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/126280
(A bo ve left) Bob " Hurricane" Hannah dominated the cross-countryl trials and the motocross. (Below left) Spectators lined the hill where the cross-country/trials had its first observed section. (Below) Marshall E;lIie Taylor watches as Diane Cox works on a broken chain . Every rider had.a marshall to keep an eye on them. and Howerton'took the points. P la ces five through 32 were d etermined by a single run to see who co uld come closest to their dial-in . Chris Ca rt er (Ya m) matched his to the th ousandth of a seco nd. . "It's all in tha t rimekeepi ngl" g ri n ne d N a t ional E ndu ro Cha m p Bu rleson afterwards, glancing at an im aginary enduro watch . Possibly it ' was, since, his la st four runs were within I ii Oth of a second of his 13.800 dial -in. There were myriad rules governing the Olympiad . and Dave Aldana was the first to run afoul of them . His TT500 Yamaha lost its oil breather line and he repaired it in the pits with a pair, of pliers and some baling wire . Use ,of too ls outside of official maintenance periods ,was forbidden and Dave was docked three points. Yamaha Road Race , Yamaha won four , Husky two . ConsIstency wIns $JO,OOO first prIze Kawasaki Drag Race Kent Howerton wins world' 5 first, ,Olympiad By Dale Brown IRVINE, CA, SEPT. 17, ORAN GE, CA , SEPT. 18 . - , Although he d id n't win any of the six events comprising the S&W I Monroe Motorcycle O lympiad, Kent H owert on finished in the top ten every tim e to- pocket the ,$l O, OOO firs t prize. The factory Husqvarna motocrosser beat out Kawasaki's Gary Sem ics and Yamaha's Mike Bell 14 for overa ll hon ors. Yamaha's Bob H an n ah , the only ride r to win two events, finished fourth . The individual event winners were: Dick Burleson (drag race) . Mike Bell -(T T ) and Bo b H annah (cross country/trials and motocross) . Motocrossers filled out the first four spots, followed by desert/speedway aces Larry Roeseler and Jim Fishback, motocrosser Gaylon Mosier, Gra nd National winner Rick Hocking, J oh n Hateley (who does a little of almost everything), and motocrosser Marty Tripes. ' Keeping track of th e brands , . The drag race was run under a handicap , o r "d ial-in" system. Riders made four timed practice runs and then had to figure what ela psed time (e.r.) they would dia l in. If they beat that tim e by more th an '1/ 10t h of a second, they " broke ou t" a nd lost. T he races to decid e t he top fou r were run as elimina tions, wit h start hand ica ps according to the e.t , which the rider had chosen . . During practice, Rick Hocking (500 Yam) ran a 12.61 second e.t.. at a little over 100 mph. Most times were in the 13-second bracket, Carl Cranke ' seized his sticky-new Pent on / KTM in practice. After four ro unds the only riders -in competition were: Bu rleson (390 Hus) , Semics, (38 0 Ka w), Howerton, and Mi ke Bast (TT500) . Howerton was bea ten by Semics ( 13.42) and Mike Bast , wh o'd ,shown m icro -secon d reflexes off the line, b roke out of his dial-in and lost to Burleson. In the final round Semics red -lighted (sta rt ed too . soon) and Burleson won automatically. In a match to see who would finish third , Bast red -lighted , Before d ie roa d race practice got underway , there was another race in th e pits duringthe offi cial 10-minute maintenance p eriod . In only 16 minutes Carl Cranke yanked his cylinder. sa nded th e barrel and had the bike back together again . It ran for the rest of the event . but Cranke had suffered broken bones in his foot and a cracked shoulder in last week's ISDT competition and was off pa(;e during the races. Road 'ra ce practice also took its to ll. Ald ana 's carb uretor fla nge broke in half. Jimmy Ellis was out for good with a seized lower end on' a bike he'd picked up locally - not his nation al motocross Can -Am , Bo b Hannah seized, but -the bike cooled down a nd he rode the race. The start was Le Mans -style. Bu rleson and Bast got the jump on the pack. ahead of Fishback (400 Yam), Howerton . and John Fero (400 Yam). Bast dropped out on the second la p with a' busted armature on the m ag. which ended his chances in the Olym p iad . Joh n H a teley (500 Yam) blitzed th rough the pack to ta ke the lea d when Bu rleson dro pped to fourth . Another mover through' the pack was Jim Rice (650 BSA). Coming out of retirement for the event. he started a lmost last , but was coming up fast. ยท \ Hateley led over half the r a ce . Behind him was first Fishback. then (Continued on page 16)