Into Daytona's turn one it was Marty Tripes (27), Marty Smith (3), J immy Ellis (18), Mark Barnett 1241. Mickey Boone 119), John Calathes 1
96), Barry Higgins (474) aoo
Kawasaki 's Jimmy Weinert scored,f ifth before a large crowd in Daytona.
Toyota Supercross Series
Tripes still
By Charles Morey
DAYTON A BEAC H , FL , MA R . 12
Seemingly irrepressible Marty Tripes added
-another victory to his already impressive Toyota
Supercross Series win-count by leading a 1-2-3
Team Honda rout of the Daytona International
Speedway event, round three of
the '78 series. Tripes has won two
races after settling for a second
.
a~ t h e Se at t Ie se;les ope~er behind teamm ate JI mmy EIlts.
16
"Hurricane" Hannah on his factorybacked,
. Keith . McCarty-tuned
Yamaha. Fifth behind Hannah was
"[ammin' Jimmy'" Weinert riding a
factory Kawasaki.
Q I'f '
t
'"He said he: w~ gonna win!:' Merle
Anderson, Tripes tu~er exclaimed as
Marty ac~epte~ his ~ard .ea~?e~
~ome?t .~ n VICtory Circle.
It s
incredible!
Marty Sm ith , eventual second placer, and Jimmy Ellis gave their
teammate no room for error during
the fast -paced final rnoto. Both,
however, saw their best efforts
hampered by the presence of lapped
riders; both expressed their frustration
afterward .
'"I wanted to win it so much!" an
extremely disappointed third placer
J im m y Ellis m u tt ered . " It' s just
because of those la p ped riders. '"
"They fell dow n in front of me, and
I went over the berm ." Marty Smith
added .
Both Smith and Ellis had lost turns
in th e lead du e to th e hea vy traffi c of
41 rid ers on the Ga ry Bailey-designed
in field co u rse.
First no n- H on d a finis her was Bob
Prophetica lly, the first man through
tum one of the first of four six -lap
qualifying motos was Marty Tripes.
Close behind was teammate Jim
Pomero y pressing ' hard on his Arne
Bea mon -tu ned Honda.
ua
I
ytng mo os
In the first few laps, AMA 250cc
National
MX
Ch am p ion
Tony
DiStefa no moved up from a fift h place
starting position past Fred Vertucci
and Jimmy Wei nert a nd began to
hound
Pomeroy. Tripes , doing
wheelies down the mechanics' chute,
was safely in the lead .
DiStefano finall y caught Pom eroy in
one of the Daytona course's mudholes
a nd moved into his eventual finishing
position of second . Pomeroy see med to
be secu re in third , but a spill at th e
white fla g dumped h im to fou rth
behind
Weinert .
Clai mi ng
t he
remai ning four tra nsfer spo ts were
Vert ucci , Ma rk Robilla rd , Steve Wise
and J ohn Cal a t hes.
