Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

• ATLANTA DUSTS UP , ,----_---:=-==--==--=--=-==-------=-=-='--==...:=-----=------, . '~ N u o ~ w Z w ..J U ~ U And Gary Jones fought breaking frames to challenge the top Europeans. by Jim Gianatsis Photos by Bob Lenk, Jack Mangus, Bill Neill, Bob Bond, and Gianatsis FLOWERY BRANCH, GA., Oct. 15, 1972 - Sweden's Ake Jonsson powered his works Maico to a precision win during round five of the Trans-AMA International 500 class. Roger DeCoster (Suz) W'as able to slip in to second overall in the final standings when. Jonsson's Maico teammate, Hans Maisch, winner of the first moto and second in the next, was disqualified in the final race for failure to heed the black flag. Jimmy Weinert placed his Yamaha third overall, the highest finishing position yet for an American in the Trans-AMA series. The entire day started off wrong when the promoters of Road A tlan ta failed to have on hand the $10,000 prize money in cash as required by the AMA. Russ Coe, the AMA's Director of Competition, said that he had contacted the Road Atlant~ management at 12:30 PM on Friday about the cash only rule and they should have had plenty of time to draw the money from their bank. The AMA would not even allow riders out onto the course for practice, which was scheduled at 9 AM, arid by 1: 00 in the afternoon, after four hours of restless waiting by thousands of spectators, the AMA was preparing to cancel the International event. Then, the track was able to notify AMA personnel in charge that it had collected enough real cash at the entrance gate to take care of the purse. At 1:30 PM, the crowd went wild when Roger DeCoster wheelied out onto the course to being the short one hour practice. A field of only 31 riders, 14 of them Europeans, pulled into the starting gate for the first of three 30-minute international motos,. It seems most of th e main line Japanese-sponsored European riders are in Japan for a series there. Word is that Joel Robert has reinjured his knee and won't be malting any of the races here. The presence of so few Am'erican riders show.s that without a factory or distributor sponsorship competing in the Trans-AMA series is a difficult venture. When the gate dropped, Hans Maisch rocketed his prototype Maico into the lead, followed by Pierre Karsmakers, Gary Jones and Ake Jonsson. Gary was \ doing the homc c untry boys proud as he u'sed the tremendous power of the But when it was all ovet. Jim Weinert was top American ...ever. 500 Yamaha to devour the hills of red Georgia clay and pass Karsmakers for second. Ake also passed Karsmakers to move up into third, and .the three of them, Maisch, Jones and Jonsson, were way out front. Marty Tripes worked up to fourth and then crashed, recovering in about 20th p.osilion and out of contention. On the seventh lap, Jonsson got by Gary and two laps later, DeCoster moved ",p in to fourth. Maisch and Jonsson had built up a 70-yard lead On Gary, who was still followed by DeCoster. It took. World Champ DeCoster three laps to reel in on Gary. They ran wheel-to-wheel for another two laps before Roger was able to swing inside on one of the tricky off-camber turns and take Gary. All this while, Weinert was back banging handlebars with Lackey and pulled on past the Kawasaki rider. Jim's position was safe for three more laps but then Brad passed to regain his sixth. Gary dropped his bike and was quickly passed by Kring. Weinert then retook Lackey again. The moto finished Maisch, Jonsson, DeCoster, who was unable to gain any "Jimmy Weinert, eh? Is he from aroun' heah?" ground on the flying Maicos, Jones, Weinert, Lackey, and Bengt Aberg. Moto two saw Jonsson throttle to the lead, followed closely by Suzuki's Rich Thorwaldson, then Maisch. Roger DeCoster got another poor start and quickly began working his way up. Maisch moved by Thorwaldson on lap two and the pair of Maico pilots proceeded to build up a lead of twelve seconds. Karsmakers got around Thorwaldson on the next lap for third position, and Roger moved in behind Rich to take fifth. Gary Jones was forced to slow early in the race when his frame began to break from the pounding it was receiving from the rough track. The resulting vibration was _blistering his hands badly. Weinert (Yam) moved in on Lackey (Kaw) and the two were passing each other back and forth in a fan tastic battle for seventh. After about four laps of handlebar clashing, Weinert was able to pull off from Lackey wi th enough distance to secure his position. Thorwaldson had dropped back and Heikki Mikkola was lapped when his engine began to run poorly. Up front, Jonsson and Maisch maintained their invincible pace to the

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