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VOLUME 57 ISSUE 3 JANUARY 21, 2020 P119 and Broc Glover on a 500. Instead of a direct factory entry, Yamaha had eight factory-supported riders in the 125cc class, giving them strength in numbers. Suzuki was strong in both the 125 (George Holland) and 250 classes (Mark Barnett and Scott Burnworth) but didn't have a factory entry the 500, so they were not going to have a shot at sweeping. Honda came close to sweeping in the opening round at Gatorback in Gainesville, Florida. Hannah won the 250 national and Bailey in the 500 class, but Kawasaki's Ward won over O'Mara in the 125 class to prevent the sweep. Then came round two at the famous Saddleback Park in Or- ange, California. First up in the 125 class, it was an all-out war between the "O' Show" and "Wardy." Late in the first moto, O'Mara was leading when Ward came underneath him with an aggressive pass, result- ing in O'Mara hitting the ground. O'Mara was none too pleased with Ward's hard pass. "He just rammed me right off the track," O'Mara said. "I didn't think it was fair. I wouldn't have done it to him." Ward took the win, while O'Mara recovered from the fall to finish second. In the second moto, O'Mara again led Ward, and at one point, O'Show tried to serve up some payback by doing a hard brake check. Ward smashed his Kawasa- ki into the back of O'Mara's Honda but managed to stay upright. It all came down to the final lap. Ward made a slight bobble, and that was all it took; O'Mara scored the second-moto win and the overall to give Honda its first checkmark. In the 250 class, Hannah was out after getting injured at Daytona. That put it mostly on the shoulders of young second-year pro Lechien, although Team Tamm Honda's Alan King was also a possibility. Lechien had his factory Honda in the lead for the first four laps before fellow El Cajon native Johnson and his Yamaha moved past to take the point. Johnson sprinted out to a five- second lead and held it there to the finish. The second moto saw an epic battle between the two rivals. They swapped the lead several times before Johnson came up short on a massive uphill jump and blew out the spokes on his Yamaha's rear wheel. Johnson stayed in it and hit Lechien, and the two went down. Lechien quickly recovered, and Johnson went in for a wheel change. Lechien made it to the finish in first just ahead of a hard-charging Liles. "I think Johnson wanted to take me out because he knew he was going to drop out," Lechien said. He added, "But crime never pays." Two up, two down for Honda. That left only the 500 class, and with David Bailey on the ultra-trick water-cooled works RC500, it was seemingly a foregone conclusion. But this was Saddleback, Broc Glover's home turf, and in spite of being outgunned on his produc- tion-based, air-cooled Yamaha YZ490, Glover knew Saddleback like the back of his hand. Goat Breker, returning from injury, looked like he would spoil the show for the both of them on his factory Kawasaki, jumping to a big lead in the first moto before crashing. Glover crashed too, leaving Bailey with a considerable lead. Glover ral- lied and tried to narrow the gap, but Bailey was too far gone. In moto two, Glover was with Bai- ley, pressuring him. Then he shot to the lead on the fourth lap approach- ing an uphill jump. Glover held the number-one spot for much of the race before Bailey charged hard in the closing laps to take back the lead and finish the day with a 1-1, giv- ing Honda the first-ever triple sweep of an AMA Motocross National. "I had so much confidence, that even when Broc passed me, I figured I could get him back," Bailey said. "I waited a while and made sure everything was under control, and then I went for it." It was a massive accomplish- ment for Honda, especially consid- ering just how strong the competi- tion was on that day. The headline in Cycle News read "Red Tide Splashes Over Saddleback." Honda would come back and twice more score the triple sweep. Once again in '84 at Six Flags Park in Atlanta, and then in 1985 at Millville. And then the era was gone. Starting in '86 nation- als were split up so that it was either a combined 125/500cc national or a 125/250cc national. The brief, but glorious era of the triple nationals became part of racing history with Honda holding all the chips. CN Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives