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/125856
.- 0.. -e Tony DiStefano (C Z) won the 500 Class. Mike Runyard (Su z) nabbed second 500 Overall . DiStefano, Karsmakers vvin Baymare Nat ional Story & Photos by Dale Brown / SOMIS . CAL.• APR . 14 Pi erre Karsmakers and Tony DiStefano were the winners of the AMA National motocross at Baymare Cycle Park, each beating bac k tough co m peti tion and surviving blowing dust and sand. The win d was gusty, strong and dry, and the sand a nd dust ' it car ried with it made thi ngs tough for spe ctators, not to m en tion the unfortunate rider who was not in the top ten at the start . 250 To put it mildly . there were a lot of entries in th e 25 0 cl ass. so a little weeding had to be done to get th e nu mber of 'rider s down to 40. T o achieve this end, two qualifiers and a co nsolation race were held. Honda team rider Ga ylon Mosier and Kenn y Zahrt (Bul) were victors in their qualifiers, wi th the cons o lat ion race victory going to Chuck Bow er (Ho n) . T he Flying Dutchman. Karsmakers, astr ide a factory monoshock Yamaha too k the immediate lead. followed b y Zahr t. Going up Ban zai Hill for the seco nd time. Zahr t managed to pull ' even with Karsmaker s. Pierre held him off. an d it w as th e closest any o ne would come durin g thi s mo to. Meanwhile. bac k in third pl ace. Buck Murph y was hard pressed to keep his Pen to n in fr ont of a Husqvarna and its presistent pilo t . Marty Tripes. T ripes did ge t pa st Murphy and a co up le o f lap s later. aced Zahrt to ge t sec o nd . T eam Honda rider s, Bill Grossi and Gay lo n Mo si er were ke eping each othe r co mpa ny in fourth and fifth. Things were pr etty st a tic until Tripes entered a co m er, d idn't see the yellow nag and p iled into someo ne else's " crack-up. He dropped from second to abo ut eig hth. Zahr t, who ha d been havi ng a good battle with Murphy, inherited second. Rich Th orwaldson and Gary Jo nes had gotten ba d starts and were b usy worki ng their way through the p ack. Thorwaldson and his Suzuki were doing a better job of it with R ich .end ing up sixt h . while Jones co uld only get the 250 Can -Am up to fifteenth . A wild. t h ree- w ay battle for the lead between Kar srnakers, Zahrt and Murphy oc cu pie d the fir st three laps of th e Marty Tripes (Hus) led Pierre Karsmakers (Yam) to the checkers in 250 mota two. A f irst mota pile up kept Tripes out of content ion. second moto. Z;w.rt had j ust nosed into th e lead when the AMA go t a false alarm about an injured rider on the tr ack. Out came the red n ag and a restart . This time it was Zahrt with th e ear ly lead. fo llowed by Karsmakers. Pierre just waited until the young rider got a bit tired. and then swo op ed down and collect ed first. T ripes was moving up through the crowd until he got past Mosier fo r second. Zahrt was r eally starting to fade as he go t passed by Rich Eierstedt (Hon ) and Bill Grossi. The ast ute an n o uncer decided to pu t a clock on th e front-running duo . and di scovered that T rip es was gaining o n Pierre at th e r at e of one second per lap. Sure enough. a few lap s later . Tripes wa s in striking position. Strike he didand he p ulled awa y from Karsm akers until the nag came ou t , Pierre cop p ed a sec ond . foll owed by Eie rested t, Grossi. Mosi er. Thorwaldso n and Gary J one s. T he Overall win wen t to Karsmak er s. T rip es pu t a seventh and a first to gether for th e runner -up spot. Two fourths meant Bill Grossi w as tied with T rip es on p o ints. b ut was relegated to third Overall. 500 Mike Runyard to ok an ear ly . but sh ort-lived lead at the star t o f th e firs t 5 0 0 moto, S tev e Stac kable (Mai) passed the Suzuki pilot on th e seco nd lap . Behind him. (b ut never very far beh ind him ) we re Bry ar Holcomb (Bul) an d J im Weinert (Kaw) . Tony DiStefan o wa s on the m ove . fi rst get ti ng by Gary Se mics (Hus) and th en following Weinert past Ho lcomb. By the seven th lap, Wein ert wa s in second . By the eigh th lap, DiSte fano had go tten his CZ by Runyard for th ird. On th e n inth lap Weinert w as in th e lead. By the tenth lap. DiStefano w as in fir st. Stack able dropped t o fi ft h . R un yard and Holcomb wer e having a fier ce scra p for third until Holc omb tired and dropp ed back. At the fini sh. it was DiStefano. followed by Wein ert. Runy ard, Stackable and Mike Hartwig (Ya m ) who had worked hi s way up steadi ly from a ter rib le st ar t. Mai co-mounted Billy Payn e got the jump o n th e rest of th e p ack as Moto T wo go t underway. Payne was fo llowe d by Ho lcomb and Stackable. Ho lcomb so o n took over th e lead an d sho r tly a fte r ward . Payne broke an a xle. Holcomb had only a short time to enj oy the lead before he go t za pped by DiS tefan o . What happened to Weinert? Well. Jim loaded uP. th e Kawasaki on the starting line and it took several kick s and then tw o lap s be fore it w as running cleanly. And t he n he star ted out riding lik e a madman trying to make up lost ti me. Holcomb lost a bunch of positions when he collided with a lapee and sp ent so me ti me in the pits, getting things unbent. Runyard and Sernics were circulating very closely. very fast. T hey mo ved past Stackab le t o occupy third and fo urth at the ' halfway point. Hartwig was in fifth. but his engine di dn't so und te rribl y healthy. DiStefano took first by a large margin over R un y ar d. Semics was in next. followed by Stackable an d Hartwig. Behind Hartwig was Jammin ' J immy Weinert, who had sim ply moved from dead last to sixth. Not bad. D i S t efa n o too k first Overal l. followe d by Runyard, Stackable , Weinert. Semics an d Hartwig. Whil e we're mentioning o ver all re sults , w e sho uld m en t io n that Mo lly Blue was on hand to be the trophy girl. but with th e delay caused by the qualifying motos, there was no time fo r a trophy presentation . Sigh. • Results 2 5 0 : 1. Pie r r e K ar sm ak er s (Yam) 1-2; 2. Marty Tri pes (Hus) 7 -1 ; 3 . B ill G r ossi (Hon) ~, 4 -4 i 4. Ga y lon Mosie r (Hon) 6 -5; 5 . R ich Thorwalds on ( SUZ) 5 ·6: 6. Buck Murph y (Pe n 3- 8 : 7 . Ken -Zahrt ( 8 ul) 2 ·10 : 8. Alch E lerstedt (Hon) 16-3; 9 . Gary J ones (C· A) 15-7; 10. SSete Lampp u (Mon) 13-11 ; 11. Ro n Huffman ( Pen) 11-13; 1 2 . John D er ha m m er ( Vam) 9-16. 500 : 1. T ony D IS t e f a n o rcz: 1-1 .2. M ike R un y a rd (Suz) 3· 2 ; 3 . Steve St ac k able (Ma i) 4-4 ; 4 . J im We inert (Kaw) 2-6: S. G ary 5emlcs (Hus) 7 -3 : 6 . Mike Hartwig (Vam) 5 -5; 7 . Terry Clark (Hus) 8-7. 8 . B r y ar H o lcomb (Bul l 5 ·11; 9 . G ary Cha plin (Mall IG-8; 10 . M ike T odd (M al) 9 -10; 11. Mitch Mayes (Hus) 12· 9; 12. N o. 359 (14·12). Ken Zahrt (Bu l) started fast, but tired quickly. 11