Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

Opening round of the ·125/250 series! ~ By Jody Weisel PLYMO UTH, CAL., A PR . 4 When the smoke of hundreds of camp fires and 80 ofAmerica's top racing machines h ad been washed away In light post race drizzle a young Bob Hannah, riding a watercooled 125 factory Yamaha, and Can Am's Jimmy ElIis emerged as the winners. Han gtowri 19 76 m arked the first t im e in Professional AMA motocross that each moto would be scored as a separate race. And the 15,000 West Coast moto-followers who treked to the famed Northern California go ld fields to watch the op en ing rounds of the 125 and 250 National Ch ampionship found what Sutter had been looking for gold. The two mile sandy loam course was a go ld mine o f co m pe titi on as the field of hopefuls was narrowed to 40 starters in each class . Missing from action was Pierre Karsmakers who had gone home to Eu rope to pan for Grand Prix nuggets, but National Champions Marty Smith and Tony DiStefano were more than prepared to s take th eir claim on the ti tie again . 125 National The startin g lin e bristled wi th th e most co mpeti tive racers ever to m ount 125 equipment in this cou n try. Mar ty Smith, two-time National Champion on a . brand new fire-engine red RCI25 Honda; Billy 'Sugar Bear' Grossi and Danny LaPorte on Gaston Rahier rep lica RA 125 Su zukis ; Bob Hannah and Danny Turner brought out the new watercooled Yamah a 125s; last yea r's winner Tim Hart and teammate John . Savitski on Can -Arns: Steve Wise on a factory Ka waski ; and th e more th an unusual ass ortment of super sanitary FMF, DG , and T&M privateers. At the drop of the first gate it was Marty 'Superkid' Smith dr opp in g the hamm er on the pack and shrieking away to a five second lead over Grossi, Laf'orte , Wise a nd T urner. Bob Hannah lingered only momentarily ba ck in the · 30s. Within nine o f the most amazing laps in AMA 125 history Bob Han nah had hi s Bill Buchka tuned liquid flyer in the lead. T he crowd was stunned, m any had never he ard o f Hannah, most were pro gram m ed to believe in the invincibility of rnigb ty Marty, and no one, but no one , co m es from the back to win against the Pros. Smith pressured, but for a rider who won six strai gh t Nationals last year it was an unusual posi tion, and he ' stepped o ff momen tarily. Grossi w as third; LaPorte and lo cal favorite Danny Turnerdiced it out fo r fourth, with th e Suzuki rider holding fourth for the last three laps. Steve Wise took th e Kawasaki to sixth with surprising William Joyce of Pu yallup, Washington seven th . Was Hannah 's vic tory a fluke ? How did he do it? Was it the watercooling? Forty 12,000 rpm screams in the second moto signaled the answer as Marty Smith, with the hi ghest revver of them all, was first to the comer. Hannah was second then first. Smith went all out to reg ain the le ad -and for 20 miri utes they play ed me and my shadow. Then at the ha lfway mark Smith 's piston became one with his swiss cheese cylinder and Hannah moto red away to the lead in th e 125 National Championship race wi th 50 points (25 per moto) over Smith's 2 3 poin ts. Back in second Danny T urner and Danny LaPorte we re ham mering aw ay at each other. The leader at the checkers wou ld be second over all and bot h th e NorCai and SoCal rider s wanted it . LaPorte go t it with three lap s to go , lost it a nd reg ained it . T hen comin g full bore th rough the sa nd whoops Dan ny LaPor te ' s lo we r trip le clamp broke away r ipping the bike apart and sending the young fact o ry rider, in his first National, sp rawling. LaPorte was taken to the hosp ital for observation. This marks the fourth Suzuki fork failu re sin ce November with riders Roger DeC oster, Ton y DiStefano and Danny LaP orte all suffering minor injuries before. Each . time the works Su zukis h ave h ad updated and ungraded .u n its. Danny Turner inherited second. Marty Moates was third with Mark Tyer fourth. .F or Bob Hannah, Bill Bu chka and Yamaha it was a grea t day. Better th an anyone expected , bu t n ow the pressure is on be cause the p ace has been set and it will be matched. 250 National If th e 125s had been exciung the cro wd was -n o t re ady for the tum of even ts ab ou t to take place as the 25 Os cam e to the line. Bad blood had built up during the bump-and-run indoor Supercross series between just about everyone, but now they were outdoors an d every th in g w as rosy. Down t he lin e you co u ld hear eve ryo ne say how things would be differ en t now th at th e y wer e o n a Ureal moto cross tra ck ." And with the drop of th e ga te, clutch, and hammer 'Mr. Indoor' , J immy Ellis, ca ug h t holeshotter S teve Stackable 's Suzuki and cut and sliced h is way to a bi g ten se cond lead. Another ' Yamaha y oungste r , Ri ck Burgett, w as third behind Stack wi th Jim Turner, Gary Chaplin, Re x S la ten, Gary Semics, Jim Wein ert and Ke nt Howerton. 250 National Champion Tony D. was 12th, but as positions changed up fro nt ' Big D' was there to make it happen. By the LDthIap of the three minute cou rse he was second behind Burgett ' with Weinert fourth , Howerton 'fifth and Turner sixth. Ellis had a 12 sec onds lead when DiStefa no go t past Burgett, but that was quic kly pared down to two seconds by the last lap. ' Weinert also got by Burgett's Ya maha and moved to within three seconds of Tony D. On the last lap the three riders on three different brands came slam -bang to the flag wi th Ellis , DiStefano and Weinert welded together. Following them came Burgett, Stackable and Howerton. The second moto was more than enough to cause a 15 ,000 person traffic jam after th e race, because no one left. Off the line it was Weinert, but Tony D. took ' him down the long fast straight. For 40 minutes plus two laps Weinert and DiStefano dueled in what Jammin' Jimmy cal led "reminescent of 19 74." At the mid-way point Ellis boogi ed his Can-Am up to the strife and ac tu al ly pic ked off Weinert. Ellis had cable tr o uble and slacked o ff the pace all owing Weinert back by. Like two dogs fi ghting over a piece of meat Tony and J ammin' ripped and shredded the perfectly prepared track ap art. The lead ch an ged as o ft en as three ti m es a lap and at th e white flag Weinert held it wi th DiStefano rig h t b eh ind and Ellis 15 sec o nds b ack. In a lo o sely packed right-hander Tony D. lo st the front end for a momen t and pl owed spread eagle over the bars into the soft brown dirt. Weinert was' gone and Ellis was co min g. In .wha t seemed like hours DiStefano straightened his bike , started it and wheelied off ri ght behind Ellis. The catc h t o the whole race was that if DiStefano re-passed Ellis , Weinert would win with a 3- 1 to Ellis ' 1-3, but if he didn't Ellis would win by one point. '" guess J im m y Ellis should thank me," said Tony after the ra ce was ove r be ca use he was unable t o pass him on the last lap . Ellis t o o k the win for Can-Am, Weinert re cei ved a well deserved second overall, DiStefano was a disappointed third and Rick Burgett was fourth ahead of Steve Stackable, • E Results 250 , 1. J im Ellis 1-2 (C ·A). 2 . Jim Weinert 3-1 (Kaw). 3 . Tony D ISte fano 2·3 (Suzl . 4 . Rick B ur gett 4·4 (Yam) . 5 . Steve Stacka ble 5-6 (5 uz). 6 . Tommy Croft 8· 7 (Hon ) . 7. Gary Semlcs 12· 5 (Kaw) . 8. Gayl on Mosle r 9--9 (Mal). 9. K en t H ower t on 6 ·12 (Hus) . 1 0. Gary . 125 : 1. B ob Hannah 1·1 (Yam) . 2. D. Turner 4-2 (Vam) . 3 . Bob Grossi 5 -7 (SuZl. 4. Bruce M cD ougal lQ.5 (Varn) . 5. Mark Tyer 12-4 (Hon) . 6. Mark Gambetta 11 ·6 (Hon) . 7. David Williams 9 -8 ( V am ). 8. Gary Wise 6-11 (Kaw) . 9. John sav itsky '7·15 (C·A) . 10. Alan Smith 17 -13 (H on)• . cneeun 11 -1 0 (5uz) . Jammin' Jimmy takes the second mota flag. (Opposite page) 125 start as seen from a gopher hole. (Top left) Weinert loosens up with Merle Anderson's help. (Top right} Local mota-fan. (Bottom left} Bob Hannah at speed , (BottC!m right) Jimmy Ellis cuttin' and sliein', 7

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