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/125882
rn II DQ -= .... =DQ g _~ g -er-- \' - C7l '" .... ..c 0 ~ ... u .... 0 Unadilla was a gift to Roger DeCoster from Bengt Aberg's Bultaco , oge By Gary Van Voorhis NEW BERLIN, N.Y. , • ocr. 6 Roger. DeC oster, after an easy first moto romp, turned in a superb come-from-behind ride that netted the Belgian Suzuki works rider the overall title in the opening ro un d of the Trans -AMA Series at Un adill a Sp o rt Center in New Berlin, N.Y. DeCoster was j oined by his ... - 26 tea m mate , Du tc h man Gerri t Wolsin k, in second p lace overall, to give Suzuki a loc k o n the top t wo spo ts and are-play of last week's pl acing a t the G P of Canada. Swedis h Ya maha wor ks rider, an d former 250cc World Champion, Hak kan Andersson , finished in third spo t overall. B u l taco's J im P o m er o y a nd Husqvarna 's Brad Lack ey , the o nly Am erican riders with ex te ns ive GP ex p eri enc e, fi nis he d fou rth an d fi f t h in a n e ve n t th at h a d pr e -r a c e pro gn os ti ca to rs pr edi ct ing a foreign sweep of the top 10 spots. In all, four Americans (Tony DiStefano (CZ) and Rich Eierstedt (Ho n ) ninth an d 10th overall) cracked the imaginary top 10 barrier wi th a total o f 12 American riders finis hing in the top 20. Heikki Mikkola looked s trong and ai 5 Tra fast in p ractice b ut a re-i nj ury of h is left foot , initi ally injured in the Motocross de s Na ti o ns three weeks ago, put th e popular Finn out of action. Mikkola , in a ges ture to hi s many fan s at the tr ack, rode o ne slo w la p befo re th e o pe ni ng m o to amid the cheers o f the many par t isan Hus ky fan s th ere. Scattered a bou t the pits were a numb er of new it ems incl uding Can-A m's 360cc Open class pro to type, an interest in g front for k m odification on th e works Kawasa ki s whi ch ad de d coil sp ri ngs to m odif ied forks in a n effort to retain ma ximum h andli ng through out the enti re m oto , Harry Everts' wo r ks Puch 3 70cc, Bul t acos new rear sus pens ion a la Mai co th a t uses Bi ls t ein shoc ks an d a European ma nufactured fra me plus th e bo omin g sound of Rex Staten's four-stroke factory 350cc Honda t une d by ex-road race wrench teve Whitlock . Also new was the belt driven au to matic rnotocrosser of Bob Harris and the debut of former works Maico rider Will i Bauer on Suzuki wor ks mac hines. 5 Roger DeC o st er ran a wa y from the co m pe t it ion in the o pening moto us ing a good start and determined ridi ng to open a 10 second c us hi o n b y the third lap th at co n ti nued to grow into an un official bulge o f a hal f minu te by the end o f the 4 0 minute plus two-lap moto . J im Pomeroy , in a safe second po sition from th e third lap, was never chal leng ed bu t behind hi s Bultaco the sce ne was chaos . On th e opening lap DeCoster and Pomeroy . led Mike Run yard (Suz), R amon Bouven , ( M o n ) , Pie rre Karsrn akers (Ya m ), Harry Ever ts (Puc) , Hakkan An d ersso n a nd Jim Weinert (Kaw ) around t he sprawling one mile co u rs e. Brad Lac key (H us] and Gerrit Wo lsin k (S uz) we re mid-pac k whi le Ga ry Jones (C-A) was beginnin g a charge from his last pl ace starti ng po sitio n. Adolf Weil [Mal], th e victim o f an e ngi ne that wo uld n 't fire a fter avoidi ng a fa lle n rider , rejoi ned th e race almos t a la p d o wn . As DeCoste r began to p ul l away from Po m eroy other riders were head ing for