Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

dou ble-m oto winning rig was raffl ed off to a lucky spect at or after th e race. The Open cla ss bel onged to Plant ,City star John J oyner on his Randy Ne iswencer-tu ned Barney's Yamaha , l AMA MX Manager Mike DiPret e was on hand to view th e fina l ro und of the W in t e r -AM A Se r ies , No I on f r on t a t io n develo ped b et ween c DiPr et e a nd Florid a Series orga n izer Bill West as a nticipated , ex p ected because of West's rece nt Cycle N ews interview. Rider and spectator su p port a t the St. Pet e ra ce proved th at the Florid a series will rem a in strong in comi ng years wit h some 900 Professiona l and Amat eu r ri de rs from a cross North ~ merica a nd some 7,000 spectators a t the fina l race. 125cc John Reinholt clu tch ed ou t the fir st moto holes hot a head of series lea de r Mark Barnett who bogged off th e line . By th e second lap , Ma rk was already out front a nd in co nt ro l followed in third spo t by Da vid J ones, th en Cli fton Lett , Steve Martin a nd Kippy Pierce. Putting on a fa n tas tic cha rge a fte r having been buried off the line , Pierce had moved up to pass Reinhart on lap live an d was soo n closing on Barnett's ~llow jersey. They d isappeared off into th e ba ck section of the tra ck and only Pierce returned , with th e lead firmly in control. "I fell twice, I guess I got to o excited in trying to hold back Kippy, The second -ti me I fell th e engine must ha ve loaded up because I 'cou ld n't get it runn ing," ex p la ined th e 17-yea r -old Team Suzuki ace . "Som e fellows gave him some help to get it runhing," sa id Florida 's likable refer ee Fr eddie Ephrem, "so I had no choice but to disqualify him ," Pierce ch arged on to win th e fir st moto over 20 seco nd s a head o f Reinholt , Brian Myerscough , David Jon es a nd Mike Gu erra. With Barnett ha vin g been elimi n a te d fr om th e first mote 's point s, Kippy Pierce narrowed his seco nd place in th e series points sta nd ings of Barnett by less than a moto win , Mark couldn't take any chances r ac ing Pierce again in th e second' round . Steve Martin put his Yamaha int o temporary lead at th e sta rt of mot o two, tail ed by Reinholt , Lett , J eff Hi cks, th en Pierce and Barnett. At one point Barnett wheeled his way past Pierce as they cha rged to th e lead of th e pack , b ut Pierce repassed Mark with enou gh m omentum to ca rry himself up into th e lead past Reinholt as well. "I really felt good . The bik e was stro ng, a n d we wer e clicking," Kippy said a fte rwa rds . Barnett followed Pier ce up int o second spot a lap lat er , but the pace was too dangerous for th e po ints margin it offered, Mark began to ease up as th e 30 -minute mot o played out, letting Gu erra get his Yamaha past for second spot on the final lap . Barnett held onto third pl ac e and with i\ ! he Florida series 125cc title. 250cc . in . Tony Di'Stef ano c hose to remain . Southern California to ·tra in after th e Sea ttle Supercross rather than return to ih e Florida seri es as expected . His prob lem in th e first two races had nu llified any ch a nce of repeating his twice-p revious Florida series titl es. ~~More th an m aking up for th e D's a bsence was th e Hurricane's prese nce at -the fin al race . T he 250cc class was pre -b illed as :'The Race Of The Day " With a heavy confrontat ion ex pected be tween H annah and Don Kudalski on th e fa ctory H arley. T he fir st Hannah /Ku d al ski confrontation took place in th eir U . The Winter-AMA champs: Don Kudalski (491, John Calathes and Mark Barnett (24) pose with their mechanics. qua lifying mot o . Kudalski 's banzai technique to th e firs t co rner ou tpulled Hannah's clutch fanning with th e stock Yamaha , with Don wheeli eing the orange H arley into the lead just a few feet ahead. For four laps, Don h eld th e lea d as t he Hurricane repeatedl y pressed in th en backed off. . With one lap to go in th e lO-m inute qualifier . . . " I came ou t of a corner, go t in a series of whoops a nd got ou t of sha pe . When I got it straightened ou t I was headed stra igh t for t he infi eld lak e ," rela ted th e Killer as he d ri pdried. " I had to stop to see wh er e he wen t. I never laughed so hard befor e ," was th e Hurri cane 's comment on th e matter. Bob won , wh ile Don would come back and win th e consolation moto to m ak e the transfer to the ma in . Frank Stacy got seri ous a bo u t overcoming th e minor problems whi ch had been affecting him all series lon g and got cookin g for th e fina l event . Frank put his Mot o-X Fox /Penton int o th e lead of th e first mot o a head of Hannah , Tim Welker, Kennv Zahrt , Marty Moat es, Mickey Kes;l er a nd J ohn Cal athes. Kudalski pulled a poor start this tim e, and in an a ttempt to mak e it up qui ckl y, crashed ha rd on the first lap jammin g h is handlebar into his side. Aft er riding on e lap in pain , Don retired from th e moto to put a e nd to th e temporary H annah/Kudalski confrontation , By the fourth lap , Hannah had gotten around Sta cy as expe cted , but Frank held his ground to claim seco nd for th e moto . Marty Moat es was looking strong as well in h is fin al ride for Husky (Ma rty will switch to a LOP Suzuki for the remainder of the yea r) and passed W elker for third spo t. Cal athes got his Ma ico a little too close for Moates' comfort near th e end of the ra ce , foll owed by Ma rk Robill ard , Monte McCoy, Gary Pu stelak a nd J ohn Savi tski . Crashes in turn one held back a number of rider s at th e sta n of th e seco nd mot o as Hannah blasted past ra ce leaders McCoy a nd Kudalski a t the end of the first la p . It fina lly looked like H annah a nd Kudalski wou ld have their race as Don wired his Harley to Bob 's rear fe nder. Don stayed th ere for three laps ge tt ing the bike sidew ays in some ro ugh sand whoop sect io ns as he tried 'to keep the throttl e pegg ed to stay with H a n nah , who see med to be float ing the stoc k Yamaha ac ross the des truc to -style bum ps. H aving gamb le d twi ce a lready today with the Harley and com ing up wit h sna ke eyes , Don wisely decided to back off for th e sa ke of sa fety and fading suspe nsion . A co u p le m or e laps and the back tire went fla t , forcin g him to slow even mor e. The day belon ged to H annah as Sta cy moved up to collect another second spo t ahead of Monte McCoy, J oh n Calathes, Kirk Bigelow a nd David Boles. J ohn Cal athes' win of th e opening se ries ra ce a t Orlando, a nd th e consis tency whic h followed , all owed the little -k nown- o u tsi de -o f-Florid a rider to capture th e 250c c seri es titl e . Open Don KudaIski was reall y inter ested in the Open clas s, where on his final race with a Yamaha , he was hoping to pull off th e seri es titl e . Ironicall y, the th ree fa stest riders in th e class would fail to finis h the second ·mo to. But th at wou ld come later. Mot o one was a n a ll Kudalski sho w with Don leading in a runaw a y fr om flag to flag. Barry Higgins was left way behi nd after a cra sh on lap one as a not her Mai co rider , Ga ry Pu stelak , tried to keep Kudalski from racking up a perfect lap record , T wo laps into th e m o to G ary ca ug h t a n d pa ssed Kudal ski for th e lead - th e first tim e in th e Open cla ss all seri es - bu t it was short -lived as Don was b ack in cont ro l a lap later. Pustelak held onto seco nd spo t for a I -2 Pol ish punch (Ga ry was. a lso raci ng in the 250cc class) a he ad ·o f John Joyner, Sumney, Boon e a nd And erson . Retiring early in th e moto wer e top series co nt ende rs Joe y G ra tton with a brok en foot peg , and fellow Maico rider Sam Da yton, who spe nt a lap in th e pits trying to st raighten his Maico from a crash . Kudalski was really feeling sore fro m his crash in th e 250cc ra ce earlie r a nd whe n he pulled a last pl ace sta n for th e final Open mot o he decid ed to retire to th e p its a fter just one lap . A betwee n th e race tabulati on of po ints sho wed he had a lready won th e Open class title wit h his first moto win . John J oyner ha d na iled th e lead ahead of Boone , with Mickey now ge tt ing back up to working speed with ' his broken foot well he a led , then Wall er and 'Sum m ey. Close behind th em on the opening la p h ad been Sa m Dayton a nd Gary Pustelak , bu t th e two Ma ico ride rs ta ng led bars diving for th e inside lin e of a co rner a nd kn ocked ea ch other rig ht into th e now infamous Sugar Bea r Gr ossi Lake , so named fo r a getoff th ere by Billy G rossi a yea r or so ago . " We ne a rly drownedI" They both spit th e words out with water as they went ba ck in to retrieve th ei r bik es wh ich were h idden in the depths, John Joyner , meanwhile , r an aw ay with th e m oto, and with Kudalski ou t of ac tio n , took th e day's overa ll win as well . It was Kudalski, tho ugh , wh o summed up the 1978 Florid a Winter AMA MX Series for himself and th e o t her r id ers m ost a p p rop r ia te ly afte rwa rds. "Well, after all th ese yea rs I fin all y got that fa ctory ride. There's a lot of people to th ank, but especia lly Harley for ha ving fa ith in me , But if it wasn 't for the Florida series I probably never would ha ve made a name for m yself ou tside of Fl orid a a n d attra cted Na tion a l attention. T he on ly other way is to live and race in Southern California , and not too many rider s can affo rd to d o th a t. The Florida series gi ves eas tern, as well as western riders, the attention th ey deserve. As fa r as organization, this was th e best year yet for th e series, its tracks , and the promot ers, "The re' s reall y one person I need to th ank sp ecific ally. That's th e gu y that always stu ck by me , supported me as a privateer when I ne ed ed a ride , an d su pported m e with enc ou ra ge ment that's my dad." • Results 250cc; 1. Bob Hannah 1,1 IYaml. 2. Frank Stacy 2-2 (Penl. 3 . John Calathes 4,4 (Mail, 4. M on t e McCoy 6 . 3 tva rnl . 5. Mark Robill ard 5,10 (Yaml . 6. St eph an Rhyan 10.7 IKTMI. 7. Gary Pustelak 7,13 IMail. B. Marty Moat es 3.20 IHusl . 9 . David Boles 17.6 (Mai) . 10. Kirk Bigelow6.S IYaml. I I. TIm Welker 13.11 ISuzl. 12. Too Perkins 12.12 (Yam). 13. Don Kudalski -,5 (H-D). 14. J oh n Savit sk i 8,18 (Yam). 15. Henry Turn er 19.9 (S uzl. 16. Ken 2a hrt 9.- IC-AI. 17. Fred Vertucci 11,. ISuzl. lB. Ross W illiam s -,14 (M ail, 19. Bob Runer 14,-ISuzl. 20 . Bo b Shoup -.15 ISuzl. 12Sce CLASS, I . Kip Pierce 1,1 IYaml. 2. John Reinh olt 2.9 ISUl). 3 . M ike Guer ra 5,2 (Yam). 4. Brian Myerscough 3.10 ISuzl. S. Pat Moroney B.S ISuzl. 6. Gerald Watson 9.7 IYaml. 7. David J ones 4.14 lSuzl. B. Michael Jones 7.12 IYaml. 9. Clift on Lett 6,15 15uz), 10. Mark Barnett -.3 (Suz). 11. Randy Kirschbaum 15.8 (Yam). 12. J immy Fitzgerald 11,13 (Suzl. 13 . Anthony Masciarell 17.9 ISuzl. 14. Scott Logston 16.10 (Yam). 15. Steve Abt 12,16 {Suz l. 16. Steve Martin 10,- tvernl. 17. Greg Toyama -,11 (Yam). 18. J on l eak 13.- (Suzl. 19 . Marvin M cDaniel 14,- (Yam) , 20 . Dennis Goodson 19.I 7lSu zl. OPEN: L John Joyner 3,1 {Varni. 2. M ickey Boone 5,2 (Suz). 3, Tony Summey 4.3 (Yam). 4. M ont e A nderson 6,4 (Mai). 5. David Bowman 7,10 (Yaml. 6. Do n Kudalski l ,- (Yam ), 7. John Unt eidt 8,13. 8. Gary Pustelak 2,- (M ail. 9. Frank Gallo 14,7 (KT M ). 10. Frank Thomas 17,6 (Yam), 11. James Edw ard s 13.12 (Yam). 12. Dani el Wa ller ,,5 (Ma l), 13 . Ton y Dredsm en 12,15 (Bul). 14. Alan Pizzino 10,17 (Yaml. 15 , Barry Higgins · ,9 (Mai) , 16 . Bob Collie 8,- (Yam). 17 . Wemyss Sco tt 11,- tMail. 18. Keith Mann -,13 IM ai). 19. Terry Martz - ,14 1Mail. 20. Gary Casper 16.I 9 lSuzl. 7

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