AVDRA Race Report
Race #10 April 13, 2008

Every time I go to an AVDRA Vintage race, I always start to drift back to the 1970’s when I was just a teenager right here in Arizona.  The sights of the old bikes, the sound of the two strokes and the smell of premix bring back great memories.  They bring back the dream of someday becoming a pro rider.  That dream, unfortunately, was interrupted when, at age19, the throttle on my Maico 400, stuck.  I launched my bike over the grandstands!  Five rows back, the mighty Maico landed in the windshield of an unlucky truck parked in the pits.  So in an odd sort of way I’m kind of famous for crashing.  Some of you might remember that October, 1977, night.  I still remember it every time I look at my crooked right arm…good old Beeline Raceway.

On Sunday, April 13, AVDRA held the last day race of the 07-08 season.  The racing was hot and so was the weather.  But that didn’t stop people from coming out for a great day of racing.  The pits were full and every one was excited, especially after the riders meeting.  It was the shortest riders meeting Dave had given all season.  Everyone laughed and gave Dave a round of applause for achieving such brevity!

Race 1 is always the vintage open and in the expert class, Carl Osborne took the number 1 spot.  In the intermediates, 1st  place was Tom Rogers, 2nd Dwight Rundle, 3rd Ken Dickson and 4th Bob McDowell.  The novice class was won by Steve Irwin, 2nd place Mark Baird and 3rd Conrad Mendez.  In the Dino class, first place went to future iron man Norm Stradleigh and in the Dino 250 class it was (Uncle Bill) Bill Ramsey with the win.  Our Euro 125 intermediate winner was my good buddy Gregg Roth.

Race 2 is the GP Open age intermediate class.  Kyle Kenyon (man that kid is fast) took 1st place.  In the GP 40+ expert class. Ron  McCleve took the win and in the GP 40+ intermediates, Ed Kavavanagh was 1st with Scott Coons placing 2nd.  In the GP 50+ intermediates, Jim Rike was 1st, Bruce Kenyon 2nd and Steve Olson 3RD..

Our 50+ novice winner was Kerry Robbins and Dan Sniezek was 2nd.  I’m especially excited about the GP 50+ class now that I have hit the Big 50 myself J.

Race 3 is the Vintage 125, the classic 250 and open classes.  I think every one in this race is an ironman because these guys ride bikes with 4”-6” of travel and some of the classic bikes must weigh a ton.  All of these racers really kick some tail!.  The vintage 125 class is one of the most competitive classes of the club.  They currently are having the Honda/Suzuki challenge where the loser buys the winner their choice of dinner.  This, of course, always adds to the excitement.  In the classic open expert race, Tim Thomas got the win and Marty Tait was 2nd.  In the classic open novice race, Owen Morgan pulled down the win.  The classic 250 novice winner was the Ossa kid, Norm Stradleigh.  In our vintage 125 expert class, Jim Goodman was the winner and Dan Jones placed 2nd.  If you have never watched these two guys race, this is one race you don’t want to miss.  These guys can rally haul the mail!  In the intermediate class where the ongoing Honda/Suzuki challenge is, Robert Bergman got the win for the Suzuki team and Jerry Morrison was 2nd, Marc Pape got 3rd.  Both Jerry and Marc were on Hondas.  The novice class winner was Scott Jones and 2nd place went to Zack Warner.

Race 4 is the mini class and this class holds a special place in my heart because my twins Alex and Aaron started their motocross career in this class.  To see all of these kids out there racing is great!  In the novice class, Chad Howard took 1st, Jason Sutton was 2nd, Justin Payne was 3rd, Brenden Renning was 4th, Cody Howard  was 5th, Tanner Monroe 6th , Edi Santibanez was 7th, Miten Warner 8th and Chelsea Howard was 9th.  In the intermediate class Garret Tait was the winner.

Race 5 is the Vintage open age and the 40+, 50+ and 60+ classes.  In the expert class, Paul Dunne smoked the field and got 1st in both motos.  Larry Pane was 2nd and Rick Williams got 3rd.  The open intermediate class was won by Jerry McCleve.  In the 40+ expert class, it was Jim Goodman in 1st and Carl Osborne in 2nd.  The 50+ Intermediate class was won by Dwight Rundle with a 1-1 sweep.  Tom Rogers was 2nd, Bill Stamey 3rd, Ken Dickson 4th and Bob McDowell 5th.  This is another group of guys that always have a great race.  In the 40+ novice class, Matt Howard took the win and seems to get faster every race.  My buddy, Ron Monroe, was 2nd, Joe Rundle 3rd, Steve Irwin 4th, Raymond Konkle 5th and Larry Selby 6th.  In the 50+ novice class, Dan Ecker was 1st and Norm Stradleigh was 2nd.  The 60+ novice class was Bill Ramsey.

Race 6 was the women’s race and in the novice class we had Diane McDowell in 1st, Taylor Tait 2nd.  In the modern novice, Selena Hartman was our winner and in the 60+ novice Pam Gorman took the win.

Race 7 was loaded with fast guys!  The GP1 intermediate class was won by Mike Hotchkiss with Jerry McCleve placing 2nd.  In the GP II open expert class, Steele Campbell went 1-1 for the win.  In the intermediate GP II class, everybody is fast except me.  1st place went to Scott Coons.  I hope to be able to keep up with him someday.  Chris Parker took 2nd place, 3rd was John Reardon, 4th was Bruce Sandground.  It was good to have Bruce back.  5th place was Ed Kavanagh, and, even with a sore hand, he still beat me. Yep.  Bringing up the rear was yours truly, Bret Hjerpe.  I wish I could say I was charging through the pack, but I was just choking on the dust instead. In the GP III open intermediate class, Al Schott had a perfect day with 1st in both motos.  Dave Reabe was 2nd , Jerry Morrison 3rd and Steve Olson from Colorado placed  4th.  In the GP III 125 expert class, Don Ruffin was smoking!  Have you ever watched Don?  He reminds me of a kid we had in Arizona who rode for DG racing, Gary Dirks,  I thought it was Gary the first time I saw him ride…very smooth and very fast.  Don, of course, won 1st. In the 4x9 class, Rick Williams was 1st. I love this kind of one off bikes that Rick likes to build.  I hope to build one someday.

Race 8 had Garrett Tait winning the GPI 125 novice class. In the GPII 125 novice, it was the April Rider of the Month, Nick Roberts, getting the win, with Tim Willborn in 2nd.  The GP1 open novice class was won by Steve Irwin.  Paul Lightspeed Dunne was 1st in the GP1 open expert.  He is another guy that can ride at breakneck speeds plus is one of the nicest people in the club.  In the GPIII open novice, Gary Eisner picked up the win and Michael Wadding was 2nd.  The 4x12 novice was won by Marc Cira.  And in the GPII open novice, Joe Rundle was the winner with Shawn Warner in 2nd place.

Race 9, the last race of the day, was our modern support class.  In the expert class, Todd Amaral was 1-1 for the win.  Steele Campbell was 2nd, Randy Stamey was 3rd and Chris Parker was 4th. I think every one of these guys roosted me with rocks in this race.  The intermediate class was won Bret Hjerpe and Jim Johns took 2nd. In the novice class, Larry Selby took the win with Gerando Santibanez getting 2nd.  Ron McCleve won the decade class.

Overall, I think all of the racers had a great time.  I don’t believe we had any injuries either. So if you’re reading this article and you have an older motocross bike from the seventies up to 1996, we have a class for you.  Just dust off that old steed, bring it out and have some fun!  Check us out at www.avdra.com. Until the next race.

Bret (the Big Svenska) Hjerpe, #113