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Trans-AMA round one The Rin.,stone 10 l-< llJ .c o +-l U o By Jim Gianatsis I • LEXINGTO N. O HIO , SEPT. 26 Cold rain, darkened skies and ankle deep mud hardly seemed a deterrent to thousands of spectators crammed up against the snow fenc es for the Valvolin e spon sored opening race of th e 19 76 Trans. . Oh' AMA senes at Mid- 10 Motocro ss Park. What th ey saw were a co u p le o f fore ign riders. J apanese Cham p io n Akira Watan ab e an d five time Roger De Coster, Wor ld Champion flingin g mud from th e rear kn obbi es o f , the ir Suz u kis to snare m ota wins, but it was A me rica 's Rhin est one Cowboy Ken t Howerton wh o dod ged the flying goop to' tak e th e overall win. Howert o n's 2-3 m ota finishes on his Eric Crippa prep ared Hu sky gave him the top placin g for the race ove r t he 1-4 finishes of Watanabe. Brad Lack ey to o k anoth er Husky to third overa ll with a 7-2 sco re. In stro n g suppor t class action fille d with numerou s facto ry backed riders, Cap tain Cob al t, so metimes known as J im my Ellis, too k hi s 250<,c Can-Am to th e overall day 's win with 2-2 mota finishes. In d ividual rno to winners were up and co min g Su zu ki rid er J ohn Savitski and Hu sky 's Chu ck Su n . . . . . M~to One, Gee~ It looks like ra.'n .. . I kn.ow Ge rn~ mu st b e wor rle?, teased JImmy Wern ert before practice, " becau se t h is is . th,: first tim e he's s to pp ~d by m y pus, The J ~nmer was re ferrin g to th e tro op s of riders who stro lled b y th e K Jl~~ o check ou t. th e n ew 40.0cc wo rks . bikes that Wemert an d Sern ics ha d rece ived fo r the . ·. ralls-A MA. Fo~;i,," e~ tri es at Mid-Ohio l in clu ded ~uzukl s.oet;ost er, Wat,anabe . and Wolsmk, Maico 's Ad olf We ,I an d Gr ah am N oy ce are expected to join the tour within the next tWD weeks to bring Europe's top racers to Am eri can so il. It ha d begun to rain early Sunday morning an d b y the time J immy Wein ert pulled th e ho leshot o f the first 500cc..l n te rn at iona l mota the track h ad been turned into a greas y quagmire. Watan abe h ad started o ff in sec ond pl ace and after two lap s of d icing with the J am mer for th e lead , th e J apanese ligh twe igh t be gan buildin g u p an adva n tage w ith this throttle-on side way s antics th at p ush ed h im far out fr ont ahead o f ' the lik es o f Weinert , Ho werton , Semics, S tac kab ie, Gr ossi, Lac key , Rich ter, DeCoster, BODne and Po mernv, DeCoster isn't o ne to let a bad start hold h im back and he be gan pl owin g his way toward s the front of th e pac k as th e track go t deep er and the lap ti mes longer. Everv lap o r t wo DeC oster would pic k off an o the r front ru nner ann get cl ose r to te am m ate Watanab e. With just two lap s to go he was in second p lace an d the gap was narrowin g, bu t the RN 400 Suz uki 's rear fender was flap p ing in the ra in af ter hav ing b ro ken loose fro m the fr ame becaus e of sp ills an d th e heavy accu mu lat io n of mud on th e u nd ersi de. With one lap 'to go th e fende r bro ke co mple te ly away from th e bike, ex posing the Suzu ki's a irb ox to The sta rt of the mu dbath had.e vervone slip pi ng and slid in' . 8 Co~bo th e mu d flin gin g rear k n o b. At th at point the air filter lit erally packed it in fo r th e m ota an d Roger slithered to a halt. Not havin g to worry ab ou t looking over his shoulder any more, A kira Watanabe aim ed his Yoshi Okumura wren ch ed Suzuki toward the chec kered cloth. While everyone's atten t ion was centered on DeCoster's fantast ic charge, few fan s noticed th at Howerton had passed Weinert when th e Jammer spilled, moving Kent up into second finishing p osition for the mo ta ah ead of Jimm y, Sernics, Stackable, Richter on a KTM, Lac key , Smith , Grossi and Wolsink. Never eve n m aking the opening lineup was Pierre Karsm akers who injured his foot during practice. Pomeroy h ad d ropped ba ck to 12th afte r cen terp u nc h ing a h aybale. Moto Two: Even the R.D. gets sideways Being a small rider and havin g the lighte st 500cc bike at 209 pounds when it w as che cked at technical inspection, Watanabe definitely had a wei gh t adva n tage as he hamme re d away at his Suzuki's sh ifte r an d ca tap u lt ed the bike to the lead o f th e secon d m oto. T his time he d id n't seem to hav e t he same confide n ce in h is ab ility to handle the big Su zu ki in th e mud wh ich h ad be com e even m ore tr eache rous since th e first moto. Still, fo r a I 25cc specialis t wh o had p laced fourth in last ye ar's World Ch am p ionsh ip he wasn't d oin g a bad jo b. On lap tw o th e actio n got he avy as How erton and Weiner t b o th handleb are d their way pa st Watanabe, and then before th e three of th em realize d w hat was h app enin g DeC ost er was by and in to th e lead. Th c fa ns went wild over Roger 's quick, but expec ted mov e, th en settled d own to see wh at would h app en for ·t he' rem ain der of th e mota. It didn 't tum out to be too much. Wein ert be gan d roppin g back to eighth pl ace, sayin g afte rw ards , "I ju st couldn't go on well in th e slick as I wanted. " Kawasaki teammate Gary Sernics moved up to fifth ahead of Pomeroy and Smith. Brad Lackey did an extraordinary job of moving up on Howerton, then swept by to steal second. Everyone spent a lot o f time getting sideways o r falling down in the mud, including DeCoster, but everyDne was spaced far enough ap ar t that positions remained co n stan t. As expected, De Coster easily held on to win the final mota, but Kent Ho werton's third was just what he needed to pick up the overall win for Am eri ca. The final saw Kent and Watanabe had tied on overall poin ts, bu t Ken t's higher finishin g position in th e second mota h ad clinch ed him the win . "I h at ed this slic k mud. There just wasn't any con tro l. " moaned Kent, but the moans weren't too loud and th e recen tly cro wn ed Am erican 500cc National Champion mi ght just hav e been thinking of new titles to co nqu er. 250 Savitski almost beats the Captain The lineu p in the 25 0c c Support class looked a lmost as heavy as the sh o wd own in th e 500cc In ternat ional . Suzuki was looking fo r a tw o place swee p with y ou ngs ters Danny LaPor te an d J eff J enn ings expec te d to ta ke care o f business, bu t th e unexpected d id Su zuki in her e as w ell. LaPorte nullified h is hi gh speed st y ling b y h avin g to mak e up t ime fr om get-offs and J ennings co uld n ' t d ial in his star ts. Privateer J ohn Savi ski mad e up for Su zuki's poor luck in th e first mota as -h e took his Bevo F or te tuned RM to th e