res - e c o n d co
s
Marty Smit h (above & left) did it
again while Gaston (far left) watched.
By Charles Morey
LEXINGTON, OH . , J UL Y I I
" I' m really glad this one is over!"
Mar ty Smith grinned as he walked
a gauntlet of handshaking, backslapping admirers after his second
moto win o f the afternoon at
Mid-Ohio Moto Park's second
running of the U.S. 125cc MX
Grand Prix. While Mid-Ohio has
been referred to as "Marty's track," and
Sm ith was on h is best works Honda, and
t here were enough Marty Smith fans
hanging over th e fence to carry him over
the line, moral-support-wise or literally
if it came to that: Marty had obviously
been feeling strong pre-race pressure.
And with good reason.
- In the minds o f many who have been
watching this year's AMA ' 125cc
National MX Series, Yamaha's first year
rookie Bob Hannah looked like a
winner. Hannah, riding the works
water-cooled monoshocker tuned by
veteran wrench Bill Buchka, had
consistently beaten Marty throughout
the yet-unfinished series. He had the
bike (" This is th e machine," Buchka
had flatly stated that morning): he had,
the momentum fr om his recen t winning
streak wh ich carried him righ t up to
becoming th e fastest qualifier of the
day, and he, too, had a sizeable
percentage of the fans hanging o n the
snowfence to cheer him on.
The Europeans ? It seemed that aft er
Smith's runawa y win last y ear at this
event, nobody
reall y
took their
challenge too seriously. Sm ith could
beat them ; Hannah co uld be at Smith.
The young Americans seemed slated to
be the only serious contenders for the
overall win. Su zuki's superstar, World
Champion Gaston Rahier, has as good as
already clinched his second ti tie.
Rahier's position was the same as it had
been at last year's race: He didn't need a
win. The CZ Team of jiri Churavy and
Zdenek - Velky promised, as always, to
be entertaining with their do -or-die
riding style but nobody outside of their
own compound expected them to score
a win.
Yoshifumo Sugio, a top line Yamaha
rider fro m japan wo uld even tually
become "Top Non-American" for the
day with a 4-7 fourth place score be hi nd
Team Suzuki's Billy Grossi,
Smith starts out right
In a near carbon copy of last year's
first turn action , Marty Smith gassed his
Dave Arnold tuned RCI 25 to an
imm ed iate lead on the long Mid-Ohio
starting straightaway. Midway through
the 0 enin la ,Smith led Bob Hannah,
