Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

The Honda winning duo of Marty Smith (91 and Tommy Croft (161 on one of the downhill SOOcc National Motocross - Round two Ronda's Smith and Croft fly with spirit at St. Louis By Jim Gianatsis ST. PETERS , MO ,jULY 24 The Honda steamroller paved the course at Cycle World U.S.A.,as Marty Smith and Tommy Croft pulled down the top two spots in round two of the Mr. PIBB 500cc National Championsh ip MX Series- this weekend. While the SoCal riders collected the big bucks, Texas stars Steve Stackable and Kent How erton , who had dominated the series ' opener the weekend before , suffered mechan ical problems ' in Sunday's second moto , knocking bo th out of their top spots in the point standings. Suzuki's Tony DiStefano took third overall in his b id to be the first rider to win two National titles in one season. Motoona 6 The weather and its near 100· temperatures once again were a determing fac tor in the racing as Croft and Sm ith left the remaining field of 38 thinking they were up against .a visual "hea t wa ve" when all th ey saw was blurred red after th e gate dropped for the op ening moto. , Croft had the lead ahead of Marty as th ey pulled away from Yamaha's Pierre Karsmakers , Husky's How erton , Bultaco's Kenny Zahrt , Honda's jim Pomeroy , Maicos Sta ckable , Yamaha's Bob Hannah , DiStefano and Yamaha's Rick Burgett. After following his teammate for six laps Marty pulled up the throttle slide on his Da ve Arnold-prepared RC400 works Honda and edged on by Tommy to show who was the team leader . "W e were both cruisin ' . We kn ew if we went too fast it would tire us out, " Sm ith exp lained how he and Croft set th eir pace th e rest of th e way to th e checkered flag. "T he re was no use in .ta king a chance on cr ashi ng in to each other. " . T om my was e q u a lly co nce rned about not trying too ha rd - "It was a piece of cheese cake . After Ma rt y go t b y m e I just se t my pa c e o n him .. . unless h e cras h ed .. . I j ust . wanted us to finish one-two ." jim Pom eroy made a strong charge to move up and join his H onda teammates around th e midpoint of th e m or o , but onl y succeede d in exhausting himself in th e hea t and d ropped back to even th aft er cha llenging Howerton for fourth spot. Pierre . maintained his th ird spot through sheer d etermination the entire 45 minutes, but th e effort would leav e him with all his strength go ne in th e final round . Stackable rode smoo th ly to finish fifth ahead of DiSt efan o . Ga ylon Mosier m ight have passed his Ma ico teamma te , Stackable , as he used shee r guts to blast his wa y up from a 28th place start to eigh th before a brok en cha in made the whole effo rt fru itless. The well -prepared t r ac k pla yed havoc with T eam Yamaha as the deep. tacky berms bent the b ra ke and shift levers on bot h Bu rgett's and Hann ah's bikes a nd t hey required repea ted ~t ops in th e mech anic's signa ling a rea for repa irs. Mototwo T he seco n d 45 -m in u te sessio n u nfolded into th e best raee of th e you ng series so far and would see mor e leaders th an a nyone co uld remember at a nyone previous Na tional. Karsmak e rs bo lte d h is OW26 Yam a ha out of th e ga te first . ta iled by Sem ics, Sm ith. Sta ckable , DiStefano. Howerton , Burgett and Gary j on es. Ri ght b eh ind th e previous 250 cc N a t io n a l ch a m p (j ones}, T omm y Croft th ou ght his chance for a n overall win was gon e as he ran into th e back of Mosier's Mai co . " I tipped over the re in th e th ird turn aft er th e sta rt a nd cou ld n't get ba ck to m y bike until the entire field went by." W orkin g back up from dead -last. T omahawk Tom my would be up in si xt h before the r a ce e nd ed . Un fo rt u nately only mecha nic Ro y T urner would keep tra ck of his rid er' s progress because everyon e else's eyes wer e on the lead. How erton and Stackable b oth retired to th e pits on the openi ng lap to to ug he n the cha nce of a Texa n repeat ing as 500cc ch a m p. Kent sheared a gea rbox countersh a ft , a problem his Husky had suffered twice in th e 1976 Trans -AMA . St e ve colla psed his Ma ico's front fork on an ext re mely rough a nd fast downhill afte r bot tomin g-out at th e base of th e hill and cra shing int o a fe nce. It ha ppen ed so fast Stac ka ble co u ld n 't tell if the hill or his bike's fork ca used him to zero in on th e tra cksid e fence . Karsmakers was makin g a valiant effort for th e overall win , wh ich might hav e been possibl e with Croft down in th e pack and Sm ith losin g fou r pla ces when he boggled a turn. The effort and th e heat were more than Pierre could take a t 20 m inutes into th e m ot o . No dding his head from sid e-to side , bouncin g from one sid e of th e tra ck to the ot he r and co nti nuo usly losing co n trol, th e Yam a ha team sig n a led Ka rsmakers int o th e pits befor e th e effect of heat ex ha ustion ca used h im to get hurt. Karsm akers wasn't a lo ne as numerous rid er s wer e pulling off the track , wilted from th e hea t and humidity. " Lum be rjack" Bu rgett kep t hop es h igh in th e Yamaha ca m p as h e wheeled his O W400 past Sem ics a nd into th e lead ju st as Pierre pull ed off; T his was kid 's stuff co m p a red to a d a y of loggin g in th e Oregon fores ts a nd little R icky began riding off into th e distance . For five la ps th e gap inc reased on Semi cs, wh o wa s ha ving his own p roblem s with a n u nbelieveable Marty T ripes on th e 351cc Harley-Davidson . T ri pes had co me up ou t of nowhere and was passing eve rybo dy . Suddenl y: Burgett co uld n' t believe h is luck - or lack th ereof - when he landed at th e bottom of th e hill wh ich put St a ckable o u t of com m issio n and found h is handleb ar ends bent d own to h is knees. The force of th e landing off the hill twisted th e steel like a pret zel. Semics was beginnin g to think h is KX4 00 Kawasaki was never going to get a shot a t th e lead . becau se just as Burgett was forced to slow with his twisted bars, T ripes el bowed his way by into first spot. T he some 6,000 spectators crowd ing th e fencin g wen t wild . No one could believe that Marty Tripes was leading th e National on a Harley! L eas t o f all th e Harley me chanics who hadn't learned how to wri te " I " on the cha lkboard like th eir colleagu es on the Grand N at ional circuit ca n do in their sleep. T he orange a nd black H -D effort proved short-lived, th ough , as Smit ~ sai d afte rwa rds . " !t was just too hot to cha rge a ll th e way throu gh and ex pect to fin ish. " And sure enough, a fter two laps o f g lo ry for the Am er ican manuf acturer , Tripes began to fade like an Eskim o in the Sahara . T wo more laps and he had collapsed on the side of the tra ck . Finally, Semics had th e lead. But wait! With j ust three laps to go, Marty Smi th had reworked his way back u p fro m sevent h spot to seco nd and was closing fas t. Sem ics tried to find some more th rottle ca b le but the gap kep t sh ri n ki ng . It look ed like Marty wou ld ca tc h Gary to round out a per fect d ay of ba ck -to-hack moto wins. but as th ey entered th e last lap Semics had just eno ugh stren gth in reserve to sta y t he cha rge . Sem ics took h is Ri ck j ones-wr enched Kawasak i ac ross th e lin e 10 feet ahead of Sm ith , with Hannah . Tony D . Husky's Chuck Sun . Croft . Burgett , Eiersredt ,

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