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/126078
x 8 z z (J) w C . he at set t he tone for the n ight when Tony D. gra bbed the holeshot , did an enormous front whee l ha ndst a nd t hrough th e first ser ies of jumps. , saved it and m oto red away wit h j a rnm in ' Ji mmy dogging his every mo ve. An nouncer Larry Hu ffm a n h ad th e crowd on its feet screaming as DiStefano and Weinert di d wha t they are famous for ~ racing to th e m a x . Th e ten laps of he a rt wrenchi ng raci ng was over all too soon as DrSrcfa no , Weinert , Tommy Croft , Danny La Porte and Ha rleyDavidso n m ounted R ex Staten tra nsferred to th e Ma in. T he secon d . heat was a Pierre Ka rsm ak ers runaway. W it h Hond a spo nsoring th e Am erica n Motocross Finals Pierre put th e pe d al to th e meta l to d isa p p ea r fro m Gay lo n Mosier, Warre n Reid . Pat Rich ter and .T&M rider Danny T u rner. H onda 's influen ce co nt in ued to prevail as m ight y Ma rty Sm it h smoked th e th ird he at ahead of a surprisingly fast Mickey Boon e who held off d isc-b raked Can-Am rider Jimmy Ellis. Local rider Mike Bell too k his DG Suzuki into fourth with Chuck Sun ta ki ng the last di rect transfer spo t. . Rich Eierstedt pull ed yet a nother holeshot to lead heat fou r almost a ll the way . but Kent Howe rton ca me fro m ninth p lace to first in ten la ps to nip Rich . Ossa rider Marty Moates was th ird followed by Texan Steve Wise and Wayne Boyer. Sernl-finals T hose 20 riders went di rectly to the main event . whi le the firs t round losers went into two semi fina ls. On ly the top two rid ers from eac h wou ld mak e the $20 .000 Ameri ca n Motocr oss Final. T he first semi was won by Bu ltaco re turn ee Ke n n y Zahrt over New Yorker Frank Sta cy. Los ing ou t in a hard-fought fig ht for the mai n event were Canadia n Champ io n Jim T urner. three- time Ameri ca n 250 Champion Gary Jones a nd Ra di cal Rich T ho rwa ldson . The secon d semi was 'a Suzu ki sweep as 16-yea r-old Jeff J enn ings a nd Basse tt Racin g sponsored John Savitski took th e final steps to get into the big money Mai n . Losing out were Terry Cla rk , rid ing an " a lmost ready for p roducr io n" Kaw a saki. Gary Ogden ridi ng a borrowed stock RM250. Bruce McDo ugal, Jeff Vidic and Gary Cha plin . Consolation for the long drive If th er e is any cons~la tion in being the leader of the losers, a ll the riders who ha d fai led to qualify through the hea ts or semis ga t he red on the line for a sho t at a small p urse . Most wou ld rather have been in t he .pits prepa ring their bikes for. ยท t,he Motocross Final, but for bad luck , bad p reparation . or bad lines t heir fate was cast. Texan Richard Reeves ho leshot the cro wd of anxious rider s on ly to lose the lead to SoCal hot -shot Jeff Vid ic. Vidic held th e lead for eight la ps only to lose it to Suzukimounted Ga ry Ogden . With only two laps to go Terry Clark began using his expe rienc e to p ressure the young Ogden a nd th en n ipped past him coming OUI of a hai rpin to lake the win . Ogden was a strong second with (Continued on page 29) (Above) Tony 0 demolished the first heat and charged hard to finish fourth overall. (Below) Steve Wise finished ninth for FM F. ..J W (J) ~ >c o .., 9