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/126003
come in all sizes & both genders. They have one thing in commonthey all go fast. H o w d oe s it feel to be Natio nal Champion ? R i ght af t e r the Natio na l Championship Was nice , but the Gran Pri x's happened t he following week and I h ave o th er races to look forward to . I guess I won' t feel it un til ne xt year. It will tak e a little while to sink in. A re y ou happy with th e way yo u won th e 250cc Nati on al Champion ship ? I would h a ve li k e d f or t he Championship series to ha ve been more rac es. I think it would have been fai rer over a longer tim e , at least eigh t o r ten rac es. Personally I would have like to have won more races. Kent Howerton 14 won three races and I only won one , but that's how things worked out. I had some problems w ith my knee , but things could have been a lot worse. I Was trying to figure out which race in the series counted the most and it was Omaha that Was the tum-around. I had to at least best Howerton so we could have a race down in Texas. The way it turned out I had a little lead and didn't have to real ly race h im - just finish. Every race is important in a points series. A t the final race in Lake Whitney you had the lead an d y our shock broke. What went through your mind racing those last laps with Howerton closing. I w as there to win th e race, at all t imes I 'm there to w in , but the championship wa s a lo t more important than th at particular race . In t he first moto I fell off in t he first co m er and Howerton ran over my bike. Th er e was nothing else he could d o. I got up and pushed really h ard . I got the lead, but I went too hard in the be ginning an d got tire d towards the end. He co mes on strong at the end . It was a co mb ina ti on of things and Howerton go t by m e and won the first he at. The next moto Kent decided he was going to win ; I was in the lead and he passed me. He got some water thro wn on him and he took his goggles off. I passed him back and felt I could hold it . I was trying to win the race and then In the rich dream world that is the average m otocrosser 's lot 'Fantasy Nu mber One' is the rags to riches plo t. This specific dream has several variatio ns, but always starts wi th th e dream er taking his poor inferior privatee r self ou t to jou st with the big bucks f actory team s where he wins f ame, f ortune, and th e National Champion ship against ove rwhelming od ds. Oh well, as they say dream on. But f or 18 year old Tony DiStefano this f airy tale is closer to the tru th th an any oth er story line. After only two yea rs on th e National circuit A nthony DiStefano of Morrisville, Penns yl vania is th e new 25 0 Natio nal Motoc ross Champion . Last ye ar as a privateer DiStef ano criss-crossed th e country in a head-to-head duel with Jim m y Weinert tha t produced a series of spec tacular clashes for th e National Open class title. Tony did all the riding and wrenc hin g on his private CZ, but as f ate would have it an injury turned his 'Fantasy Number One ' into a bad dream . Last year's performance im pressed m ore people than the f ans who cheered him on because Tony beca me one of the most sough t after properties for the 19 75 season . Suz uki was in the process of rebuilding their American effort and hired DiS tefano and Billy Grossi to contend the Nationals. In a stellar year Tony DiStef ano has handed Suzuki an impressive list of accomplishments including th e Florida Winter Series, the Astrodome, The West Texas 10,000, a third at the Canadian GP, six th at th e Superbouil, and the 250 Nat ional Championship . In the sho rt span of two ye ars Tony DiStefano has gone from unknown to National Champion and that is the stuff th at dreams are made of. By Jody Weisel the shock broke. The rear end just went d own. I got scared and didn't really kn ow wh at had h appened. I tried to nurse it to m ak e sure the other one d idn't break b ecaus e if it came down I might as well put o n the brakes with th e wheel st uck in th e .rear fender. I kept up a good pace with one shock and righ t towards the end I slowed up and finished second for the moto. What are your plans fo r th e ne x t couple of y ears ? When I first went with Suzuki I had had a few d ifferen t rides and I planned on getting off of CZ at the end of the year. I felt Suzuki would be the best. I wanted a long term ride , although I had more money offered to me from other companies. Just in general I though t everything Was be tter at Suzuki. They have a good organization and are going to be in to racing. The kind of thing that K a wasaki did this year (Ed. note : Kawasaki fired the works mechanics and pulled in the tru cks leaving team riders Semics and Wise on their own.) It Was like their outfit always Was touch and go . You would think that something like that could happen, but I knew that Suzuki would be in to it for years. I figured that if things worked out over here and I had a couple good years that