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/126267
ILeft! Jim Pomeroy became the first American to win a Grand Prix moto at Carlsbad, He led the first race wire-to-wire. Brad Lackey labovel put together two conslstent rides to finish third overall, Brad had been sick the week before the USGP and lacked stamina; who knows what he would have done if he had felt good7lBelowl After Marty Tri~es' Harley-Dl!vidson " b ro k~ " the scale at sign-in on a slick floor the remainder of the blkes were weighed in the pits, This is the trick Yamaha of Bengt Aberg. Bengt's Car lsbad effort was halted by a blown head gasket in the first moto. By Dave Hawkins CAR LSB AD, CA ,JUNE 19 Gerrit Wolsink (Suz) won his fourth -straight United States 500cc Motocross Grand Prix at Carlsbad Sunday, tieing with Heikki Mikkola (Yam) on points but earning victory on the basis of total e lapsed time. " Everyth in g seems to click for me at t his track:' said Cerrit after being declared the win ner . "So mehow I put it toget he r here." Ma n y sp ect ators left the ' track th inking tha t Mikkola , the cu rrent 500cc World Championship Points leader , had won with his fourth in th e first moto a nd second-mote win, vers us Wolsink's th ird in the firs t moto a nd second in the seco nd moto, Bu t after a sco ring delay a nd in sp ite of protest file d b y M ikko la , W olsi n k was declared the winner by I S seconds in the combined first and seco nd 'm oto time totals, using the O lym p ic scoring system . Bu t even if he d id n 't get the overall first place money, Mik kola stretched h is World Championship points lead even furthe r over cu rrent title holder R oger DeCoster "(Suz). After beating Mikkola in the first moto with a second place , DeC oster collided with Brad La ckey (Hon) in the second moto after Lackey fell down while leading. Mikkola passed the crash to ta ke the lead, a nd DeC ost er retired fro m the race with ben t forks . In th e past th ree yea rs, Wolsink ha d won going aw ay, and by cr ash ing into the wall a nd knoc ki ng himself out. Th is year he sai d , " 1 neve r q uit in the motos , as long as you're not in first place there is always some one to try and catch." No t all the Europea ns could m ake it over for the U .S. round . Graham Noyce was hospital ized with ra ce inj u r ies , and W ill i Bauer, Arn e Lindfors and Adolf Weil wer e also noshows. And th e p erfo rm a n ce of American rid ers m ay h ave m ad e the Europeans who did show up wish they were some pl ace else . A walk through the pits would convince anyone that this was indeed a World Championship ro und, wit h the finest in m ot oc ross tech no logy on display Team Suzuki had new work bikes for DeCoster and W o lsin k . co nce rn ing th e lastest Hondas, Brad Lackey sa id, " I'm sure we ha ve the best moto rcycle out there - our suspension is better a nd they are fast . " Karsmaker's spare Yama ha had a trick remote rese rvoir for his monoshock bolted onto th e swingarm. Joh n Ba nks' CCM and Bengt Aberg's TT500 added four-stroke t hunder. ) ones ' AMMEX was on hand to debut the new Open class prototype. From the Team Suzuki's trucks with a n entire machine shop ' inside and Team Harley-Davidson's bus to the single borrowed van of Mikkola the pits were a serious place. Everyone knew that De-Coster desperately needed the points to retain a chance of winning the titl e for a record sixth tim e. The track was really rough. Last yea r there were complain ts that the track was n't challenging. This yea r, t he tra ck tested bot h r id e r and machine to the lim its. On Satu rday La ckey said , "It needs more water. It should be really muddy on Sunday." Lackey go t his wish - muddy it was. The co urse was wa te red most of t he n ight , and . o n Sund a y wh en Wolsink saw t he track. he sai d with glee in his eye. "The tra ck looks really good ." Tommy Cr oft a lso co m me nted on the t rack. " If they want to bu ild a challenging track it's alright with us (Americans) . We' ll give them a hell of race a nywhere!" - And that the Americans did . As the gate dropped to start the first International moto Ji m Pomeroy had 7