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/126312
- Fi nal Fr om the drop of the gate Hurricane knew what he wanted. "I wanted to win here tonight more than anywhere else in a long time. 1 want to be two-time champion at something and after my problems in the Nationals last year , I want this to be the year. I'm more pumped for these indoors than 1 ever am for the outdoors. The crowd just gets me so much more excited," he declared. Marty Tripes also -knew what he wanted , but he knew his slim threepoint lead in the series standings would be gone before the smoke cleared over the starting line . " I knew in the first two laps I wasn't going to win tonight. Every time I tried going fast I would get out of shape." But that didn't mean Marty wouldn't at least try to stop Bob , and in doing so he continued to be a Fifth place went to Team Yamaha 's M ike Bell. Of course, it wasn't long before Hannah had knifed his way towards the front. For four laps , Bob hounded Rich but couldn't find the inches to stick his front knobby past. The heat was drawing to a close, and Bob knew he had to take chances. Setting himself up , he made a full throttle mid-air pass on the narrow double jumps. Eierstedt was spooked by Hannah's streak of yellow past him and either backed off the gas or missed a gear. Rich nosedived into the second jump and cartwheeled over it. He was taken to the hospital with a possibly broken collar bone. Marty Moates looked good on his new LOP·sponsored Honda as he held off factory Honda teamsters Tommy Croft and Jimmy Ellis in qualifier three. The battle was wild with both Croft and Ellis sliding and skidding off the track every time they attempted to pass the stocker with their supposedly more tractable works RCs. Gaylon Mosier crashed and took a .trip to the semis as Greg Theiss and Mickey Kessler on the J &R Yamaha made the top five cutoff. J ammin' Jimmy Weinert put his factory Kawasaki ahead of Bassett 's "Rocket Rex" Staten in the early laps of the final qualifying hea t for the win as Billy "Sugar Bear" Grossi took his factory Ca rabela to a third place. Fourth was privateer Fred Vertucci on a Suzuki ahead 'of Yamaha's Rickey Burgett. 10 During the intermission Larry Huffman , the super mouth of stadium announcing, helped Honda give away a number of motorcycles and Toyota raffle off a new SRS Longbed pickup to lucky spectators. Honda , Mr . PiBB and Toyota in particular have done much to help the Supercross Series this year. Larry was aided throughout the evening by cheerleaders from a local high school, provided by a friend of Bob Hannah's. In order not to show any partiality though , the girls were dressed in the various team colors from Honda , Yamaha and Suzuki to lead the fans on . Semis The four tickets to the main in the semi-finals fell to Mark Barnett who led Ken Adams to victory in the first bash. Mickey Boone and Steve Wise debated the lead in semi two with Boone finally coming out on top. Consolation Steve Stackable knew he had to win . "Short Stack," as the lanky Texan is known, wanted the one remaining ticket to the main . He held off Mark Gregson an d John Ayers for the privilege of being the last man to fill out the field in the run for glory. me m ber of a select few who still remember what racing is all abou t, The rain poured down, but the fans got their money's worth as they screamed their lungs out over the Tripes/Hannah confrontation that had been cooking since Omaha. Tripes clutched his Honda to the holeshot ahead of Moates. The start ing straight rooster- tailed with flying mud as Bob wedged the OW into third spot just behind, forsaking his usually poor starts because he knew he had to do business tonight. But then it probably didn't matter how he got off the line. He proved that at Houston and Pontiac with last place starts that still turned into wins. Snaked out behind the Hurricane were Ellis, Sun , Staten, We inert, Croft, Clark, Bell, Burgett , Barnett, Theiss , Jordan , Boone, Wise , Savitski, Kessler and Stackable, Within two laps Hannah had berserked his way past Moates and closed the 50·yard gap on Tripes for CI WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP MOTOCROSS! Come cheer him on June 4 Wo rld Championship standir Aus tria. France. and Denmar 1. Heikki Mikkola (Yamaha) 2. BRAD LACKEY (Honda) 3. Roger DeCoster (Suzuki) 4. Andre Malherbe (KTM) 5. Gerrit Wolsink (Suzuki) 6. Herbert Schmitz (Maico) 7. Jaak Van Velthoven (KTM) 8. Hakan Andersson (Husqvarnc 9. Andre Vromans (Suzuki) 10. Graham Noyce (Honda) Carlsbad, California June 4, 1978 And they will Plus the best 'A Order early and save money! Advance tickets save $1 r -------------,I Tickets I I I I I I I I I Use this coupon to order your ti ckets by mail. (Advance ti ckets also ava ilab le at all Ticketron cu tlets.) I enclose $ (money order or certified check) fo r : ADVANCE PRICES : RA CE DAY A DULT $9.00 $10.00 Children under 12 F REE. P.O. Box 892, Pho ne (714) 83 1-7 14 1. I I Name I Address --------State I I I Ma il to: TRIPPE, COX ASSOCIATES , INC . San Juan Capist rano, CA 92675. I I Zip I .....J