Irwindale Raceway
Irwindale
at
Irwindale Raceway
Friday March 7, 1975
By: Buzz Baty
With threatening skies, many riders decided to stay home and one of the shortest rider entries in Irwindale history did the number. Sure enough, only four classes got to ride the normal three motos before the skies opened up and deluged the track.
As has been the case of late, the 125 Pros, who got in their three motos, had three different winners. Mike Bell won round one on the last lap in the last corner when Don Bongiorno, who had led all the way gave Mike enough room to get his front wheel inside of Don. Round two went to Gary Denton wire-to-wire, followed by Bell in second, then David Taylor and Bongiorno. Round three belonged to David Taylor, who battled it out with Bongiorno, Mike Bell getting third, while Denton fell to sixth. The overall win went to CMC's No. 1 plate carrier, Mike Bell with Bongiorno second, Denton third.The shortest Mini Expert field I've ever seen at Irwindale didn't leave much to talk about except that Ron Utaski swept all three motos for first overall. Second went to Bob Ott, and third to John Burrows. The biggest field of the night was in the Mini Junior class, where seventeen riders made the scene. Three different wins again had wins in a real scramble amongest the little hot-shoes. Andy Guth snagged inoto one, John Duenas snagged round two, with Eddie Glover getting up to win the third round. The overall finish was Guth, Glover, and Shon Andersen getting in for third.
Jeff Maas, who has been a bridesmaid more often than a bride, finally did it to the 100 Juniors in a very convincing manner. After Kick Zamora won the first moto, Maas got his act together and won the last two rounds for first overall aboard his Suzuki. John Wilson didn't make Maas's job any easier as he kept heavy pressure on Jeff all the way. Third went to Mike Johns. Keep a watch on No. X63-his name is Mark Wiedeman, and for the last couple of years, he's been running back in the pack, but he was quick to tell anyone who would listen that it was the fault of his worn out Hodaka, not his ability. The last two weeks Mark has been on a pretty good little 100 Yamaha, and tonight he showed his mettle, getting up to finish fourth overall in a field of sixteen riders.
Okay, the rest of the classes only ran two motos due to the deluge that inundated the \rack. In 125 Junior, division two, Jeff Maas's brother Ron said if my brother can do it, I can do it, so he traded firsts and seconds with Mike McCormack, but it was Ron winning the second moto for first overall with McCormack getting second. In for third was Tom Navarro. In 125 Junior division one Bill Mo Farland took his Honda to first in the first moto, and in the second moto Tom Peterson took his Honda to first, but in between was Mike Curtis riding for seconds in both rounds, while McFarland and Peterson fell back. So in the end, it was Curtis for the overall victory, McFarland for second, and Jeff Voss for third. Lance Bryson crashed in round one for the 125 Intermediates but came back to win the second round, but it was too little too late. Eddie Clark after winning round one backed it up with a sixth place finish in round two for a first overall, second went to Doug Anderson, Mike Haas getting third.
Another short field was in the 250 Pros and 500 Pros. It's very easy to tell you how the 250 Pros went. The rabbit, Jeff Vidic, jumped out of the hole and opened up a wide gap, only to have his transmission go away just as it did last week. In two motos, Val Tamietti had two firsts, David Pessy had two seconds, and John McManaway had two thirds, and if you can't figure out the overall positions from that, I pass.
The same situation occurred in the 500 Pros. Joe Johnston as has been his luck of late, led round one until he broke his Maico. From then on, it was all Bill Rubly for the overall win, with second going to Curtis Ix:ssel and third to Jeff Jennings. The 500 Intermediates and Juniors, because of their short entries, rantogether. Tim Wyant took the win over the Intermediates, Trent McGee second and Cuff Hicks third. Rocky Vanzant took his CZ to first over the Junior contingent, while another CZ with David Valentine was second, third went to the Husky of Steve Huth.
Jon Bergstrom topped the 250 Junior class with a second and a first. Norman Noel took second with a pair of thirds. Brad Fujikuno wearing that crazy striped jersey won the first moto, but dropped to sixth in the second, ending up third overall.
The 250 Intermediates had two different winners, Larry Lutz and Tim Wyant, but Tim after winning both motos in the 500 Intermediates, fell to eighth in the second round of the 250's, with Larry Lutz getting the win, and consequently first overall. Second went to Kevin Rodgers, Wyant ending up third.
