January 15, 1975
Vol. 3  Issue 2
    










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S&S Racing Motocross


The mud at Carlsbad really took its toll, as many riders had to finish under their own power.  Hatounian photo.
The mud at Carlsbad really took its toll, as many riders had to finish under their own power. Hatounian photo.

at Carlsbad Raceway
Saturday December 28, 1974
By: The Scene
& Bonzai Billy

There are many things that I hate in this crazy, berserkq, mad, often dumb world, but there isn't anything I hate worse than alarm clocks. You know, they work all right, I guess when they mean alarm, they mean ALARM!! Seems like you just got nestled into your nice warm bed, all sacked out from a night at OCIR, 1:30 in the morning and you set the clock at 7:30. "Ah, no biggie, I'll wake up." Well, I put my clock into a permenant state of non-existence. First off, I hear this strange noise in the back of my head, right smack dab in the middle of a dream about beating the famed Roger DeCoster on his home grounds, it soon got to me. Roger boogies off into the distance, and I awaken to see a wall of photos. "Ahhhh"! The noise! (well, I think I under did that some, I mean,"The NOISE"!) I tried to stick my face back into my pillow, too lazy to turn the damn thing off, but I have to rid of it some how.

Then I felt around for the button that turns it off for seven minutes, but it didn't work. Now it gets to the point where I can't stand it anymore, so I got out of bed, and I killed it. Not just pound it or punch it, KILL it! It was so bad, that the hands bent up and turned the other way and went backwards. "You !&?:$!! See, now shut up!"

"He-he, us MXer's are aggressive!" After an incident like that, anything could be refreshing. So I went into the living room and I turned on the T.V. "Bullwinkle and Rocky" were on, but I got carried away by "The Electric Company". There were things on that show that I had never heard of before, like four multiplied by three is twelve, but three multiplied by four is also twelve, or that twelve divided by three is... Now that I've had my day made by learning how to use my multiplication table, I ought to go to S&S Racing at Carlsbad today to see what's up. "Uh, Whaa, what's that? It Rained!?"

And sure enough, it did. While I was driving out to Carlsbad Raceway, I saw some guy running the street with only his Bermudas on, uh.'little strange, it must've been about forty-five degrees when I drove by, splashing some of the ice-water on him. The track. Mud. And slop. And more slop. And even more slop. These are the guys who really love their motocross. My mom said this to me before I left for the track, "Only an idiot, a complete idiot, would race in this." I was going to, too. But I didn't have the money to race -with. (Inflation gets everyone, even this poor SCM writer). When the guys went out for practice, it seemed more like they were getting a course on survival, half the guys were wading through the mud, using their legs as rudders, only, most of them didn't have legs long enough. And everyone fell. Almost.

The mud began to dry up during the first set of motos, so not too many MXer's went for uncalled for swims in the mudholes, mudpools? The guys from S&S, which is Skip and Scot Prante of San Diego, by the way, were pretty pleased to see this many racers show up, usually a small bunch would gather up, and like other clubs, would have cancelled the races. But they didn't, and set off a fun day in the muck. Corki Moore broke loose from the starting gate in the first moto to lead the 125 Intermediates, no one touched him. So Dave Winters and his Honda had to settle for a second behind the Carlsbad Raceway Team Suzuki rider. Dave Maas also had his Honda groovin' through the mud a ways back.

The mud at Carlsbad is really bad.  Poor rider-poor bike.  Nobody wins except the 25 cent car wash.  Scene photo.
The mud at Carlsbad is really bad. Poor rider-poor bike. Nobody wins except the 25 cent car wash. Scene photo.

Dave Maas snatched first in the second moto when Gorki dropped out, Dave Winters finished with another second for second overall. Maas got to take home a first place trophy, which was well deserved. Scott Rodington rode his Honda to a first in the first 125 Junior moto, only because Greg Brooks soaked his engine with mud. Greg still managed to pull his Kaw through the muck ahead of Hugh Good on his Suzuki, who also had probs in the goo.

Brooks pushed his mudded-out bike to a first in the second, while Roddington took second, Good this time took fourth, but ended up a third overall, behind Richard Fenison on his Yamaha. Danny Dilkey was able to "Paddle" his way around for a first in the 100 Junior class on his D.S.I. Suzuki, followed by Mark McClendon on his Yamaha. Robert Elliot rode his Kurd Cycles Husky to a first in the Pro class. Scott Wallenburg took his Monark to a clean (clean?) sweep for a second, while Bryan Justice took third on his CZ.

Fred Knapp and Alan Kaul swapped positions in the two 125 Junior motos, a third here and a first there, but Al got his Yami in for the good end of it by taking the last moto win. Fred took second anyway on his KX green machine, but it wasn't green after the second moto, it was more of a brown, oh, yuck color. (What do ya' say Banzai BUI? "Bluh.") Randy Haas took a second and a fourth for third. Craig Breihan ran his Bui to the nearest mudhole and left it there, but he still got the win in the 250 Intermediate class, followed by Jim Floys on his Maico, not really followed, 'cause he had problems of his own, too.

John Tartaglia grabbed the Open Junior win, while Scott Montgomery followed the Maico rider on his Yamaha. (Wait! I don't recall seeing him, hmmm. Maybe he fell in a mudhole.) Steve Collins also had his share of mud, tying with Scott for a second, uh, third? Second-and-a-half? Sorry to say, but this is my last article of the year, but it was fun doing it with the rare, but still there, S&S Racing Club. Now all I have to do for the new year is to buy myself a new alarm clock, if I don't like it, I'm just gonna throw it into the big mudhole at Carlsbad. Catcha' latah'.