Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

Superbouil evening was won by a youngster named Marty Smith. 1975: New kid in town .. , The Europeans' intercession into Am erican dominance in stadium racing was as brief as their interest. The native sons came roa ring back 10 victory in 1975. and. as previously. their charge was led by a hungry and relativel y unknown teenager. His name was Jimmy Ellis. Ellis started slow . running last after one la p because of a pile-up. But he methodically worked his way through a field in which the biggest.names were having mechanical problems and the rest were making mistakes . Ellis finished fourth behind Zdenek Velky. Tony DiStefano and Jimmy Weinert. having turned in the best ride of the rnoto . In the second moto Ellis moved qui ckly to the front, using his Can -Am 's su perior hors epower 10 negate the handling advantage whi ch Velky's CZ gave him . The moto turned into a "Superbowl Parade," one of those boring (a nd frequent) processionals which are endemic to the narrow stadium tracks . The th ird rnor o was a repeat of th e seco nd, as Ellis quickly b litzed into th e lead. leaving Velky, Weinert. el . al. to trade elbow and mistakes back in th e pack. When "J am m ing Jimmy" jammed Velk y into the ground in a bumping session in on e of th e high· banked semi -horseshoe turns. he was assured of second overall. Many felt the high point of Superbowl IV ca me early, when Honda's Marty Smith. unaware of a last minute cou rse change. took th e first moto holeshot . missed the altered first turn and endoed spectacularly for over one hundred yards . Smith was unhurt (though he didn't ride again that night) . and Superbowl promoters hav e been showing the crash in television promotions ever since. God helps those who help themselves . 1976: W e're a n American band . .. 36 Despite vague rumors about an appearance by Joel Robert . former World Champion half-hearted ly on the comeback trail . little effort was made to lure European riders 10 Superbowl V . Ther e were thos e who saw thi s as an ' indication that American motocross had finally arrived . no lon ger having the need of for eign superstars to draw big crowds. Others saw it as a reaction to the palpable lack of int erest in th e race wh ich mo st Europeans showed (even whil e rid ing in it) , a nd to th e promot er's pa lpa b le la ck of int er est in pa ying sta rt money. What ever. In 1976 . it was an Am erican band th at took the sta rt ing lin e . As on e com men ta tor on th e ra ce ob served. Jimmy Ellis came " ... into the race with few distractions other than the will to win . . ." That was a ta ctful way of saying that Ellis had not had an easy tim e of it since his win th e previou s summer. So Ellis had incentive. and his powerful . if poorly suspended . Can -Am seemed the horse for th is co urse. It was. Knowing the first turn to be the most difficult part of any Superbowl, Ellis was careful 10 get the holeshot . After that he used his bike's power to good advantage on th e stra ights. and was careful not to fall down in th e tricky parts. The result was a victory margin of 18 seconds and a large section of the ' audience which had to .be woken a t the end of the moto, Moto two started out as more of th e same . but Tony DiStefano made a determined move on th e cruising Ellis. a nd th e two took off on a two -bike hare n' hound which left the others far behind. DiSt efano fell near th e end of the rnoro . giving Ellis the win and the prom ise of a n easy time of it in th e third moto. Pierre Karsmakers took the lead out of the gate in the third moto , but Tony DiStefano was determined to win something and he soon was in fron t. Ellis was content to cru ise in second and avoid mistakes . the win easil y his . The 1976 Superbowl was unanimously described as being the most boring ever. the lone dissenter being J im m y Ellis who professed that it had totally engaged his attention. 1977: Ch a n ges , .. The significant thing about the most recent edition of the Superbowl of Motocross was not the racing but the format. In an attempt to alleviate the boredom caused by the parade -like aspect of many recent races. th e race (as in th e other Supercross events in 1977) was run in heats. semi-finals, consolations and a single. fina l cha m p ionship main. In other words. the same format as that used in nat track . A few pu rists compla ined. b ut there was no question that th e change was a positive one from a spectator's point of view. A one race final leaves litt le room for strategy. but as General William West moreland once said. "You can't see strategy." Jim Pom eroy , Marty Tripes. Marty " m ith and S Steve Stackable were th e leaders in th e ea rly going. Variou s falls. mishaps and humiliations followed . Weinert fell and got up. Tripes got winded and slowed down . Weinert passed Smith twice. Hannah's fram e broke. Pomeroy. leading, fell down and was kno cked silly. Weinert went on to win " finally . He 'd , been working at a Coliseum overall since Superbowl I. As a gesture of joy. Jim m y Weinert did a modified strip tease after his victo ry. throwing most of his gear and clothing into the scr eaming crowd. "Thank heavens he didn't win the first one." says a bystander. "T h ings were m uch more permissive in '72 . God only knows what he would hav e done. " "Wasn't this Cu Chi? " private, 1975. N . Vietnamese The Superbowl of Motocross concept ~xpanded (m uc h 10 Mike Goodwin's chagrin) InIO the Supercross concept with races in Daytona , Detroit. Dallas. Atlanta. New Orleans and maybe Keokuk is obviously here 10 sta y. As for motocross, who knows? W e now have those land closures. EPA regulations and $2500 production bikes. and the inevitability of motocross. 'the poor man's form of participant racing. ' is not so assured . The sport. like everything, changes. It has no choice . And whether . · in changing. it remains motocross or merely something we ca ll by th a t name is probably not very important. As long as something called 'motocross' is there in the Co liseum. or wherever, waiting for us to pay our $15 . or whatever. As long as we've got the cha nce to see the occasional good race. the more than occasional spectacu lar get · off and then participate in the Muggers Versus The World war games in the parking lot. As long as we get movie star Grand Marshals with too m uch makeup and too little couth , and magazine -supplied trophy gi rls with buttock hugging hot pants and glassy smi les. As long as we get fireworks , and commercials. commercials and still more commercials . .. well . what does it matter? It 's all a question of semantics. Motocross is what you make it , just like anything else . Where is Super Ted Destructo now that we need him? •

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