Some Like It Hot

SOME LIKE IT HOT

The National Women's Motocross Nationals once again prove that female riders can stand the heat outside the kitchen

Virginia DeMoss

A RECORD-SETTING summer day in an arid valley town that's practicing to be a desert when it grows up; the temperature is resting temporarily on the 90° mark in anticipation of the long, hard climb ahead. It's a day so hot so early that road runners walk and anyone with half the good sense they were born with sits on the front porch and swats flies. They might just as well close up the MIX track 'cause there isn't any body gonna ride on a day like this. Funny, though, the pits are full, there're cars in the lot and the re freshment stand's already open and splashing up cold drinks by the gallon. Today's the day they're holding the National Women's Motocross Cham pionships and there're 125 entrants who say damn the heat and it can pop every thermometer in town for all they care. While big, strong men sit in the shade sucking beer bottles dry, these members of the "weaker sex" get ready to ride as many as four 20 to 30 minute motos apiece.

The site is the Shadow Glen course at Indian Dunes in Valencia, Calif. The track has been altered from its usual shape and dimensions-a sec tion deleted here, one added over there -so the locals don't have a leg up on the out-of-staters. There are sev eral extremely tight turns, some fast straightaways, a steep downhill, but only one halfway respectable jump. And despite meticulous prepping and almost motoly dousings by the water truck, that unrelenting sun is going to keep all but the shadiest spots parched and dusty.

In what is becoming a precedent for this event, defending Champions were once again absent from the heat pa rade. Ten Kezar, 1975 Grand Na tional Champion, was prevented from attending by an exclusive contract for ramp-to-ramp jumping engagements across the country. Fellow riders guessed that religious convictions kept 125 Champ Lone Watson from competing on a Sunday. But the rest of the big names in women's moto cross were there and ready to race, despite the fact that no event worth its salt runs so many classes and de termines a major title in a single day. There are no points-paying events strung out around the country to even

out the odds and give everyone a crack at the title; there're no provisions for an off-day or two throughout the sea son or to tolerate a machine that has the blahs; this event is National Wo men's Motocross.

Probably no one is more impressed than Sue Fish with how imperative it is that everything work in synch on this one crucial day. Until now the odds have gone against her, but it was just a matter of time. At Indian Dunes she would lay rightful claim to that elusive Championship. She hinted that she might do it at the first Na tional in 1974, but came up short. Last year at Carlsbad her riding made the masses look mundane, but piston problems and tire trouble left her flat. When it came to a 10-woman Trophy Dash at the 1975 Superbowl of Moto cross, however, the "Flyin' Fish" showed the world what she'd had in mind all along by beating the country's top competition, including then-Champion Kezar.

With that sweet taste of victory Sue Fish was hooked, and prepared to leave nothing but a wake of dust and stunned riders at Indian Dunes. She had more than just determination on her side, however. One thing in her favor is talent. She's always been the most fearless, spectacular and wideopen of the women riders, and the one with the most natural ability. She hasn't slowed down any, it's just that her control seems to have caught up) with her speed and sense of daring. She’s no longer die “crash or win” candidate whose performances are a string of linked recoveries; she simply goes faster than anyone else and has the skill to handle it.

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A change in machinery doesn’t seem to have hurt, either. After last year’s bout with broken bikes, she traded in all of the Hodakas, Pentons, Suzukis, etc. and went strictly Yamaha. She’s been picking up all of the checkers ever since. And in the first 125 Expert moto this year she did it in an amazing way.

While the other 25 riders were blasting out of the first turn, Sue was busy getting her stalled bike going. It would have been the end for many riders. Not discouraged by her deadlast status, however, she struck out after the pack like a person possessed and by lap two was already 4th behind Barbara Spielman, Terri Bender and Johanna Stenersen. It only took another trip around the track for Sue to knock off all but the leader and for Bender and Stenersen to change

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Everybody had a gimmick to beat the heat. Some, like New Yorker Carla Swing, found that a little cooling liquid inside padding did the trick . . . while others preferred it in larger doses.

places. Spielman put up a noble fight, but Fish got by her right at the line on lap four, nearly crashing in the process. With no obstacles in her path except lapped riders, she set up a pace so quick that the folks in the announcer’s tower missed her when she went by and continued calling Spielman 1st.

Sue built up a 25-see. lead over her closest followers, who continued circulating the track, la]) after lap, in what began to seem like assigned places: Spielman 2nd, Stencrscn 3rd, Bender 4th. Apparently not a believer in such orderliness, Pat Jacques of South Carolina started inching her way forward until she’d reeled in everyone but Fish. Bender slipped past Stencrscn again, and that’s the way it ended: Fish, Jacques, Bender, Stencrscn, with the initially strong Spielman all the way back in 6th.

Less than an hour after riding that grueling 30-minute 125 moto, most of the same women were back at the gate for the first 250 Expert run. Just minutes shy of the flag one of Kim LaYigne’s pit crewmen was still frantically trying to bumpstart her bike. It finally lit halfway to the first turn and he had to do some pretty" stylish riding to get it back to her in time for the start. But as things happen, it might have been better if she hadn’t gotten it started at all. Barely" eight minutes into the race, while riding in 2nd place, Kim took a bad spill. Tire race was redflagged and she was taken to the hospital with serious injuries.

A super tight track and a lot of riders anxious for a title and in a big hurrywon Id make Kim’s crash just one of manyfor the afternoon; fortunately, though, none of the others resulted in injuries.

At the restart of that moto, NancyThomas, Ly-nette Zuber and Barbara Spielman engaged in a rather spectacular pilcup a few y ards out of the gate. It took a few minutes to untangle handlebars, arms and legs, but theywere all back up and into the fray.

On the second go-round, while leading, Linda Barnes earned the distinction of being the first of many' to take a slide on the steep downhill. While they’d do it in a variety of ways —some losing it at the top and others waiting for the hint of a mudhole at the bottom — that spot would be the undoing of manya rider in this race alone.

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Pat Jacques was again making an all-out effort to rewrite the results column by engaging with Fish in a furious dice out front. While running a tight-as-can-be 2nd, Sue went down and right back up again. It was enough, however, to allow Pat to spin a long lead. It didn’t look like the sort of thing any rider could save, but someone with a lot of pull seemed to be on Sue’s side. Pat appeared to have it all sewed up when she went down just long enough to let Fish’s 175 Yamaha by. She was able to recover quickly enough to hold 2nd, just ahead of a hard-charging Johanna Stenersen.

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Second motos were cut in length by five minutes each as a concession to the heat and the rapidly depleting afternoon. By now the universal question had become, “Can Sue really do it again?” Macho was fast becoming an unclaimed commodity and he-men who would boast, “I could beat that girl,” were getting harder and harder to find. Sue was destined to disappoint, however, though not by much.

Johanna Stenersen got the holeshot, not unusual for her, but Donna Neam was leading by the first turn. Diane Harmon, Trudy Beck and Pat Jacques participated in another of those Keystone Cops pileups while funneling into the first straightaway, and somewhere in the confusion Stenersen regained her rightful lead. She then grasped it tightly with both hands and held onto it the entire race. Chain problems put Sue back in the underdog status she loves to turn into victory , but she never was able to work one of her famous hat tricks. That’s okay, she ran 2nd race-long and kept the statistics from becoming redundant. Besides, she only needed a 2nd in this moto to wrap up the 125 class. And it was nice to see Johanna get the win and 2nd overall after a flat tire squeezed her out of the title last year.

Pat Jacques, Linda Barnes and Carla Swing left the line with such precision in the final 250 race that it was difficult telling who had the edge. Barnes was the first into turn one, where Stenersen and a luckless Nancy Thomas participated in the day’s final first-turn fender-bender. They’d spend the next 25 minutes playing catch-up and doing none too shabby a job. Stenersen ultimately finished 6th, Thomas 9th.

As lap one came to a close, Barnes was still stalwartly holding the 1st position she’d grabbed early, but our old friend Sue Fish had already cut off Linda’s former colleagues, Jacques and Swing. Behind them a close battle was going on between Donna Nearn and Joann Miley.

It only took Sue another lap to squeeze by Barnes’ lone Kawasaki and begin insulating herself with a comfortable lead. Meanwhile, her daylong nemesis, Pat Jacques, had lost her brakes and gone down, ensuring herself a double-digit finishing position.

Barnes wasn’t fast enough to catch Fish again once she got away, but she wasn’t about to make the mistake of letting anyone else by. Alternately running 3rd, 4th and 5th, Miley, Swing and Cherry Stockton each had at her, but nobody could make the pass. So, although Barnes doggedly held onto 2nd spot, there were seven lapped riders and enough space for half a freight train between her and Sue Fish at the checkered. The tenacious trio of Miley, Stockton and Swing settled on 3rd, 4th and 5th, respectively. Knocked back a few rungs from her previous moto win, Stenersen climbed in 6th.

The next place Sue Fish’s 175 Monoshock found itself was not victory7 circle, but the impound area next to race headquarters. Pat Jacques had put up her $15 and was issuing a protest against Sue’s 250-class entry. Members of the Fish camp all had different stories: Jacques was protesting, said some, because she believed the bike was really a 125; no, said others, she misread the rules and didn’t know a 175 was legal in the 250 class. Allegedly, the protest was really nothing more than a symbolic gesture on the part of Jacques to call everyone’s attention to the unfairness of allowing a 175 to run with the 250s on such a tight course.

Jacques’ gesture will no doubt prove a futile one, however, since anything 125cc or larger has always been fair game in 250-class competition. What’s certain is that Sue’s bike was declared legal and she the 125, 250 and overall Champion, just like everybody knew she would be. They were all thinking just what one rider said: “Sue’s been waiting too long for this to do something silly like that. ” It may have been a scorching day in Valencia, but it takes a little more than that to make Sue Fish lose her cool. 131