Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

TonyD. 'Do or die!' PHOTOS BV CHARLES MOREV By Charles Morey DA YTONA BEACH, FLA., MAR. 6 eam Suzuki shooting star Tony DiStefano continued his domination of the bicentennial year's 250cc motocross events by scoring wins in two out of the three 30-minute motos at the Daytona Supercross, DiStefano had shared moto wins with Kawasaki's Jammin ' J immy Weinert after two rounds, but when Tony stole the third moto holeshot going through Daytona's standing-room-only first tum as the Jammer crashed, it was allover. Weinert was able to reclaim all but ten of the lost positions, fmishing 1-2-11 for third overall behind J immy Ellis' Can-Am. Ellis edged Weinert by a single point, 13 to 14 , to take second with an 8·3-2 total. Backing the Su zuki effort on a privat eer level was Florida's Monte McCoy who p icked up the top spot in Daytona's 500cc Support class. In a ra ce that saw th e top runners being anything but con sisten t , Barry Higgins' co mbin at io n of 8-3-5 filled the runner-up slot. Third behind Higgins ' Maico was CZ rider Bob Harris. T 250 cc From the t im e the first 250cc moto hit tum one, Tony D. started looking like a winner. Riding in the spray of his rear knobby , however, was Don Kudalski. Kudalski, enjoying one of his rare rides on a factory RC Honda, eventually played out his now-familiar "sk y rocket" role of starting very quickly but burning out. He slipped by The D on lap two and hel d on to build up a four second lead before crashing on the fifth time around. . Weinert had completed lap one in tenth place and wa s' riding an intelligent race picking off competitors one by one. ' In the early laps, a close four-way wheel-bumper ensued as the third through sixth place riders : Steve Stackable, Gary Semics, Pierre Karsmakers and Weinert, vied for the upper hand. Lap seven saw Weinert foll ow Pierre past Stackable's Su zuki and Karsmakers for several laps, the Jammer squeezed up into sec ond an d put on a rush after Tony D. He caught DiStefano in the time it takes to co m ple t e one circu it on the Gary Bailey designed stadium track, and stayed behind Mr. D for another lap as the p air weaved through lapped riders before taking over the lead. As the first moto neared completion, Pierre Karsmakers controlled a solid third placing as Steve Stackable and Gary Semics followed in their even tu al finishing positions of fourth and fifth. DiStefano stepped up the pace in what he described as "a do -or-die thing" on the final lap, but stuffed the Suzuki into the hay bales only two turns from the finish line as he attempted to get by the leader . He re mounted, still safely ahead of Karsmakers. Don Kudalski, still havin g a good time with the extra po wer of the factory Honda, won the drag-race-with-a -hairpin-turn to ta ke the first lap lead in round two. Weinert was cruising in se cond, however, and picked his spot to pass on lap two. Jimmy Ellis, who had finished a surprisingly low eighth in the first moto, led Tommy Croft and To n y DiStefano through the first lap. Lap two saw Ellis overtake Kudalski, then before the next lap was completed, Tony followed Ellis in third. Pierre Ka rsmakers, Tommy Croft and Brad Lackey filled the te , next three po sit ions .. • • . . • . . . • . , To ny DiStefano co ntinues t o win big. The big D is now eight ou t of ten. (inset) Jimmy Ellis has bee n chasing him all year. (above left) First tum t raff ic jam session. (above right) Kent Howe rto n. The Rhinestone Cowboy . took a fift h. . , Things started happening quickly up front as within three laps Weinert, Ellis and DiStefano exchanged the lead. Weinert held it first as Ellis sailed along in second with DiStefano gain in g on him . On the next time aro un d , both Ellis and DiStefano got by the lead er , and on the third tour o f the co urse Tony had t aken the lead and Ellis had surrendered se cond place to the Jammer. DiStefano accum ulat ed a 15 se cond lead over Weinert before the m oto e nded. Weinert's Kawasaki cr ac ked the swingarm 'du rin g the run, possibly destroying its ' handling, although DiStefano attributed his win to physical co nd it ion ing an d the J am mer 's lack thereof. Ellis, who 's definitely in top sh ape, settled for third. ' . The last moto o f th e long, late-starting program which ended at dusk saw a DiStefano-Weinert duel in the making. Each had won one moto and played runner-up in the other. The promise of a classic Tony D versus the Jammer ro llerball match died in tum one when, as Weinert told it, "I got a good start, but Stackie just came in on me and . . . (crunch) ." As Tony blasted off to the third round lead, Weinert went down on the inside of the tum. He restarted near the back of the pack, accompani~d 'oniy by other victims of the multi-rider pile up , and began a long nard attempt to regain an acceptable fmishing place. His finishing in front of all but ten competitors was good enough to sco re an overall third, and considering that the 250cc class was overcrowded with top caliber American pros, it was a highly creditable accomplishment! The AMA Supercro ss Series places the bulk of it s purse money in th e . 250cc class , so it prornis e s t 0 be an extremely . competitive program. ' Wh,' le Wem'ert faced his problem, JI'mmy EllIS was '. . . his b t t rt f th d ' d place enjoying , es s a o e ay m secon . Following Ellis, Gaylon Mosier temporarily held o ff Arlo Englund, Brad Lackey and Ke nt Howerton. Ellis closed on DiStefano followed closely letting , Tony know he was there, and then made u se of the , I ' Can- A m s exp OSlve. .power. to pU II .t h e S uz u ki .ouro f .a..,'. tum and take the lead. A few laps later, in t he first get-off of his two-crash third moto, Ellis went into the hay bales and DiStefano regained the lead. As Ellis regrouped and once again set out after the leader, Weinert was charging up through the mob. Jammer, at one point, held fourth place but, apparently tired by the intense effort, slipped back. Near the 20·minute mark, Ellis got past DiStefano for the second time. . but it was not to last. He got out of sh ape right in front of the mechanics ' area, dumped it a second time, and DiStefano again inherited the lead. Tony won the moto as Ellis maintained second. Don Kudalski, in a ride unlike his impulsive bum outs of rounds one and two , started in 17th place and fought all the wa y up to third ; on excellent effort! Place fo ur through six fell to Husky's Kent Howerton and Brad Lackey and Suzuki's Steve Stackable. Five different brands of motorcycles filled the top five spots : DiStefano's Su zuki, Ellis ' Can-Am, Weinert's Kaw as aki, Karsmakers ' Honda an d Howerton's Husky. Motocross, it seems, is still a rider's game despite the myriad of trick machinery. 500cc Support Honda's Rich Eierstedt looked like a sure winner in the opening round of the 5 0 0 cc event, taking the win from start to finish with no serious challenges from the competition. Eierstedt's luck ran o ut in the second moto, ho wever , when his motor failed. Monte McCoy , who had finished third in round one after being passed in the final laps by Suzuki rider Gary Chaplin, became the second pick altho ugh Chaplin still threatened. McCoy scored a second moto win, passing Eierstedt in th e early laps before Eierstedt's bike gave u p , while Chaplin spen t his time trying to catch up after a super bad 24th place start. Chaplin was really hauling, and befo re the 20 minute round ended, he'd passed all but three of the 40 rider field. . . Florida Husky- rider Dan' Farley recovered from a disasterous first moto crash to put in an -excellent 'sho w in g in the last two motos with a pair of second p lacings. Farley, like several of the other fast riders, was unab le to get it all together for a high overall placing and had to settle for a 12th in the final standings. Likewise, Gary Chaplin, who see med to be -the most likely ride r to take second (or, if'bad luck struck McCoy, to win) saw his efforts wasted in the final ro und. His motor cases broke in the area round the countershaft forcing him into retirement and dropping his overall score to 13th. Benefiting from all this sad luck were eventual second through fifth overall finishers Barry Higgins, Bob Harris, Mike Gillman and Francis Sumney. Higgins' 8-3-5 tally to pped Harris' 4-6-8 fo r se co nd as Harris' third pl ace 't o t al edged Gillman's fourth place 6-9-4 by a single ~int. · • Results 250ce, 1. Tony DiStefano 2-1-1 (SUl). 2. J immy ElliS 8·3·2 (C·A). 3. J immy Weinert 1-2'11 (Kaw). 4. Pierre Karsmakers 3~4--8 (Hon). 5. Kent Howerto n 9-5004 ( H u s) . 6. Gary se mis 5-6-7 (Kaw). 7. Don Kudalskl 7.9.3 (Han ). 8. Brad Laekey 6.12. 5 (Hus). 9. St e ve Stackable 4-13-6 tS UZ), 10 . Bob Hannah 11·8-1 0 (Vam). (Kaw). 13. Gaylon 13- -4 (C-Al. 12. Arlo Englund 15·11·9 ' 11. Mike Runyard Mosler 14-10.12 (Mal). 14. Terry Clark 12·14·22 (Hus). 15. Tim Hart '16-2ll-13 (C·A). 16. J ohn Gurga 20-19.16 toss). 17. Jim Turner 18-18-19 (Suzl. 18. Gary Jones 34-16·18 (H I . 19. Fred Vertueel 31-24-17. 20. Alblne Joh ns on 26-26-2 0 (Yam) . 500cc SUPPORT, 1. Monte MeCoy 3-1.1 (SUl ). 2. Barry Higgins 8-3·5 (Mall. ,3. Bob Harris 4·6-8 (CZ). 4. Mike Gillman 6-9-4 ( CZ). 5. Fra nCIS Su m ney 14--1()..3 (S u z) . 6 . Joh n ny Borde rs 12·11-6 (Vam). 7. Pat Moroney 16·7·7 (Hus). 8. Seott Jo rdan 5·12·13 (Bul). 9. John Ayers 11-14-11 (Mal). 10. Mike Mcintosh 24'S·~ '(SUl). ' . " .. '. -;' " '; " . 13

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