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/126076
By Jody Weisel SONOMA, CAL. NOV . 21 eeding only three points going into the day to clinch the 1976 TransAMA title Suzuki's fivetime World Champion Roger De Coster attacked Northern Cali fornia's Sears Point Raceway with a vengeance. The mile and N one- half course was totally virgin terrain carved out of the rolling grassy hills north of San Francisco . The Europeans were ~cstatic from th e moment they saw the constantly climbing, dropping and sloping grass course . "T his is a real motocross course, " said Great Britain's teenage sensation . When kidded that the tra ck was alright, but needed to hav e a bulldozer come in and knock down a few of th e hills Graham replied, " Keep yo u r bloody bulldozers away. They couldn't make it around this track!" Noyc e had little trouble . making it around the track on his Maico as he finished second to DeCoster in both motos. Top American honors went to Yamaha's Bob Hannah for th e second week in a row : Although at the start of "ea ch moto Hurricane Hannah was not a betting man 's choice on a top ten finish , as he languished with bad starts all day . Hannah charged from th e back of the pack twice to nail down a solid third overall to stop a European rout as Gerrit Wolsink finish ed fourth . 250 Support class The series is winding d own a nd th e 250 Support cro wn still hangs in th e balance.Tf ra cing ever gets better than the Sears Point 250 class th en pa cemakers will have to be issued to every spectator at the gate .' For two 30 minute rnotos as many as five riders at a time freight trained the undulating circuit bru ising each other's bodies and ego s in every corner. Texan Stev e Wise on his FMF Suzuki took holeshot honors in both motos only to drop back as far as fifth in the first mota , come back up to third and drop back again . The difference first and fifth in the first round was less than 100 feet. Honda mounted Warren Reid took the first moto after a fierce battle with Wise, Chuck Sun, series points leader Rich Eierstedt and Can -Am 's Jimmy Ellis. Ellis led briefly only to do a stylish Motocross Cat get -off that took less than ten seconds from start to finish , In that time time he dropped from first to fifth. The racing was closel In the second mota Wise again led the pack for half the race only to succumb to Ellis' relentless full bore charges down the " Big" hill , With Ellis and Wise securely holding the front two spots the attention shifted to Warren Reid . For th e young California rider to win he had to get up to third place, but he was back in sixth. As luck and skill would have it Eierstedt got a flat tire, Reid worked his way past Jeff Jennings , Marty Moates and with a lap to go he stuffed it under a slightly out of sha pe Danny LaPorte to take the win with a 1·3 score over Captain Cobalt's 4 ·1 and Steven Wise 's 5· 2. International Motocross on a Natural track 6 Forty of th em sat behind the starting gate listening to the staccato of two- stroke engines and four -stroke throated Larry Huffman on th e loudspeaker. Gassin' Gaylor Mosier dropped the Hammer first and took the lead with th e snarling pa ck right on his heels . Gary Semics spun out in the second corner and re-started in last place Hannah and Adolf Weil both found themselves laying in th e DeCoster smokes Noyce keeps stiff sandy loam on the ea rly laps. Mosier was under pressure from a covey of riders including Graham Noyce , Jimmy Weinert, and Rog er DeCoster. For DeCoster and his buttery smooth style this mota was going to be a cake walk for at least 35 minutes. Roger started to pull away and held the edge until with five minutes to go Noyce: pressured by a surprising Bob Hannah started to close the gap . At the finish it was DeCoster leading by a slim five seconds over the Noyce /Hannah sandwich. Maintaining a good place and staying within striking distance was Gerrit Wolsink and Brad Lackey. The best ride of the mota was put in by Kawasaki 's Gary Semics as he recov ered from his first lap spill to jam his way up to eighth place by th e finish , Kawasaki's J immy W ein ert also figured higher up in th e srats than Semics. " Moto two makes Kawasaki blue Within ten minutes after Tommy Croft holeshot th e first moto th e complete Kawasaki team of Wein ert , Semics and Terry Clark were ba ck in the pits spectating following a rash of mech anical ills. Croft was on th e ga s and in his wake came Graham Noyce , Adolf Weil and- Gaylon Mosier , all Maico mounted. Croft who had won a moto the week before in Puyallup kept his Honda wired and led for seven laps until Noyce squeezed by. Tomahawk tightened his belt and prepared for the grand old man , Adolf Wei!. to make his move. Unfortunately for Croft and ' Wei) th e defense and offense were both penalized as the two riders went down in a tangled mass of metal at the bottom of th e downhill. Noyce was running away with the moto. until a certain Mr. DeCoster moved into second place and started to hound his every knobby print. With five laps to go Rog er stuck it under Gr aham in a polite manner and that was all she wrote . Roger DeCoster picked up maximum points for th e da y, his second consecutive Trans AMA most of th e purse money and a lot of admiration . Graham No yce has had a difficult Trans-AMA, but today he showed why he is so highly rated in Europe , but for Bob Hannah the Europeans would hav e had their best day of this year's series . What now for Rog er? After Phoen ix he will be going to South American for a week , then to Japan for a week , th en back to Santa Barbara for Christmas. then on to Belgium for New Year's before starting the. National series in 0