Saturday Saddleback Motocross Racing
S'Back Assoc
at
Saddleback Park
Saturday January 11, 1975
By: Tom Corley
Before I tell you about a bad incident that happened in this race I want to make it clear that I'm not taking sides for either one of the racers who were involved. I don't want to find mad racers waiting at my van "with sticks or plastic mallets (what are you laughing at Baron?) just because of something that I wrote in a story. This really changed the outcome of the 250 Expert race and for the first time in awhile John DeSoto was knocked out of the money. Here's what happened OF at least what I heard happened from eye witnesses. The Intermediates and Experts were hauling down the long starting hill at Sad during the first moto. Gary Tomczak who was gassing a Maico in the 500 class was apparently leading John DeSoto on the Ossa Phantom. Now John gets pretty radical when he tries to pass someone so naturally he was right on the knobs of Tomczak's Maico. Then John suddenly bit the big berm right at the end of the downhill and on the corner before the Webco whoop-de-doo uphill.
The conflict was whether John just got to close to the other bike and hit the ground or whether the Maico ace booted John off of his machine. One eye witness who was an ambulance driver named Florance Nightingale (the name was changed to protect the innocent) said that he saw Gary give the Ossa a good swift kick but that was just one side of the story. Anyway John figured that .his chances were already screwed so he sat the race out and chucked a few rocks and then waited for Gary to finish the moto. So as soon as Tomczak cruised back into the pits he found one mean Flying Hawaiian there and ready to punch his lights out. Remember I'm not going to publicly say whose side I'm on but I think that it was important to write about this because the excellent 250 Expert class race was changed with DeSoto being knocked out.
Rick Watson and Gary Tomczak try two different lines off one of the many jumps at Saddleback Park on a Saturday. Corley photo.
Lately the Dynamic Duo so to speak in this class had been DeSoto and Baron. I told you about John's story and Bruce Baron of Orange County Cycle wasn't having the greatest of luck either. I think he told me that his coil wigged out on him and you could just tell by the raspy sound that the YZ engine was making that his pipe was about to fall off. So Mike Oilman was rambling in front at first and being followed by Garry Faulks on a Maico. Soon Garry who was hard pressing Mike soared on by and then Bob Stem the Bike Shop in Orange captured second on his CZ.
Now the second moto was even better because of the super dicing contest that Bruce Baron (who got his bike slapped back together) and Bob Stem were having. The rest of the racers were way behind while the two were busy weaving around the slower dudes. Those two finished that way in that final moto and because Bob Stem had two consistent seconds he picked up on the well needed 55 bucks. Faulks hooked second overall with a first and third finish over Baron who had a bad break, and Mike Gillman. Yeh, that Expert race was definitely the best one seen in SAM moto program today.
Dave Miller on the trick Flying Machine Factory bike with the hero engine on it whipped the 125 Expert class over Kevin Crawford. Speaking of whipping it, you should of seen the front end dives that some of the guys were doing over that jump just past the scorer's booth. Both Baron and Miller came close to going over the bars because their back tires were so high into the air. Last week's winner of the 125 Intermediate class was Scott Breithaupt, well today he was shoved back into the second place spot because Norman Gomez finally returned to the club to take home the largest Majestic trophy to be handed out. Guy Denton placed third.
In last week's article I didn't mean to make it sound like the only reason that George Wegner won the 500 Intermediate class was because he was the only guy. As Wegner said "You can't help it if the seven other guys DNF." Well at least today a few guys, made it all the way and George who was hauling on the new Yamaha 400 Monocrosser that he was testing out proved much faster with two firsts for the overall win. Huff Hadley had the 100 Junior class to his own with no hassle at all but this time he did it on an ole Yamaha 100 instead of the trick Elsinore 100 that DG Performance Specialties radicalized.
Lee Eide of B&M Motor Parts hooked the 125 Junior win with no problem again, the only thing that was different was mat he switched his No. plate to the letter E and one can only guess that that stood for Eide. While Lee just gassed his Honda in the clear the best dicing contest was going on between Larry Nelson and Luc Deley for second and third, especially in the final moto. Luc got off of his -250 CZ and mounted back on to his ole Suzuki 125 and was really battling Nelson, it was pretty dramatic that Luc tried to hook a pass on Larry on the finish corner. He hung to the outside line but came within feet of making the pass so it was Eide, Nelson and Deley.
