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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/125871
Velky Nails InterAMA Motocross Title Tim Hart wins U.S. 125 World Cup-almost-a-Gf' By Charles Morey SPRINGFIELD, N.Y ., JULY 28 " American wins European Cup Event and European tops Americans Series" might be the headline in your local paper sports pages, if it happens to be aware of motocross. But it prob ably isn 't , so in ste ad of summarizin g it th at bluntly, let's take a closer look at wh at happened. Californian T im Har t won the U.S. lead until th is fin al round: bu t Falta was recalled to fulfill another r acing commitment ac ross the Atlantic and did not com pe te in the final InterAMA round at Zo ar Mo to cr os s Par k. round of 125cc FL\f World Cup by co mp iling 1·2 fini sh es in th e 45 minute moto events, part of the world series for smallbores, Tim's Yamaha led three American Honda riders Mickey Boone, . Bruce McDougal, and ne w National Champ Marty Smith. F irst European was Torbjorri Winzell (Hus] in six th place. The Europe an that won the American series was Zdenek Vel ky (CZ) . Velky's teammate on the CZ team , J ar osl av Fal ta, had held the se ries 125 World Cup World Cup Series le aders, Andre Malherbe and Fritz Schneide r o n th e famous Zun dap p wor ks bikes were noticeably abse nt from the starting line-up, as was Husky t eamster Gilber t DeRoover, swift Honda rider Werner Von Ah, an d almos t every o th er big n ame 1 2 5 competitor fro m t he continent. Onl y tw o non -Am ericans ap p ear in the 19 fin ishe rs: Torbjorn Winzell in si xt h and Englishman Lo uis Delve bac k in 12 t h . Fo rt una tely, there is no sh ortage o f tal ent among o ur 125 riders. T h e Nationa l cal ib er m eet ing kept t he or dinary spectato r o n his feet an d cheering the wh ole time. Honda rider Mark Tyer, o ne of the q uick yo ung Californians, grabbed an early lead in th e first 125 m ot o . Jimmie Ellis h ad his Can Am wor king, h owever, and in th e firs t fe w lap s passed Bruce McDougal to cl ose o n T yer . Then, on ce again , Ellis' n oto rious bad lu ck sh o t him down. His spark plug bro ke insi de th e cy linder. Altho ugh it still generate d a hi nt of ra ndo m spark, the p ower was gone. Ellis fa de d back, th en drop pe d Mike Hartwig looked unbeatable til his monoshoc k went belly -up and Zdenek Velky cruised by for the finallnte rAMA win and the Overall title. And a month ago, nobody cou ld pron oun ce his name. Probably still can't. o ut. Tyer enjoyed his lead for another fe w laps before his bi ke seized , leaving ( Ho n) out in fro nt. McD oug al Meanwhile, Tim Har t and Marty Smith had been co nd ucting th eir own personal duel, gradually gaining on the leader. Hart passed McDougal first; Smith followed a co up le of laps later. Mic kie Boone moved into fourth, followed at a distance by Torbjorn Winzell. The first five places remained the same un til the end of the first moto. Marty Smith moved in on Hart and made several attempts to pass on the last lap but settled for second. Bruce McDougal led at the start of round two, followed by Ed Co le (Kaw), Ted Weeks (Hon), and Mickey Boone (Hon) . Both Hart and Smith were occupied fighting mi d-pack traffic, back around 12th place. Jimmie Ellis came back for an o ther try until his equipment fai led again. This time it was some ignition problem other t han a broken p lug . By the time the halfway signal was given, Har t had pushed his way up to fourth. Mickey Boone had seco nd place un der control and was thinking seriously about catching Bruce McDougal, still in the lead. Several laps later, Boone went by. About th e same time, Tim Hart sto le third from Ed Cole as Marty .Smith zapped Win zell to ta ke over fifth. Boone held on to win the final moto as Hart moved pass ed McDougal into seco n d an d the Overall win . The top five Overall : T im Hart ( 1·2) Yam : Mickey Boo ne ( 1-4) Ho n; Bruce McDougal (3-3) Ho n ; Marty Smith (2-5) Hon : Ed Cole (6-4) Kaw. 250 lnterAMA z J o "' ~ 1: o Vl f- Z "' « , >- !II Vl .. 12 o f.1 it o With Falta gone, th e series points race was left to Zd ene k Velky a nd Pierre Karsm a kers. Only ten points sep arat e d them goi ng int o the final round. Mike Runyard an d Rex St aten. so me 60-75 points back were at best o uts ide bets to take the win. After t he fir st moto, however. it began t o 100 k li ke anything co uld h appen. T he mortality rate was ridi culous. Rex State n performed o ne of his hai rtrigger ho le sh o ts, shadowed by Velky, Kenny Zahrt (Bul) and Mike Hartwig ( Yam ) right behind. Staten held Velky to second as Hartwig slip p ed by Zahrt in the first two laps. Hartwig was havin g on e of his go od days: th e kind when he is unbeatable. One lap later he nail ed Velky an d aimed for Staten . St aten kept his Honda ah ead of Hartwig 's Yam ah a for two lap s as the pair le ft Velky holding a steady third. Th en S ta ten's bike seized, p laci ng Rex in the rol e of high ly peeved pedestri an. Hartwig main tained a four second le ad ove r Vel ky as Texan Kent Cont inued on page 15