Saturday Saddleback Motocross Racing
S'Back Assoc
at
Saddleback Park
Saturday January 4, 1975
By: Tom Corley
Racing was washed out last week and the park was closed as I and many racers surprisingly found out when the gates were chained. From this week's race I gathered that a few guys had a profitable Xmas when they opened up boxes and found new riding apparel and they tested the gear out this Saddleback race.
Now the track was great but the first guys to dissagree with me would probably be the one's who swamped on the rolls of whoops. They were in between the canyon walls at the back part of the track and occasionally I noticed that someone would endo or go squirrelly and plow into the bank.
Lately the Saddleback club has been torn apart by the great John DeSoto and likewise most every 250 Expert has been blown off by the Ossa Phantom. If it wasn't for Bruce Baron of Orange County Cycle the class would be a cinch for big John. Baron always shoots out ahead with his jet starts but then eventually gets zapped by DeSoto. Both of these guys really hook the 1-2 top spots each moto and they continue to still haul the whole way through the 40 minute motos. It really shows that these two have been racing in the Inter-AMA races the way that they last so long. I predict that it's going to be any week now that casual Bruce beats John the whole way and not just at the start. In the first moto Baron's YZ naturally shot out ahead of DeSoto and Bruce's bud Scot Gillman also from Orange County Cycle. Later on in the moto the lead changed around and Bob Elliott who works at Whittier Kawasaki but whips a Husky moved up in between the dynamic duo and hung in there.
In the second and final moto John and Bruce led the crew again to prove themselves as the fastest two but what was really sensational was that Dave Miller on the trick FMF machine which was just a 125 was in third and whipping everyone at first. So the 250 Expert bucks were rightfully slapped into the hands of DeSoto who snatched the first place cash from Bruce Baron who was super close but took second over Kevin Callaway and Pat Flynn, who is now on the Maico machine. Gary Tomczak soloed in the 500 Experts for the win.
Back to the bike that Dave Miller was struttin' on, it's not a Penda but instead the bike has a Hero engine. What's a Hero you ask? Well, that's what I ask myself, no actually it's an Italian Pizza-powered engine. Joke about the name or not, but the thing was quite capable and Dave throttled the bike to a first place in the 125 Expert class. And the competition was pretty heavy too because the class was visited by the CMC ace Mike Bell of Long Beach Honda but even Mike couldn't beat the FMF'er as he hooked a pair of seconds. Scott Wallenberg on a Monark captured third.
The three Intermediate classes were really excellent. Two Scot (t) s killed the 125 class and they were both from out of shops in Long Beach. Scot Breithaupt of Long Beach Yamaha ended up taking the biggest trophy while Mike's brother Scott Bell of Long Beach Honda edged out Steve Christensen. Luc Deley is on his way up to the big times and he won the 250 Intermediate class over Ron Thompson and Michael Senczyszyn (who has the hardest moto name to spell that I've ever come across). Luc the winner usually wears a stars jersey like Sylvain Geboers or Harry Everts but with the way that he's winning maybe someday he'll be able to wear a jersey with just his own name on it.
It was bright and early before the first race of the day when I noticed that the DBEd George Wegner had a new machine out and ready to win the 500 Intermediate class. It wasn't his favored CZ make either but instead a test Yamaha 400 Monoshocker. The bike really was a shocker too and George easily won the class because of the bike, the winning was made even easier for George though because he was the only dude in the class.
There wasn't much happening in the Mini class as far as fast racing is concerned, Kevin Moore whipped the Beginners while Joe Rivello took the Juniors over Dwayne Franks who just hopped onto an XR-75 for the first time. His biggest problem was when the whole back part of the megaphone dangled off, Ted Hoyt took third.
Here's one race that I wanna be sure and mention. This was the 125 Novice race. Last week there was no issue of SCM but if there was I would of been sure to write about the dicing contest that Russ Eide and Bret Catcott had going. Well today they were at it again, Russ's brother Lee is also one of the quickest in this contest and last week I got a neat color photo of them churning up a corner together. It was like that ttfday as well as they often led the entire pack 1-2. No. 4 Russ Eide proved the quickest in the tally sheets and won the Novice class at the end of the day over Brad Bregof f and Bret Catcott.
