Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

Turn one in the final event saw Gary Semics 1111 leadi ng Steve W ise (21 1 Jimmy Ellis (directly behind WISeI. Bob Hannah 111 Gaylon Mosier 112l. Marty Tripes . . 1271. Rich Eierstedt (201. Jimmy We inert 1171 and Warren Reid 1151 Ellis !insetl took over when Wise stalled his motor. . Toyota Supercross Series - Round one Connecticut Yankee holds court in the Kingdome By Charles M orey SEATTLE, WA, FEB . 18 Pace Management promoted it; the American Motorcyclist Association sanctioned it ; the Sea ttlePost- In telligen cer presented it; Toyota Motor Sales, USA and the Mr. PiBB Bottlers. in varying degrees , sponsored it; Seattle's King County Stadium , th K' d h d '. d ~ mg orn e, ouse It , an a paid attendanc~ of 32,019 spe ctators watched It. 6 It was the Yamaha Gold Cup Super . cross. A Connecticut Yankee named Jimmy Ellis with a bright red , completewith -factory-backing Honda won it. "T his year is starting off greatl" said Ellis flashing a broad grin . His pa rents a ~d t~ammates , who were covering him with everyth ing from backpats to m~>therly hugs to (litera lly) the Honda shirts off th eir backs , could only agree. The op ening round of the 1978 Toyota Supercross Series represents an about-face for Ellis. This season promi.ses , through his a~socia~ion with Amencan Honda, to relieve him of th e burdens that come with developing a prototype motorcycle and replace them with the opportunity to concentrate on winning with a proven one. Backing Ellis' effort at Seattle was another new face on the Honda team : Marty Tripes. Tripes too is starting the new season with a clean slate. His past reputation of bouncing from spons or to spon'or has been outdated by a more ma t ure atti tude , " and th e you ng Californian has impressed the honchos at Team Hond a. ~e was accep ted (0'. ride on a trial baSIS a~ first.: now he s a ~ont ra c ted team n der In go od sta nd ing. T hat pos itio n was earn ed wh en h e demonstrated h is mental preparedness and dependabilit y in several even ts leading into Seattle. They already knew he could ride. Third ' at Seat tl e was th e " Hu rri~a ne " 1?ob Hannah. Alw~ys a threat In N":t~onal a nd International class ~O~pe~l ~lOn , Hannah ~,:,ffe red a few. I~dlgn~tles . at t.he Klng?ome begu:lnlng with. his ~ettlng stuck In the star~lng ~ate In hIS he~t race and endin g with a get -of~ In th~ fin:,l event.. He came .bac~ Impresslv~ly I~ b?th Inst~nces : It simply wasn thIs mght to Win. Fourth place probably surprised its holder more than it did anyone else . Kent Howerton wa s battling to overcome the effects of a flu-like attack that hit him in th e early morning hours on ra ce day. He'd spent most of the night awake suffering nausea , and he sat in the pits that night wrapped in a warm j acket and wearing a knit cap trying to fight off the chills. Under such conditions, his performance in th e star-stu dded field was amazing. Rounding out the top five was Gaylon Mosie r , Team Ka wasak i's choice to represent the Big K in AMA 125cc National Championship racing this year. Mosier got off the line almost exactly midpack in the final event and climbed to his eve n tu a l position passing many of the country's finest along the way . Qu a lifying motos As reigning Supercross Champion Bob Hannah yan ked his front wheel from where it had jammed into the backward -falling start gate, Team Honda 's Steve W ise ro cketed his CR250R in to the ·Iea d . H is teammate AMA 500cc Nat ional Champion Marty Smith and Maico rider James Lesniewski weren't far behind. "I got hung up on the gate and killed my engine," Hannah shrugged when the first of four IO-Iap heat races was over. But by the end of his brief, . frant ic ride from dead last, Hannah had elbowed his way up into second p lace , easily qualifying for the final event . T ommy Croft rode in fourth , but only two la ps into the qualifying moto he found a slick spot where the dirt had worn through to the Kingdome's concrete floor , and the Honda spun out. -H is throttle was stuck, and the machine went down again as he tried to restart. On lap five , under pressure from the flying Hurricane, Marty Smith slipped down on the same concrete patch that . had dumped Croft. The delay was enough to assure Hannah's safe second placing behind Steve Wise. Marty re m ou nted to score a third ahead of Le sniewski and Yamaha -mounted Tony Wankel. Qual ifying moto number two hit the tra ck foll ow ing an unscheduled in term ission for th e earthmovers to J bury the offending swatch of bare concrete. By now , the 32,000 spectators were primed for action, thanks partly to announcer Larry Huffman's heavymetal larnyx and largely to the introduction of Washington's own Jim Pomeroy. Pomeroy took it seriously, jetting his Arne Beamon-tuned Honda to an im med ia te lead over Can-Am teamster Gary Semics, Yamaha-mounted "[ohn Boy" Savitski and Team Suzuki's Danny LaPorte. . By lap three , Savitski had dropped from the frontrunners, and LaPorte had crashed , restarting seventh . Pomeroy led , chased by Semics and Can-Am's other supported rider Rich Eierstedt. Ka wa sa ki's Steve Stackable and Yamaha veteran Pierre Karsmakers were charging up from their seventh and eighth place starting positions , Danny LaPorte was with them, trying to regain p laces lost in his get-off. Of the three, Karsmakers seemed most determined, and he proved it by passing Doth Semics and Eie rstedt in the final laps for a second placing behind Pomeroy, the crowd favorite. Eierstedt's exhaust broke , costing him some of tha t Can-Am horsep ower , but he still managed to edge teammate Semics . L a Po rte and S t a c k a b le followed in fourth and fifth . So far , Team Honda had taken twofor-two in heat race wins , It was privateer Suzuki rider Pat Jacobson who led at the start of qualifier number three, but Bassett Racing Products-sponsored "Rocket Rex" Staten was close behind. When Jacobson fell one- ha lf lap into th e moto, Staten took over . Keepin g Rex honest, however, was

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