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/126276
(Top) Marty Smith leads Bob Hannah through one of Georgia's turns. At the finish the positions were reversed and Hannah moved into the senes lead.IAbove) Mike 8elll339) captured the Support title with a 1ยท1, here in the first tum he was fourth but had the le~ by turn two. series (25 points) advantage going into the Atlanta National. Marty was riding with a partially healed sprained wrist , caused by a crash at the Charlotte 500cc race two weekends before, and was expec ted to take things easy. " I hope he doesn't try to go for it " with Hannah or DiStefano who are out to narrow his lead . . . just stay ba ck and ride easy. We learned from th e 250cc series not to ta ke chances," said mec hanic Dave Arnold. But Hannah was out to grab glory , Bob made the det ermined statement. " It looks like I'll just ha ve to make the 500s my series th is year." It was hardl y a nyt hi ng Sm ith wanted to hea r . Bob also wanted to win to look good for 15 year-old sister T ammy, .down from her hom e in Canada, who had only once before seen her big brother ride and didn't realize until today how fast Bob was. Moto One AMA /Mr.PIBB SOOcc National MX Series - Round l ive . Rannah ~akes po. 'nt lead w h ile crashes pave the way. By Jim Gianatsis DALLAS . GA. AUG. 21- In a fantastic display of riding ability, Bob ' "Hurricane" Hannah flew ' to victory in both rnotos of the 96 Rock sponsored Atlanta National to take the series point lead in the Mr. Pibb 6 500cc National Motocross Championship with one racestill to be run. Hannah's victory on his Keith McCarty prepared factory Yamaha OW 26 took what had been just a few hours before a strong points lead away from Marty Smith 'a nd Honda . Finishing second overall was Maico's Steve Stackable on the Bernie Thompson prepared machine ahead of Tommy Croft with the RC 400 works Honda wrenched by Roy Turner. The stage for Hannah's bid to win the 500cc National Championship. was at Burnt Hickory Motocross where the natural terrain course covered with sawdust provided one of the best tracks on the National circuit this year . Additionally" a new backwards falling starting gate which pleased the riders, and the expert annoucing of the AMA's Dave Des~ain pleased: the crowd. The day ofracmg ended with a rock band concert. Marty Smith was leading the 500cc Suzukits Koji Ma suda and Kawasaki's Gary Sernics traded the holeshot and the lead through tum one for the opening moto, but before the first lap ended Ga ry was already passing his way back to an eventual 11th place finish as Koji tried to hold off a revived civil war . North Carolina's Mickey Boone on th e S&M Cycle Suzuki and Alabama's Furman Gray were moving the Mason-Dixon line into the Japanese ch a m p 's territory as they both slipped by on the second lap for th e lead. Koji stepped off, but would remount to work back up to 14th spot. As Tony DeiStefano put it . "Having all the Underdogs out front really gave the crowd something to scream about." Montesa's Mickey Kessler joined the fray up front also to move int o second spot at one point as Gray and Boone exchanged their lead back and forth . Not too far behind were the likes of Howerton , Mosier , DiStefano, Grossi; Tripes, LaPorte, Staten and Marty Smith. And what of Hannah? Back in the . first turn after the start, " People crashed mel It broke the clutch lever off and I had to hold it on the handlebar the whole moto to keep it from getting tangled up in the front wheel. It was the first time in six months I hadn't fanned the clutch." When he got rruckin', it was from last position, considering the other two riders who went down with him . Smith wasn't to ' p r ofit from Hannah's misfortune. Marty was nailed hard by a slower rider as he tried to pass in a jump-turn. By the time he was back in working order and underway he had lost two laps. Tony DiStefano received the pit board signal from Al Hahn that Hannah and Smith were at the back of the pack, so the Suzuki/Full Houser picked up his pace in hopes of moving up from his third spot in the points standings. It was now the ninth lap and Tony had just edged his way outside of HOwerton and next to Kessler as they funneled down into a tight right bander. Kessler had the line , forcing DiStefano to brake suddenly and cut over into Howerton. Kent had his foot out for the tum and somehow it was sucked up int o Tony's rear wheel and the two reigning National Champions went down in tangle of bikes and bodies. They remounted slowly, with Kent's injured foot and an injured shoulder suffered by Tony D. keeping them from maintaining any kind of scoring positions. Bob Hannah meanwhile, to the thrill of some 7,000 screaming spectators was dynamiting his way up through the field with his throttle pegged on the highspeed setting for the Burnt Hickey course. By the II th lap , just halfway through the 45 minute moto, the Hurricane Kid was in first place. The crowd was in an uproar and waving wildly . In only 25 ' minutes, he had come from the back of the pack to first place riding without a clutch, trying to hold dangling lever and cable to the handlebar of his Yamaha! The Southern stars who led the first half of the moto had turned into fading stars and dropped back. Steve Stackable was holding . down second spot with his Maico at the finish line b ehind Hannah and ahead of teammate Gaylon Mosier , but Mickey Boone held onto fourth spot ahead of Suzuki's Billy Grossi and Harley's Rex Staten . Another outstand ing performance of th e moto had to go to Honda's young Warren' Reid who secu red seventh place in his first ever ride on an Open class bike. Teammate Croft looked good in the earlier going of the moto while dicing at the front of the pack. but two thrown chains and a stalled engine left him in 10th behind Chuck Sun and Mickey Kessler. m e- Moto Two Ma rt y Smith kn ew th e 500 cc _ Cham pionship he wanted was now on th e line. Hannah had closed the points gap in the first motoxwith his win . wh ile Ma rt y scored no poi nts wha tsoever. leaving th e two facto ry lead ers tied for the title . Nursing the pain of his injured wrist and a sore leg. Marty d ug o ut a n exce llenrsra rt to move into th e lead before the first lap ended. with Boone . DiStefano . Croft. LaP o rt e a nd Sta ckabl e beh in d. Hanna h thou g h . was moving up qu ickly from his middl e of the pa ck sta rt . Each la p fou r to five riders fell to Bob's precision man euvers and on lap six he was breathing down Ma rty's exhaust pip t. " I just rode, " said the Hurricane, which hardly described the way he and Marty ran side by side for the next five laps, driving the crowd into a frenzy of excitement and waving arms, to the accompaniment of screams and yells. , They passed and repassed more times than anyone could keep count each lap: Marty kept to the proper lines on the track, using tlie awesome acceleration of the ~OOcc red demon under his control to do his bidding. Bob was master of the course, and in the end rid ing skill, as he demonstrated he could use any line on any portion of the track to weave and wheel the 400cc lightning streak. of his own around Marty. ~, . " Before the race I heard from someone that Smith said I couldn't