Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/125848
_a ;:u;;;:, I L E INT R-A A Tony DiStefano put the hurt on the factory boys, but it wasn't easy. Dallaire boogies his Hon da to a t hird. Mike Runyard (Gl lays his Suzu ki int o another To ny DiStefano plays lead change with Mark Blackwell du ring the secon d Open mota. By Ji m Gianats is Photos by Charles Morey & Gianatsis HI ALEAH, FLA .• FEB. 10 Tony In Hialeah . Tony came o ut o n top of a day long battle in t he Op en class wh ich saw the lead held b y a number o f riders i ncl uding Mik e Runyard (Suz) who finished seco nd overall for the day ahead of St eve Stackable (Mai). came up from a slow start to take th e lead and the win. Ron Pomeroy was third with Marty Tripes, Frank Stacy, John Savitski, Ron Huffman and John Franklin doing some good posit ion swapping. - - Gary Jones (Can -Am) had th e first mota in t he 250cc class won , and was ready to ' walk away with th e second mota when a broken axle temporarily sidelined hi m , turni ng the overall win the re to Rich T horwaldson (S uz). The Arkansas flye r, To ny Wynn (Han), was second wit h J ohn Dallaire (Han) t hird. The second qualifier and another first turn wreck. Out of actio n were Florida's Joey Gratton along with Terry Clark , H usqva rna's latest hot-shoe from California . Terry didn' t feel like racing much anyway after a fo ur day drive from California, b ut he lat er q ualified in t h e consolation . Rich Thorwaldso n took the wi n with his factory Su zuki after getting by Tony Wynn near the end of the mota. Following them up were Raine r . Borg, La mpp u and Joyner. The new Hialeah Raceway track was rough and dusty-real motocross, despite efforts early in t he morning to grade and water it . It was challenging anyway, but b y the end of practice it was a series of deep sand/dust potholes rather then th e usual Flordia whoop-de-des. Still , the riders managed to go ungodly fast . 250 Professional Things were set up ' a little different this week to sort out the 83 riders that wa nted to win the 250cc class. After the norm al two 10 mi nute qualifying motes which sele cte d 15 r iders each for the featu res, two consolation m o tos were run which selected five m o re riders each , t his putting a total of 40 into the program. 12 A pile up in the first turn , which could be more accurately des cribed as a high speed, top gear dog leg, put J im Ellis and his factory Can-Am out of action in the first qualifier with a cut nose and twisted leg. Buck Murphy held the lead for three laps , then Gary.J ones J im Ellis was running his Can-Am in sixth position in the consolation, which Terry Clark won, trying to get up into t he top five when he got out of shape on the ro ugh front straight and endoed. He landed in the snow fe nce with his bike on top of him and was ru shed to the hospital in critical co ndition with in tern al injuries and a broken pelvis. Everyone felt dow n the remainder of th e day, especially after Jim Coo ke had been p ut in the ho spita l a few da ys earlier with a multiple broken leg from a pr a c t i cin g accident. Orlando's Dan Farley won the other consolation ra ce. It was a beautiful hole shot for Tony Wynn at the start of the fir st of the two 25-minute motes. Ron Huffman had his Cy cle Village Penton in second and was being followed closely by Jo nes, John Franklin on a Ho nda of Piq ua Penton a nd Ma rty Tripes on the factory Rickm an . Gary mad e short work of