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/126015
Penhall and Ferrell blur p~ the grandstands. Mike Bast, flanked by Duff Ferrell and Steve Nutter. The new Champion and runnen-up. 14 Bast , with a perfunctory wave to the yelling, booing stands, took advantage of the opportunity, as he studied the outside of tum one intently. You could almost hear his mind working, thinking , "I don't want to ride out here, b ut if I have to , I want to know the surface," as he continually tested its consistency with the toe of his boot. . The start was going to ' be • all-important, and Bast is the acknowledged master of the holeshot, Only Dubb Ferrell, surprising Steve Nu tter and a game Bill Cody managed to pass effectively after the pattern off the start established itself. Many others would tr y and wind up either eating the wallar ly ing on the ground. Not even Cody was immune, as he crashed hard in a tangle wi th northerner Rich MacMurray that sent MacMurray over the wall in t o the front row seating (wh ich was vacated for obvious safety reasons) . Both riders got up , dazed and shaken, still a bit glassy-eyed as th ey remounted their spare machines for the restart. Cody , dazed or not, took second to Mike Bast on the restart of t hat even t. Eve n t 12 was stopped when, again in the first tum, Rick Woods tangled w ith Jim Fishback. Woods laid it right down, but Fishback's bike went straight in to, and through, the plywood crash wall, fol ding th e front end back against t he engine an d sending J im flying in to the thi rd row. A female spect ator was injured in the incident, sustaining a possible broken leg . At the same time, the medical crew was preparing to transport Woods' tuner Ed Schafer for treatment of a possible heart attack he suffered under the tension in the pits. Rick Woods was having his back worked over by a medic, and J im Fishback, shaking his head from side to side like a wounded beast, wanelling people, "I'm OK." Was this' a race, or some cross between a tag team wrestling match and Rollerball? Fishback fin ished third in the restarted 12th heat, then came back to win the 13th. MacMurray won his final heat of the night, and fello w northerner Alan Christian also blew the competition away in heat 10 after eating the front straight wal l in heat three. Dubb Ferrell made the track work for h im time after time, pulling inside Rick Woods to take second in heat three, but getting held off by Jeff Sexton in heat seven, then doing a big slingshot pass in he at nine to take second behind Sonny Nutter. He won his next heat, passing Bru ce Penhall by again ducking under in the sweeper on the whit e flag lap. Into heat 20 came Ferrell, Larry Sh aw , and Steve Nutter all tied at nine po ints ap iec e for second. Steve Bast led in to turn o ne o n the Weslake, but Ferrell pressured him from inside all t he way round, gettin g by as St eve. still trying to make an outsid e line wo rk,