RTMC-MX at Carlsbad Raceway
Rolf Tibblin MX
at
Carlsbad Raceway
Saturday January 18, 1975
By: The Scene & Bonzai Billy
For some reason or another, I could search far and wide and still not find out why, I've picked up the flu. Man, do I hate it! I just couldn't make it through school on Friday...I wasn't sure if I could make it to the weekend. But nothing is going to stop me from going out to the races. So, when I woke up Saturday morning, I packed up my go-fast stuff and headed out to the local track to do some racin', unfortunately though, with the flu. RTMC took my mind off of it. The sky was crisp and clean and without the slightest hint of trouble on the way. The track was primo. "Traction" is what the riders called it, with enough water to keep it trick. The track seemed sooo spot-on, that I rode the entire practice without even thinking of pulling off. I was dissapointed when they flagged me off. So, after the rider's meeting, I got ready to go up to the line. I did everything that I usually do: Put my helmet on, grab my Scotts, snap on my rock guard, pull on my gloves, turn the gas, pull out the kick starter and stomp on it. What's so unusual about that? "uhhhWHEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!! Suzy was having an epileptic attack at 10,000 rpm! My adrenalin shot up to explosive porportions. I was jumping up and down like I was a gorilla peeling a rotten banana. "OH MY GAWD!" I went for the kill button, no way. "OH. WHAT! AAAGHHH: WHAT DO I DO! KILL BUTTON, KILL BUTTON! NO! NO! SPARK PLUG CAP, THE CAP!" I put both hands on it and I tugged. "OUCH" But the thing was still going like a...forget it: The spark must've been shootin' five inches from that "fool-proof" GDI unit. "WHAAA! MY GAWD: ITS STILL GOIN!! WHAT! HUH?!!†WHEEEEEEEEE!!" The engine was spinning like a tilted pinball machine, only in quadruple time! "STOMP THE SHIFTER, SHIFTER: SHIFTER; HUH; WHAT' AAGHHHH Click." WHEEEEEEEEE:!:" And in that moment of desperation, "bohwheeppp....." "WHOAA NOW!! WHAT IN THE HELL?!" I could barely get any words out of my mouth, "Th-th-he, uh-uh, d-d-dah, lu-duh, sigh." I flicked the throttle on and off, okay. Now. huh01 was sort-of hesitant to start it again, but the 125 Juniors were about to charge off the line. So I started it and split, knowing in the back of my head that it could do it again. I grabbed the outside start position, the line was packed handlebar-to-handlebar across the starting gate. How could that many line up? I had to start not only on the outside, but also in the second row! Who says that Saturday never gets too many guys? I oughtta punch him. Right when the starter got to the lever..."WHEEEEEEEE!!" "NOT AGAIN!" But this time, no one heard my shouts of anxiety. Soooo, what could I do but drop the hammer and hope God has mercy on me and the dude ahead of me. "WHEEEEEEE!" Fifth gear flat out. How can my trans hold up? My engine? I shot past the pack doin' some gawd awful tankslappers. Hang on and pray! When I got to the first corner, I overshot it and practically used the chain-link fence for a berm. Everyone else was goin' about fifty miles-per-hour slower than I was, but I got to the second corner in second to last, next to Ron Laf franchi. Whooie. I wasn't at the front of the pack to give you a play-by-play account of the fast-dudes, but my friend Holeshot re-told it for me: Kon-Tiki Cycles rider Shane Smith grabbed the holeshot on his quick Kawasaki. But his lead was washed away very quickly by CRT Suzuki rider David Gerig, who was one of two Intermediates in this race. (Hey, are some of you guys "cherry-pickin"? Huh?) Another Carlsbad Raceway Team member, Gorki Moore, smoked his Suzuki past Smith, along with yet another CRT rider, Rod Guinto. Around the third lap, as I was zeroing in on the slower riders, I saw Guinto and his Honda rolling backwards on the uphill. No more for Rod. So, Dave Gerig was leading on his Suzuki, followed by Gorki on another Suzuki, then came Eddy Kubota on yet another Suzuki, then Shane on his Kaw, who was being followed closely by Gary Fukuda of the winning CR
The sky was crisp and clean and without the slightest hint of trouble on the way. The track was primo. "Traction" is what the riders called it, with enough water to keep it trick. The track seemed sooo spot-on, that I rode the entire practice without even thinking of pulling off. I was dissapointed when they flagged me off. So, after the rider's meeting, I got ready to go up to the line. I did everything that I usually do: Put my helmet on, grab my Scotts, snap on my rock guard, pull on my gloves, turn the gas, pull out the kick starter and stomp on it. What's so unusual about that?"uhhhWHEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!! Suzy was having an epileptic attack at 10,000 rpm! My adrenalin shot up to explosive porportions. I was jumping up and down like I was a gorilla peeling a rotten banana. "OH MY GAWD!" I went for the kill button, no way. "OH. WHAT! AAAGHHH: WHAT DO I DO! KILL BUTTON, KILL BUTTON! NO! NO! SPARK PLUG CAP, THE CAP!" I put both hands on it and I tugged. "OUCH" But the thing was still going like a...forget it: The spark must've been shootin' five inches from that "fool-proof" GDI unit. "WHAAA! MY GAWD: ITS STILL GOIN!! WHAT! HUH?!!†WHEEEEEEEEE!!" The engine was spinning like a tilted pinball machine, only in quadruple time! "STOMP THE SHIFTER, SHIFTER! SHIFTER! HUH! WHAT! AAGHHHH!†Click." WHEEEEEEEEE!!!" And in that moment of desperation, "bohwheeppp....." "WHOAA NOW!! WHAT IN THE HELL?!" I could barely get any words out of my mouth, "Th-th-he, uh-uh, d-d-dah, lu-duh, sigh." I flicked the throttle on and off, okay. Now. Huh? I was sort-of hesitant to start it again, but the 125 Juniors were about to charge off the line. So I started it and split, knowing in the back of my head that it could do it again.
I grabbed the outside start position, the line was packed handlebar-to-handlebar across the starting gate. How could that many line up? I had to start not only on the outside, but also in the second row! Who says that Saturday never gets too many guys? I oughtta punch him. Right when the starter got to the lever..."WHEEEEEEEE!!" "NOT AGAIN!" But this time, no one heard my shouts of anxiety. Soooo, what could I do but drop the hammer and hope God has mercy on me and the dude ahead of me. "WHEEEEEEE!" Fifth gear flat out. How can my trans hold up? My engine?
I shot past the pack doin' some gawd awful tankslappers. Hang on and pray! When I got to the first corner, I overshot it and practically used the chain-link fence for a berm. Everyone else was goin' about fifty miles-per-hour slower than I was, but I got to the second corner in second to last, next to Ron Laffranchi. Whooie. I wasn't at the front of the pack to give you a play-by-play account of the fast-dudes, but my friend Holeshot re-told it for me: Kon-Tiki Cycles rider Shane Smith grabbed the holeshot on his quick Kawasaki. But his lead was washed away very quickly by CRT Suzuki rider David Gerig, who was one of two Intermediates in this race. (Hey, are some of you guys "cherry-pickin"? Huh?) Another Carlsbad Raceway Team member, Gorki Moore, smoked his Suzuki past Smith, along with yet another CRT rider, Rod Guinto. Around the third lap, as I was zeroing in on the slower riders, I saw Guinto and his Honda rolling backwards on the uphill. No more for Rod. So, Dave Gerig was leading on his Suzuki, followed by Gorki on another Suzuki, then came Eddy Kubota on yet another Suzuki, then Shane on his Kaw, who was being followed closely by Gary Fukuda of the winning CRT team on another Suzuki. Whew! Maybe DeCoster and Gerrit has been up to somethin'. 'Cause, there were no Hondas running in the top positions, even though the Hondas had the most entries. That twenty five minutes sure did seem like a short time. In the last few laps, 1 was making a cut-throat attempt at sixth place. I had passed twenty riders-plus, but I didn't want to stop there.
So, me and Greg Brooks on his Kaw had the race of the day. On the last lap, last everything, we came over the drop side-by-side, I actually passed him, but I almost high-sided into a wooden post. I blew it! His experience beat me. Oh, bull-hunk! By this time, David Gerig had already pitted in first, followed by Moore, Kubota, Smith, Fukuda, and Sid Stranger. Then Brooks and ta-da! Me! The next moto was an instant replay. Shane Smith once again grabbed the holeshot, and once again, Dave Greig passed him. And once again, Moore passed Smith. But Guinto had crashed in the first corner in a weird pile-up. Moore had Smith for almost the entire moto, until he somehow fell back to second. Cork tried to get the quick Kaw rider, but missed by a few feet at the finish. The score: Gerig, 1-1 in the Intermediate class. Moore, 1-2, Smith 3-1. Kubota broke a shock mount, blew a shock, and took a 2-DNF score. Consistency paid off, Gary Fukuda grabbed third without even finishing in the top three in both motos. Ron Laffranchi finished second in the 125 Intermediates, with a bunch of frustrating problems on his Honda.
Mike McEntee was the line mini rider today on his quick, but stock looking, XR75. What happened guys? Was today a day off for the minis?! So, while I pitted trying to fix up my throttle probs, the 250 Open Junior class was riding. Randy Haas did it to the 250 Juniors on his YZ Yamaha by taking a 4-1 finish to take the big brass. Neil Torstendbo took second on his Honda, while Mike Hamel took third with consistency, 3-3. Behind the third place Honda rider was Tracy Trup on his trick half chrome half "Kawasaki green" color-coordinated KX. Curt Johnson won the first moto, but he DNFed the second and placed a fifth. Ray Baum rode his way to a first in the Open Juniors on his Maico, while Eric Mahlmeister took second on his Suz. There was one 250 Senior today, and that was Dean Stafford on a CZ. Lou Duplessis, the "Bud Man", traded spots with Jim Hanley in the two motos, but Bud's Honda grabbed the overall by winning the second moto over the CZer in the 250 Intermediate class. Sandy Pulford rode a pipeless CZ to second in the Open Intermediate class, ahead of the funny sounding CZ was an even funnier sounding "thump". It was Dino Sampo on his Cheney BSA Banks Replica! Scott Thompson pursued the two "tuned" bikes in third on his CZ. Carlsbad Raceway Team's Dave Doss holeshotted the Pro class on his quick Husky, followed by Robert Elliot and Terry Turner. The Steve Hurd Cycles rider grabbed first when Doss got out of shape at the bottom of the uphill. From there Elliot had the top spot wired. When the Pros came around to complete the first lap, Doss was passed by fellow CRT rider Terry Turner.
Terry didn't hold second for long, he crashed going up the Wall", allowing Doss. Tim Barlow, and Bob Brown to get by. Everything stayed about the same for many laps until Terry, who was berserkin' it, caught and passed the three. Elliot was way ahead by this time and cruised in for the win. Terry followed in second a ways back, then came Doss, Barlow on his Bultaco, and Brown on his CZ. Dave Doss grabbed the lead once again in the second moto, followed by Barlow, Turner, and Elliot. By the end of the first lap, Barlow got by Doss. Elliot then passed both Turner and Doss on the uphill in pursuit of the fast Bultaco rider. Turner stopped to take a look at his bike, possible mechanical problems, but Brown was the only one to get by. At the same time, Elliot got Barlow on the uphill, then Doss passed the Bui rider a lap later. Turner is way behind at this point, but there's still a good ten minutes left He gets Brown in the uphill corner and goes at a berserk pace to catch the leaders. Terry was going faster and faster with every lap and he finally caught up to Barlow, but Tim wouldn't let him by. So, when the pair went over the wall and down the back side, Terry pushed Barlow off the track, which couldn't have been helped because he didn't have rear brakes. Somehow, Terry's brake pedal got wrapped around the footpeg. Odd?
Turner used his fast pace to catch Doss in the closing laps, but he was too far behind the leader, Elliot, to catch up. Doss finished a solid third, while Barlow took a fourth. Somehow I never fixed up my sticky throttle. From now on I'm going to set it up so that it sticks at the finish instead of the start. When I left, I went downtown and I decided to start it up on the back of my truck. (My brother was buying parts.) Guess what? Yep. "WHEEEEEEE!" And wouldn't ya know it, a black and white was sitting across the street.....'Another day at the races".