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/125852
Astro-cross Jiln POl11eroy, Tim Hart top indoor sports By Richard Creed HOUSTON, T EX. , MA R . 15-1 6 Hu sky-mounted Gary Semics and Y amaha's Pi er re Karsmakers wrapped up overall WIns at the Yamaha International Motocross senes In the Ast rodom e without winning a single moto at the Houston even t. The big money series, which began at Daytona las t week, played o u t its last roun d s to a surprisingly large audien ce of 17,000 on Friday night with 24,000 · on Saturday night. The crowds were big despite the fact th at Houston is one of th e hardest hi t "fuel cris is" citi es in the co unt ry . Friday The 250 . Semics and Karsmakers took hom e the golden cup s and coins, Roger DeCoster dazzled the crowd w ith his smile and style, but it was Jim Pomeroy (Bu l), ' Bry ar Holcomb (Bul), Buck Murphy (Pen), and Tony DiStefano (CZ) that provided the real action in th e four moto program. Buck Murphy started the thrill show off with a brilliant ride in Friday night's first 25 0 moto when he blitzed into an early lead and withstood the challenges of Gary Jones, Jim Pomeroy, and Pierre Karsmakers. Jones, riding a newly-developed Can-Am 250 in it s seventh race, passed Murphy in the later stages of the moto but lo st out when hi s chain slipped its sprocket in the camel-back jumps with less than seven min utes left . Karsmakers and Pomeroy didn 't le t Murphy do any cake-walking as first, Karsmakers and then, Po meroy crashed after passing Murphy m idway through the race. Jim was ru nn ing agai n soon after his fall but the gauntlet had been passed by Pierre, who took up th e cha se with only minute s rem ain ing on th e Astrodome digi t flasher. Murphy fought back and used th e superior power of hi s Carl Cranke-tuned Pen ton/KTM to pull away from Karsmakers' monoshocked Yamaha o n the straigh ts and hold series point leader Pierre securely in seco nd pl ace with a th irt y-foot lead at the chec kered. Beh ind t he leaders, Rich T horwaldso n (Suz) and Bob Grossi (H us) rode through traffi c to fo ur th an d fif t h places. In t he seco nd , T o ny Wynn slip pe d pas t the en t ire field and into an early l e ad wi t h Pomeroy, Jones, and Kar sm akers breathing heavily down h is neck. Wynn was riding a privateer Honda and providing th e best Honda International class showing of th e weekend. The offici al Honda Team has pas sed up t he Dome .race to do addi tio nal development work, alt ho ugh th ey stopped in Houston on th e way ba ck from Daytona. Tony 's dream lasted ab o u t five minutes. Then the gears in the Elsinore tranny ven t ilated the lowe r half of the engine . Jim Po meroy (Bul) th en took the lead and pulled away from Pier re Kar smakers and Jones as Murphy , fell and could not get back th rough traffic to chal lenge the leaders. On ce again , Rich Thorwaldson (Suz) and Bob Grossi (Hu s) rounded out th e top five positions. It marked the end of Grossi's effort though, as he wrenched his still -healing knee on ce more and was for ced to sit out the Saturday night races. Friday - The SOO 6 for The first 5 00 moto was a show case the Pistol from Bristol, Tony DeStefano (CZ) , as he fought through a field th at included Wyman Priddy (Kaw), Barry Higgins (Mai), Gary Semics (Hus) , Mike R uny ard (Suz), and Bryar Holcomb (Bul) to win going away in the final minutes but not before the lead had officially changed six ti mes. Higgins and Priddy swapped th e lead with DiStefano like a bad case of flu until Tony took it aw ay fro m Higgins for keeps with 5 :51 showing on the clock. Bryar Holcomb had taken an earl y lead but fell and spent th e rest of the moto working b ack to fif th pl ace behind Steve Staekable. It was the best placing for wunderkind Staekable on t he U.S . Sports Maico as he dropped back to tenth in the second 500 moto and suffered first a lost seat and th en a split gas tank cap on Friday to finish his chanc es of 'defendi ng his th ird place series position, In the final count, Staekable dropped to fifth o verall. Tony DiStefano and Bryar Holcomb put on the best race of the weekend and the best local motocross ra ce since Jim Weinert won the Houston Trans·AMA last year. Holcomb grabbed an early lead but was constantly pressed by CZ -mounted DeStefano throughout the race. Holcomb began los ing parts of his chamber halfway through t he m o to and T ony crept closer and closer. In th e final lap s, it was touch and go as Holcomb was left with almost no chamber and a rapidl y tiring motor. The exciter was the las t lap as DiStefano put every t hing on t he line co ming o ut of the final turn and gave the CZ its head . Holcomb was half a wheel ahead of DiStefano as they hit the fini sh lin e jump. It was a double wh ammy for the cro w d as Holcomb took th e ch ec ker and DiStefano passed him in th e ai r af te r th e fi ni s h l in e . B eh ind t he H ol c omb -D iStefano b attle, Mike Runyard (Suz), Mike Hartwig (Ya m) , an d Tim Hart (Yam) , rode co nsisten tly to round ou t the top five. Open cla ss leader Roger DeCoster didn 't far e so well at th e ' Do me after turrting in spectacular rides at Day tona. DeCoster got trapped in traffic at the / start of the first m oto and iro nically found hims elf behind Gary Parke r o f Killeen , T exas ab oard a stock Suz uki TM 400. That was too much . Sh ortly afterw ard , D eCo st er pulled in co mp laining of a sick sco o t , skippe d the second moto en tir ely , and went o ff to rest be fore catch ing an early morning flight to Belgium. Saturday's 250 Jim Pomeroy w as Saturday 's hero as he rode his cheeks off to win the top 250 Astrodome pl acing ah ead of Pierre Kars makers (Yam) . But Pom eroy 's success was fo r naught as poor pla cings at Daytona kept him out of co n te n tio n for t he overall series win. In the first rnoto, Po m eroy passed Tony Wynn goi ng under th e criss-cro ss bridge and was never pressed hard from there on as he led Karsmakers home by over th irty yards. Pierre had to co n tend with G ary Jones and Tony Wynn for a good part of th e moto but pulled awa y to a co m fo rtab le lead by the final th ird of the race. Pierre even had tim e to fall whil e attempting to pass it slower rider and remoun t ahead of Jones. Overall money winner of the Yamaha Super-5eries 250 class was Pierre Karsmakers . He rides, strangkiy enough, for Yamaha . Jim wo n the 250 class in Houston on a Sui cured of spoke-shedding. He now ret urns to the Grand Prix wars. Ton y DiStefano (CZ) just keeps getting better and better. He nearly won it inside the 'Dome.