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/126315
Teem Honda's Tommy Croft charged to a sixth overall on his Alan Hahntuned RC450. 'Roger DeCoster chases Rick " Lum berjack" Burgett in the first mete, Burgett finally surrendered to DeCoster's charge, but continued on for a 5-9 fourth overall and finished second American behind teammate Mike Bell . 8 Rex Staten's hopes for a win in the second moto suffered an extreme setback when he fouled a plug on the starting line. Marty Sm ith , too , after changing suspension components between motos , was attempting to put in a better performance. Bu t as the starting line dust settled, it was Sm ith and Staten bringing up the rear. An dersson held fifth as th ey ca me around for the first time, and he was followed by a four-way struggle for sixth among Van Velthoven , Sem ics, DeCoster a nd Mike Bell. Burgett rod e in 10th with Noyce, LaP ort e, Croft, Gaylon Mosier and Jimmy Wei nert· in close for mation. Bell was already flying ; he picked off bo th DeCoster and Semics on the second lap. Schmitz was a lso on the move , and before the end of lap four , he'd found a line past Malherbe and settled into t hird place. Fifteen minutes int o th e moto . Mikkola and Lackey still cruised along out in front. Schmitz and Malherbe seemed secure in the 3-4 slots . Bu t Andersson , Bell and DeCoster had a three-way struggle going for fifth place. It ended a lap later when Bell came arou nd alone in fifth . Both Andersson and DeCoster were back in the mob . DeCoster had stalled h is motor, and Suzuki teammate Gerrit Wolsink was too close behind. "I had gotten a bad start," Wolsink said , " bu t was catching up. Then Roger killed his engine, and I ran right f ull into himl" An dersson also ran into difficulties , and with his sore hand he wasn 't ab le to regain lost time. Bell took fifth and held it to the en d . DeCoster fell again , his throttle was sticking, and he p ulled into the pits. T hen Lac key closed on Mikko la , and th e rae of the da y began at approximately the 25-m inute mark. Their progress around th e Carlsbad track could be traced by the crowd's roa r as the top two title contenders engaged in an intense I5 -minute duel for the mo to win , Lackey kept the leader in his sights, and at one point pulled a longside to '. pass. Bu t Mikkola held firm , then in the closing laps seemed to dial it on even harder. Lackey dropped back, ad mittedly tired , to take second place behind the World Champion, Schmitz held th ird, Malherbe fourth. For the Maico rider, Schm itz, thi rd was good enough to tie for the overall win with Mikkola . Ma lherbe ha d DNF the first moto, which with his fourth place in round two , cost him one position in th e World Ch a m pionship title chase. He'd held fou rth - in the point sta ndi ngs before Carlsbad with 66 po ints over Schmitz's 59 total. W hen th e Bel-Ra y USG P of Motocross was over, Schmitz held fourt h with 84 points over Ma lherbe's 74. DeCoster maintained his third position in the po int standings a t 101 . But Mike Bell on his Tea m Yama ha m achi ne was the American hero of the Lanky Jaak Van Velthoven was eighth in moto one: DNF the 1I8COIld. day, third overall with a 4-5 score. Rou nd ing out the top lO in the final moto were Maico's Terry Cla rk in r sixth, Rex Staten, Ga ry Semics, Rick ' Bu rgett and Tommy Croft. Clark had broken his front brake lever in a first rnoto crash and DNF tha t mo to , set tling for l l th overall. Sta ten had put in a re markable com eback ride from last to seventh place in spite of havi ng to ride an overly-rich m achine , an attempt to keep it from sticking again . w Da nny LaPort e, after pushing his ~ bike across in sixth in round one , got a l bad start in t he second rac e, then was forced out when his clu tc h began slipping in rou nd two , T he da m age d j'/ counrershaft fro m rnoto one forced W tu ner Pa t Alexa nder to pull a motor swap between motes. and time di dn 't J a llow ca refu l clu tch adjust ment before Da nn y had to use it hard . Yamaha 's Rick Bu rge tt took four th overa ll with a 5 -9 total : Ga ry Semics