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/126250
In the thick of it Rick Burgett 181 about to explode from the midst of the Open class pack. Florida Winter-AMA MX Series .,;. Round four: LaPorte, Hannah and Burgett • • wrap up series wins; "Killer" Kudalski wins Open class at Florida finale .ByJim Gianatsis OR LAND O . FL. , FEB . 2i Fanning the clutch of his production YZ Yamaha like a six-shooter's hammer, Bob "Hurricane" Hannah blasted away at the star-studded opposition to bull's eye both 250cc motos and 6 ride off into the su nse t w ith his seco nd consecutive Florida Winter -AMA Series titl e . His Orlando Sports Stadium performance made it eight stra ight moto wins for eight starts on th e Keith McCarty-prepared stocker. Rounding out th e 197i seri es in second position was reigning 250cc National Champion Tony DiSt efano on the RN works Suzuki with new comer Ma rt y Moates taking his Ossa to third place for the four races. The 125cc Profession al class fell to Suzuki's Danny " La Porta let" LaPorte on th e factory RA 125 wren ched by Pat Alexander after an ep ic second mot o battle with Yamaha's Broc Glov er for the series titl e . Broc had to settle for second best as J immy Fitzgerald from Pensacola took th ird place - to p .. p rivat eer ~i th h is RM1 25 Suzuki. Rick " Lum berjack" Bu rgett a lm ost sa w hi s Open class se ries t itl e disappear as he was pen al ized a la p for jumping th e sta rt of the seco nd mo to on his Larry Carpenter-tuned YZ400 Yamaha . But a nose-di ve over th e bars b y Suzuki's Billy "Sug ar Bea r" Grossi left th e fri zzy-h ai red kid seeing stars for two laps a nd littl e Rick y with h is crow n secure. Penton's Don Kud alski was left wit h the day's O pe n win but was way down on series point s after two previous weeks of bum lu ck -. Posting third overa ll in th e series ' Open class was Joey Gratton from Pompa no Be a c h , Florida , wh o finis hed th e day's race in third pla ce on his Motocros s South 400 YZ Yamaha . Besides being th e final Florida series event , t he day's race at Orlando Sports Stadium turned into a warm ·up for the followi ng weekend's A MA Supercross Series opener in Atlanta , W ith the excep tion of just a few riders , all the factory teams were on ha nd , with 250cc class entries , to sort ou t th eir bikes and riders , New names on the entry list incl uded Pomero y, Croft , Ka rsmakers., Sta ten , Tripes, Mosier , an d Zahrt . 250cc: Heavy competition but Hurri cane's not impressed More than a few eyebro ws were raised du rin g th e qualifyin g mot os as Harley-Davidson's Marty Tripes stol e th e show in th e first race with th e new production bik e , winnin g ea sily ahead of Honda's J im Pomeroy and Tommy Cr oft. The second qual ifier proved to be more of a ra ce as Pierre Ka rsm akers took his production Yam aha to the fin ish line ahead of Ma ico's battling teamsters Ga ylon Mosier and Steve Sta ckable. - _. f Hannah holesh ot the first 30-m inu te feature moto but before he got two tu rns down th e track, Pom eroy was by and in to th e lea d , Behind were Karsmakers, Ellis, Moates, McCoy arid T ony D in hot pursuit. Hannah rubbed Bim bo's rear fender for five laps looking for ro om to m ak e use of a second line , He fou nd it when J im hit th e rea r wheel of a n ou t of sha pe rider and ba iled off the RC Hon d a , Bob clipped the Hond a 's rear wheel , b ut stayed uprigh t a nd d isa p p e a red , Bimbo remount ed , a lmost a la p down , After chec king out his bi ke a nd th e track for a few la ps, he retired to the Hond a pits . H al fway through the moto , Han na h had a half a lap lead on Ka rsm akers in second . Then ca me Tony- D who had been rapidly improving h is poor sta rt , Terry Clark on the fa ctory Kawasa ki. Staten . Elli s, Mosi er , Moates , S t ack a b le and privateers Tony Summey a nd Monte McCoy . Except for Staten getting by Clark. positions remained rel atively th e same right up to t he checkered flag as Han nah la pped all the way up to fif th p lace . " Hu rrica ne" pulled h is worst sta rt of th e series for th e second moto as J immy "Ca p ta in Coba lt" Ellis too k control a hea d of McCoy, Moates, Tony D, Pomeroy, Hannah , McCo y and Karsmakers. Ell is co n ti nue d pulling awa y with his lead for four laps until a lower fork triple clamp on his Can -Am broke and left him coasting int o the pit s. "T he onl y tim e I seem to fini sh is when I'm not doing good ," said Jimmy afterwards, who ha s yet to fini sh a race in Flo rida . With Ellis ou t of th e way , Tony D found himself holding down the lead aft er ca rving out McCoy and Moates.