January 22, 1975
Vol. 3  Issue 1
    










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AME-MX at Carlsbad Raceway


AME at Carlsbad Raceway
Sunday December 29, 1974
By: Valerie
Jurus

Saturday night it rained and rained and rained and rained. I wondered whether I should go to Carlsbad the next morning or not. 6:30 came and it was still pretty wet out, but I decided to go anyway. One of the reasons I went was because A.M.E. was supposed to be having a $500.00 purse. Scott Montgomery, riding for Alba Bultaco, Ron Turner, Mike Jennings and Kenny Frost, riding for Jack’s Honda were about the only local Pro hotshoes that were there. Mark Fundubugh, riding for West Cycles and Mike Young, riding for Accessories and Cycles in Clairmont, were a couple of the fastest Juniors. The weather was bad. Cloudy and drizzling. The track was said to be at least 50 per cent worse, if not more than that, than the day before.

At the riders’ meeting it was decided to cut the uohill and downhill off, and just use minute! The first place guy is back up. Whoops! He fell back in the mud. Yessiree, folks, it’s really a muddy day. Anyway, enough of that. I could describe the whole race in the same fashion. People, bikes and bodies were all covered with the brown gook called mud. 250 Beginner Mark Funduburgh (Mai) was holding the lead. 500 Beginners Joe Brown (CZ and John Tartaglia (Mai) were close behind. 250 Junior Mike Young (Hus) was having one heck of a time while on his way under the Suzuki bridge, and made his way right under the mud. Young was in first for the 250 Junior division when his bike decided to go for a swim. That’s when he found out his plug cap wasn’t waterproof, and pushed his bike across the finish for the checkered flag. What were results? I’ll explain later.

There were about 15 Pros today. I looked over at the starting line and saw a couple of guys standing at the line with their hands up (meaning a couple of the Pros were on their way, so hold). I could see them from where I was, but that (deleted) starter didn’t pay any attention to them and must have thought the Pros place holders were waving to him or something. Regardless, he dropped the gate, leaving Mike Jennings and Ron Turner on their six times, finally giving up. Five guys had to push him out of the mud. There was no way one guy, unassisted, could push his own bike out. Once again, 250 Junior Mike Young decided to go for a swim, even though he was in first place again. I mean, what was a few places? Right? A mud bath was much more fun. His gloves were full of mud, so he pulled them off and whipped them across the track. I guess he didn’t think it was so much fun after all. Neither, I might add, did the guy who got hit in the head by a flying, mud-dripping glove.

The Pro class was an interesting one. To start it off (everyone was there to start), 125 Pro, Mike Jennings, had his throttle stick wide open a couple of corners before the drop-off. Scary? Naw. Mike’s used to going that fast. But the crowd was going crazy. He passed a few guys with much speed, until he hit a tree and was knocked off his bike. Mike got right back up and finished first in the 125 Pro class. He rides for Jack’s Hondas. One of the other hotshoes that rides for Jack in the 125 Pro class is Ron Turner. Ron didn’t do so great today. He was out at the beginning of the second moto with a broken chain. The guys who got the hole shot were Scott Montgomery (Bui) (who wasn’t about to miss this moto) and David Haugh (Bul), riding for Steve’s Bultaco.

David was out in front by a short distance until Scott looked like he was going nuts and passed by him so fast on the ledge that people were asking me, “Who’s that guy? Is that guy one of the big Pros? I just sort of laughed, because I could tell what had happened. The next lap and David was in first. Then, I was positive of what had happened. Scott came around going sort of slow the next lap. What had happened? Well, at the end of the race, David came up to Scott and said, “Wow! I couldn’t believe how fast you were going. I thought you were going crazy or something until I saw you hit that tree and endo.” Scott cracked up, laughing, and said, “I just held on. My throttle was stuck wide open! I just shut my eyes and held on.”

Yep. Just as I’d thought. I smiled and walked away. Anyway, it seems like David lucked out in both motos. The next moto was the 125’s, 100’s, and Minis. In the 100 class, the winner was Mike Harnacker riding a Suzuki for Allied Cycle, and close behind him, in second place, was John Whelchel.

It looked as if Tom Willis (Hon) took the number one position in the 125 Beginner class, with Phil Greenleif (Raw) in second, riding for West Cycles, and Tom Fruh (Hon) in third. Dan Hendricks (Hon) from Pacific Cycle took first place in the 125 Junior class, with Dave Humphrey (Hon) and Jerry Shore (Hon) riding for A.M.E taking second and third.

125 Intermediate Bill Wall, riding a Honda from Whittier Honda, finished this moto with a well earned first. Steve Paulos, also riding a Honda, but from C&H, held second, and David Urquhart (Hon), riding for D&G Performance, finished third.

Now that I’ve told about “some” of the action during the race, let me tell you about some more action after the race while everyone was waiting for results, and the $500.00 purse money. To start with, there was no $500.00 purse! All it was, was a normal 100 per cent payback to Pros and some trophys to all other first place riders. Just great. That meant $35.00 at the very most for the first place Pro (who I must say, was very upset, and by now, with the mud, very dirty). Besides that, it cost $17.00 post-entry for Pros and $13.00 for all other riders. But everyone thought that was okay because it was a $500.00 purse. No such luck. Next in line (just as I thought) the score girls had the 250 Pro laps all screwed up. It was something like the third place guy had four more laps than anybody else, and the first place guy didn’t finish, etc. So, they stood there and argued about that and the $500.00 purse for an hour. The lady that was doing the results said she was going to write up a result sheet for me. UH-huh. Meanwhile, people and riders were leaving without results and trophys. (One and one-half hours had gone by). Then they shut the doors to the camper and started writing results up. But when I had finally stood therealone, waiting for two hours, I decided that the results would just have to wait. I drove almost out of the track and then decided to try one more time. Back I went and knocked on the camper door. ..and somebody started yelling, “Can’t you wait? Get out of here.” Etc. That’s when I said, “Good-bye,” and exited, stage-left. I used my own results for the 125 classes. Oh, well. Happy New Year.