Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

!Above' T _ Honda's 125cc National winner Warren Reid 116) puts his John R-tuned pre-production CR125 on eventuel third plecar Mike Guerre's tail. GUerr8'S Buckl8nd Yemehe carried him to 10-2 moto finlshes.lTop right) Melco-mounted Derrell Shultz rolled on with his successful yeer on the AMAlMr. PiBB Netionel MX circuit. finishing third with e 3-5 in the 500cc NlIdonaI cIlIss. lLower rlghtl Ricky "Lumberjeck" Burgett end wreeth-beming friend wede beck to the Pine Top pits, muddy yet heppy. With Moates gone, Broc Glover moved up from his second place start to take over the lead ahead of Reid, a Wise/Guerra battle for third, Jacobson, Gregson, Coon and Pierce. ""Guerra .would charge his way up past both the factory Honda riders and into second much to the delight of his local fans waving him on from over the snowfencing. Florida's Kippy Pierce turned in his best perfonnance of the Nationals to pass both Honda stars as well for third place, but a flat tire_on the privateer Suzuki would move Kippy to the DNF list as well. Broc Glover won the final moto with ease, but the flat tire in round one was all Warren Reid needed to tum his 1-4 moto placings into the day's highest combined score for the overall win. '5OOcc Nationel With Rick Burgett, Yamaha was holding down the 500cc Series points lead as well, but only 25 points - the difference of one moto win or DNF -was separating the top five riders in the class. Rick had a total.-of 217 points going into this weekend's race, just slightly ahea.d of Tommy Croft, Danny LaPorte, Marty Smith and Rex Staten: Because Mike Bell was out. -of contention in the series with an injured knee, Team Yamaha was looking for some added insurance to support Burgett in their bid for all three 1'iational Championships. this season. The solution came in offering Rex Staten full Yamaha factory support and the use of Bell's works bike in place of Staten's regular Bassett Yamaha ride, This. change of loyalties so late in the series d"oesn't seem too ethical towards Bassett, but there's no way that a modified YZ 400 production Yamaha can compete with one of the OW 39 works bikes. Rex had to make his move if he wants to win, and as one of the factory Honda riders was heard to remark, "Those works Yamahas are working too well to be beaten this vear." Both motos proved where the horsepower was as Croft and Smith on the RC450 Hondas, and Burgett. on the 400 OW Yamaha charged the uphill start and broadslid tum one at full throttle, handlebars locked three abreast. Once they hit the sand whoops on the rougher sections of the course it was Burgett pulling away. Only in the second moto would he be headed, and that would be by his new teammate Rex Staten. . The first moto saw reigning 500cc National Champ Marty Smith running second behind Rick at a variable 3-10 second margin the entire race. Croft could have helped to make things interesting, but a thrown chain for Tommy on just the third lap left him to play catch-up the entire moto, moving back up from last place to seventh. Chasing a dose third behind Smith nearly the entire moto was a pumped Steve Stackable on the works Kawasaki. Steve looked his best of the season until one of the large rocks broke the tricck aluminum rear brake stay, leav~ng Steve to coast the remaining few laps back to lIth position. Tony DiStefano lost his rear brakes as well, but earlier in the moto while running right behind Stackable. Privateers ~ere really looking strong as Darrell Shultz, Tony Summey, Mickey Kessler and Terry Clark on the Cole Brothers Maico helped flll out the top 10. Shultz would move his Maico . all the way up to third by the end of the 45-minute race. Staten, still learning to ride his new mount, took fourth after working up from an 11th place start. Suzuki had a dismal moto with Danny LaPorte unable to get his bike started off the line and getting away a lap and a half behind the field. From his worse than last place start, Danny charged his way back up' through the 'pack to finish next to Staten, but still a lap down so it only counted as 13th position. Mickey Boone had bike problems as well, while the entire Moto-X Fox team of Jim Turner, Pat Moroney and Frank .Stacy suffered flat tires. The fmal moto of the day produced another Croft/Smith/Burgen hoIeshot. By the time they charged around the track for the second lap though, Burgett was pulling out another lead while Staten closed in from behind, having passed both Smith and Croft. LaPorte was running fift" ahead of Boone, Shultz, Kessler, DiStefano and Stackable. But it wasn't long before everyone started picking· up flat tires again ... with this moto Smitty picking up the ill luck for the Honda team. Rather than retire from the race and lose valuable points, Marty ran from lap six to the finish (some 30 minutes) on the flat rear tire to collect a very creditable ninth. On lap seven Staten put the move on his new teammate and passed Burgett for the lead. "I thought I'd have to settle for second that moto," claimed Ricky afterwards, "but then later in the moto I began to catch back .up with Rex and passed him." Actually, it had begun to rain with six laps to go and Rex was finding it impossible to hold on to his handlebars. "I had to slm.: down. My grips got wet and my leather gloves kept sliding off the handlebars." The Rocket's second place behind Burgett helped to give Team Yamaha the points cushion over Honda which they wanted'. In' he remaining races of the series, with Staten now used to the works Yamaha, it may prove to be Rex Staten putting a halt to Burgett's winning streak. And if so, could it be possible by the final race of the Series we might see a pitboard signal to Rex Staten reading, "Let Rik bye"? Overcoming the crashes which have plagued him most of the 500cc Nationals to collect third overall behind Staten was Darrell Shultz. No doubt by this fall's Trans-AMA Series the semi-privateer Maico rider will probably have some type of fullfactory ride. .• Results 12Scc NATlONAl: 1. Wwren Reid 1-4 IHonI; 2. 5 _ w. ~ IHanI; 3. Milt. Guemo 10-2 1Yern/; 4. Richerd Coon ~ ISuz); 5. Devid Teylor 3-10 ISuzl; 6. Merk Gregson 6-7ISuz);7. Tod Perkins 11-5

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