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/126049
Rhiiiesfone" Cowboy corrals 'em in Mexico ... . N.Y. that is By Charles Morey MEXICO, N. Y., MAY 30 Team Husqvama's "Rhinesto ne Cowb oy " Kent Howerton hit full th ro ttle in his struggle back toward th e to p of the National MX heap by topping the co un try 's major talen t in the Bilstein sponsored Moto-Mast ers Parks 500cc Nationa l event. Almost with ou t excep tion , th e factory showed up with new mach ines, tr icke d to the gills. And almost without exception, t he new unpro ven mounts fell a b it short on development, leavin g Ho werto n 's Eric Crippa prepared Husky to take the big money. "I t ho ug h t I was go nna d o it last wee k, " Howe rton remarked at t he day's end, referrin g to the 25 0cc Na tio nal in Pennsy lvani a, He an d Crippa h ad bot h expected to d o well there until an unforseen knee injury in the first moto had forced Kent to slow. Still te n de r, the kn ee bothered Howerton th is wee k alt hough it ob vio us ly didn 't hur t h is sp ee d . In the 250 cc Support class r ace , Don "Killer" Kudalsk i ch alked up a 1-2 victory despite pre-race predictions th at favored Can- Am 's Jimmy Ellis. Ellis, wh o had not ye t rec eived a 500cc class cy cle from the Candian firm, was relegated to running in the Support class. He was expected to co me aw ay an easy winner, but Lad y Lu ck's grudge agains t Captain Cobalt o nc e again knocked him from a shot a t the top slot. A flat tirein the first moto h ad father George Ellis throwing his hands up in exasperation as Jimmy gra dually lost his initial co mm an d ing lead one by one to three riders, ending up fourth. Ellis regrouped for round two and scored the win, but it was too late and Kudalski's 1-2 easily outranked Ellis ' 4-1. Ossa riders J o hn Gurga and Kenny Zahrt filled the third and fourth positions ; J ohn with a 3-4 and Kenny with a 2-6. Mickey Kessler on a fac tory Kawasa ki scored fifth. First moto Honda 's holeshot artist Rich Eierstedt hit tum one side by sid e with Kaw asaki's 500cc National Ch amp Jammin ' Jimmy Weinert but th e Jammer had the inside line and held on to lead for the first half lap. Weinert was ridin g with an injured knee ; the kneecap had been cracked, ironically, by a r ock tossed up by Tony DiStefano's rear wheel in practice; and midway through lap one, Jammin' lost his lead. As they dropped into a mudhole, Weinert put out the leg but it just didn't work .. and at the end of the first lap he was back in 18th pl ace. Reportedly, the knee will be in a cast for the next six weeks, effectively giving Tony D. the 250c c National, Championship title on a platter at Southwick on June sixth. Eierstedt held a decent lead over Yamaha team ster Bob Hannah at the completion of the opening lap , and a pumped Pierre Karsmakers rode his new red engined RC400 in third. Kent Howerton, Gayl on Mosier, Bobby Harris, Jim Tumer and Tony DiS tefan o filled pl aces th ird through seventh . Pierre had pro blems with his air filt er clogging . The Ho n da started runnin g an d co n tin ue d to get p oorly, progressively worse through out the race. n Pierre babied it in to eventually fi ish eighth in th e moto. Hannah caugh t and passed Eierst edt on the 10th lap . Lackey had re co vered strongly from his first tum problem, and by this time was pestering Mosier Second mota. first turn, Karsmakers bites it while Eierstedt (94). Hannah (39) and Howerton (3) fan out. for six th place. Twe n ty-s ixth o n the first lap, Lackey charg ed up through th e ranks , but h is bad luck hadn't en d ed ye t. Bad Brad fell while racin g wi th Tony D. o n the 11th lap. " He s tu ffe d a tr ee !" Tony exclaimed af te r the m ot o, but eve n th at wasn't th e end. Lac key 's air filt er, like Pierre's, filled with di rt and gr adu ally st ifled t he 390 Hu sky . On a tr ack t ha t seem ed to ge t rough er with every lap, Bob Hannah co n tin ued onw ard to take th e round one win . Howerton held a so lid second pl ac e over Eiersted t, and Gary Semics moved in to . fo urth. T on y D. finished fifth after recovering from a fall. The Su zuki's front wheel washed out on a tight tum and th e followin g rider piled into it . The two bikes locked together, and valuable time was lost in un tanglin g the mess. Second moto If tum one had been a problem in the rust moto, it turned into a disaster for at least six riders at the st art of th e second 45-minute·plus-two-lap leg. On ce again , Rich Eiers ted t ro cketed his last year's Honda to th e im media te lead closely pursued by Bob Hannah , Kent Howerton and Ste ve Stackable. Weinert, under the instructions of Kawasaki Team Manager Ti m . Smith, had chosen not to ride. "I co uldn 't see trying to ride with it . and po ssibl y falling off and injuring the o th er leg," Weinert explained. The decision , made before the crac ke d kneecap had been discovered, turned .o ut to be the wisest choice. Tony DiStefano, Pierre Karsmakers, Rick Burgett, Billy Grossi, Wayne ' Boyer and Terry Tucker were taken out in a first turn midpack pile up. Eierstedt , once again, held the first lap lead, but this time it wasn't to last as long as it had in the first moto. Suzuki's Steve "Short Stack " St ackable had exited ' tum one in fourth, passed Howerton on the first lap, then picked off Han n ah on the second time around. Howerton joined Stack in getting by Hannah and the p air aimed for Eierstedt, Lap five marked th e end of Rich Eierstedt's lead as St ackable squeezed . past to take over. Howerton overto ok Rich o n the n ex t time around. Following the top fo ur, Gayl on Mosier wa ged a strong effort to hold o ff Kawasa ki 's ne west rider , Terry Clark. Tony D., ri ding in seventh af ter a q uick re cov ery fr om his firs t tu rn spi ll, was . closing on the pair. Gary Semics, 11 th on lap one , had also aime d for th e top an d was ma kin g up gro und in a hurry. "I saw St ackable was getting tired, and I figured Kent would poop o ut , too," Bob told us afterward. "But Ho we rto n looked ov er his shou lder, saw me , said 'uh-oh ' to him sel f and got pas t St ackable. Th en I said 'uh-oh'. I knew then th at he'd jus t been goofin' off!" li o werton ove rtook Stac kab le on lap 12, an d Hannah followed hi m past a lap later. Hannah wanted th e win , it h ad co me down to a ca se where whichever one o f them won the seco nd moto wo uld take th e overall win. St eve Stackabl e held down third in the moto, but his hard luck in th e fir st round kept him from pl acing in t he top five . A fall and a temporary seiz ure had left St ack in 16th for round on e, and coupled with his round two th ird, gave him an eight h overall. T ony DiStefano came back from the first tum fall to take fourth fo r the moto for a 5-4 overall third pl acing. , Gary Se mics followed The D. ho me in round two (after beati ng him in th e first moto ) for a 4-5 points tie and score d fo ur th ove ra ll. • Results 500cc NATIONAL: 1 . K en t Howe r t on 2-1 (Hus). 2. Bob H an nah 1· 2 (Y am ) . 3 . T o ny D iSte f an o 54 (Suz) . 4 . Gary Sem lcs ~5 (Kaw). 5 . R ich Ele rst edt 3· 8 CHon). 6. Gay l on Mosler 6·10 (Ma l) . 7. T erry Cla rk 9-<9 (Kaw). 8. St eve Sta ckable 16- 3 CSu z). 9. John Ayers 11·11 (Ma l) . 10. Mi ke G il l m an 14-14 rczi. 1 1. Bob H a rris 13·15 (CZ). 12. Billy Grossi 15--16 ISU Z). 13. Pierre Karsmakers 8-23 (Hon). 4 . A rlo E nglund 1·22 (Kawl. 15 . Joe Fe rr in i 18-17. 16. Chuck Sun 24-12 (Hus). 17. Joe Gretchan 19-<18 (Su z) . 18. Dave Newswanger 21-19 (Ma l) . 19. J im Both 2Q..21 (Hus) . 2 0. Ca r l Zo rtman 22-20 (Yam) . • 250ce . SUPPORT: 1. Don Kudalsk l 1·2 [Hen} , 2. J immy Ell is ~1 (C·A). 3. John Gurga 3·4 (Oss) . 4 . Kenny Zah rt 2-6 (Kaw). 5. Mickey K essler 6·3 (Kaw). 6. Danny Swartz 9 -7 (Suz) . 7. F rank STacy 8 -8 ( C-A). S. Ed Moor 7·9 (MaO. 9. John B romberger 13·10 (Mal) . 10. Ph il Coll ins 10-14 (Ma l) . An all Texas show for most of second mota with Stack and Kent. 9