Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

I One lor Tony and i another one lor Marty By Jody Weisel HER."IAN, NE BRAS KA, J ULY 13 The opening round of the 1975 Inter-AMA series was a United States versus Czechoslovakia Match Race as Tony DiStefano and Zdenek Velk y squ ared off in a head to head duel for th e top spot. DiSt efano, the 250 Nation al Champion, took hom e all the marbles as he flawl essly outrode Velky , Pierre Kar srnakers, and J im Wein ert to win the first m oto and follo we d it up with a tact ical seco nd. Meanwhile, bac k on the Nationa l sce ne, U.S .G.P. winner Marty Smit h an d h is fire engine Honda continue to set a blazi ng tr ail as he easil y smo ked th e 125 class. Sm ith , who passed up the 12 5 Can ad ian Grand Prix for a sho t at his seco nd straigh t Nat ional win, said be fo re the race that he was "just goi ng to set a pace. " The m ach in e gun like staccato of Smi th 's p ace saw him fifty yard s ahead o f the field hal fway thro ugh the first lap in both m o to s. The KOILradio sponsored In ter ·AMA and 125 National started o n a ligh t n ote whe n Tony DiStefano had vanilla ice cream sen t o ver to his forme r Czech teamm ates table at breakfast. Velky an d Old ric h Ham ersm ids love o f ice cream outweighed their good sense s as t hey gobble d it down on top of eggs and bac o n . The th ree race In ter-Avl A series occu rs durin g a break in th e 25 0 Grand Prix season and CZ h as mad e it th eir personal pri ze as the other Euro pean fac to ry te ams st ay acros s th e big pond. Velky won the series last year and playing his own psych e game he appe ared on th e start ing lin e wi th a b ig flash y num ber o ne on h is jersey an d b ike . 125 National When th e field of almost seve n ty 125 hop efu ls was p are d down to the top forty th e electricall y operated cab le gate dro pped to release o ne m an, Marty Sm it h . In the firs t m o to Sm ith (Ho n) quickl y reeled in .Jack Keese, as did Nils-Arn e Nilsso n (Hus) an d Tom my Marty Smith just might whistle all the way to a second National Championship. Croft, to take a quick and de cisive lead. As they ca me shrie king down t he fast bumpy straights on the first lap Bruce l\l cDougal (Yam) pulled in to th e me chanic's are a when th e rear wheel of his factory mo n osh oc ker kn oc ked h is up-p ipe off. l\IcDougal jumped ba ck into th e fray a lap down and right behind Smith, where he stayed . Fo r fort y minutes p lus tw o laps Sm ith to tally dom inated th e fie ld while a lapped McDougal st uck with him to fin ish nin th. As Smi th un cor ked his all too familiar run-away , To mmy Croft (Hon ), Nils Nilsson (II us ), an d Steve Wise (Ka w) di ced in a high spe ed battle o f brands. Com ing th rough the pa ck after a po or st art, Ti m Hart moved in to fifth at th e midway mark. Behind hi m wer e Mik e Kessler , J aek Kee se, Mickey Boone, and Jim · Turner. Two laps later Hart fo rce d hi s wa y past both Nilsson and Wise to tak e o ver third be hind the L.A. F.D. te am of Sm ith and Croft as Wise took Nilsson for fourth . With only five m inutes rem aining in th e first mot o Croft 's h alf of the Honda e ffo rt came undone with his cha in, moving Hart to second, Wise to third , a nd Nilsson, Boone, Kessler . Jim Turner, John Dall air e (Yam) , Bru ce McDougal, and Jon Leak (Yam) fillin g in th e lead er board. Th e cro wd o f 4,000 specta to rs lin ed th e fence for th e sta rt of the second mo to w ith nary a so ul doub ting th e invin cibility o f Na tional Champion Marty Sm ith. And to back it up Marty Sm ith holeshot th e second m ot o while Yamaha 's main mover. TIm Hart, was bo xed in at the first t um to exit last. Marty put his first m o to pe rfo rmanc e to shame by opening up a 50 yard lea d by th e third tum . Hart valiantly charged thro ugh t he pack, m ov ing from dead last to 16 th in t wo lap s, an d t hen as he was abo ut to break in to th e to p ten a mis cue dragged him back a lap . Croft's DN F in th e first moto d idn ' t da m pe n the explosive Honda rider's fuse as he took a solid second and held it. Me Dougal pulled in aga in o n the first lap to have his pipe k ick ed back in without losing too mueh Nebraska gro und . Danny Turner (lI o n) and J im Turn er (Yam ) moved past Mike Kessler 's Husk y to loc k into a 4 0 minute sp rin t for fourth. Sambo Rest aurant 's Mot ocr oss Tra m ride r, J ack Keese, raced backwards thro ugh th e p ac k afte r ha ving th e du bi ous honor o f being t he only rider close e nough to read Sm it h 's nam e o n his jersey , and tha t was only for t he firs t ha lfl ap . At th e en d o f th e 4 0 m inutes pl us two laps t he muscular yo ung California cha mpi o n b laste d under the checkers with a 2 :24 lap Gust three seconds slo wer th an th e Internat ional 250 's). Smith 's victory gives him a gian t step toward his sec o nd straight 125 Nationa l Champion as Tim Hart was o nly ab le to score a 20 th. The battle for second money saw five rid ers tie with 12 points apiece. McDo uga l (9·3), J im Turner (7-5), Mike Kessler (6-6), Nils-Arne Nilsso n (408 ), and Stev e Wise (3-9 ) we re all scored on the basi s of the final moto . Jim Turner's th ird pl ace overa ll m ade him the high est pl aced privateer, an d he missed passin g th e only other successful privateer Danny Turner by three feet. If J im Turner had succeeded he would have been second overall. 250 Inter-AMA 8 Whenever a European GP rider races in America you can expect Team Honda's Pierre Karsmakers to be on hand to give it his all. Kars makers holesh o t t he first moto with J am min' Jimmy Weinert (Yam), Tony DiSt efano, and Billy Grossi hot on his dus t trail. Grand Prix co n ten ders Zdenek Velky (CZ ) and Oldrich Hamrnerschmid (CZ) lived a bad sce ne o ut of a Mar x Brothers movie by knock in g each oth er down in the first tum . Ham erschmid go t up immediately an d quickly sliced his way through th e pa c k up to 12th place in three laps . Two laps late r Hame rschmid got off h ard do w n a s ho rt st raig h t. T he Czech osl ov akian iro n man lived up to his reputation as he held up h is broken ann and said to no on e in par t icul ar , "kapu t". Ve lk y was slo w get ti ng away fro m t he first turn crash , but with a broken re ar fender and a bent duckbill he mov ed up to fifth pl ace where a fly in g Mike Hartwig (Hus) kept him at bay. Out front all he ll was breaking loo se as Ton y DiStefan o mo ved past the Jammer and star te d leaving knobb y tr acks up Pierre's rear fender. Tony di dn't wa it lo n g to pu t a move on Karsmak ers as Weinert closed the gap, and th e three National Champions p robed an d prodded across t he wood chip str ewn circ uit. Hartwig took ove r fourt h wh en Billy " The Bear " Grossi seized an d Mik e ran a ll by himsel f abou t 20 seconds be hind Weinert. Vel ky was fif t h at the m idway point, and th e five t hro ugh dime places were "afte r yo u Alphonse" affairs. Pe ter Lampp u (CZ) , J ohn Savi tski (Bul), Arizo na's Gary Hic ker son an d Greg Th iess fin ally settled in a t the chec kers. Wit h th ree laps to go it was a Di S t e f an o -K a r sm a kers b attle with Weinert fading a littl e. Karsma ker s got a good drive out o f an off cam be r do wnhill t urn an d nip ped in to the le ad. DiSt efan o said, " I was o ut fron t and 1 said to mysel f wh at am 1 d oing in the lead , but Pierre never reall y tried hard to ta ke it." Kar sm ak ers held th e lead for o ne-half a lap , and Tony's Suzuki pulled even with h im down the grandstand st raigh t and as the two lap sign came o ut DiStefano pas sed Pierre in mid -air, blasted through the righ t hander at the mechanic's area, and was long gone.. Weinert was third, and Hartwig followed in fo urth un til th ree tums fro m the chec kered flag wh en his Husky snapped in half spra wling Mike and two pieces of Sweden all over the tra ck. Zdenek Vel ky took fourth , Lamppu brough tjn another CZ for fifth . , Only tw enty-one 250s returned to th e gate for th e second moto , and twenty of th e riders were wo ndering what Velky co uld do if he go t off the line cle an. Th ey didn ' t have long to wait as Karsrnak er s, DiSt efano, Velk y, and

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