Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

WINTER-AMA ROUND'2 . . i Hannah heats up Orlando i Savitski who was By Jim Gianatsis ly ing down in a turn. " ' O RLANDO , FLA ., FEBRUARY 8 Amid a topsy-turvey scuffle in th e 250cc Professional class, exciting performances were turned in .by a number of riders including Honda 's Don Kudalsk i and Harley-Davidson 's Rex Staten. When the sand finally, settled at Orlando Sports Stadium, it was LaPorte. Don co n ti nued to pull away with his lead for eight laps until his spar e pra ctice bike engine, put in between moto s, seized up tigh r.: Don dejectedly pushed the d ead Ho nda ba ck . to his van , loaded it up and left b efor e the moto was finis hed . He had been doing impossible things with a stoc k Elsinore - a bike no other Pro rider would dare swing a leg over be ating th e top ride rs in the co u nt ry for tw o week s Jimmy Ellis on his factory Ca n-A m who co llected the cha mp agn e and kisses in victory circle. Yamaha's fantastic new ho tshoe, Bob Hannah, repeated hi s win of last week in the Open clas s, almost by a c cident. It w as planned for teammate Rick Burgett to ta ke th e win as t he d ynamic Yamaha duo dominated both motos, but a getoff b y Burge tt just a fe w lap s b efore the end o f the second mota turned the win o nce agai n ove r to , Hannah. Practice had hardly gotten underway on Sunday m orning wh en most o f the 16 3 Pro riders began wish ing they w ere so m ewhere else . The loose sand track quickl y became rougher th an th e one at l a s t w e ek ' s r a c e i n J a c kson ville. Comp ound in g th e fou r foot deep wh oop-de s in so me sections , was the fact th at th e Sports Stadium co u rse was a faste r trac k . The riders we re forc ed t o race th e track WFO to be co m pet itive. When they cra shed , th ey were usually out for the re mai nder of t he d ay. Te rry Clar k was o ne of th e rid er s side line d becau se of ge toffs during pract ice . Poor John had a bummer " o ff day" a n d c o uldn't . explain why he was occasionally "resting" in numerous turn s on the track. Everyone's problems , though, m ade the 250cc class with its many leaders and heavy dueling for positions thebest race in the Series so far. . Open Professional Te am Yamaha 's Rick Burgelt and Bob Hannah dominated the Open class like .they were o n a Sunday picnic . The onl y rider even cap ab le of staying cl ose to the dynam ic duo was Steve St ack abl e , and at times "Short St ack " must have bee n a s k i n g h im self it was really possib le. The Yamaha 400 works bikes were h a n d l i n g be autifully in the roughest sand sec t io ns as Burgett and H an n ah di al ed th em o n fo r th e slaugh ter. Amid cart wheel ing b ike s and rid ers , For almost the co m ple te remainder of the 3D-minute moto Hannah hung himself off Burgert's rear fender, and the two teamsters built up a safe 100 ya rd lead on S tackable. Once or twice a lap they 'd look back to check up on Steve's position. Since Bob Hannah had won the week before in J acksonville, his pl an was to follow Burgett to the finish and let Rick take the win th is week. "My bike caugh-t tlte- top of a bump," said Rick, "and it spit me off sideways." Burgett re started quickly, bu t he was so far ba ck in third position that there was no chance of ca tching Stackable before the race ended. Hanna h ea sily took the checkers ahead of Stackable, an d for the second week in a row fo und h im sel f w ith th e overall wi n on his Bill Buchka p rep ared Yamaha. Due to Burgett's u nex pected getoff, S teve picked up seco nd overall ahe ad of Ricky . Both Hannah a nd Burgett wer e ob v i ousl y prepared ph y sically and 250cC Professional Histo ry was mad e in the first o f the two feat u re mo to s as " Roc ket" Re x S t a t e n bl a st ed h is Don lIab ermell prepared Harley -David so n up throu gh the pa ck to give Harle y its first ever win at an AMA Nat ion al-caliber moio cross. " I got a good st art, around 13th p lace, and knew that I'd be able to work my way up to first before the end of the mo to ,' Rex said afterwards. The "Rocket" had ac t ually moved up to pass Can-Am's Jimmy Ellis just 15 minutes after th at relatively slo w st art to take over the lead and win th e m o to . The race might have had a different story, though, as Jimmy Ellis grabbed the ' hole shot at th e start, followed by Kent Howerton and Don Kudalski. With his box-stock Honda Elsinore slam ming across th e tops of sand crests, rear shocks hardly working except to keep the swingarm from falling off, "Killer" Kudalski blew b y both Howerton and Ellis within two laps to take co n tro l of the lead. By the end of the th ird lap, Don had a five seco n d lead on Elli s, Howerton , J oyner, LaP orte , DiStefano and Staten. On the fourth lap Don was walking back to the p its; his -gearbox had blown . Staten moved up and pi cked off Ellis for the lead . Both fell down towards the end of the moto. Rex maintained his lead eas ily . but Ellis lost a position to Mick e y K essler who was doing a fantastic job in moving up to seco n d on his J&R C ycle of Redbank, NJ. , sponsored Yamaha. Mick ey was quite pro ud o f the bike which he had made a number of modifications to, including a lO-inch Monocross rear suspension and a g·inch MX Fox front for k setup. Na tio n a l Cha mp Tony DiStefano picked up his first DN F of the season when the engine of hi s Suzuki seized. The second molo saw a co n tin ua tio n of Te am Poland's bad luck as Kudalski q u i c k Iy took t he lead away from Howerton after the start, with Gary Jones holding off Kessler for third, then Turner, Ellis, Staten , DiStefano and >lD III o ~ o I: a. Tony Wynn (41) takes a first turn heade r as Rick Burgett (26 1) blasts -flY. (Opposite page) The gangs all here , (Top insert) Yamaha's dynamic duo, Burgett and Hannah . (Botto m inset! Jim my Ellis takes the winter series lead in the 250 dass. in a row before it broke each time . The Jones racer quit running with a possible seized engine. Howerton dropped back with blown shocks, leaving Kessl er in control of the lead ahead of Ellis , DiStefano, La Porte, Turner and Staten. John Joyner had also pulled out with a broken engine. At the 15-minute point in the moto ElIis moved up and banged off Kessler's rear fender for two laps before slipping o n b y Mi ckey to take ' the lead. Can -Am 's "Captain Cobal t" held his front position all the way to the ch eckered nag to take the overall win. Rex Staten ran his Harley off the track and at one p oint and stalled it, but got res tarted, caugh t and passed Su zuki's Dan ny LaPorte to ta ke fou rth ahead of n an at the finish . For Re x , running his bike off the track had p rob ab ly cost him the overall win , because he was confident that he co uld have caught the lea ders otherwise. . " There j ust was n 't ti m e:' sa id Rex , "After a slow start in 20th pl ace , trying to get around lap p ed riders and stalling my bike, there just wasn "t enough time in the 3D-minute moto to catch up with ElIis." Last week's winner, Tony DiStefano, had even worse luck in the second mo to . "I ate it ba d on the big jump, got back up and then crashed into John Ricky Burgett plunged through t urn one with the lead of the first moto ahead of Stackable, Gary Ch aplin and Hannah . Within two laps Hannah had b lasted by . the Suzukis of Chaplin and Stackable to take control of second place behind his teammate. Joey Gr atton and Barry Higgins moved their Maicos up to fifth and siJ!;~ . . Positions stayed th is way until the mid-point of the moto when Burgett fell, moving Hannah into first and Stackable to second as Burgett remounted in th ird. The crowd went ·wi ld as Stackable moved in and passed Hannah for the lead, Bob passed him back, then Sieve took over the lead again. This seesaw battle over first went on for t hree laps, e n di ng when Stackable hit something and jammed h is shift lever into the sidecase o f the Suzuki. With the bike hppelessly stuck in thi rd gear, Steve was forced to back off hi s p ace as Burge tt p ulled on by to fin ish the moto in second be h ind Bob Hannah. S tac kie hel d on fo r th ird , finis hing ahead of Cha plin, Harris and Higgins. The second moto was h ardly a race as Burgett again vaulted to the lead, and Hannah and Stackable moved around Florida rider Monte McCoy after a co uple of laps ' to take up second and third, followed by Higgins in fourth. men tally to take the Flori da Winter-AMA Seri es by storm. As Bob sa id , " Stackable was no problem, because he just wasn't in shape to stay with us . We were just running 1-2. I was just following Rick, not wanting to get by, when he crashed. I was in bed sick th is week for two days, an d di dn't expect to do as well as I did." Steve S tackable , meanwhile, canceled his plane ticket home for the week . He wanted to stay in Flo rida to train and practice. Next week, he would be ready . Results 250ee P ROFESSI O N A ~ 1. Jimmy Ellis 3·1 (C-A). 2. MICkey Kessler 2·2 ' (Yam). 3 . Rex Staten 1-4 CH-O). 4 . Danny u Porte 6--5 CSuz). S. Mike Runyard 8·6 ( C- A). 6 . A r lo £.nglund 7· 7 (Kaw). 7. Kent Hower t on 5-1 0 (Hus). 8. Jim Turner 9-8 (Su z) . 9. Ed w i n Moor 10-1 3 (Mal). 1 0. Buek ' M ur Phy 1 6-9 (C- A). 11 . J ohn Sav i lSk i 14-11 (Mal) . 12. Michael Jones 12·14 ( Kaw). 13. Sonny Oe F eo 11 -15 (Yam ). 14 . Sam D ay ton t 3· 2 1 (B u l ). 15. Don ald Sincl air 21·16 ( Yam) . 16. Denny Sw artz 1 7· 2 0 (varn), 1 7. Jo h n G ran t 23 -1 7 (V am) . 1 8. Kev in S mith 1 5-2 6 (K aw ). 19. Ton y D iSte fano 40·3 (Su z) . 20. John Joyner 4-40 (Hus). OPEN P ROF ESS IONA L.: 1. Bob H annah 1-1 (Ya m) . 2. Steve St ackab le 3-2 (Suz). 3. Ric k Bu rgett 2 a3 ( Yam). 4 . Ba rry H i ggi n s 6.-1 (Mai ). 5 . Gary Ch ap lin 4- 8. Su z) . 6. G len ~ o b blns s- s ( M al ) . 7 . Pat r i c k M oroney 7 · 15 (H us). 8. D w ay ne Lyons 12·11 (Yam) a 9 a J o hn A y ers 1 9·6 ( M~ l ) . 1 0. Joey Gratton 22· 5 (Ma l). 11 . Joe Fe"lni 13·14 (Yam). 12 . M onte McCoy 5· 2 3 (Suz). 13. Mike M c i n toSh 18-12 (Suz). 1 4 . Martin Murphy 17-13 (Hu s). 15. Joe G r etch en 15· 16 (SUZ). 16. Ben j am in Gray 14-19 (Yam). 17. O an F ar l ey 2 7· 10 (Suz). 18. T ony Wynn 16-21 (S u z) . 19. F re d . L.i tt lo 2 3- 18 (Hus). 20. Grodon Bowdon 21·20 7

• Cover