacation this week and it showed. The track could only 22 be described as " bloody awful " with ' sli ck spots, tacky spots, and tiger tra p holes. Despite th e conditions, the racers went a t it with more than usual fervor and put on a show that should have qualified most of th em for an all-expense paid vacation a t the gig gle academy of th eir choice. I' ve been around racing since Ken Mael y was making shoes out of car bumpers and I've never seen an yth ing like thisl The Handicap main was a wild affair with Scott Ormiston leading initially and Ri ck Steele inside never more th an a cou p le of inche s away. It went on like th is for a couple of laps despite the fact that they were bo th in the air more than on the track. Then the inevitable happened, minor contact going into turn three started chain-reaction contact all the way down the front straight, with neither rider daring to shut off for fear of launching one over the wall. Ormiston finall y dismounted rather un- _ gracefully at the end of the straight and th e race was red flagged. The referee decided that Ormiston should be excluded from the restart, but, after a great deal of angry arm waving, lip flapping and protestations of innocense, he relented and restarted everyone. Brian Hoelgrabbed the lead on the restart with Bill Walsh pr essing. Ormiston and Steele were charging hard while politel y avo iding each other. Randy Lamirande and Ken Pieper followed, fail ing to keep the sh in y side up long enough to see the checker. T he order remained th e sa me to th e finish desp ite many passing a ttem p ts that were cu rtai led by th ere simply being no via ble .su rface le ft for completion . T he Scrat ch main had Dave Pi ep er in to the firs t turn ahea d of bro ther Ken whi le Mike "the p u nk kid"Jau- don and Rick Steele fought over third. Dave 's lead d idn 't last as Ken found a bunch of tra ction during on e of his brief periods on th e ground and blew by. Dave (no t one to accept defeat gracefully) dove inside Ken and waited for a bobble that would let him by; it never came. Jaudon, meanwhile, put a move on Steele that couldn't be countered and beat him to the flag with oh, ma ybe six or eight inches to spare. Sweeton unbeatable at Auburn By Jann Houston AUBURN, CA, JULY 23 It was a somber kind of respect that kicked off tonight's speedway at Auburn. With the American Flag gently waving at half staff, and all the riders on the infield in the ir leathers, a moment of silence was observed and th e race was ded icated to th e memory of Denny Pyeatt who lost his life during a race at Hackney, England. Denny, who began his racing career right here in the north, and who had many times raced on the Auburn track, was loved and respected by his many friends and fans. As announcer Mike Rooney noted, those who were lucky enough to have known him are richer for it , those who didn 't missed out. Many a tear fell as Mike closed his very tasteful remarks, " Yo u can be sure that Rich MacMurray, Pat Rooney, and Denny Pyeatt are going to have one heck of a Scratch main up there!" Denny, we will miss yo u . Ron Sweeton, who has had h is share of bike problems this year , got himself a new sponsor - his girlfriend 's parents -and from the resu lts tonight, he seems to have gotten it all together. After winning his heat and semi, he took th e lead in the Handicap main, feeling more than a little pr essure from Steve Crawford . On lap three Da ve Faria J r. go t past Craw ford, who went a little wid e, for a short stay in second. On lap four Budd y Robi nsonmo ved p_n_~l'!.e_