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/126013
CYCLE NEWS CENTRIlL 00 C\l l-o q) ..0 o +-' u o Thirty of the world's most aggressive Sunday drivers - the 125s sweep into their first moto with Ed Davis at point. Can-Am AMA Amateur National Championship Dice of the day - Ed (15) Davis and eventual winner Mark Barnett. Ed (4) Moor passes Clay Langhurst and takes out after a fadi ng McGowen. But Moor ran out of race and McGowen took the 250s . Region Champ and Mark Barnett re pre sen te d t he Midwest. When the 125s blasted across the tricky grass starting area, it looked as if Lad y Luck had taken a dum!, on our Region champs. Mark Barnett (lIon) go t there first but for some reason he took the banked tum high and wide letting Ed Davis (Hon) of Ta coma, Washington lead the way through. Gene McCay was stuck in the middle of the pack and got cut off at the first tum. John Tessitore (Yam), the Paci fic Region pointsleader, was even worse ' off than McCay because he was stuck behind the mini-wizard. Barnett made short work o f Davi s getting by on the first lap . Californian Dennis Curtis moved up quickly and began a len gt hy bat tle for second. Curtis finally got by when Davis stal led his bi ke to avoid another stalled rider. McCa y moved into fourth leaving Tessitore to dice with Glenn Taylor (Yam ) and Kevin Arnold (Yam) . Barnett was looking for all the world lik e a Marty Smith movie stretching out a com fo rtable 35 second cushion by lap seven . At the checkered, it was Barnett, McCay, Davis, Curtis, and Tessitore. Moto two also belonged to Barnett in much the same fashion as moto one. This time two new faces made it into th e top five; Easterners Brent Kuen (Hon) and Oran Wolfe were second and By Don Hutson BALDWIN, KAN., OCT. 12 It all started last August when an esti mated 47,000 riders began to accumulate p oin ts in the AMAsanctioned Amateur National Championship qualifying events within their respective AMA Regions. Fifteen spots in each class were open to each region allowing 18 a total of 135 to advance to the invitational finals. The Can-Am sponsored series was the first National Championship event ever held for Amateur motocross racers in the U.S. Coming into the final, it was to ugh to pick a favorite for any class. The 125cc class was the only one in which a Regional class champ went on to win. In the Open class , Gerald Howell (Pacific) and Don Van Hooser (Midwest) are champions of their respective Regions on the basis of winning all the events in their regions. 250cc favorites were Edwin Moor of Woodcliff Lake , New J ersey for the Atlan tic Region . Tim Miller of J ackson , Wisconsin fo r the Midwest and Tedd Snyder of Vaughn, Washington the Pacific Champ. In the 125cc class Gene McCay, three ti me Mini National Champ, had moved up to a full sized machine and in his first season co pped the Atlantic Region title. John Tessitore was the Pacific third , respectively, with Tessitore and McCay taggi ng along for the ride . Barnett sewed it up in the third moto with another win. McCay took an other second, Tessitore was third, Bill Cummins and Kurt Janish filled out the leaderboard. The 250s started off wi th a bang when m o st 0 f the riders left before the gate "fell, constituting a false start. The front runners missed the red flag and were mighty disappointed when they got ba ck aro und the track. Whe n they left the second ti me, it was Kansas' own Dave Lahey putting a Penton holeshot on the pack but Mike McGowen wasn't far behind. Within a