Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

(Left) Kenny Zahrt has been the Supercross Series holeshot master, (Right) To ny D won Friday's final; was disqua lified the following night. AMA Supercross Series - Round three DiStefano and Ellis break Hannah's ~inning streak By J im Gia na ts is HO USTO N . TX, MAR . 18· [9 Round three of the 1977 AMA Supercross Series was held inside the Houston Astrodome on a Friday and Saturday night. Each night's race was totally separate , concerning points adding u p to wa rds the Supercross C hampions hip, a nd yet the $25,000 purse was d ivide d in ha lf bet wee n the two nights. And that di d n't m ak e much sense 10 the rid ers. The new AM A Super cr oss fo rmat of having q ua lifiers and a fea tu re race wo rked well a t Atl anta a nd Da yton a wher e the tracks either p roved wid e enoug h o r offere d eno ug h differe nt lines 10 pass, but it didn't work so well at Houst on . T he tight , hard su rfaced Astrod om e track offe red on ly o ne line 10 t he riders . a nd unl ess they chose to use the crash -em . bash -ern style of riding to pass in t he turns . t he re wasn't m uch ac tio n to be seen . The racing was usua lly won in th e first turn, and how a rider got' off t he line was usua lly withi n three positio ns of how he wou ld fi . h T h desi r d mis n . e co u rse eSlgn pena ize b.ad starts and ma ny of th e top f~ctory riders on ly managed to make their :-"ay to the 20 ·lap Featu re race each mght by way of the saving grace of the semi finals after t h ey fail ed to m a ke 1I lit at e ] . on~oft~el{ua hfi~rs. or next y~:~; . pr~m ot e~ . ~ anageme~t W st~ck wit h a sing le Ill mg ht of racmK· T heir expenses would be less: the 40 ·5 ? ,OOO peo~ le ~he'y attracted for two nigh ts of racmg rsn t . h h h h any Iarger t en w at t e ot er Su rcross races d rew . pe T on y DiStefano pu t him sel f back into th e winner 's ci rcle by ste al ing th e sho w Frida y night ; J immy Ellis pull ed th e rug ou t fro m Jim Pomero y o n Saturd ay ; and Bob Hannah had eno ug h bad lu ck 10 allow Pomeroy to tie him in t he Supercr oss Seri es point sta ndi ngs. S ope u y, upercross. 'Friday Night - To ny 0 takes the bounty on Hannah 6 The wa y ri ders wer e dest ro ying d uring them selves o n -t he -rrack prac tice. the od ds were that not eno ugh wou ld be left once the real racing sta rted. O ne st ra ight section on t he Astrodom e's track co ntained a Dayton a style do u ble jump followed by four sma lle r ju m ps in q uic k succ ession . Some of th e bra ver riders wer e tryi ng to keep thei r th ro tt les pegged over th e dou bl e j um p to see how m any of th e sma ller jum ps they co uld a lso clea r. Ka rsm a kers a nd Ellis gott he fa rt hest, but wh en th ey had to sta rt hauling th e local rider s off to th e hospi tal , reigning Su pe rcorss C ha m pion Jimmy W ein ert go t toget he r with th e ot her riders a nd de ma nded th e jum ps be mad e safer , Pr acti ce was held up hal f an hour as "T he Jammer" d irec ted cha nges to the track . Ii lifi . d f T he irst q ua m er con ra me m ost 0 t he ta lent on hand and perhaps the best raci n th e crowd of some 20 .000 s ec ta torsgwou ld see all night. Roger 11 d h h I h t irh hi p ro wn pu e t eat es 0 WWle'n t'S as .H ower on . I Hentonh . C rOSSI, S un , D un can , Ser, ' a nna errucs a nd Moa tes tagged in behi nd . Bro wn faded back a lillie to third place as J immy a nd Kent rnoved u p to ba il ie ove r the lead . Their tank bashi ng lasted only for three la ps until the "J am m er" pulled away for the win . H h ble to i a n na was neve r a e to Im p ro ve o n hi f hI " S ' d IS o urt .p ace poslll ~n , ermcs a n Moat es failed to qu ah fy a nd would have to try again in the semi . Rick Burgett had gOllen a poor start and made fri ends with th e ha ybal es. He tried 10 get running again . but a broken reed valve in his OW works l b ike ca used th e eng ine to load up with th e resulting DNF fo r th e qu ali fier putting Ricky ou t of th e co m pe ti t ion for th e rem ai nd er of the evening. . J immy Ellis a nd C a ylon Mosier ta ng led for the lead in th e seco nd quali fier as St ack abl e cras he d , T on y DiStefa no placed seco nd . and Terry Cla rk had bike p ro bl ems. Qu a lifier n umber t hree went 10 Texa n Steve Wi se as J im Pom eroy followed from seco nd pla ce a nd Su zuki 's J eff Jennings worked up 10 thi rd. Round four was a nother p aint scra ping affa ir over th e lead between Bultaco's Kenny Zahrt a nd Pent on 's Fra nk Stacy as Ma rt y Sm it h a nd Danny La Porte follo wed a good di stance behind . Don Kudalski dropped o ut with a b roken cha in o n t he borrowed Ca n-A m he was usi ng. A lot of the lOp ta lent h ad al ready fallen along the wayside in the qualifiers with bi ke prob lems Burgett . Clark a nd Kud alski - while Cary Sernics and Marty Moa tes wou ld get a second chance 10 make the fea ture program if they could place in th .. lOp two in the first semi . Also in the race were Karsm akers and Sracka ble who ha d bai led off du ring their heats ' earlier, The ten -tapper became a four way bailie bet wee n the dis placed factory stars t ha t broug ht the specta to rs to their feet for the first time a ll eveni ng , Moates was holdi ng dow n the lead whe n he t h rew a chai n on his Ossa and spent three la ps ge lli ng it fixed , Semics nosedived in a com bination j um plt urn tha t would keep the Kaw asak i rider from go ing 10 the featu re , Ka rsrnak ers was left with t he win as Stacka ble m oved his Mai co into th e last q ua lifying pos it io n , Rich Eierstedt hol eshot th e seco nd semi , but befo re th e new factory Bulraco rider got halfway a ro u nd rhe tra ck his bike blew a no ther gear box, Ri ch joine d teamm at e W a yne Boyer who was cele bra ting his 23 rd co nsecu tive gearbo x fai lu re in the pits. Tony Sum mey m oved up 10 tak e th e win with h is Yamaha as Ossa's C reg Ro bertson pic ked u p the las t tic ke t lef t 10 the fea tu re . 15-lap Consola tio n race T he be longed to Marty Moa tes as he work ed up from th ir d p lace , passi ng Texan Bob by Pickard in second. a nd th en on the sixth lap got arou nd C a ry Se mics for the lead . Ma rt y conti nued pull ing away a few feet a lap on C ary u p 10 th e fina l la p when th e throt t le cable jam med up on his Ossa , Ma rt y pulled off to the side of th e tra ck as C ary aim ed his Ri ck J on es tuned Kawasaki towa rds th e chec kered flag , T he sec re t for winni ng at Hou ston was gelling th e holesh o r. An d everyone kn ew it. When th e ga te sho o k th e ground it was Tony D looking like his old se lf as he pegged th e RH Suzuki down th e high spee d straight and into th e sweeper 10 tak e the lea d , Supercross points leader Bob Hannah was buried ba ck in 15th place with the stock YZ 250·D Yamaha . but by th e time they came around for th e first lap Bob was a lready up to sevent h , The orde r was Tony D. Steve W ise. Pomeroy, J enn ings . Brown . Grossi, Srackabl e, Mosier , Hannah . Howerton , Savitski , Summey , Croft . Boone and Ro bertson in the top 15. Marty Sm ith , J immy Ellis and Da nny La Porte wer e holding the back door closed . al on g with Karsmakers and W einert who had crashe d on the first lap . "Cassin " Caylon Mosier moved up 10 pass teammate Stackable and was fighting "Suga r Bear" Crossi for sixth place after th e fir st few laps. Caylon got in front of th e " Bea r ," but Billy didn't like th at o ne b it. He tried 10 repass Caylon coming off th e big sky ju m p o nly 10 crash as he landed in th e following ba nked turn . T he hard luck Suz uki pilot suffere d a spra ine d wrist which put him o ut of com pet itio n for the week en d , Mid way into th e moto , J immy Ellis was forced to slow dow n a fter he ran his fro nt wheel up the back end of W ein ert 's Kaw asaki an d co uld n' t keep the Can -Am poi nted where he wa nted it 10 go . T he o nly rider reall y im proving his posi tion was Hannah who had to lite ra lly fig ht for every inch o n th e tig ht co urse as he m oved up to fo urt h place. Bob was slowly closing o n Pomer oy and J enn ings as they tried 10 see who would keep second place. " Bim bo" fina lly won the a rgument on th e last lap , th en Hannah slipped by as well , with everyo ne forc ed 10 'play follow th e leader on the o ne lane slot car track: Tony D found his lead increasing each lap as his Alan Hahn prepared Suzuki almost gu ided itsel f around in th e g roove. As they crossed the finish lin e th e score sheets read : Pomeroy, Hannah, DiSt efano , Jennings , W ise. Mosier, Howerton , Stackable, Boone and Savitski . "T ha t win was a lon g time coming," said Tony. swea ting in the humid night air. It also coll ected him a $ 1,000 bounty wh ich promoter Pace Managem ent had posted to anyone who could SlOp Bob Hannah 's winning streak, " [ got a ba d start ," claimed Bob , feeli ng no t at all disappointed o ver the break in his winning stre a k, "and you goua ha ve a good sta rt here or it doesn't mail er how good yo u ride. " Saturday Night - Capta in Coba lt makes Bimbo a bridesmaid again After a mediocre show the night before , the 25, 000 fans who turned out for th e second half of the ex h ibit ion on Saturday night found themselves getting a lot bett er d eal. The racing got hot right from th e beginning with the qualifiers after _the AMA reshuffled the lineup to keep a ll the fast guys out of the same heats. Round on e in the qualifiers went to " H urrica ne" Hannah as Suzuki's Jeff Jennings co nt in ued to show the spark he had lit th e evening before by moving up to pass Terry Clark and fini shing second. Chuck Sun and Steve Sra ckable tangled cables to qua lify in th e last transfer spot behind Roger Brown in fifth . with the decision going to th e factory Husky rider. Hannah hardly seem ed fazed by the banner some Mick ey Boone fa ns had hung up

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