Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

Americans snag the Europeans again at Superbowl '75 By Jeff Peck LOS ANGELES, CA L., J UL Y 19 With over 50,000 rabid motocross fans screaming and the electronic scoreboard flashing go-go-go factory Can-Am rider Jimmy Ellis to re apart the last two motos of th e 250 In te rnational class to win th e Fo ur th Ann ual Oly Superbowl of Motocross. 6 Firs t m ato actio n sa w Ho nda 's Marty Smi th lead th e field of . top ran k Eu ropeans an d Americans in to the fi rst comer and the n perform a fan t astic endo t o end h is nigh t o f racin g. Marty go t up , b ut was apparently too shaken to co n ten d the res t of the evening's actio n. Blasting out of the first comer in t he lea d was local ace "Rocke t Rex" Staten rid ing a CZ. Not far behin d and p ushi ng hard was fa ctory CZ rider Zdenk Velky, Suz uki ride rs Tony DiSte fan o and Rodger DeCoster were in third and fo urt h. Posit ion s started to change almost immediately as Wo rld Champion Heikki Mikkola (Hus) mo ved past DeCoster into second and started a blitz on DiStefano. Ahead of all this action was Staten, out in front enjoying hi mse lf before the partisan cro wd. Bu t his moment o f glory d id not last long as a gro undsky loop in the double jumps put Staten in the hay b ales with his bike on top o f hi m and Velky in t he lead. Vel ky mo ve d o u t t o an enormous lea d as he pi cked up better than two seconds per lap on second place Tony DiStefan o . J im Weinert (Yam) started to make ti me as he m oved past DeCoster and challenge d Mikko la fo r t hird p lace. Jammin' J immy an d Mikko la ' elbowed and handle bared for two lap s until Wein er t slipped past the Hu sk y ri de r an d tried to pull away . Mik kol a d id n ot give up easy an d chased Wein ert, but went down in th e heat of ac tio n co ming on to th e fron t st raigh t. Unable to rej o in th e battle because of a stuck th ro ttle Mik ko la ju st loo ked on . Turning lap tim es o f one minute 27 seconds Velk y rode to an easy victory foll owed by DiStefano an d Weinert who battled it ou t un til th e m o t o 's end. J im Ellis (C-A) came in a d istan t fourth . As the p ac k came slamming in to the second mo t o first tu m Jim my Ellis made up for his poor start in the first m o t o by gra bbing the lead followe d by Pierr e Kars makers (Ho n) and Tony DiStefano . By the end of the first lap Jimmy Weinert had taken over third from Kars rnakers and was chasing Ellis and DiStefano who we re already moving out to a big lead as they battled back an d fourth. On the fo urth lap DiSte fan o put on a spiri te d charge to take over the lead, from Ellis , but this o nly made the New Englander go faster. Thin gs got real tight for th e ne xt few laps an d it loo ked like DiSte fan o mi ght p ass at any m om en r , bu t the 500 Nat ional moto cross ch am p fell in th e hairpin at the end of the back straight and by th e time DiStefan o had re m o un te d he was way back in fourth . Velky h ad gotten caugh t in tr affic at the start and was in th e process of wo rking his way up thro ugh the p ac k. He got by Weinert wi th o ut mu ch trouble to take o ver secon d posi tio n and wen t af ter Ellis who at this poin t was out in front by eigh t seconds. By lap seven Velky was closin g fast on Ellis, who was turning consisten t t imes of one minute 25 seconds and didn' t seemed t o o c onc e rn ed about wh at was happening beh ind him. J immy Weinert had be en ch asing Velky while the CZ rider h ad been ma kin g his charge o n Ellis. J immy seemed to fa de just as Velky caugh t up to Ellis and dropped bac k to a distant third. With Weine rt ou t of his bac k po ck et Velky no w concen t rate d on passing Ellis. This was a littl e bit to ug her than he expected, and he en de d up foll o win g Ellis for th e rest of the rnoto . Velky was out-br a kin g Ellis, but the Can -Am had to o m uch power o n the st raights and Ellis pulled Vel ky goi ng away . On the th ird to the last lap Velky tried a new lin e co ming on to the back straight and almost passed Ellis when Ellis went wide and in to so me soft t urf and bogged m omen ta rily . There was a huge roar fr o m the crowd when they saw wh at was happeni ng and when Ellis still h un g o nto the lead th ey went crazy . On the last two laps Ellis blocked that line through the last comer and the race was all his. . A Can-Am was out in front of the third moto , but it was not Ellis, Mike Runyard surprised everybody as he grabbed the lead over Karsrnakers and Ellis in the first comer. On th e second lap Ellis was closing o n his teammate an d Rich Thorwaldson m ove d h is Maico into third. On the th ird lap Ellis was o nce agai n in co ntrol an d started to pull away . At this point DeC oster, who h ad bee n taking a back seat in all of the nigh t 's ac tio n started to chal lenge for t hird, b u t so mething apparen tly h ap pe ned to hi s bike and he drop ped ou t of action. As Ellis pushed hi s Can -Am o ut to an 11 secon d lead over secon d pl ace Th orwaldson, Velky was m oving up fro m an o th er p oor start, whi ch left h im in 11 th pl ace , and p assed five ri ders. in three laps to take over sixth pl ace. In . ano ther lap he was by Karsmakers, Ellis' II seconds lead did no t lo o k li ke it was go ing t o hold up to th e charge of th e fiery CZ ride r. . The only th ing separating Velky fro m EIlis was Thorwaldson an d Runyard. Things got hairy when EIlis bobbled in th e wh oopers and went off the track and lost his lead. Weine rt was not able to hold off Velky and he was now in fo urth an d the front fo ur were all righ t on to p of each other afte r EIlis ' bobble. Amazingly eno ugh , EIlis was able to pull o u t another five seconds lead in less than a lap an d h ad some room between hi mself and Velky. Runyard in the meantime had cras hed and Velky made short work of Thorwaldson an d it was once again Ellis an d Vel ky going at it . This time Weiner t got in to the act, trying to we dge his fron t wh eel under Vel ky every chance he got. Finally on the 13 t h lap Velky go t o ut of sh ap e in the sam e place EIlis d id an d wen t over th e bars . Weinert and Ellis were now the fr on t runners but the "Jam m er" was n ot ab le to get u p enough steam to p ass th e fast Can -Am. Velky h ad dropped back to eigh th as EIlis an d Weinert moved o ut to a 25-30 seconds le ad over thi rd place Thorwaldson. Karsmakers started to mo ve up from fifth and passed Thorwaldson for th ird pl ace and held it until the end of th e moto, With o nly three lap s to go EIlis had pulled ou t a 20 second lead o ver Weinert and lapped Vel ky on th e last lap. Mike Runyard (361 led th e last 250 International moto un t il J immy Ellis sh ot pa st and left Runy ar d t o tangle w ith Velky . Gaylon Mosier (33) passes Bill Rubly (779) on his wa y to victory in the 500 Nati on al race . Jim my Ellis sails p ast a re ti ring Roger DeCoste r (4 6) in the fi n al round . Weinert said to Ellis o n the victory stand "I had to ba t tle you in New England and here we are again." 500 Sup port With the crowd all charged up for the Superbowl, the first moto of the 500 National class got off to a pop instead of a bang. Th e gate man forgot to drop the gate wh en th e one minu te sign wen t sideway s. Tom my Croft (Hon) jumped the gate , lo o ked bac k, an d by th is time every body else was on th e gas too. Croft overshot th e first tum an d Bill Rubly roare d in to ' t he lead. After two laps it was decided to res t art th e race. At the res ta rt it was Gaylon Mosier (Mai) in th e lead with Hu sky rider Terry Clark ho ldin g on for second, Carl Zortman t hird an d Croft getting a break in fo urth. Mo sier p ulled out a big lead an d th e on ly p roble ms he had for a while were from Clar k. Cro ft started to make his move and was into third by the eigh th lap . Closing quickly on Clark, he took over seco nd five laps lat er and set his sigh t on Mosier. Mosier, meanwhile, had n o intentions of giving up the lead and power ed his big Maico down th e st rai gh ts and held J immy Ellis and J im Weiner t use t o race against eac h other in New En gland, and as Wein ert sai d after th e race , " He re we are again:'

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