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/126281
• (I III , II: ~ COt t· t- r-- en .... ~ $-< V ..0 0 .;..J U 0 rrop. opp. page) Hannah leads the pack .with Stackable and Smith at hi s heels. (Bottom. opp. page) Th e Hurricane goes ape. swinging throu gh the trees, (A bov e left) Tony D leads Pomeroy. (A bov e) Husky's Chuck Sun won the Support class . (Below) Roger D got the gold by (below left) blasting through the glop. only 10 minu tes , once again bringing H a n na h to a skidding halt when the guide dropped and the chain jammed the rear wheel. This time it took eve n longer to restart , and Hannah rode to an eventual 17th place moto finish for sixth overall. Could DeCoster have caught him if the part hadn't failed? "I think it would have been close ," Roger said afterward . "I feel that my concentration was not sh arp in the first moto - I've had th e flu .' In the last 15 minutes (of the second moto) I started catching u p a couple seconds a lap - I started to get mad a t myself I think maybe I cou ld have caught him , but it wou ld have been close ." "L 'rn doin ' something wrong , " Hannah said dej ectedly, "That's for su re!" . Ma rty Smith looked strong all day. In round one 'the new AMA 500cc National Champ burned his RC400 up the starting chute in third place behind H a n na h and Steve Stackable, who was riding one of the very trick new Maicos. By th e end of th e seco nd lap , Marty had tak en second pla ce , making him self com fortable the re for the remainder of th e 40 -mi nute-p lustwo -la p race. But set backs in th e seco nd mot o destroyed Ma rt y's bid for the overall win . Riding in second ' place and keeping Hannah in range , Sm ith's Honda spit its chain near the 20 m inute point. He lost six pla ces to DeCost er, J immy Ellis , Jim Pomeroy , H erbert Schmitz , Tommy Croft , and Danny LaPorte while getting it re rai led and rolling. Then , on th e last lap, he got some bad informa tion from th e pits that he had to pass Pomeroy for th e overall win - and he cr ashed trying to do so. As it turned out , passiag Pomeroy would still have left him in second place: luckily, he . was able to keep th at placing with . is fifth in the moro. J im Pomeroy spent ,a good part of his day working up through traffic. Fourteenth off the line in round one, the Honda rider began a solid drive to sixt h pla ce in th e fi;";t 10 minutes , m oved up to fourth within the next 10, then pressured T ony DiStefano for th ird p lace near th e 30 minute mark . Unable to find a wa y around th e 250cc Nat ional Champ, J im was finall y displaced to sixth in the moto wh en teammate Brad La cke y got past in his cha rge from th e back of the pack. T wel ft h at the start of the se~ond rnoto , Pomeroy charged up to head a su per- tigh t, six -man struggle for third place at the 30 minute point. Then only moments later, when Hannah lost his chain, Pomeroy established his second place 'finish ing position behind Roger DeCoster. His 6-2 day was good for third overall behind Smith's 2-5 second. Putting a third factory Honda in the top five , Brad Lackey sta ged a n impressive comeback ride from a disasterous start in the first moto. Bogging the RC400 coming over the gate , Lackey organized a drive that ca rried him up on Tony DiStefano's tail - fifth place - when the two laps-to-go sign came ou t. Approaching the Mid-Ohio rnudhole, both DiStefano and Lackey tried the shorter but sloppy inside line. All four feet came off -rhe pegs as the pair slithered through in close fornation . • Lackey found a shade more traction a nd moved to fourth . But it wasn't over yet. . At the finish line, with the AMA's Carroll Chanlder waving the white last lap flag, Bra d stepped off. It was a quick down and up again pause, but Tony D got past. J im Pomeroy came through and got stopped when he tagged L ackey's rear wheel, bu t they both remounted quickly to hold fifth (Lackey) and sixth places. Eighteenth at th e end of lap one in the second moto, Brad Lackey once again dialed it on and made a second hard-fought ride toward th e front . This time the effort netted him a (Con tinued on page 29) ,7