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/126275
Glove,r:'Number one in (Left) The new champ Broc Glover b usts a soft be rm in T exas. IA bov e) Danny laPorte the second best 125 rider in t he U.S.IBelow) Mike Bell jam s around a monorail berm and to a f ourth overall. (Bottom) Pat Richter (47) and laPorte in tight dusty act io n at Cyclerama. By Dave Hawkins SAN ANTONIO , TX , AUG. 14 Broc Glover emerged from the' fin al.l 977 125cc Na tional motocross at Cyclerama with two moto victories and the American Motorcyclist Association (A MA ) 125 National Motocross Championship . Glover went int o th e day's ra cing trailing leader Dann y LaPorte by 10 points. , There were two distinc t differences in factory theory on how to win a Nati ona l Championship p resent in Texas for the final round of th e 125 Series. Yamaha entered every available motocross team member th ey had wh ile Suzuki elected another route and mounted La Por te their hope for the crown , on Gaston Rahier 's bik e from the United States and the Canadian Grands Prix. Yamaha entered Broc Glover and Bob Hannah , thei r regular 125 campaigners, as well as Mike Bell, Rick Burgett and Pierre Karsmakers . There wer e fears that such a te am representation would be unfair tothe Suzuki riders and Mike DiPrete read from the AMA rule book at the riders' meeting: "Un fair riding and blocking would results in a possible suspension from AMA events , including the crurent 500 Nationals." A blue flag was also explained to the riders; if a rider was being lapped and was holdjng back a faster rider he would receive the bl ue flag and if the lapped rider didn't pull over he wou ld then be disqualified. The AMA was taking all t he precautions they could to insure fai r raci ng . . _ -As it tu rned out no such wa rnings were ne eded. as a ll the top riders proved they .were in deed professinals a nd their racing echoed that fact. , Su zuk i put LaPorte on the fastest bike they had and hoped for the best . Rid ers were sea rching for shade as the mechanics pushed the bikes to the starting line. The 100· heat coupled with the usual high Texas h umidity would tax the riders to the max . A~ the gat e fell for the first moto Steve W ise rocketed his Moto-X Fox bike into th e lead with Broc Glover tu cked in right on his fender. As the d ust cleared from the start the AMA ' referee shouted to th e scoring tower that Wise and Pat R ic h te r were pena lized one lap for gate j um p ing . The sta rti ng gate' was a sa d affai r in th e fi rst place and how jumping was detect ed was hard to im agi ne . The gate was vertica l in the m iddle where th e handle .release was bu t on both ends it sloped at a 45· angle. Broc knew what he had to do to have a cha nce at th e titl e a nd by the end of the first lap had an incredible 12' secon d lead over Wise, who led th e pack in a charge after th e Yamaha speeds ter. In the third tum Karsrn akers hit a riderwho fell in front' of him and ' ripped his front brake cable off h is bike . Pierre pulled i n t o 't h e mechanic's area for removal of the " dangling cable which put him out of contention and almost an entir e lap d own. Behind Wise was Pat R ichter , Koji Masuda', R ic k Bu rge tt , Bo b Hanvah , Glen Johnson and Mike Bell . Early in th e mota. Richter got off ha rd a nd twisted his knee so badly that he couldn't bend th e joint - R ich ter dropped off the pace rapidly. Hannah wa s o n the gas a n d roosted past Burgett a nd Masuda to pull into third . L a Porre got off the lin e in 20t h position and because of the dust had to just follow in the first few laps u nt il he could see . Da nny then work ed his wa y into fourth , 10 sec onds behind Hannah. "Bell also began to move and t u cked into sixth beh ind the tr a nsp la n ted Japanese 125 National Champion , Koji Masuda . 7