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/126255
Gary aana is your largest .1-0 0.. < GOOD1'YEAR street tire source • In Southern California (213) 341~8474 the . lialn HO USTO N , T X , MA R . 20 What began e ig h t m ont.hs ago .as a see m ingly fa rfetched Idea a n am ateur m ot ocro ss series wit h fina ls a t t he H ou ston As trodome Gold Medal Performance Mike Hannon of Bultaco lnt'I, Ltd. Stoc king Dealers Cycle Goodies West 37012 Tower Way Fremont, CA 94536 Vic's Competition MIC Shop , 6236 Mission Gorge Rd. San Diego, CA 92120 Iron Horse Cycle 6009 Skyway Paradise, CA 95969 ~ \ Q.¥'( : .:::" .... - , Dealer inquiry to: 44~ Glacier Aven ue San Diego. California 92120 (714)~i'~~S76S I would like to eddr... this' message t o the , idet-e and cs.... rs of th e folaowing brands. SUZUKI: The 2 new modets of RM 250'5 ere the finest Suzukis ever made and are probably the best 2 stroke • recees in the world today. HONDA: You Honda people have com plained foo yeatS about not having a racer · wel" me CR 250'5 a' e great and they itte dirt cheap - there ar: thousand s of used e ones around, if vou cannot afford a new one . CAN AM: This is the most powerful 250 eng ine going. The y ar e the result of years of power dlNelopmenl and are made rin"1 nell t door. Ducati - Moto Guzzi Prompt parts service We stock parts for all models back to 1960 Atlas Cycle · 6708 E 11th St. Tul sa,1lk la. .(9181835-9lr.;9 Mike Patrick 's KAWASAKI : The KX 250 Kawasaki has the larges t trans.. fer port area 0 1 the new gene ration of bikes and has a treme nd ou s po tential as a winOPI'. I did not m ent ion Yamaha . Hartey DavidsOn. Buttaco Of Ossa becau se we already kno w they are prove n wi n ner~ Any a t these 8 eng ines are ready and willi ng 1 win a 0 Nat iona l Chdmpionship; What I am trying to say is let 's gel to wo rk. l for one am tired of seeing 1 or 2 brand s w in every tim e, aren.'t you? It I lett out yo ur brand, do n't despair , th ere aff!' 4 more just as good as thos e noled. •.".•••• R 34 24 15 Brown Rd.• St. Louis, M o. 63114 Phone 314/426-6959 or call Charley Chapple 313n35-5453 Bend's Welding Works' 'Heliare Specialist' 22m E. 28th St.. Signal HiD, CA 90801 213-426-4415 'Mag nafluxing . Glassbead Blast ing Cadm ium Plating Broken Case Repair 1 1,150 Amateur invade Houston Astrodome for GNC Final By Pete Szilagyi ang ' Chain - Texans Billy Harrison (534) and Rick Blackwell (538) move in on Cajun Scott Simmons In) at the start of a 250 Expert eliminator heat at the Astrodome. - cu lminated roday with what was pro bab ly the la rgest a.nd . m ost a mbi tio us m orocross event : In histor y, t he Grand National Champio ns hi p fina le. . Som e 1,150 riders, com peting . for $10 ,000 in cash and trophies, as well as contingencies from American Honda and se ver a l m anufacturers of m o tocross accessori es, p articipated in GNC champions hi ps and , in the proce ss , t urn ed the Astrod~m e parking lot and nearby motels lI;'to their private party grounds. With th em they brought a couple m illion dollars wort h of m otor homes and vans , eno ugh pa re nts, b ud dies and gi rl friends to fill a m edium -size city, and eno ugh beer a nd Ga torade to end th e C al ifornia d ro ught. To q ualify for the fina ls nearly 3. 000 ri ders entered qual ifyin g ra ces, m ost of them held in late 197 6, at 24 d iff er ent tracks if! sta tes stretching fro m New Mexico to Florida . In all , there were ove r 12 ,000 entries in the qualifyin g series. .Rid er s came from ~s fa r north as Ohio and Pennsylvama and as far south as Peru. To corn muni cate with them throughout the series cost the p romoter about 20 ,000 bucks in postage, The fin a ls were held on the Sunday fo llowing the Friday and Saturday ni gh t AMA Supercross series races and used basically the sa me Ast rodom e tra ck layout. Immed ia tely following the Saturd a y night Su percross event, T he g ro unds crew went to work on the GNC tr ack , reducing th e size of a cou p le of the jum ps and bypassing some of the turns that ha d caused traflice to back up d uring the pro races. Promptly a t 7 a .m . Su nd a y practice began . Motos sta rted a t 9 a .m. and ran in rapid succession until 10 p .m. that night wit h only two 30 ·minute in termissions to m anicure the track . Scoring was modified vers ion of a • thenew Su pe rcross format , wit h riders competing in a series of elimination races to determine the 24 riders in .I each of the 12 classes who wou ld ride in the finals . There were no con- ; solation races as such , but middle ec he lo n h e at ' race fi n ish ers were allowed to race in a second series of eli mi n a tion rnotos to get a chance at the finals. 1 Many of the seve ral thousand spec· tators , among them m embers of civic grou ps, boys clu bs and charitable . orga niza tions wh o were given fre e tickets, stayed for the entire 13 hours of racing and th e su bseq uen t trop hy' and ca sh presenta tion , p resided over A by J im m y Ellis, win ner of the previo.us night 's Sup ercross event. E ilts , Pomero y, Hannah and the reat ca n keep a cro wd on its feet , but they can't ma tch th e circus conducted by , say, a few dozen 125 Novices on the tight Astrodome track. One of the goals of GNC National Director Jerry Su rber, A H oustonite who by 'the light of d ay is a regional sa les m anager for the Ford Motor Co. , was to introduce stadium motocross to th e pu bl ic on a more grass roots level than th e Supercross series. hence the free tick ets . (W hen yo u have 60 ,000 seats to fill , you can afford to be gen erous .) It was ap· paren tly a success. On that Sunday neithe r paid nor comp admissions would have go ne back to their TV's to watch Marlin Perkins wrestle the Loch Ness m onster , and a few Boy Scou ts who sn uck up to the m ezzanine level wo uld have traded all their merit badges for just one more moto. Emerging as winners of the Expert races were sever al riders wh o undoub. redly caught the eye of factory re ps at ten d ing the races . Rick y Bla ckwell , an Austin , T exas , rider who is pa rt ia lly sponsored on a 250 Penton by Penton Central, rode most of the 250 Expert final in third p la ce behind Bill Moyer and the Kip py Pierce from Seminole , Fla . O n' the seco nd from the last la p Blackwell ed ge d a wh eel insi de Moyer . and hea ded after Pierce's Su zuk i. but Pierce was still long gone at the fin ish. Dicky Turnbo and Billy Harrison, two we Il -kn own T e xas ex perts , we r e behind Moyer. ~ •