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/126070
• • American teenag o S win motos, toss By Jim Gianatsis BUCH AN AN , MICH., OCT. 17 Amid heated racing in the cold fall air, some 15,000 excited m otocross fans saw Team Honda chargers Tommy Croft and Marty Smith dial in impressive moto wins at .round four of this year's Trans-AMA series. But when the final scores were tabulated it w as The Man , Suzuki 's Ro ger DeCoster, who had put to gether th e best co mbinat io n of moto finishes to take the overall victory at Re d Bud Track & Trail's motocross facility . American riders put on the best show in the 50 0cc International class , but the R.D. racked up this third win of the series as Su zu ki teammate T on y DiStefano finall y got himself in gear with the potent RN 4 00 to tie Croft ' for second place points an d pick up sec on d overall b eh ind Ro ger by virtue of a hi gher fin ishing posit ion t han Croft in the final moto, Suzuki made it t wo-for-t wo in t he 250cc Support class where Danny LaPorte barely edged out Rich Eierstedt's Honda both motos to make it a clean sweep for the yellow tanked racers. John Savitski overcame a fir st moto crash wi t h a lapped rider and his strong finishes for both motos left the Pennsylvania Flyer in third overall for the day. A couple of riders returned to the, Trans-AMA circuit this week. Kent Howerton was over his bash with the flu and St ev e St ackable 's injured knee had healed enough to allow the two Texans to get b ack in to action . There were four new fac es as well which in clu ded recently crowned Canadian 25 0c c National Champion Jim Turner and his • 6 Suzuki of canada teammate Masaru Ikeda. Also down from Canada was Yamaha factory rider Nicky Kinoshita, but the big news was the arrival of Maico's y ou ng star from England, Graham Noyce. Just the week before Graham had ' won the British Championship Series in his home country , but because there was still one race left to be run in the Championship, the British organizing body (ACU) wouldn't ' give him permission to race in America. Graham will race next week in St. Louis, but just to give his competition a little something to think about before then Graham rode practice this week with some people claim ing he set fastest time during the morning's session. ,/ First Mota "This track is smooth, wide and fast ," said De Coster, "and should prove good for Ado)£. " When th e fir st m ot o ch arge kicked down th e st arting gate though , Ado lf WeiI go t his AW 400 Maico n o furt her t han the first tum. Don Ku dalski go t b oxed in at the h igh , sp eed sweep er, taking Weil, Sernics, St ackable, an d Boyer down with him. Weil was out for the moto with a broken front brake lever and Stackable was out for the day with a sore ne ck. The quickest new, star on the A,\1A circuit, Pat Richter from Fortuna, California, nailed down the holeshot and held the lead for two laps with his , KTM /Penton as Rick Burgett, Weinert, Mosier, DeStefano, Ogden and Staten roped in behind. DeCoster pulled a slow start back in 20 th pla ce , On the third go around things start e d happening fast as Richter backed off the p ace with an engine th at began runnin g a little too lean and Burgett to o k con tro l with Weinert brushing his fend er . Ricky held his lead for a lap , then plopped over in a berm to let Weinert by, with J immy fall ing over himsel f vt h e next lap . The Jammer's spill turned the front position over to DiStefano who held it rather perilously fo r the next ten minutes. To m my Croft had gotten off the line around tenth place a nd had his Steve Whitlock prepared RC 400 whipping its wa)' up towards the front with Kent Howerton hooked on not too far behind. At the l5-minute mark in the moto Croft caugh t and passed Tony D. with Howerton following su it not long afterwards. Tony hardly had time to figure out what had happened when both Weinert and Bob Hannah came knockin' to get aro un d as well. It began to look like Howerton could close on Croft for the lead, but before 'an yt h ing could become o f t hat battle the Husky's transmission co un tershaft sheared off ne ar the sprocket leaving Kent coasting to a stop.