Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

Supercross IV Smith/Honda-strike MotorCity gold By Charles Morey PONTIAC. MICH., MAR. 26-27 Oddsmakers wouldn't have given Honda's teenage 125cc U.S. Grand Prix winner Marty Smith an even break at the Pace/Delta Motor- out-elbowed the com petruon through turn one and shot in to the lead - a position that he'd retain throughout the mota. Pierre hounded his teammate tenaciously for the fi st half of the r mota , pressing and waiting for Smith to make a split second slip up which never carne. Howerton and Weinert were engaged a fierce fight for third. Kent held off Rocket Rex Staten (46) jo ins the Mota-Star swi t ch ers. (Opposite page) high fly ing Marty Smit h took his RC250 to the wi n. (Left insetl end zo ne view . (R ight insetl Howerton and Ellis. (Bottom insetl Support wi n ne r Eierstedt. sports promoted AMA Supercross event. Although Marty's an ex ceptional rider on any size machine, the 250cc bikes' were not his specialty . The l'o ntiac track ("\t's just like Florida!" Jimmy Ellis cal led it.] was certainly m ore suited to re cent Florida Wiriter-AMA co n testan ts Tony DiStefano, Jimmy Weinert , Steve Stackable and all. Pierre Karsmakers, a vete ran of the infamously sandy Dutch tr acks, was also a likely overall winner. But when the last checkere d flag of th e two-day, four-mota race had been displayed, Sm ith had edged teammate Pierre Karsmakers by a three-point margin. Pontiac Stadium's sandy, and of course super ti ght, track offered a change of pace fro m th e hard packed clay surfaces of previous weeks. Practice this week was especially in teresting, Using every available sq uare in ch of the playing field surface, the promoters managed to cra m in a course that took ap proximately one minute to lap, and in doing so , put the ab ru p t bermed turns wi thin a few feet of the row one seats. Rich Eierstedt put his red RC on top of three o u t of four 500cc Support class rounds leaving the only non-Honda profession al mota win to Suzuki rider Gary Chaplin . Suzuki's Winter-AMA winner, Tony DiSt efan o , had recovered from his Dallas endo cuts an d bruises, but got his left fo o t cau gh t in front of the footpeg in Pan tiac practice, bending it back under . The res u lt , a painful bruise, allowed Tony D. to ride the two Fr id ay night matos, placing 8-14, but kept him out of the Saturday night action. Practice also unveiled an exhaust smoke problem. Po ntaic Stadium features an air-supported roo f, th e largest in the wo rld in fact, and putting st an d ar d exhau st fans wo uld be like cutting a vent hole in your favorite sky ' d ivin g ch ute. , " I' d rather live in do wntown L.A. than this, " ex- easterner Jimmy Weinert quipped fo llowing a red-eyed practice session. Friday in the balloon The chartre u se charger, J ammin ' J immy Wein ert, put his Steve Johnson tuned Kawasaki out in fron t on lap one of the 25 0cc pro gram keeping an even spray of sand aimed straight b ack at a, persistent Pierre Karsmakers. Husky's Kent Howerton held off Can-Amster Jimmy Ellis for th ird as Terry Clark, Marty Smith and Tony DiStefano fo llo we d. Less than fo ur minutes in t o the 20 minute (p lus two laps) mota, Ellis bumped Howerton 's rear wheel and stalled the motor. Smith, just a couple bike lengths behind, lost it in the deep sandy berm and got off. He remo unted still ahead of To ny D. who'd followed him p ast Clark. Lap five saw a tough four-ride r front contained within a fo ur second in terv al. Winert still held off Karsmakers while a Ho wer t o n / Ellis d uel had carried them right up behind t he leaders. At the halfway pain t, . Ellis finally passed Howerton . On e lap later, Karsmakers overtook Weinert for the lead wh ich he held un til the end. J immy Ellis, with app roximate ly six mi nutes left , d ropped back behind Howerton. Smith also passed Ellis before th e flag fo r fo u rt h . Ellis ap pea red to be h avin g a pro blem with his throttle , workin g it w ith obviou s diffi cul ty. Sand in it , p erhap s, fro m a cras h . Round two signaled the beginn in g of Mar ty Smith's sel f-assertion as he J am m in ' fo r tw o laps be fore Weinert , sq ueezed p ast o n t he t hird . Steve Stac kab le saw a likely six overall (fo r b oth days) go down the tubes when he and J o hn Savitski tangled midway through the mo ta . John's leg go t pulled into Stack's rear wheel wedging his boot between the tire and swingarm , and several m in u t es were lost as Suzuki mechanic Bernie Thompson freed Savitski's foot . John suffered bruises and sported a noticeable limp the next n ight, but both riders co n tin u ed to finish all four motos, Meanwhile, Mighty Marty had broken loose of Pierre's hold and built up a siz eab le lead. Jammin ' Jimmy and Kent " The Rhinestone Cowboy " Howerton closed on Pierre and started a tough t hree -way scrap wh ich ended wh en Weinert fel CiD. a deep sand turn. Kent tried in vain to get ar ound Pierre, finishing right o n his rear wheel at th e flag, as J ammin' cruised in back in fourth. -T o m rny Croft ~ put another Honda in the top five with a fifth place. Mickey Kessler 's J&R Yamaha took six t h. Saturday under the 'chute Nearly 24,000 fans filed into Pontiac's new Municipal Stadium for Saturday night's show .. . a figure that almost doubled Friday evening's sparse attendance statistics. Fo llowing a half hou r delay as sp ectators were shooed from the sco rers' are a and rechanneled up in t o t he press level (t he reserved seat s had ac ciden t ally been sold, and the paying spect ators were very relu ct ant to surrender their front ro w sea ts), the race began. On ce again,.it was Marty Smi th who led the. field thro ugh the o pe ning lap. Pierre Karsma kers hel d second p lac e fo r the first few min u tes, th en "Rocket Rex" Staten we aseled his Harley-Davidson p ast. Following along in fourth was Mickey Kessler. , Steve Stackable held d own fifth ahead , of Weinert, Ellis and Howerton .. . a situation that was not to last for very long. Two laps later, after havin g swapped p laces with Ellis at least once, Jammin' caught and passed Stackable. Ellis followed a minute later. Steve continued to drop back even farther. After Friday night's race, he 'd had the misfortune to consume some bad fo o d at a pancake house, and he 'd spent all day Saturday sick in his room. Marty Smith lost his lead spectacularly seven laps into the mota as he overshot a turn, hit the wall, and was spit over the railing into the crowd! Ro cke t Rex took over, followed by Pierre, Kessler and / Weinert. Marty regrouped, restarted, and began a long WFO charge back toward the front. With fo ur m in utes remaining on the scoreboard clock, Pierre Karsmakers overtook Re x Staten . The top five riders, however, all ran within a five second stretch : Karsmakers, then a tight fo urso me of Staten, Smith, Ellis an d Weinert. It was still anyone's race. With less than two m in u tes to go , Mar t y Sm ith brough t the crowd (who had b een riding w ith hi m since the ,in t o-t he-st ands nu mber) to its feet by goi ng by Staten in to second pl ace! . The mota ended with Pierre the winner, Smith second, and Weinert third . over Ellis after h aving passed him with approximately three minutes left o n the clock. " The final round would be the decider. Pierre, with a 1-2-1 score, held the advantage, but Smith's 4-1-2 kept him in the hunt. Smith again grabbed the lead as the final mota got off aft er one restart when the gate malfunctioned. Jammin' was in. second. and with a 2-4-4 three mota score, ap paren tly had ho pes of breaking up Honda 's top twosome. Staten , putting in a gre at Saturday nigh t that had Harley's cre w in ecstacy, held third over Howerton, Karsmakers, Croft and Stackable, Jimmy Weinert's bid for the top was -fo iled almost immediately as the , Kaw threw its chain on the opening lap, dropping Jammin ' to an instant 15th. Kent Howerton made a move at the eight minute mark that ' p ut hi m past Staten an d into second p lace where h e 'd stay for the r em ain der of the night. Pierre -lost o u t on taking the overall win on the last lap of t he las t mo ta when his p ip e which h ad broken in two fro m the vibration, r o b b ed the Hon da works bike o f its p ower. Alt hough Kar sm akers lost fo ur pl aces in t he last m o men ts of the race , he still scored second overall. Wei nert recovered fro m his thrown ch ain problem to take - sixth in the final mota for third overall, "an d Kent Howerton, despite his third round crash and subsequent 10 th place finish, took fourth. T he man from Harley-Davidson, Re x Staten rounded o ut the top five, Support class , Rich Eierstedt an d Gary CIiaplin both scored m o t a wins in the 5 0 0c c Pro race, but Eierstedt 's three out of four put him safely (b u t not easil y ) on top. The Support r acing fo r the weekend was unquestionably as tough and crowd pleasing as t he big-money 2 50cc event. John Ayers and Bo bby Harris waged a continuous battle for third place with Michigan's Mike l\1c1n tosh running a consistent fifth p lace and often breaking into the top four. • Results ' 2 5 0 c c: 1. Marty Smith 4-1 -2-1 ( H o n ). 2. Pi erre Ka rsma ke rs 1·2·1·7 . (H o n ) . 3 . J im Weinert 2 -4-4-6 (Kaw) . 4. Ke n t Howe rto n 3-3 ·1 0-2 ( Hus) . 5 . Rex Staten 6 -7·3-3 (H-D) . 6 . Tommy Croft 11·5-8 · 5 (Ho n) . 7 . Mi ckey Kessler 9· 6 -6 ·S (vam), S. Terry C lar k 1 0·9 -7-9 (H us ) , 9 . Ji m Ell is S-S-5 -1 8 (C-A). 10. Steve Stacka b le 7- 17-9-4 (Suz). 11. c ev ten M os le r 12·10-11 · 14 ( Ma l) . 12. Tim Hart 18· 11 ·1 2 -10 (C·A). 13. Don S in cla i r 1 5 · 1 2·1 4- 12 '( Y a m ) . 14 . J oh n D ee m er 14-13-13·13 (Suz ) . 15. J o h n Sav ltskl 1 3· 1 8-15'11 (C ·A). 1 6. Ton y D iSte fano 8 -1 4 ·18- 1 8 (Su z ) • .17. J ac k M ay er 17·1 5-16·1 8 (C -A ). 18. M ike Prtena 16-16-1 8- 1 8 (HUS). 5 0 0cc: L R ich E lerstedt 2- 1- 1-1 (Hon ). 2. G8ry Ch ap lin 1-2-3-2 (Suz} , 3. John Ayers 3 -3- 5 -3 (Mal) , 4 . Bob Harr is 4·4·2-4 (CZ). 5. M ike Mc intOSh 5·5-4·6 (Suz) . 6 . JosePh G retch en 7 -6 -8 -S (Suz ). 1. BObby Pickard 6 -15-6·5 (Pen) . 8 . T ed Folts 9·9-1 0-9 (Mon), 9 . D ick ey N owell 10 -S-9 -11 (Pen). 1 0. Martin Murph y 8·7-13· 15 (Suz) . U NO FF IC IA L AMA PO IN T STANDINGS SU P E R C ROSS INCL UDING PONTIAC : 1. J im Welnter 28S. 2. Kent H o w e rt o n 27 4. 3 . Pierre K arsmaker 257 . 4 . .- l m Ellis 221. 5. T o n y D iS te f an o 189. J s 7

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