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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/125837
fourth with maybe 20 minutes gone. During this same first half of the moto, Rex Staten (Mai) in his first Trans AMA ride held off Roger DeCoster. He finally got passed by Roger but kept going in the top ten. Jim kept closing. He passed Semics on the uphill and went after Adolf with determination and a new Bultaco. Pomeroy ,had motored around Jones without any apparent problem before this. Adolf was out front where it was all familiar to him with Jim maybe 10 yards behind him. People lining the fences have been swinging their arms in big rotary motions, urging Jim on. Pomeroy's pace seems to keep building. Just how close to the ragged edge is he treading? 1 fmd myself yelling along with everyone else. It is the best Jim has looked in the U.S. Hooboy! Then, for the second time this year in motocross competition, Adolf crashes hard at the same place where Karsmakers went down and Wright lost it. Jim goes past, the announcer chokes up with apoplexy and a high, rising whoop goes up from the 10,000 assembled faithful. Jim starts to stretch out a very big lead. Semics is still second and Jones still third. Adolf can't get his Maico restarted and spends time un-tweaking the bars. He finally gets going again in fifth, ironically, just ahead of DeCoster. Sure victory for Pomeroy - his first moto win of the Trans AMA. He was way out front. And then he wasn't there. Gary Semics had the lead with DeCoster and Weil dueling fiercely for fifth place. Both of them, running together, soon passed Semics. J ones had faded back and Bauer was holding on to fourth. Then Jim comes motoring around, standing up on the pegs on his way back to the pits. The base gasket has blown and the engine leaned ou t until it seized. Weil and DeCoster are giving this two-man supershow up front, oblivious to anybody else except as they move carefully through traffic, lapping. Semics' Husky coughs up. Gebaers is motoring around up the on pegs, waiting for it to end. Marty Tripes crashes his 370 Hondaand the National Motorcycle Patrol inflates a splint for his leg. He rides the second moto. Adolf is leading again, winning the first moto after crashing hard and losing a bunch of positions 20 minutes before. Roger has come up with a force that is uncanny. It's like no one can really hold him off, even though Staten tried and, yes, everybody else tried. Both .the German and the Belgian's rides are impressive, from a crash and a poor start, they are now one-two. They are also undoubtedly the fastest guys who finish in the U.S. today. Poor Jim. Disappointment !tangs like a fog around the Bultaco pits. They had counted so much on the new, smaller engine. It seems like everybody had course marking flags wrapped in their rear wheels during the second moto. The alternate light sprinkles, which keep the track beautiful tacky loamy, and brigh t breakthrough sunshafts prpduce a full arc rainbow backdrop at the top of the start hill. The first guy through the scenery is Sylvain Geboers. He makes the 370 Suzuki smoother even than Roger. He is followed up the near vertical hairpin by Adolf, and John DeSoto with a go-b an anas-bu t-do-i t-eon trolled start. Fourth was Jim Pomeroy. Jim got past DeS oto whose CZ had just lost its brake pedal. DeSoto motored rapidly back to the pits, got' it fixed and rejoined the fray but his good start was now wasted. Pomeroy was wasting exactly zero time in going after Weil and passing him. Sylvain 'got overwhelmed in the banzai rush wherein Jim would keep the throttle on way past normal average shut·off points. Again, the fans went wild. If it were fixed right, if the Bul would hold together, if the suspension stayed working, Jim would win the second moto. He was pumped, wired and hand taped to "Open" on the throttle grip. Pomeroy started stretching out another big lead, picking up one to two seconds a lap over Weil. They had said in the Bultaco pits that Jim wanted a 20-second cushion out front. Jim Weinert, standing in the comers with his eye to the viewfinder of his new Minolta, opined as how Jim • • • ... = I II I II U c<'l 1""- 0'> ~ '<:t< s.. ~ .0 E ~ U IlJ 0 Jim WlI1l:hes. seized after leading Mom One. as Adolf and Roger finish one-two. They reversed order but _re just as dose in the second round. seemed just a little over his head. He was. He was beyond the margin of con trol as a flagman waved the riders away from some destroyed ribbon that marked the course. Pomeroy went over the bars. His ankle was hurt, along with other parts of his body, and Adolf came by within seconds to gain the lead. You didn't need that much lead, Jim, you really didn't. But you seemed blind to "cool it" signals and hand motions from your pit. Pomeroy in tended to win bij{. After 20 minutes, Roger DeCoster had moved up from about eighth, passing Bauer and Geboers to be seven seconds behind Adolf - according to the black-board that Karl-Heinz hung over the fence. Heike Weil smiles and waves, then goes back to recording Adolf's American accomplishments on fJ1m in a very dutiful way. Willi Bauer's wife is handling an 8mm with less enthusiasm. Weil and DeCoster move irresistibly away from everybody else, chasing and pushing and making no errors. It is not their way to make errors. Sylvain is holding third, which he will do with Grand Prix-bred consistent speed til the end. Then come Bauer, Wolsink and Rex Staten who is fading slightly but not badly from his good start. (The 15-minute night motos do teach the SoCal shoes to get off the line.) The next bunch is headed by Werner Schutz, who has abandoned his monoshock Kramer-Maico for a more "conventional" GP rig, Brad Lackey, and Bob Wrigh t again on the stronger-running CCM. Steve Johnson, Brad's chief mechanic, allows as how the suspension between Brad's head and hand is starting to work. Yes, the Bay area hero does seem to have caugh t fire in this second moto. Karsmakers' Yamaha dies at the third uphill and he falls back to a catch-up position. He later tangles with Gary J ones in a big crunch while making up slots and fmishes, barely, with his throttle cable in his hand after a trip to the pits. This was the difference after 90 minutes of motocross. Gary Semics had again been in high contending positions until his Husky again went sour. Wright and Lackey were doing some motocross racin' behind Staten and ahead of Schutz. Brad passed Bob W., then had some wire hang up his rear end, got out of shape on an uphill and Wright got back by. Before the end, Brad would repass him and, in fact, finish first American for the moto, in sixth, passing/Staten as Rex seemed to tire. Thorwaldson was putting in his usual fast, consistent ride and would even tually make 7-9 finishes put him first Yank overall. It's easy not to notice Rich unless you start keeping lap charts. He is so smooth and just keeps moving up'. But what was happening was up front. Adolf comes full throttle down the bumps and ruts, looking less smooth than he usually does as he tries to stay ahead of DeCoster. Adolf is taking the outside line trying to stay away from the whoops and stutterbumps. Roger is taking the inside, doing the same. Th" gap between the two closes by fractions of a second each lap. Adolf is looking and concentrating about 50 meters ahead of him. Roger's face reminds you l'on1«oy leading Sernics and Jones. of a not unkind but lean and hungry wolf as both the Maico and the Suzuki come by zip-zip with the engines all the way out at the top of fifth gear. There are no more revs,to be had from either one on the front straight. 'Roger will close up to within a few feet and Adolf will stretch it back out. There is a long time until third, who is Sylvain, com"s by. Time is going now, along with the light which has played brilliance and shadow shows on the rolling, natural course all day. There are two laps to go in the last International moto when both riders bounce over the short downhill berore ZlC: .;