Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

• ~~." ~!S UpS es D ELTA, on., AUG . n~ downs I Yamaha's killer wa ter-cooled 125cc works bike returned to the A~IA 125cc National MX circuit for the Delta Motorsport Park round, and with it, Bob " Hurricane " Hannah handily executed a solid 1-2 overall victory. Hannah's win was no runaway, however, as Team Honda introduced the new re d -engi ned T ype 2 RC I2 5, Many Smith's ne w GP we apon, in an effort to get their 1975 Nationa l Nu:nber ?ne rider back on top of the ei ghth-liter heap . It was a good move, but the attempt was fo ile d b y not one b ut several privateer e ffo rts - e ffo rt s that took several fo rms, in cluding Arlo Englund's land facto ry Suzuki rid e r Danny LaPort e 's) excelle n t rides, one lapped rider's squirrely ac t io ns and an other atte m p t to claim a fact ory machine b y ye t another non-factory contestant. In spite o f the fact that Mart y was puttin g o n o ne o f h is best rides of the seas on, (" No ne o f us co uld ride with Marty today," Bob Hannah admitted when it was over) the obstacles before him were too large to overcome, and the champ had to settle for a 10 -1 fourth overall, Suzuki's favored 125cc rider, Billy Grossi, didn 't show up to ride. It seems th at every time "Sugar Bear" gets hi s m o men tu m up and ge ts rolling with the frontrunners, his luck runs out, usually through injury . This time Billy didn't h urt himself riding. In stead, his appendix decided that it was ti me . to call it q uits. and he 's now reco ver mg from th e operation. Bill y expects to re turn to ra cing for t he final 125 cc roun d a t New O rleans. With only t hree races le ft in the series , the factories (Hon da and Yam ah a, in part icul ar ) have pulled o ut th e stops in an almost no-holds-barred effo rt to put their rider o n top . The appearan ce of the works .bikes, nonetheless, came as a su rprtse particularly the previously claimed water-cooled Yamaha and th e all new Honda. Yamaha tuner Bill Bu chka summed it up : "I 'm not go n na bring a bike up here th at Bob's go t to struggle to ge t a fourth o r fifth place on . Reportedly, both Hannah and Buchka had m ade it clear . th at to withh old the better ma chine would seriously hurt their ch ances o f main taining their series poin ts lead. As it stands now, barring any unforseen major problems, Hannah ca n fin ish o ut th e seas on with a string of second pl aces .behind Smith and stil1 win the title. He has a sizeable lead, 214 points o ve r Steve Wise's 165 and Marty Smith's 16 2, but he can ' t affo rd an y more DNF motos like the o ne at Appala chian IIi ghlands where the air -co oled w orks Yam a ha failed. Round one: Hannah takes over after Smith's taken out Warren Rei d 's Honda burned th ro ugh the lo ng downhill sweeper ahead of every o ne as the gate dropped to open the 125cc Na tional p rogram. Arlo Engl und o n a lIusk y was rig ht on Reid's fender and he was followed at an equally close m argin by Bro e Glover. Marty Smith was fourth; B~b Han nah had st arted ba ck aro und eigh th: and Danny LaPorte had th e worst lu ck o f all. Danny had go t te n o ff ne ar the ba ck , th en went d own in tum one. "Anothe r rider hit m y handlebars. a nd it just kn ocked the front end right out from u nder m e n laPorte exclaimed after it had e nded. lie restarte d almost as quickly as he'd fa llen off and st arted ' pu tting his Alan Hahn-tuned Suzuki through its pace . Meanwh ile, Reid had ' dropped out and En glu nd had taken co m m an d . Gl o ver hel d second, still a head of Smith, and Bill Joyce rode in fourth at the erid of t he opening lap . La Po rte had moved up to 20th in the 40 rider field after his de ad last restart. Kawasaki's Mic key Kessler was re covering from a midpack start an d moved up to ninth when he cr ash ed near the end o f th e se cond lap. The fall broke his front brake lever m ount letting the unit dangle dangerously close to th e front wheel until Mickey pulled it u p and tu ck ed it in . He was able to finish on ly 28th in what had begun as a promising moto. The three frontrunners - Englund, Glover and Smith - pulled ahead of the rest and got involved in a scrap thatput Broc in fron t on lap four, Marty in second three laps later, then saw Smith take th e lead n ear the 15 minute point. By th at tim e, Bob Hannah had moved into fourth an d be gan making life difficult fo r Arl o . The dispute d idn' t last for long. Within the next five minutes - a bit over two laps - Hannah had overtaken both Englund a nd Glover. to m o ve into second place behind Sm ith. At that point, near the h alfway m ark , Marty had a 14 second lead over Bob who in turn w as rid in g three seconds ahead of Broc, Ar lo was n in e seconds behind them. Yamah a ride r David Tay lor was p uttin g a st ro ng sh owing in fif t h place, and behind h im a fo ur way race for sixth h ad shaped u p among Steve Wise , Danny La Po rte, Bill J o yce and Joh n Savi tski, It was a battle t hat eventually saw LaPorte come out the victor. Near the end Wise and he p ulled away from the other two, as Taylor pursued the Ho nda rider, ev entually passing. Then Marty Sm ith dropped from th e lead. "W e went b y the finish line , a nd there were two lap ped riders ahead o f m e" l\lart y exp lained afterwards. The fla gman gave them both the blue (passing ) fl ag, and th e first gu y m ove d over. But the other gu y just pu t up his elbows and started ra cing with me , ge lling all squirrely and everything. We went through that le ft -h an der before the jump; he slid out wide all out o f shape, then cam e right back ac ro ss the tr ack into me. n As they hit the jump, the slower rider to ok Smith o u t. Marty remounted after re covering from the crash , but was only ab le to t ake a tenth in the moto . The matter was discussed and handled in a professional m anne r in the pits, " I just told h im th at ,?e ' d .co st ':I e 25 poin ts th at I needed, Smi th said, " It wou ldn 't have done any good to hit ' h rm , " Wi th Mar ty gone, Bob Hannah had it all to h im sel f. Broc Glover finis hed a secure secon d as Ar lo Englu nd who held th ird had to figh t off Danny LaP o rte 's amazing co me-from-be hind charge from dead last u p t o fourth place. Steve Wise rounded out the to p five . Mart y Smith was second ; Arlo Englund rode in third; Bob Han na h hustled along in fourth. By the end o f the first lap, " Hu rr icane" was blowing hard down Englund 's ne ck, and o n the next time aro u nd he go t past. Dav id Taylor, wh o had finished on ly o ne position out of the top fi ve in the ' first m oto , was holding down fifth at the end o f the opening lap , ahead of Texan Glen Urquhart, Californian Suzuki ace Jeff Jennings , local Toledo rider David Glenn and Suzuki 's Danny La Po rt e. Danny had gotten off much quicker this time, had no problems in tum one, and was going for it . Steve Wise got off in an unlucky 13th, but quickly bettered his position to tenth. Then, at the end of lap two, Steve stepped off losing five o r six places , and had to begin allover again. Smith reeled in Reid, took co mmand 'o f th e lead, and pulled' awa y. From t hat poin t o n , there was no catchi n g the Dave Arnold tuned RC1 25. Three laps later, Bob Hannah also got around Warren 's Ho nda and settled in second. The top three slots were unchanged from t he re on. Smi th su ffered no more run-in s with trapped riders ; Hannah didn't close t he gap - he d idn't have to . About the same ti me Hannah moved into second, Jeff Jennings dropped out. lie was ho lding down fou rth place a t the time when the Suzuki (Bill y Grossi's bi ke ) quit. Arlo inherited fourth wh en J eff stopped, bu t Danny LaPorte was giving th e Husky rider a h ard time . Arlo held h im o ff for another two or three laps be fo re the Team Suzuki rid er got past. As it turned out, th at pass and Danny 's ability to m ake it st ick, made the difference between second an d third place in the overall results. Danny wound up with a 4-3 total which just edged Arl o 's 3-4. Both Danny and Arlo, then Mickey Kes sler , were a b le to relegate Warren Reid t o a sixth . Marty's second round win upped his overall score to a 10-1 fourth . Bob Hannah's 1·2 of course , took the ove rall win. Danny LaPorte's hard-fought first moto ride p aid off with second overall ahead of Arlo r:ngl imd 's tliird. Broc Glover rou nded out the top five with his 2-9 total. The claim: A privateer takes a chance; Smith takes it back AMA ref Ron Danny was ap proached immediately after the race by a privatee r holding $2000 cas h. The ride r said he wanted Sm ith 's new Type 2 RC125 , startin g a mini-drama th at • ended almost anti-climactically an hour later. Soon after the cash (Delta prom o ter Paul Schlegal cashed the privatee r's personal check; the claimant had not exp ecte d to see the works bikes in use at Delta) had been admitted, eight co u n ter-claims were p ut in by t he three Japanese factori es of Honda., Yamaha and Suzuki. As it turned out. th e back-up wam't n eeded, The p rivat eer drew first ; it was a high n u mber. Smi th drew next in the low-nu mber-wins system and pulled out an " 8" thereby winning his bike back. Sidecar Support Adding an interesting interlude to the afternoon's p roceedings. the opening round in t he U.S. Sidecar Ch ampionship series served support du ty while the 125cc National ri de rs rested. Although the b ig rig s to re up the track m aking it more diffic ult for the 125s to ride t he seco nd moto, the race was definitely more entertaining than the usual fare o f . m o re two-wheeled MX. . RoUa "Tmy " Pre- race favorites Adams and passenger Harry Gau n t p ulle d h ol esh ots in both motos but fin ished nei th er. The Adams /G a u nt d uo were clearly fa ste r than an y competitors but were robbed of a su re win by mec hanical p roblems. Taking the top spot with a 1-2 se t of ra ces were Ralph and John Whitney. S econd was t he J ohn Palfreyman/Joseph Yarger team, making it a clear 1-2 victory fo r California teams. Helping the eastern U.S . save face by scoring a 2-3 third overall were Allen Adams and Ri ck Myers. • Results 125cc NATIONAL: 1. B o b Hannah 1·2 (Yam). 2. D ann y LaPort e 4-3 (Suz) . 3. A r l o Englund 3--4 ( H us ) . 4 . Marty Sm ith 1(>'} (Hon) . 5. Bra e Glove r 2- 9. (Hon ). 6. S te ve Wise 5·7 (Hon) . 7. D avid Tay l o r 6-1 0 (Y am ). 8. Ron Turner 12·8 (Ho n). 9. Mk:h~ 1 J ones 8-12 (H an ). 10. John Sovitski ' -13 I Suz ) . 11 . Jimm y Martin 13.:1 1 (Yam ). 12. J o n Leak 11 -1 4 (Vam). 13. Ge n e M c cay 15-17 ( Vom). 14. M ickey K essler 28-5 (Kaw/ _ 15. D ave Glenn 21-1 8 (Han). 16. M i k e Me n loSh 2 ()-2 0 (Suz). 17 . Donny A Shworth 19-22 (Han). 18. Ja mes Je r tes 1 8·23 (Suz). 19. Barry Dun an 16 -2 6 (H an). 2 0 . B ill J oYce 9-33. S IDECAR SUPPORT , 1. RolP h Whitne y/John Whi tnoY 1-2 . 2. John Palfreyman/J ose ph Gard ne r 3-1. 3 . A lle n Ad am S/R ic k Myers 2· 3. 4. Ba rton Crandell/Ron Swa rt "'5. S. Ronnie C oy le/Par t r lc la Gaun t 6-4. 6. Norbert Monohan/Wllllam W hee ler 5- 8. 7. Pet er Wakell/ Ron Ja ckso n 9-7. 8. Ed die Pi n Chbe Ck/Le o n At k lnd 7-9. 9. G rant H unsf or d / Jerry Y arg er 12-6. 1 0. Re inhol t Ne ilse n/R ob ert G rav es 10- 10. 125cc A MA NATIONAL POI NT STAND I NGS: 1. Bob H annah 2 14 . 2 . St eve W ise 165. 3. Ma rty Smith 1 62. 4 . Don ny LaPorte 125 . 5 . Billy Grossi 11 7. 5 . Brae G l over 1 17. 7. Ron Turner 10 0. 8. W~rre n Re id 9 4 . 9. John Savltsk l 87 . 10. Mickey Kessle r 86. Round two: Smith takes over: Hannah takes second Warren Reid aga in proved the speed of his Ho n da by grabbing the holesho t, 11

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