RTMC-MX at Carlsbad Raceway
Bruce McDougal brought his 125 Mono-shocker out to Saddleback and in turn, he took home first place cash, beating out Tim Hart. Corley photo.
AMA
at
Ascot Park
Saturday January 11, 1975
By: The Scene & Bonzai Billy
I started to type up this article right after I watched the Hang Ten USGP on ABC's Wide World of Sports. And you know, it is really a shame that it took them so long to air this, the most exciting of all GP's. Do you want to know something else? Well, when I got back from the races at Carlsbad, I immediately grabbed some chips and something cold to drink and sat down in front of the boob-tube to catch Roger, Gerrit, Heikki, and the rest of the gang making good for the people out in TV land. When I began making noises when they finally got down to the MX portion of the show, my mom, in a serious tone, said, "Oh, are they showing the races you went to today?" "Ah, yeah, for sure." "Really? I'm going to watch, are you in this?" "I don't think so, this is the Hang Ten USGP that they had last July, remember?" "What?" "Ah, forget it, mom."
Maybe this gave you a slight indication as to how far my mother is into racing. In fact, she's only gone to see two of my races, when I was a Beginner. And worst of all, my dad hasn't even seen any of them! But the RTMC races on Saturdays at Carlsbad are always filled with the air of parental participation and family backing. Take a look at the Carlsbad Raceway Team. One of the most winningest teams around, wherever they go, and their success is strongly influenced by the parents and family. During practice, I was messing around in the pits when a family caught my attention. So I sat on the tailgate of my LUV pickup and watched and listened.... "Hey mom, can you help me put on my jersey?" "Sure, I washed it for you yesterday." "Thanks, can you tell Kim to give me my gloves back. I think she's playing with them in the mud" "Kim! What are you douV" "Oh, nothing, I just sewed up the hole in his gloves." "Good." "Now, son, take the inside line on that wide sweeper, the outside is too muddy." "Sure dad, 'gotcha." "Now, go out there and do your best..." And they went on and on, like a family having the traditional "Saturday at the park", it seemed like they were at a picnic. Havin' fun. About this time, I decided to go onto the track itself and take a few pictures of everyone practicing...Until I saw a kid sitting on his bike looking a little dejected. "I got a flat, do you think we can fix it before the first moto, Grandpa?" Grandpa?! I was pretty stoked. My grandfather wouldn't come out to the races if I paid him. Now. that's total family participation! Not only did the fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, uncles, and aunts come out, so did the upper echelon of the family tree! Whooie!While the pair pushed the bike back to the pits, I went the other way and began shooting away at the berserkers, only to find out that my camera didn't have any film in it! And, guess what, I didn't bring any with me! Dumb, huh? Luckily, I had one of my friends come out and take some for me, his name? A little out of the ordinary, his name was Holeshot Harry. I Just as I thought, none of you know him, you're lucky.) Then, it finally got down to the races themselves. Mike McNulty grabbed the holeshot in the 125 Junior class and held it for two laps while holding off Jim Burton (Hon) and George Speck (Hon). Speck passed the Intermediate rider and passed McNulty on the downhill. From there, Speck stretched out his lead. Then Ron Laffranchi and his red Honda and Jim Fukuda riding a CRT Suzuki passed both McNulty and Burton to get into the magic "three" circle. Fukuda finally passed Laffranchi on the dropoff and went after Speck. After a couple more laps. Speck fell in the back section of the track and Fukuda inherited the top spot. But not for long, 'cause a flat rear tire made him slow and Speck repassed Jim, along with Ron Laffranchi and Steve Smith (Hon). Jim fell out of it all together when he fell on the last lap and finished in last. George Speck took the overall spot in the combined Junior and Intermediate class, followed by Laffranchi, Smith, and Mike Weber (Hon).
In the second moto of the 125 Junior Intermediate class, Ron Laffranchi pulled the string on the pack, but his lead was cut to two comers when Lemon Grove Wheel Works rider Mike McNulty grabbed it away from him. Behind Laffranchi was Randy Hess (Hon) and George Speck. Speck squirmed his way past Hess on the uphill, while Ron passed McNulty at the top comer. But things didn't seem to work out for Ron, 'cause his pipe broke into two pieces on the downhill, allowing five riders to pass him. Ron immediately stopped in front of the scoring both and ran over to the pits to get another pipe. At the same time, his mother came running over to his bike and said, "Oh, not again, and he just got into the lead". She didn't look too pleased, but I guess she was glad he was doing good when he did it. "Oh, Ron is always telling me how fast you are. You two had a good race going last week, didn't you?" I don't like to brag, so all I could say was, "Oh, I'm not really that good." (true sign of a squid.) Some more of that family participation, this time, "mama." So I helped Ron get goin' again, but at least he got to go back out and ride, 'cause he was pretty well lapped. But, somehow, all those Intermediates dropped out before he did, because he took a first in his class. While I was talking to Ron's mom, Speck had grabbed control of the Junior class and was way out front. Randy Hess was running second, while Steve Smith and Mike Weber battled it behind. Until Weber's pipe broke off so that first day racer Ron Johnson could take over fourth. So, when I talked to Ron's mom one more time, George Speck was pitting with a first, followed by Hess, Smith, and Johnson. Speck took the overall win, Smith took second, while first-time-out rider Ron Johnson grabbed a surprised third. "Wow, a trophy! I trophied!"
Jim Fukuda on the Carlsbad Raceway Team, squares a corner on his way to a second in the 125 Intermediate class. SCENE photo.
Gorki Moore grabbed the holeshot in the first moto of the 100 mini class on a CRT Suzuki, while Carl Salazar and Sam Ryan chased after him. Ryan got past Salazar, both ride for Lemon Grove Suzuki. Sarkis Spanjian grabbed the mini lead on his little YZ80, while Mickey Lopez and Tim Woods diced it out on their XR's for second and third. Lemon Grove Suzuki rider Carl Salazar grabbed the fast line in the start of the second moto, but was quickly passed by team-mate Ryan in the second corner. Following the pair was Spanjian, Moore, and Lopez. Moore slowly worked his way to the front and stayed there, Ryan and Salazar did the same. Spanjian seemed to be having a easy time until he crashed. And, as usual, a member of the family came out to help, this time it was in the form of a foxy big sister. "Are you okay? Do you want me to take your boot off?" A few of the bystanders gave out queery replies like "Gawd, he ate the wang!" "No, I think he ate cake." "Woe, he bit it." Anyway, Sark just got up and took off, with a severe case of "strawberry rash." So, Lopez grabbed the lead, followed by Tim Woods, who was consistently missing the berms in the horse-shoe corner. I guess he likes toplay "destroy the berm." Moore took two firsts, but some kid kept on telling -a scored on the downhill, Gorki on the downhill." Finally, I gave him some attention, "Sure, I gotcha', Thanks " “Well, I just want to help you." "Yeah, but it would help if you wouldn't help me that much.â€
Sometimes I get too much attention. Especially by a little kid riding around on his yellow Schwinn bicycle with training wheels." "Hey, start me. Please. You be the starter." Ah, the start of a young motocross career. In the 250-500 Junior Intermediate class, Scot Prante grabbed the holeshot in the first moto, but he held his lead for a lap when Dave Brinton passed the Yamaha rider with his CZ. Then Paul Beck on his YZ took over second and began to close in on Brinton, but alas, all good things sometime come to a halt, especially when you crash, and that's what Beck did, crash. Mike Garrett on his trick 125 Flying Machine Factory Penton then inherited second spot as the only Pro of the day, followed by Prante.
Brinton got the jump out of the gate in the second moto to lead the string of big bikes all the way to the finish. Bud Anderson (Hon), Scot Prante, and Mike Garrett followed closely behind. Garrett worked his way to second by the first lap's end. Things remained about the same all the way through. So Dave Brinton took home the brass in the 250 Intermediate class, followed by Pacific Yamaha rider Paul Beck. Randy Haas scored a first in the 250 Junior class, while Vince Kreizinger grabbed second on his Honda behind the YZ rider. Charles Groshek took a third by finishing a 1-4 on his Honda. Scot Prante took home a first place trophy in the 500 Junior on his Yamaha, while Scot Thompson took second on his CZ. Mike Garrett, who was surprisingly the only Pro rider, replied that he has been off of bikes for a while and is going to get back into it, so watch out. Good luck, his FMF Penton sure did look quick.
Some guy got stuck out in the back section of the track, so two dudes, Gilbert and Gary, went over there to help. But this guy wanted to push his bike "through" the mudhole instead of "around" it. "Are you crazy! I'm not going to get my nice pants and my shoes dirty! You push it out yourself!" Gary helped out "Hurry up kid! The next moto's gonna start: So the kid began to make engine noises..."Brrreeep, brrreeeep, rinnng- dinnnnng, breeeeeehhh....."They laughed as they pushed the bike the rest of the way. Gilbert's a smart one, he stripped out an "easy-out" re-threader in a stripped shock mount, and it got stuck in there when he broke if off. Gilbert, you're a squirrel, I challenge you to a race "race of the squirrels!" (Me and you, and I'll bet you'll win, Squirrel.)
I began to do some strange things, maybe it's because I watched "In Concert" into the wee hours of the night last night. Hmmmmm? So, I decided to go home and watch the Hang Ten. But as I drove out of the pits, I noticed that two vans were still parked with tents still pitched up, somehow it gave me the impression that they were going to have a barbeque or something. They were all talking about the day, the way a family does at the end of very fun day... "Oh, and how Charlie almost passed that Honda rider right at the finish. That was sooo neat. And how about when he....." At this time, I was out of the pit entrance, but I could still hear them talking twenty feet away. He should've done a Wolsink replica....his family would have gone bananas.