AMC-MX at Orange County Raceway
AMC
at
Orange County International Raceway
Friday January 17, 1975
By: Tom Corley
It looks like both weekly night MX tracks are going real strong, since the opener of Irwindale last week I've noticed that more than a few of the racers have suddenly disappeared. Vans don't exactly surround the Speedway track in the pits but the AMC still must of had close to 200 racers on hand to make up around 10 super races. For some reason for which I'm not exactly sure of they fired off only two motos, this was actually better though because they let each class dice for several laps more.
Now I wouldn't be suprised if more than a few names were mispelled in the results but the ditto score sheets were hard to read so I had to make up a few names.
OCIR night action with AMC is really hopping now that the weather is starting to warm up. Corley photo.
The superstar of the Mini Experts class usually being Jeff Ward didn't appear tonight so someone else ran away with it. John Gless of Hacienda Honda isn't a familiar name at this track and he does most of his winning at Corona. Well, tonight he looked like he had the track wired even though I've never really seen his name on the results. John on his super fast Honda led the only other competitor Kurt Sofka for the Expert win. In case you didn't notice Kurt's machine was a specially set-up Monoshock Yamaha YZ.
Right after the Mini-Crossers class the exciting 100 class jetted off of the starting gate for race No. two. Lately the 100 class has really been coming back because the new Elsinore 100 screamer has been on the loose. The Expert class was just starting to come alive again with big bucks for the winners but tonight there were only two guys in it. Mark Tyer who was really looking good on a Honda that had a Hod engine on it couple weeks ago but now there is only one guy that wins this class and that is the DG Performance Specialties great Scot Glifon. To be quite frank with ya I can't really write about any dicing that went on because Scot was just going wild in the lead while the rest of the 100 pack was squiding around from behind. Pete Hillebrecht who has just lately hopped off of his ole Harry's Cycle Sales XR is now on the Elise 100 and he raced that machine for a good second place, saw him take one bad spill by the Moby Dick jumps though.
Dave Carlson who ended up the winner of the 125 Expert class almost didn't make it to the race this evening. As I was vanning through the gates Davy said that his Dodge van ran out of fuel and it was pretty close to 7:00 at that time. Lately now that Bruce McDougal has been out of the way Carlson has been on top and tonight a couple of trick starts really helped with the wins in both of the motos. The wild man from San Diego being Ron Turner was looking good and he was the closest guy to Carlson in the first moto. He should of cruised to an easy second place overall but he had a bummer of a time keeping up in the second moto. Right at the jacknif e corner I saw Ron slide out at the start, I was standing at that corner with my equipment so naturally I got the shot of him on the ground. Then right after that corner before the jump Turner bit it again, now that time I missed the shot and well Ron missed out of the bucks. Herb Friedlander ace Tom Burba captured second due to that break while Steve Bauer nipped out Ron for third.
Russ Stark has probably raced more times in the past Thursday and Friday and Saturday races here than anyone else and was winning again tonight. It used to be that Southland Cycle would always set him up on either a 125 or 250 Suzuki but now he does it on a CZ. Glen Apling on a Yamaha edged out Stark in the first moto though but Russ won the second and the overall over Apling, Dan McEnterfer and Bob Beauvais who had hassled with his Kawasaki 250.
Now the one race that was much better than usual was the all chicks race which was naturally the Powder Puff class. All of the super fast ladies were on the gas tonight. Johanna Stenecson flashed around in a DG yellow jersey and she was the one that really had the best starts and would of probably been competitive in the 125 Junior pack. Jan Kline usually whips the chicks at the Dunes and this had to be the first time that I had ever noticed racing at OCIR. Jan hauled after Stenerson but wasn't actually in passing distance. Lorie Watson took a break from racing in the SAM at Saddleback this weekend and she said that she's going to be trying some night dicing. I'm not exactly sure just who she races for because she has a Tustin Honda jersey with DG Patches on the arms. Anyway Lorie had a decent first moto behind Sternerson and Kline but her final moto was misfortunate when she derailed off of the track from crummy chain hassles.