Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

250 National Sandmaster sandblasts Southwick, Tony D. clinches title By Charles Morey SOUTHWICK, MASS., JUNE 6 Pierr e Karsm akers ricocheted his new Merle Anderson-tuned red engine RC25 0 Honda through the choppy' sand whoops at Motocross 338 Park to score a doub le mota victory in the final AMA 250cc National MX Se ries event. Pie rre look ed like a win ner from th e t ime the Ho nda set w heel o n th e co urse fo r practice. . " Doe s the press see th is race the"same way I do ?" a rider asked as practice en ded . "Pierre? " a reporter responded in an ticip at ion of the man's prediction. "You go t it. He looks fast! " The pre-race p icture lo oked bright in deed for Honda's 5 00c c GP co ntes tan t, but there were several othe r riders wh o weren't will ing to accep t 'an yo ne 's predi cti ons and Pie rre shared so me close co m pan y o n his wa y to the winner's circle . First mota 6 The first to challenge the Dutchman 's righ t to lead was Ya maha's Bo b " Hurricane" Hannah. As th e 43 ride r m ot o lite rally burned o ff Motocross 338 's paved starting lin e , Pie rre tucked in behind Hannah 's holeshot. At the co mp le t ion of lap one , th e in iti al jockeying fo r posi tion p ut Hann ah on top with Karsmakers tailing the Bill Buch ka-tuned monosh oe ker. Kawasaki's Gary Sem ics held off Suz uk i's Tony DiS tefano for third with Husqvarna 's Brad Lackey an d Kent How er t o n ro un ding ou t th e first wave. To ny D . made the first change in the parade unin tentionally as he slipped down but quickly restar ted in seve nth after letting Lackey , Howerton and Rick Burge tt p ast.' Karsmakers at first seemed satisfied to pursu e Hannah and wai t for th e younger r ider to make an erro r - n o t hard to do o n th e alm ost one-line soft surfaced tr ack. T hen, o n ly eigh t minutes into th e race Pierre pulled up as if to pass. Hannah held on . Brad Lac key in th e meanwh ile had gotten by Se m ics and was clo sin g ste adily on th e leaders. The first three w ay skirm ish of the af ternoon was sh aping up . Tony DiStefano , safely th e 1976 250cc Na tio nal Ch ampion before th e race began , was spending his · d ay working out the new Suz uki air forks . , "~t 's a good d ay for testing, " DiSt efan o had re mar ked that mo rning. With the only possible co n tender for the Number One pl at e, J immy Weinert, o ut of acti o n with a broken kne ecap, Tony co uld enjoy a lo w pressu re d ay . Yet , racing is racing, and he couldn't do it slowly when everything's working righ t, The D, recoverin g fr om h is seco n d lap ge t-off was now in six th and closing on a tigh t Gary Semics /K en t How er to n d uel to m ake it a second cl ose ly -knit threesome. Things st arted happening fas t ne ar the 15 minute mark as "Bad Brad " attacke d Ka rsmakers an d passed fo r ' sec o nd place. Once p as t Pierre, Lac key continued toward the fr on t cutting seconds fr o m Hannah 's lead with each lap, At the sam e time, Tony D. found that the new forks were working well enough to get him past both Semics and Howerton and into fourth place, By the 15 minute mark; lapped rider tr affic had go tten heavy and the leaders were finding th at the down-a-lap bunch was giving them more to think abou t than their immediate co m pet ito rs. Hannah suffered the full impact of th at problem when, as Lackey held th e pressure o n his rear wheel , a slower rider blocked th e lin e. Brad immediately cut (Above) Eien18dund Karsmaken lead the second moto charge to the first turn. (Opposite page) EuroPean/American Kanmakers (8 and American/European Lackey dueled in Southwick. (Top left) 250 Champ Tony D. (Top' right) A happy Pepe, (Lower right) Hurricane Hannah. to t he ins ide and scoote d pas t Hannah in t o th e lead. Two laps later, Pierre launched a renewed effort, passing Hannah and setting sights on Brad. As , Karsmak ers kept pushing the leader, Bob Hannah star te d to fade. , He was asked later if Karsmakers and Lac ke y 's greater experience had made th e difference. "I don't ' know what it is, " Bob rep lie d, "but they're fas t ! I w asn't tired, and I wanted to go for 'em," Slowed repeatedly by lapped r iders, Hannah stea di ly lost ground on the GP yeterans, Karsmakers pulled-t o less th an a bike length of .Brad , and . as the Hu sk y did a quick sidestep in a rough " S" tum, the red machine sneak ed by. But Brad was n' t through . On t he ne x t lap, he worked the Husqvarna : back in to th e lead: Karsmakers backed off sligh tly letting a hal'f dozen len gt hs separate the do min ant duo, th en he closed and repassed for the last time. Only moments later, Bra d lost co n tro l of his front wh eel in a soft berm, washed out, and stepped off. Seve n seconds were lost in remoun ting, an d that put Pierre out o f reach. Luc kily for, Lackey, Hannah was st ill 14 seconds b ack. Pierre pulled alm ost the same stunt on the final lap o f th e 40 minute plus' two lap moto , As he a tte mp t ed to overtake a knot of lapped riders, he was kn ocked over a berm and went down too. It was a tense moment -for the Dutchman; he didn 't know how far back Lackey was , but he safely remounted and took the checkered flag leaving second place for Brad, Bob Hannah finished third ahead of To ny D, and Kent Howerton. Second mota Honda's Rich Eierstedt , eager to improve following a motor failure in the first round, snagged the second moto holeshot, but Pierre was right on him, Hannah got off well in th ird and Lackey held fourth place at the end the opening lap . Karsmakers didn't waste any time in pushing to the front passing Eierstedt on the second t ime around. Hannah and l.ackey also closed on Rich, and both overtook him on the third lap . Kent Howerton mov ed in t o fourth pl ac e as Husky teammate Brad Lac key pulled up beside Hannah in an a tte m pt to take over second. Hannah , however, shut the do or so hard o n Brad th at they almost touched. Eierstedt dropped back as far as sixth place wh ere he met Don Kudalski and started a race that carr ied th em back up a couple pl aces be fore Eierstedt 's motor quit again, Tony D" by that time , had overcome a slow st art (1 5th on lap one) and has worked up to seventh pl ace , . Pierre h ad established a fairly secure ten second lead over Han n ah . Then , co m ing off one o f the jumps later 'describe d by Karsrnakers as " weird," Hurricane Hannah st epped off. Lackey, only two sec o nd s behind, t oo k over second pl ace , and Ho werton pulled up just as Hannah restarted, Hannah held off Howerton for a few frantic momen ts, bu t th e Husk y ride r go t past for go o d shortly th ereafte r. At 25 minutes into th e moto, the top five pl aces seemed to be decided. But then things started to ch ange the o u tlook. Howerton ca me into co n tact wi th a slower rider righ t a t the mechanics' ar ea , cra shi n g and letting Tony D. ge t by into th ird pl ace , Again, things seemed to set tle down and hold st eady , but it wasn 't over y et. Onl y minu tes from the end of the three-quarters of an hour race, Brad Lackey , T on y D. and a co u p le of slower riders entered a ta ll berrned tum. Forced h igh and to the outside, Lackey's tires sunk into the deep top part of th e wall and he literally got stuck in the sand. Before he co u ld dig the Husky out, both DiStefano and Howerton passed, Pierre continued on to a safe win, making it a perfect I -I day as Tony D, improved his first round fourth with second placing: good for second overall, Lackey's misfortune dropped him to a points tie (2-4) with DiStefano and left him third in the overall results, Kent Howerton and Bob Hannah also tied with 5-3 and 3-5 sco re s respectively , giving Ken t the nod for fourth, The top three spots in the AMA 250cc National MX Series remained unchanged (DiStefano, Weinert and St ackable) but Kent Hower to n 's last race performance ' edged Kawas aki rider Gary Sernics from fourth pl ace for the year . Bob Hannah also picked up one place taking six th from Yamaha teammate Rick Bur gett.. DiStefano 's summation of the 250cc series gave a go od p art of th e credi t to Su zuki t uner Keith McCarty, "J am m in' and I ' were pretty well mat ched on the track, but he had two DNFs. I guess you could say th at it was between the mechanics," Ton y D. modestly explained, 500cc SuppOrt Lo cal favorite Rick Granville came from behind in the seco n d moto to put his Bultaco ahead of Chuck Sun's Husky in t he overall Support class results, Sun had held off Granville for most of the first moto despite having to ride without the use of either 'a shfiter or back brake. Sun 's last chance went aw ay in the fin al laps of the opening round when the air somehow escaped from his Fox Shox allowing th e suspension to bottom out on every bump. Terry Tucker dumped Sun t~ thi rd in the first round only two laps from the end. Sun pulled to the fron t at the start of round two , this ti me to con fr on t Michael Guerra in a battle for the win. Granville drew a slo w start, back in ninth, but bettered it to a third by the .mo to 's end. Following Granville's 1-3 victory and Sun 's 3- 2 second Flace, Mike Guerra's last moto win (5-1 edged Terry Tucker ( ~ -5 ) third. • Results 250Cc NATION AL: 1. Pierre Karsmakers 1·1 (Hon). 2. Tony D IStefano 4-2 (Suz). 3. Bra d Lackey 2-4 (HUs) . 4. Kent Howerton 5·3 (Hus) , 5. Bob Hannah 3-5 (Vam). 6. Danny LaPorte 8-7 (5uz). 7. Rlek Burgett 6·9 (Vam). a . MICker Kessler 10-8 (Klw). 9. Don K ud al sk l 3·6 (Honl ' 10 . Tom my Cr oft 7·13 (H on ). 11. Jimmy Ells 12-11 (C -A) . 12 . 5 t e. e Stackable 14--10 (Suzl. 13. Gary Semlcs 11·14 (Kaw). 14. Billy Crossl 9-16 (Suz) . 15. Kenn y Zahrt 16--15 (Oss). 16 . " Gay l o n Mosler 1S lMaI). 17. Oan Turne, 17-21 (Vam) . 18 . I=rank Stacy 20.19 (C~A). 19. Charles lott 25·18 (Hon). 20. Mike Jones 22-22 (Kaw) . 500ec SUPPQ RT: 1. Rick Granville 1-3 (Bul). 2 . Chuck Sun 3-2 (Hus). 3~ Michael Guerra S (HusJ. 4. Terry Tucker 2 (Yam)~ S ~ John Ayers 4-6 (Ma l). 6. Joe Collin s 10-4 (Mal). 7 . o.vid Clemence 7 8 IBU!). 8~ Dwayne Lyons Gel! (Suz). 9. Jef Pre v ost 11-7 lKaw). 10. Oanle. Fish 9-9 (CZ) . e17 eS e1 e

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