Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

125cc: Factories 1-2; Floridians 3-4 Illinois' Mark Barnett winged his very fast Suzuki to th e front of the first sma ll bik e mot o , lea d ing for the first two and one -ha lf laps, Ba rn ett lost co nt ro l of his front wheel in th e d eep sa nd , m ud - based tra ck , le tti ng Michi gan's Leo nard Chiesa take over , Broc Glover had co m p lete d th e opening la p in eight h place and was working a steady path toward th e fro nt. Da nny LaPort e had bai led off on th e th ird tu rn on la p one. restarting in fortieth p lace, but had his Pat Alexander -tuned Suzuki sc rea m ing throu gh th e pa ck , La Po rte p icked up 18 positions on the first la p ., and wi t hin the first 15 m inutes had ski tt ered into second placel A la p later , he put Chiesa beh ind h im and made an unchallenged run for t he flag, When the 30 ·minute mo ta hac ended. Glover settled for fifth with La Po rte lon g gone , Leonard Chiesa Wint erna ti onal s I25 c NM L C ha mp io n ,James Fitzge ra ld a n d J im m y Walker filled posi tions two th ro ugh four. Rou nd two saw La Porte bow to Florida 's Chris Douthitt in th e first moments but tak e ove r th e lead short ly 10 begin what looked like a no the r runawa y ride. Once agai n , Broc ca m . around eig ht h on la p one , th an began a st ro ng steady ride for t he front , In a bout ten minutes he'd taken a ve: seco nd p lace , sti ll some d istan ce beh in La Porte . T hen Da nny bega n losing posi tio ns H is alloy shifter hook ed into Nortk Florid a Raceway's deep sa nd y ruts and twice bent back arou nd his foot peg, Twice he had 10 stop to let Pal Alexander rebend it into a usa b le configu ration. . Wi th Da nny gradually fa di ng 10 h s final fift h place for round two , Bra: rode on 10 a fairly secure victory over J im m y W alk er , Mark Barnett a nd J ames Fitzgerald , Broc took th e overa ll with a 5· 1 score on his Ed Sch eidl er /jim Felt tuned YZI 25 , Norm a lly, J im Felt wo u ld h a ve b een on the j o b ma intaining Glover's bike , but th e T eam Yam a ha mech anic was seriously injured only da ys before the ra ce a nd ' is now recover ing fro m his ridi ng accident in th e Florida No rth Ho sp ita l in Orl a ndo , Scheidler, Yama h a 's Mot ocross Supervisor , will serv e fill -in d ut y until J im 's a b le to return . ) Bob Hannah and his Production model 250 Yamaha got the holeshot on Dennis Brand (2871. Tony Summy (501 Bob Harris (351 and the rest of the pack. . Production Yamahas sweep first race of Florida WinterAMA MX Series By Charles Morey JA CKSONVI L LE , FLA ., FEB . 6 Impressive. For a big-buck Japanese te am to make a clean sweep of. all three pro classes at the North Florida Raceway roun d of the 1977 Florida W inter-AMA MX Series is indeed . . Im p ressive. 16 B ut for Tea m Ya maha to accomplish the feat on production 1977 YZ moto crossers just like the ones t hey se ll is n o t impressive , It 's inc redible , And lu cky, "They wo rk good," Team Yamaha 's O pen class rid er Ricky Bu rgett said before practice, bu t then admitted , " a fac tory bike would be a litt le better," No one at th e Ya m aha camp offered th e informa tion , bu t the story going a round th e pi ts was t ha t the new wor ks Yam ahas ha d n 't arrived yet , and th ey ' were saving t he ir last year's factory m a ch in es for Supe rcross dut y, In th e 250 cc cla ss whe re th e largest percenta ge of Winter ,AMA pri ze m on ey is co nce nt ra te d , Yam ah a 's 12 5 cc Na t io na l Champion Bob H a nnah left no dou bt co ncerni ng eit her h is a bility nor th at of h is YZ250 as he pu lled two successive holeshots a nd m ad e t hem stic k with a pa ir of rn ot o wins , In the ot he r two classes , however , victory cam" a bit roug her a nd was not n e arl y a s ce rt a in, Br oc Glover , Yamaha 's l2 5cc clas s rider. wrapped u p his afte rnoonIn wh at would have been a t hr ee -way tie if the "old" Ol ympic point system had ber-n used in sco ri ng , _ The new svst ern . co p ied from European st a nd a rds, aw ards 25 points for first place in a mow , 22 for seco nd , 20 for third . I H for fourth . 16 for fifth . t he n drops one po int at a time for sixth ( 15 points) down to 20th (I po int), Using the o ld system would still have given Glover t he win , hut Da nn y La Por te wou ld ha n ' lost second p lace to Flori d a 's Jim m y Walk er. Glover fin ish ed 5· 1 (41 po int s); . La Port e racked up a 1-5 (4 1 points); W alk er sco red 4 ·2 (40 poi nts) . The " new" Eu ro pea n met hod will help break wh at wou ld han' ber-n ties in th e "o ld " system. as ca n be see n by th ese three six -po int sco res , It does. however , favor hig her placin gs hy virt u,' of a g reater point spread betw,','n first a nd seco nd , then bet wee n the next top fou r p lacing» , The-re will cerra inly he man y " if on lv we'd Slaved wit h the old syste m " sob stories this y,'a r. hUI it's a faire r - if more com plica ted •-••- -- 250c c: Hurricane storms; ot h ers ride the wake Marty Moates finished third behind " he Hurricane and Tony D. in 250 t action. system than the Ol ympic met ho d . Rick Burgert's Ope-n class win a lso ca me far fro m ,'asi ly as Dann y La Porte , who only 30 m inuu-s earl ier ha d won I he fi rst 125 cc m o w , maint ained h is mom e nturn to sco re a not he r m ot o win in th e firs t Open class Ieg , Da nn y, with th e possible exce p tion of Hannah , was t he fastest rider on th e J a cksonville cou rse th is wee kend , but h is luck ra n out in t he secon d set of mot os, Also adding 10 Bu rgett 's tas k was Penton's Florida Fla sh , Do n " Ki ller" Ku d al ski . Sl owed b y a t ypi cally im p re ssive Ku d al ski get -off wh ile holding down second in t he firs t mOIO, Don was a ble on ly to wor k ba ck up to fift h pla ce , H e won th e second round , but Burgett 's fas t a nd co nsiste nt 2 ·3 tota l won out. H eads shoo k a nd mouths hung ope n in d isb el ie f wh en Bob Hann ah wh ip ped his Keith McCarty-tuned YZ250 through tu rn on e in front of a host of modified stoc k and fa ctory m ach ines. But th e shock wore off soon as " H urrica ne" Hannah became a familiar fix tu re ou t in front proving' th at it truly is th e rid er a nd not th e m achine th at ma kes a win ner. Bill y Grossi wou nd his works Suzuki int o second pl ace on th e opening lap in fro nt of Mont e McCoy , Ossa 's Marty Mo at es , G re g R ob ertson and Pennsylva n ia's J ohn Sav itski on his Bevo Forte-tuned RM 250 , National Number One , T ony DiStefano , was in I !th. Moat es began shoo ting tow ard th e front, taking over thi rd on la p two but then fell and dropped back to fifth , Pent on 's Frank Stacy d ro pped ou t with a blown base gas ket , T o ny wast ed n o t im e ge tt ing th rou gh the pa ck , .slid ing into fourth be hind Savitski approxima tely eig ht mi nutes int o t he moto , Moments later Savitski su ffered a flat t ire but still hu ng on to fini sh fifth , Hannah a nd G rossi cruise d srea d ilv out in fr ont u ntil nca r th e halfway po int wh en DiStefano closed on his teammate (Gr ossi) a nd passed for

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