IAbove) Tony 0 slips under J immy Weinert for second place and another
overall National victory. IBe low)The " Pum ping Iron" man of motocross
Marty Smith signs a delighted fan's shirt.
AMA 2S0cc National MX Series Round Six
Tony D stretches
out strong series
"Iead with Red Bud
.vict ory
By Jim Gianatsis
BUCHANAN , MI , MAY 22
Suzuki's Tony Difitefano put together consisten
moto finishes again' this weekend to tie up t
overall win at the Red Bud 250cc N ationa
Motocross arid .p u ll out a strong points lea
12 .
towards winning his third cons ecutive
National Champion ship. The big " 0 "
placed second both motos on his Al
H ahn-prep ared RH250 'wo rks bik e
while Hond a's Tommy Croft and CanAm 's Jimm y _ Ell is sco re d n earl y
unchallenged wins . Extreme dust held
back the remainder of the horde on
th e . usual ly-excellent Red Bud tra ck ,
D rStefano 's win ca me mainly at the
expense of Honda 's Marty Smith, who
suffered a blown gearbox the first
moto . and a crash the second. Marty
had been Tony's main' rival for the
250 cc C hampions hip as they went
int o this wee kend's race tied on
points.
" I'm fina lly gett in ' it together, "
claimed Tony . All he has to do this
co ming weekend at the Pennsylvania
final 250cc National is to pace himself
safely in bo th motos to assure hi mself
of finishing well a nd taking home the
title.
Moto one
.
If you didn't know better, you'd
hav e sworn that Suzuki's Jeff Jennings
was employing old Europea n-styl
ta ctics for his teammate as Jeff play
spoiler both motoS to take out Tony'
main opposition . In fact, Jennings wa
finally gelling down to exhibiting hi
SoCal skill on the National ci rcuit a
he took the lead in the opening 45
min ute race ahead of Wei ne rt ,
Kes sl e r . S mi th , Ellis, Mosie r
Pomeroy , Stacka b le a nd Tony, T h
pressure fina lly got to him after hold in
off Weinert for 10 mi nu tes into th
rnoto . T he J ammer ha d no time t
react, ("Jenn ings wen t do wn a nd
couldn't avoid crashing into him ."
an d Jeff eventu ally ret ired from th
race with a cut knee. Jimmy quick l
re mounted , bu t no t before T om m
Croft had powered t he RC 250 Hond
on by and into the lead. It was th e las
anyone would see of the bright - re
