Racing Review

RACING REVIEW

ANNUAL CAMA RALLY

No fewer than 300 members turned out for the Classic and Antique Motorcycle Association’s annual rally days, April 22 and 23, held at the Visalia (Calif.) Fair Mall’s parking lot, and several brought more than one motorcycle. Bud Ekins, the legendary “Desert Fox” and current motorcycle dealer in Sherman Oaks, Calif., brought five machines, and “Mr. American Indian Motorcycle,” Sammy Pierce, drove up from Monrovia with a tribe of his favorite mounts.

The festivities at the mall were followed by a dinner for 300 where old friends met and new acquaintances were made. In the morning those who brought a motorcycle with them or who traveled to Visalia by motorcycle were invited to join in a poker run. Riding through the hills on narrow roads, surrounded by beautiful scenery on a perfect day could only spell what motorcycling is all about: fun!

Also seen at Visalia were Austin Munger, owner of the 1937 Brough Superior SS that CYCLE WORLD tested last year, hard working Frank Conley (secretary of CAMA) with his pair of racing Excelsiors and a surprise visitor, none other than Richard C. Renstrom, CYCLE WORLD’S chief historical contributor, who flew down from Boise, Idaho, especially to view the meet.

“Founded for the preservation, restoration and operation of classic and antique motorcycles” reads the motto on CAMA’s bi-annual bulletin. Judging from the 140-160 motorcycles on display in the mall, we reckon that the members take the motto seriously. A more dedicated group would be hard to find.

Anyone with a motorcycle is urged to join. Applications for membership should be sent to Frank Conley, 808 So. Church St., Visalia, CA 93277. For five dollars, a membership card, two issues of the Classic and Antique Motorcycle Assn, bulletin and the chance to correspond with owners of really fine equipment is what you get. A meager sum, we feel.

PHOENIX MOTOCROSS

By mid-afternoon, 95-degree temperatures baked the old Phoenix quarry. Shade was as scarce as fur hats, limited to beneath the striped canopies of a few refreshment stands in the barren pit. A quarter bought you a “Sprite” and a minute out of the sun. Where lizards once scurried, a tightly packed bunch of bike riders stood on the pegs and appeared to be thrusting handlebars at one another’s thighs. Both refreshment stand operators and race track promoters had cash register gleams in their eyes. Under the shiny new name of Arizona Cycle Park, the old gravel quarry proved not only a great place for selling sno-cones, but a helluva great stage for a motocross.

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A dozen people crowded under a canvas-covered platform on the inside of a U-turn. One of them, with a mike in his hand, paced back and forth, announcing the next event, the open expert race.

Fourteen bikes in this one. The shock cord snapped and they snarled forward, kicking roostertails of Arizona dust and sand skyward.

“Tim Hart has it goin’ into the first turn,” the guy with the mike screamed. The riders dropped out of sight in a deep hairpin. “What’ll it be when they come back into view?”

It was California racers day at the park. Despite the heat, dust, and tongue-swelling dryness, the crowd bulged larger than usual. Park promoter Mike Hamby, 29, said. “When the guys come over from the Coast and are doin’ their thing here, we draw over 5,000 people.”

The course at Hamby’s cycle park looks as if it was designed by someone with a scrub board for a drafting table, maybe exceeding true motocross standards. “This course is one of the most challenging in the West,” Hamby boasted. “California riders agree. DeSoto gets tired on it and that’s something. He says there’s no place to rest on the course.”

About 20 yards from the starting line, the course curves out widely, then swings back to the edge of the pit. There the track drops a nearly vertical 60 feet to the pit bottom. After a short straight stretch on the bottom, it climbs out and up to a level higher than the pit edge. From there it U-turns and then plunges down a double drop. These drops are separated by a very, very short level stretch. The second drop ends at the bottom of the pit again, follows a sharp U-turn and up a two-level shockjolter to the edge of the pit. At the top, another curve, and back toward the starting line. One lap covers 1.1 miles. There isn’t a smooth stretch anywhere. During a race, dirt and mud is several inches deep all the way. Water covers half the U-turn at the bottom of the double drop.

“Okay,” the announcer shouted, giving the impression he was about to bite the top off the mike. “It’s numbah twenty-six, Bob Hershey, on a CZ out in the front!” The bikes plunged over the 60-degree, 60-foot drop, snaking, slipping through empty space. Spectators, “ohhhed” Forks bottomed. Engines snarled when the guys didn’t shut off fast enough. A few shut off at the lip of the drop and eased over like they were running one-ply tires over broken bottles. Some of the hot shots hit 30 ft. down the slope, then hustled through the kingsize mudhole on the 90-degree turn. One missed the turn, bounced across 4-in. stones and nearly nailed a photographer trying to shoot his expressions. They drowned out the announcer when they roared past his platform. Two did wheelies at the crest of the hill.

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The guy with the mike really got wound up.

“Hershey-and-DeSoto. They take the curve just before the downhill. Bob Hershey throws his bike down the downhill and holds off John DeSoto, the flyin’ Hawaiian.”

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Before the start, the announcer had advised the spectators to keep an eye on DeSoto because DeSoto had performed so well earlier. When the bikes hit the bottom after the second drop, and locked up into the curve, DeSoto drilled past Hershey and took over first slot. Mike-guy shouted, “DeeeeSoto and Hershey.” Tim Hart on a Maico takes third!”

According to promoter Hamby, they finished construction of Phoenix’s incity motocross park on Jan. 23rd, after a month of labor and an investment of “several thousand” dollars. “A lot of help was donated,” he added. “Phoenix was really ready for something like this. We’ve had Manzanita and other race tracks and we’ve got plenty of trail riding and dirt riding, but we didn’t have a motocross.”

“The course is AMA-sanctioned all the way,” he went on. “That includes insurance. California racers have told me it is one of the best-prepared tracks in the West. DeSoto and Hart, they come over here and blow their minds on this course.”

At the first drop on the second lap, DeSoto may have been blowing his mind, but appeared to be not trying blow his lead over Hershey. Hershey fought off Hart for second place.

The loudspeakers blared. The announcer was at it again. “Hart almost gets by Hershey in the same place DeSoto did a lap ago. It’s John DeSoto on the uphill. Bob Hershey drops back into a distant third. Wooooeeee! Hershey almost loses it on the turn!”

Hershey tried to miss the water at the bottom of the double-drop, but drifted to the outside of the track into the wet stuff. The bike bucked but Hershey kept it up. A rider three places behind him wasn’t so lucky. He slid into the mud, tried to handlebar it back into the middle of the track, but spilled instead. Two bike riders passed him, one on each side, and wobbled into the U-turn. The guy in the mud looked like a new art form. He kicked the bike like it was trying to bite him in the leg, then pulled it on its wheels, cranked it up and shot back onto the course like nothing had happened.

On the second and fourth Sundays of each month, Arizona Cycle Park runs 27 races. Three are motos for each of three classes of motorcycles, with three races in each moto. The open expert race goes nine laps.

DeSoto had increased his lead as the riders came into view on the third lap. “John had a little bad luck out here this> weekend,” the announcer said. But it looks like he’s got his trouble all sorted out now. He won the last event by a country mile and he’s getting a country mile lead in this one.”

Spectators, trucks, cars and campers jammed the old quarry pit, making it look like “Honest John’s” Used Cars sales lot. And with five thousand people milling about, Honest John was having one helluva sale. The spectators tried to keep the sun from beating their heads in; some sat on their vehicles and lined the snow fence strung around the course. Earlier an official said, “The fence’ll keep a bike from leaving the track, so long as the bike doesn’t sail higher than four feet.”

“John DeeeeSoto on the Suzuki way out in front now,” the loudspeaker belched. “It’s Tim Hart tryin’ to catch up. DeSoto comes flyin’ up the hill. Hart’s next. Hershey’s in a distant third place now on the CZ.”

The bikes bolted past the announcer’s stand, leaped down the double drop, U-turned, climbed out and careened past the starting line into lap four. The announcer had little new to say.

“John DeSoto on the Suzuki in first place. Hart flyin’ around the turn playin’ flapjack, lettin’ it all hang out, draggin’ his foot.”

Two riders fought it out for third place. “We got a race up front and a race in back,” the announcer chewed out.

On the fifth lap the script hadn’t changed so the announcer took the role of commentor for awhile. “Here comes Tim Hart up the hill. Watch the difference in style between Hart and DeSoto. Hart lays it down and flapjacks around the corner, while DeSoto takes the corners easy and turns it on on the freeway.

But a few seconds later, the announcer said, “Here comes DeSoto doin’ those flapjacks.” By now the crowd could predict the outcome.

“John DeSoto still in first, cornin’ up the uphill. But where’s Hart? Hope Hart hasn’t lost heart. Heh, heh. Whoops. DeSoto gets the checkered flag.”

Tim Hart, who apparently hasn’t lost heart, lost the race. At least he lost 1st place. At the last minute he passed Hershey to take second. Hershey came in third.

“Now, the announcer said, “There’ll be a 15-min. intermission so the track can be watered.” By now, temperatures popped near the 100-mark and the wilted crowd needed watering, too. The crowd started to thin out.

Promoter Hamby said, “I’m getting cost estimates on lights so the track can operate at night during the oppressive Arizona summer. Last year, Phoenix had 100 days over 100 degrees. 1 want Californians and the crowds to keep coming back.”

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“We’ve got a good thing going here,” he continued, “and I’m not going to let Phoenix heat ruin it. We’re going to keep the action as high as the temperatures.”

AMERICA'S FIRST ISDT

Following a report delivered to the International Sporting Commission of the FIM in Geneva, Switzerland, American Motorcycle Association Executive Director Russ March received final clearance for the dates of the International Six Days Trial to be hosted by the AMA in 1973. Begun in 1913 as the world Olympics of motorcycling, the ISDT will be run for the 48th time when it first comes to U.S. soil.

The FIM, motorcycling’s world governing body, has set Sept. 17 as the actual beginning of the week-long event, with final preparation and registration beginning Sept. 15, 1973. The international awards ceremony, with as many as 30 nations attending, will close the affair on the evening of Sept. 22.

In final preparation for its international motorcycling debut, the United States will conduct a 3-day test trial on Aug. 4, 5 and 6, 1972, at Fort Hood, Texas, the site of the international event. The test trial will be observed by Mr. Juan Soler Bulto, the official delegate of the FIM. Bulto, a member of the FIM’s International Technical Commission, was the master organizer of the ISDT when it was hosted by Spain in 1970.

The 1972 Fort Hood event will be conducted exactly like the famous sixdays endurance event, complete with cross-country, acceleration and speed tests, differing only in its shorter duration.

The test trial also will serve as the final qualifying and tune-up event for the American teams that will depart shortly thereafter to contest the 1972 International Six Days Trial in Czechoslovakia. As many as 32 American motorcyclists may be entered in the Czechoslovakian event.

NAT'L POINTS FOR INT'L MXs

The American Motorcycle Association’s Department of Professional Competition has announced that a national champion will be determined in both of the upcoming international mo tocross series. American riders will accumulate points toward the championship titles at national championship events and at international motocross events.

At each national championship motocross event, high place finishers will receive points according to the 1972 AMA professional rulebook. For example, with a $15,000 purse or less, the winner would receive 150 points, 2nd place 120 points, etc.

In addition, championship points will be awarded to the highest finishing American riders in international motocross events. If, for instance, the highest finishing American is in 4th place, he would receive 150 points, and if the second American is in 6th place, he would receive 120 points. Points will be awarded only in the international class.

Also, a national championship fund will parallel the points race. Entry fees from each class at national championship events will be allocated to their respective points funds. All entry fees collected for the summer Inter-AMA tour will be added to the 250cc championship fund while the Trans-AM A entries will be directed to the 500cc fund.

ATLANTA MX

In addition to Atlanta’s full schedule of road racing action, racing enthusiasts were treated to an afternoon of motocross excitement. The event was the American Motorcycle Association’s first national motocross championship of the year, featuring a 250cc championship class and an open class.

In the open class, it was a close duel between Barry Higgins of Smyrna, Ga., (CZ) and Gary Semics, Lisbon, Ohio, (Husqvarna). Higgins won the first and third motos to take the overall win. Semics won the second moto to finish close behind Higgins. Wyman Priddy of Ft. Worth, Texas, (Yamaha) finished 3rd overall.

Port Washington, New York, CZ rider Sonny DeFeo took top honors in the 250cc class to move into the championship lead. DeFeo displayed his consistent riding abilities by finishing second in all three motos.

Second overall went to Gunnar Lindstrom of S. Plainfield, N.J., (Husqvarna) and third went to Ted Presson, Bruceton, Tenn. (CZ).

250cc RESUL TS

500cc RESUL TS