CMC-MX at Irwindale Raceway
CMC
at
Irwindale Raceway
Friday March 28, 1975
By: Buzz Baty
Scott Stringer closed out the month of March at Irwindale in a big way, sweeping the 100 Juniors with three firsts on his Suzuki. Second overall went to Robert Hall and his Yamaha, his three motos giving him a point total of nine. Coming in for third overall aboard his Honda was Eric Mora. Rick Zamora, who won last week, had to settle for fourth overall tonight. Even though it was a cold, windy night, eighteen 250 Juniors showed up for tonight's racing. Maicos won all three motos with Roy Holsheimer taking two of them, while Floyd Haas won the second round. Roy took first overall and Floyd had to settle for third overall, finishing a poor tenth in the first go. Getting in for second overall was Gary Beadle on his Yamaha with a pair of fourths and a second, repeating his second place finish of last week.
For the second week in a row, Kirk Bassett did it to the 250 Intermediates. Even though he placed sixth in the final round, his win in the first moto coupled with a third in the second gave him a total of ten points, one point less than John Alden who took second overall. Third went to Mike Huddleston, who had a total of twelve points. There were no sweeps in the 125 Juniors tonight, just a lot of spirited racing in three divisions. In division one each of the top three finishers won a moto. Mike Curtis took first overall with second going to Robert Brogviere, and third to Louis Fernandez. On the only non-Honda for the top three places, Jim Harris took first overall in division two on his Yamaha. Second and third went to Mike Johns and Jim Gallagher in that order. Mike Reina looked to be a sure winner in division three, winning the first two motos, but his seventh place finish in the final round put him down to third overall. Mark Braun-walder took the first overall spot with a fourth, second, and the win in the final round. Kelly Carlisle finished third in the final round to tie Mike on points, but his better finish gave him second overall.Robert Gray completely outclassed division one of the Mini Juniors, winning all three motos for first overall. Mike Brennan brought his Yamaha in for second overall, third going to Chuck Okimoto, last week's winner. In division two Dean Hoag came out on top with a third and a pair of firsts, with Mike Palumbo and Rick Brunanski taking the second and third overall spots. The top three spots going to Hondas except for Brennan's Yamaha. In a small field of Mini Experts, Jim Holley was first all the way, winning all three motos. Ron Utaski took second with a third and a pair of seconds, while Vance Luevano got a second and two thirds for his third overall finish.
David Taylor, sporting a brand new pair of very expensive gas over oil shocks on his Honda, won everything tonight except Irwindale proper itself. In sweeping all three motos for the 125 Pros, David had pressure in only the first two rounds, where Gary Denton kept Taylor honest. But David was just too smooth and too fast for anybody. In round three Denton got a bad start, as once again Taylor boogied to the lead. He was followed closely by Chi:ck Lunde, who had finished third in the first two rounds, but on the second lap, Chuck's Honda came up with a malfunction of the framastan, leaving Taylor with a huge lead, Denton solid in second. They say three is a lucky number, or all good things happen in threes. That must be the case since this was David's third week in a row to top the small bore Pros. Denton finished second with Eddie Clark, only a Pro now for two weeks, getting third.
Not content with doing the number in the 125 Pros class, David, in Irwindale's popular King of the Hill series, did it to the big bore contingent as well. David grabbed the lead at the start and held it, even though Bill Rubly on the Open class Maico, and Dewayne Jones on a 250 Can-Am, as well as Chuck Lunde on another 125 Honda, did their best to keep David from having a perfect night. Running backwards as they do on King of the Hill, more often than not, the big bore machinery will chew up the little machinery on the long back chute. This was what Rubly had in mind on the last sprint down the chute, but David got such a bite out of the corner, that he had too much of lead for Rubly to make up. And in the end, David nailed down a perfect night, four races, four wins.
In the 500 Pro class Joe Johnston and Bill Rubly were having their usual pier six brawl, with Joe leading Bill in the first moto by the hair of his tu-tu. But then on the last lap, Johnston and Rubly tangled, both stalling, letting Jeff Jennings, who was running in third, sneak by for the win. Talking to Jennings later before the start of the second round, Jeff remarked, "boy was I lucky". But then to prove it wasn't luck, Jennings chased Rubly in the second round for four and a half laps, finally putting the pass on Bill as they approached the now, Wheelsmith Engineering Jump, to notch victory in round two. Jennings then contented himself with following Rubly in round three for the overall victory. Rubly was second with Jeff Witherell third.
Well, I'll be damned, he did it again. Three times out-three wins. The way it started out, it didn't look as if Mike West was going to make it three in a row, finishing fourth in the first moto. Trent McGee bombed out in front, winning "'e first moto. But, then he too came up with gremlins in his framastan, forcing Trent to park his CZ for the rest of the evening. Byron Hendricks finished second and West fourth, so it looked like we were going to have a different winner in the 500 Intermediate class. Particularly when Hendricks brought his Maico in first in round two with West getting second. Going into the last round, Hendricks had three points, West had six, so what happens, Mike West takes his Husky to the front, wins the last moto, while believe it or not, Hendricks finished fourth, ending up tied on points. But West got the overall victory due to the last moto win, topping the 500 Intermediates for that aforementioned lucky third time. CZ-mounted Terry Hindson swept the 500 Junior class over the Kawasaki of Tom Jenkins and the Husky of Dick McMulen. Since the Juniors were running with the Intermediates, it's difficult for me to recall how Hindson did it, but it is sufficient to say, he did finish ahead of an Intermediate here and there in topping this class.
Having been absent for a couple of weeks, Vince Van Hook made his reappearance distinctive to say the least, much to the chagrin of last week's victor, Steve Cross. But the two of them had a ball, as all three first and second place finishes went to either Van Hook or Cross. The first two rounds belonged to Van Hook, looking as if he had not been away for two weeks, while Steve rode his tail in an effort to repeat last week's win. It was to be Van Hook's victory, even though Cross won the last moto for the 125 Intermediates and getting second overall. Getting in for third was John MacGregor.
Vidic, Vidic, Vidic. That's the story of the 250 Pros. There wasn't even a hint of competition for Vidic, as he literally ran away and hid from all the competition. Dewayne Jones, for the second week in a row riding in this 250 Pro class, again improved, putting together a second and two thirds for third overall, while Steve Russell put a third and two seconds together for second overall. It was between Russell and Jones for second and third where the real racing took place in this class.
