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/126044
's' 1:1 . _- . .. -- ... ... Big day for the BigK )~ . t ~ 2SOAMA NATIONALMX By Cha~les Morey FORSYTH, GA. , MAY 2 The Big Green Machine's latest promotional' effort must have proven effective because when the final flag dropped at the Kawasaki sponsored Towaliga River Cycle Park 250cc National MX, it was none other than Jammin' Jimmy Weinert and his Steve Johnson 8 tuned Kawasaki sitting in the winner 's circle accep tin g congratulations from Miss Penthouse. Weinert was wired fr o m the moment he'd hit Georgia. Following two days of press luncheons , TV talks, r adio rap sessions and other public relations tri cks that would h ave worn down almost any other individual, the flamboyant, outspoken Jammer arrived at the track with his men tal throttle already lo cked at WFO. Can -Am's Jimmy Ellis did his best to quell Weinert's exuberance, thrusting his MX National Number 10 to the head of the first moto charge down Towaiiga's long starting straight and through tum one. Weinert was ho t on his tail, and Honda's Rich Eierstedt led Kawasaki rider Gary Semics, Can-Am's John Savitaki and Suzuki's Steve Stackable for the first lap. Reigning 250cc National Champion Tony D. had started slowly an d held down 14th place at the completion of the opening lap . Tony was destined to take a fall d urin g the moto, twisting his previously injured right th umb an d , bru ising both thighs on the handlebars. On lap two, less than three minutes into the moto, Weinert overtook Ellis. From then on, the Jammer was untouchable and number four headed the scorekeepers' lap charts for the next 40 minutes. At the halfway flags , Weinert held a seven second lead over Eierstedt, Ellis ha d dr o pp ed back after experiencing a problem with his machine . " Elec trics, n w as his father's on~ word explanation, reminescen t of Don Jones ' re plies from past years, and spoken in th e tone of voice that suggested that no fu rther de tails were n ecessary. J immy 's motor kep t quitting, and he h ad to take a 4 0-point DNF score for th e firs t leg. St eve Stackable moved up early in the sec ond h alf of the mota to pass Semics an d tak e o ver third behind Eiers tedt, He co n t in ued a hard, sol id drive up through until, at approximately the 25 minute mark , he held his eventual fmishing position of second. By then, Jimmy Weinert was 22 seconds ahead and flying free, Following Weinert, Stackable and Eierstedt at the finish line were Sernics, Hannah and DiStefano. Round two saw Rich Eierstedt outpowering the field on his RC Honda, but Weinert hung close: in second. He waited for a lap and a half for Eierstedt to make a mistake , but when it didn 't come the Jammer made his own way pas t. On an "S" tum so tigh t that passing seemed impossible, Jimmy wedged his front wheel inside and shot past before Rich knew what was happening. Gary Semics, the other half of Team Kawasaki, held third at the end of lap one. Tony DiStefano had no intention of letting Gary keep the position, however, and took it away on the second lap. DiStefano had gotten off the line competitively this ti me , fourth, and he had obvious intentions of making life difficult" for Weinert. In the first 15 minutes, the top three (Weinert, Eierstedt and DiStefano) rode steadily. Eierstedt" kept th e Jammer on his toes, passing for the lead on ce on the sixth lap, but Weinert returned the favor on the next time around. All the while, DiStefano gain e d ground on the pair. The cro wd saw th e inevitable clash in the making, and started cheering before th e action even got started. Just ' befo re the hal.fway' mark, DiStefano fumbled co ming over an aw kward man-m ad e hump o n the infield a~d did a Laugh-In sty le get-off, It took hun a few m oments to get out from under the Suzuki, but on ce he did the chase was o n . He'd los t cons iderable time on the leaders, but within the next four-five lap s he ca ugh t and passed Eierstedt and set his sigh ts on the Jam mer. minutes remaining, With eigh t DiStefano closed the gap and the best duel of the afternoo n began. After a couple fals e tries, DiStefano finally got past. He held the gas on for that extra split second at th e end of Towaliga's longest straight and shut off Weinert at the mechanic's area tum. Jammer repassed, and the pair rode virtually side by side for the next two laps. Then, on a tight left hander just before entering a six -foot deep pit, Tony cut inside and clipped Jimmy setting him over at least six inches sideways. The lCro wd · tense d. The Jammer, who didn't get that nickname for the way he likes his morning toast, had just re ceived a taste of his own rough-and-tumble top line motocross ta ctics. Following the top two, ' almost forgotten in the excitement, Steve Stackable had gotten past Rich Eierstedt for third in the moto and second overall for the day ..• a great ride. Rich Eierstedt scored fourth in a day of " ra cin ' with the big boys," as he de scribed it to Weinert. "Yeah," Weinert responded with a grin," and you're cuttin ' 'em off like the big boys, too!" "I learned it from you, tt Rich countered. "Yeah, but you 're not supposed to do it to your teacher," Weinert scolded, "you 'd better bring me an apple next week to make up !" 500 Support Maico rider Glenn Robbins scored the overall top spot in Towaliga's 50 cc Support race. Following John Ayers' first round vic to ry , Robbins came back to take the second m oto win. Coupled with his second placing in the opening moto, Glenn's three point total clearly left John Joyner's five point score in second. Aye rs took third with a one-six score. John Ay er s, riding for Kimbrell 's Maico out of Dallas, Texas, put his Maico a t th e fro n t and kept it there as his one-lad y pit crew Janett Schomiedlin wrote encouragin g notes o n th e p it board. Round two saw Ayers cr ash early in the moto , His bike landed upside-down and was slow inrestart in g, Joyner took the lead from fast starter Robbins on the sixth lap and rode on top until lap 12 when Robbins repassed. Former Y ama ha rider Furman Gray passed Robbins to hold the lead for two of the final three laps in the moto , but while riding to a sure moto win, his Suzuki (according to the announcer) threw a chain on the back side of the track. Robbins took the second round win over J oyner. Gray got going again and finished third for the moto. • Results O VER ALL 250cc NATIONAL CLASS, l. Jim Weinert 1·2 (Kawl' 2 . Steve Sta ck able 2·3 (s ue) . 3. T on y OISte ana 6 ·1 (5uzI . 4. Rich E lersted t 3-4 CHon) . 5 . Gary 5emlcs 4-6 (Kaw). 6 . Bo b Hannah 5·9 (Vam) . 7. Dan ny lJaPo rt e 7· 10 (Suz). 8. Kent Howerton 11 · 7 H US) . 9 . Oon Ku dalskl 14-8 (Han). 1 0. ann y Tu rner 12-12 (Vam). ll. John sa vltskl 13-14 (C -A). 12. R ick B u rgelt 8- 19 I V am ) . 13. G ay lon Mosler 17-11 (Mal l. 14. Wayne Boy er 19-13 (CZ I. i Tom m y Croft 10.24 (Ho n). 16 . Arlo E nQlund 21-15 ( Kaw ). 1 7. Bill Grossi 9..29 (S UZ) . 1 8. Terry Cl ark 16-23 ( H usl . 19 . Franels Summay 23-17 (Suz).20. Mike Runyard 24·18 (e-A) . OVER ALL 500cc SUPPORT CLASS, l. G len n Robbins 2·1 (Mal) . 2. John Joyner 3-2 (Suz) . 3. John Ayers 1·6 (Mal ). 4. Gordon 8 o w d e n 6 - S (Suz). 5. Jeff Prevost 5-8 ( Ka w ). 6. Ken Adams 7-10 (CZ). 7 . Glen Giles 8·12 (Suz). 8. John Dublin 9-13 (Mal) . 9_ Joe Ferr fni 14--9 (Vam). 10. John Grant 12·11 (VarnI, g s.