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/126282
Feet up and slidin', Bad Brad holeshot the second moto. Marty Smith is right behind ·him . Mosier 1131, Boone, Tony 0 (31, and Hanmih (21 lead the pack: Trans-AMA MX Series ~ Round tWo - . ~ Smith topples Lake Sugar Tree, Hurricane and TheRD2-3 By Charles Morey AXTON , VA , OCT. 2 Team Honda's Marty Smith whittled five-time 500cc World Champion Roger DeCoster's seven point Trans-AMA MX Series lead down to a margin of three by piloting his red RC400 6 works H onda to a 2 ·~ overall victory a t the Pep~ilLake Sugar Tree round . 1I:1 0to wms" went . to ! eam Yamaha rld~r ~ob Hurricane Hannah a?d Sm ir h s Honda . teammate JII\' Pomeroy, wh~ fini shed second .a nd f~u rth respecllvely. DeC.oster guided his Suzuki to a ~ ·4 third place at promoter Ave,ry Mills' event as Danny LaPo,:te put in the best ~d~ amon~ th e American T~am Suzuki riders with a 6·6 fifth placing. • ~n "su p port" c~:us ~ctio? - now being called the N,allonal , class Tea~ Husqvar~a sChu ck . Sun contll:lUed to ~ommate the series .by ch.alkl.ng uP. his second overall wm, this lime with an unchallenged 1-1 score . Honda's Warren Reid , Sun's strongest . conte nd er , w'as' forced to work th rough the pack after su ffering slow starts but still picked up second overall with a 2·4 day. Mot o-X Fox rider Mark Barnett, Bultaco ~ce Kenny Zahrt and Ma ico privateer Denny Swartz rounded out the top five. 500cc International Massi ve abuse of th e Lake Sugar , T ree st art ing gate resulted in three ' riders _ J immy Ellis , Gaylon Mosier and Tommy Croft - being penalized one lap for ju m pi ng the gun , and severa l others admitted dumping the clutch too soon as well The in cide n t caused some con trove rsy la ter in the afternoon as attempts were made to protest the penalties put on only three, but th ey ca me too late and were disallowed by AMA officials. _Mosier crashed as 'the ~86cc Maico hu rdl ed the gate, pitching sideways into DeCoster's path and forcing the former World Cham to take evas ive act ion p ~ ' . . In contrast , ' Ellis kept his ~66cc f~ctory Can-Am under control ~nd le~ JIm Pom.eroy , Harl eY·1?av.dson .s Marty Tripes, Ma.rty Smith. Gerrit Wols ink , Jim Gibson .a n d W est German Herbert Schmitz through the opening lap. A half lap later, T ripes' machine called it quits. "Seized," Marty sai d as he pushed back to the pits. Brad Lackey had gotten off in 10th place but crashed "in third gear go in' . backwards ," breaking the H onda 's fron t brake lever mount . "I tried to hold it but it tangled with that new throttle, so I flipped it over to th e other sid e . Then the, bike started losing power - I don't know why - so I hung it up ," said Lackey of his first roundDNF. Bob Hannah sta rted off unlucky l Sth and could improve it on ly to sevent h placing in the opening rnot o . " I felt terrible ," The Hurricane said , "I didn't ha ve any d rive." "He's b een sick all wee k, ", Hann ah 's mechanic Keith McCarty added . Also on th e sick list was Rog er DeCoster . In the recovery sta ges of a bo ut with the flu , The RD managed to ge t aro un d Mosier a t th e sta rti ng gate , then .c om p leted lap on e in 15th pla ce. Al most 15 minutes into the openi ng moto , J im Pomeroy, who had been working on Ellis , found a way to squeeze past and into th e lead. Smith was close behind , and kept Ellis on his toes as Pomeroy picked up th e pace a nd grad ually moved away. , Gerrit Wolsink was holding down thi rd place with Herbert Schmitz a nd ' Bassett Racing Products -sp onsored Jim Gibson in tow . Tony DiSt efano maintained a seemingly secure seventh place over Danny LaPorte. DeCoster rode in ninth with Mickey Boone holding off Bob Hannah for 10th place . ' Then DeCoster started to mov e. In the n ext 20 minutes he moved ' smoothly around the human obstructions and into third place, a position he 'd hold to the fin ish line. In the meantime , J immy Ellis received word of his one-lap penalty from father George ; he backed off the pa ce , d iscouraged. ,Abou t the same time , gerrit Wolsink's Su zuki began to slow. " T he muffler broke ," Wolsink explained later. The pipe had cracked ' right over the airbox , and hot exhaust ga s was being pumped directly into th e intake . The deteriorating motor performance even t u a ll y dropped Wolsink to 21st place. His luck would not improve in the second moto as th e Dutch dentist drew a bad stan, then . quit when his injured knee began hurting. Jim Pomeroy had built a 20 second lead over Smith, but near the ~O· minute m a rk , he spun out near th e fin ish lin e . He lost 15 seconds restarting, allowing Smith to close to within five and jeopardize his lead , but Sm it h cou ld only knock two more seconds off Pomeroy's lead at the checkered flag , fin ishing three seconds back in second place. DeC ost er finished t h ir d with Schmitz trailing along in fourth . Danny LaPorte closed on Tony DiStefano , but the th ree-time 250cc N at ional Champ held off his Suzuk i . rea m rn a te , keeping his fifth 'placing . Bob Hannah , Mickey Boone, Steve Stackable and Jim Gibson rounded out th e top 10. Round 'two held promise of a classic Smith/Hannah confronta tion as the Honda rider scored a win to the first turn with Hannah's OW~2A Yamaha in his slipstrea m . Tony DiStefano and Jim Pomeroy were also in contention until the turn two mud gremlins put them both on the ground and near the rear as the pack completed lap one. Scorekeepers' pencils did double duty as the riders came past in a blur of tight- packed elbow bumping. Smith came , t hr ou gh first with ' Hannah attached to - his rear fender. Ellis , Lackey, Schmitz, Mosier, Boone and DeCoster. slid past in a rock tempo se x t e t with Ri cky Burgett , Jim Gibson, Pierre Karsmakers , Gary Semics and Danny LaPorte not far behind. DiStefano.was 2~rd ; Pomeroy ~8th .