Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

.J Page 22 October 2, 1973 • Trans-AMI Opener Rog is back, but Pt never left By Gary Van Voorhis SPRINGVILLE, NY, SEPT. 23 The opening round of the Trans-AMA motocross series was just· like a good old time movie: great cast, good locale; plenty of Kenmaken took his monocross Yamaha to victory in the fall series opener. Mike H.-twig _ fint Americ:an._Of _ it Kenmaken? DeCoster led Pierre in the fint molD: the OA found them the other w-v around. The Dutl:h dentist finished fourth despitll problems. suspense; an interesting plot and, in the end, a fmish that made you wonder if you hadn't seen it somewhere before. ioger DeCoster and Sylvain Geboers topped a cast of thousands that included Dutchman Gerrit Wolsink Jim Scaysbrook, and L. Alderton from Au s t r a Ii a, C Ia u d i 0 Pesce, Englishman Bob Wright and Bengt Aberg from the Land of Blondes. Zoar Moto P;U:k the site of the race is officially located in Springville, N~ York a town in the middle of the N~ frontier among rolling hills, corn fields and the ravages of the Ice Age millions of years ago Unofficially it's east of Eden; west ~f Freedom, and North of Otton, which puts it really in the middle of nowhere; a perfect place for a race. The track itself has to be one of the best in the eastern U.S. with outstanding drainage characteristics (rain the night before would have drowned most facilities), a self watering system for dust control, wood chips mixed into the surface for a moist consistency and the twistiness of a drunken snake for a layout. The spectators could see most of the track from any vantage point. T1te suspense· was provided by the Honda factory team in an unwitting fashion; they were at the mercy of those great birds that are suppOsed to deliver what is sent on time and on the right flight. In this case the works machines should have arrived in Buffalo with the riders; no such luck. Snafu after snafu in the saga of "where are the bikes" was finalIy solved by a compromise: pick the bikes up in Cleveland at 6 a.m. Sunday morning and drive to the track. They arrived at noon allowing only a couple of laps by factory teamsters Gaiy Chaplin and Gary Jones - Marty Tripes and DeWay..e Jones are still recovering from injuries. This prompted an unusual set of circumstances involving Gary Jones, his bike and the time remaining between the arrival of the bikes and' the first moto which prompted this note to the media from Jones: "I appeared here today to race for Honda. Due to problems beyond my control and apparently beyond the control of American Henda, we have been unable to have an Open class Honda prepared and delivered to the race site for today's race. "I fully anticipate that such will not be the case at the next race, and which 1 intend to race and try to win for Honda, on a Honda..We all realize that this series is of the ultimate importance, it being the highlight of the motocross series, and that a severe handicap would be imposed on any rider who was forced to layout of even one race. It is With that in mind that we have decided to race today on other equipment. "The mere fact that 1 have been or forced to ride my personal motorcycle should not be interpreted as any endorsement or preference. Further, if it were possible to compete on my CR2!iO Elsinore, you may be sure 1 ... would. Neither should this unfortunate set of circumstances be interpreted as any renunciation of American Honda or their fme equipment. I have, at this time, no information that would indicate that Honda would refuse to provide me with an acceptable machine f or the International class of the Trans-AMA series." The plot of course, involved the forces of good (pick your favorite riders - ~ea!) and evil (~opponent - Boo!) - m two forty mmute plus two lap international motos. Crowd favorites seemed to change with the lead, although Roger DeCoster always drew cheers as did Jim (Who?) Pomeroy and Brad Lackey. .. .The overall fmish,.that seemed to be gomg to any of four riders fm:illY fell on the should~s of that old reliable moto master PIerre Karsmakers on a mono-shock ~amaha. World 500 Cbm:np DeC~ster pICked ~p ~cond With Am~can Mi!

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