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By Andy Whipple
LA RUE·, OillO, Oct. 11, 1970 - The
Trans-AMA series was inaugurated here
Sunday, with BSA factory rider and
fonner world mo tocross champion, Jeff
Smith parlaying two heat victories into
an overan Main Event win, while
California CZ rider, Brad Lackey - who
for some reason was relegated to the
ranks of the Support class - took a
relatively easy win in his heat and the
Support Main.
AMA's first try at championship
motocross actually started at a press
conference held the night before at the
Holiday Inn in nearby Marion. After
brief speeches by AMA News Director,
Ed Youngblood and Executive Director,
Russ March, the soon-to-he-victorious
BSA team was introduced by the
company's racing head, Pete Coleman.
The program ended much too early,
apparently to allow the participants a
chance to rest before the Big Day.
The program of heats and feature
races proved to be a viable one Sunday,
as the well-oiled AMA flagging, starting
and scoring machinery ran off the day's
events quite efficiently. All racing was
rmished by 5 p.m.
The scratch heats
used to
determine riders in the Support Class
feature event - started the day's racing,
with Lackey astounding the crowd by
recovering from a first tum center
Jeff Smith
Jeff Smith leads fellow BSA rider over jump.
punch, and coming from next to last
place to win the first heat. Ron
Stockman, another northern
Californian, also won his heat 'race.
The first of the two 30 minute Main
Event motos started with a multiple pile
up in the first tum, a result of track
layout more than anything else. Gunnar
Lindstrom was most seriously affected
by the spill, as he remounted and spent
the entire 30 minutes playing catch-up.
He did, in fact, finally pass leader Jeff
Smith, but he was penalized one
position for jumping the gun, giving
Smith the win.
Bultaco rider, Tom Rapp collapsed
his forks in the ftrst heat, and American
BSA rider, Charles Minert ran into him.
Both riders were out, Rapp .for tlte day,
Minert for the rest of the heat. Another
BSA factory rider, Keith Hic kman, led
most of the first moto, but retired with
a broken chain, shortly after Lindstrom
had passed him. American rider, Sonny
DeFeo, led the ftrst heat briefly, before
being sidelined with a broken wheel.
The 30 minute Support Feature was
then run, while scoring hassles were
being straightened out from the first
. Main heat_ Lackey and Stockman put
on an inp-edible display of casual
Brad Lackey
