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/125851
The Motocross There's this guy named DeCoster, he's Belgian... and this guy,Karsmakers, he's American... The first t urn o f the Open class. By J im Giana1sis the mountainous jumps and deep ditches, crashed spectacularly, then got back up and did it all again. DA YTONA BEACH, FLA., MARCH 9 The Daytona Invitational Motocross was the first of a two-p art series to be concluded March l 6 a t the Houston Astrodome. Daytona had the largest share of the Yamaha "Super-Series" purse, with $2 4,000 in posted awards, to make it the rich est known motocross in recorded history. 18 World Champion Roger DeCost er (Suz) made his only appearance in America, outside of the T rans-AMA series , before 25 ,0 00 en th usiastic spectators, and won the Open clas s ahead of American rising star Rex Staten, in his first ride for Honda, and Gary Semics (Hus). A World Champion had never before raced a non-GP motocross outside of Europe with th e World Championship rounds so close at hand, but big purse American events and the righ t start money ar e apparently changing that. Somewhat as expected, Pierre Karsmakers (Yam) took the overall win in the 250 class, but not without a good workout. Buck Murphy (Pen) finally survived the DNFs that were plaguing him throughout the Florida Series and gave Pierre a very difficult time as Buck finished second Thorwaldson (Suz ). ahead of Rich 250 Class It would have been interest ing to see Pierre Karsmakers in th e Open class with Roger DeCoster be cause, since th e Trans-AMA series, Pierre h as be come a rider of World Championship potential. With strong Open class riders in Mik e Hartwig and l im Hart, Yamaha had Pierre in the 250 class wher e he co uld do them the _most go o d. They were right. Even if he hadn't won the race, he still should have received so m e type of award for winning practi ce . Pierre arrived at the track la te for the allo ted half.hour pra ctice session. As soon as he got out in t he tra ck, Pierre dialed th e 250 monosho cker to " full throttle" position and attacked the Gary Bailey-designed destructo track with vengeance. The crowd cheered from the 'grandstands as Pierre rocketed aro und the course, picking off riders from -every ยท position as he bounced the Yamaha every direction but straight, sailed twice as far a s anyone else over He was the o nly rider that didn't do wheelies down the fro nt straight, but when practice ended he received a screaming o va t io n from the cro wd. Jim Pomeroy, making his second U.S. appearance this year sin ce hurting his ankle, put his Bultaco into first place when the first of three 2o-minute motos got underway. By the completion of the first lap, he had an eigh t second lead over Gary Bailey, Florida Series Champion Rich Thorwaldson, Jack O'Leary from Texas, and Tony Wynn. That lead increased at times, but it was never less than eight seconds for the remainder of the moto. Both Pierre and Gary J ones had gotten starts in mid-p ack o f the 4o-bike Sexy Rexy The Rocket Slick St aten go t his f irst competitio n ride on t he 370 Ho nda. He leads Gary Semics and t hey fini shed in that o rder overall : 2-3.