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/126336
l!') CN 1-0 Q,) ..c o ~ u o The 12&cc National gets underway by Matt Horiocksl&4l. Dana Waxham 11201 and Michael Leason 1311. with winner Chappy Blose 11011 in mid-pack. AMA National Amateur MX Championships Hinke, Blose & Bailey scale the summit By Peter Magoon . HAMPTON , GA, OCT. 8 It was a long climb that lasted half the season. First there were District Qualifiers, then Area Qualifiers, followed by Regionals. By Sunday only 120 Amateur riders had survived the grueling process of elimination and they descended upon Atlanta International Raceway for the final slugfest to decide who was really the best. At the end of a long, hard and dusty day, only three stood at the pinnacle. .Chappy Blose, David Bailey, and Mark Hinkle had won , respectively, the 125cc, 250cc and 500cc AMAI Mr. PiBB/Toyota/Suzuki National Amateur Championships. Clear skies, bright sun and a steady cool wind combined to foil the best ef· forts of the watering crew , making th is an unusually dusty day of racing. Major course revisions had been made since the I25cc/500cc National held here in August to make passing easier on the tight track. Promoter Bill West started things off on the right foot the night before with a free party for the participants, their families and crews. Thenext da y former Na tional Champion Mark Barnett was on hand to sta rt things off by leading a pa rade lap of all participants around the course. 12 126cc National Joey Nash led Kip Bigelow and Denis Hilgendorf through the first few turns, but Nash soon began slowing and had dropped way back by the fifth lap. Bigelow took over by the one-lap mark , but Hilgendorf soon caught him . Hilgendorf led through the twelfth lap as Chappy Blose of Arizona made a slow, steady climb from a fifth -place start to challenge for the lead. Denny Bentley and Ricky Shearer took over third and fourth as Bigelow began slowing severely. By the white flag , Blose had taken the lead from Hil gendorf to set the fin ishing order. The second moto found Bentley jumping to an early lead, trailing behind him Dana Wamam and Alan King . Blose was having his problems as he crashed his Suzuki early and reo started in about 20th place. Bentley led through ten laps as Hilgendorf worked his way . up from sixth to a comfortable second. Alan King drop· ped back sharply in the early laps and Waxham slowed , apparently due to banners caug ht in hIS rear wheel. In the meantime, Blose was making a remarkable rush through th e ranks and nabbed a surprised Bentley on the tenth lap" H ilgendorf and Scott Watkins crossed the line in th ird and Tourth, and that was th e race . Afterward Blose said, " I was con fident in the first moto that 1 could do it after my okay start. In the second,l got worried after that crash, and I didn't think I could do it until I saw I was near the front . Then I got my energy back and really went for it." 250cc National It looked like it was going to be all Shane Hruska as he leaped out in front and stayed there th rough twelve laps . Jeff Jacobson qu ickly moved into second ahead of Bruce Canteel. By the third lap they were getting some heat from a very determined David Bailey of Virginia , who had risen quickly after a collision with a downed rider had put him in mid -pack on the first lap. Bailey took his Bultaco to second on the fifth lap. James Lauer was shooting through the crowd aft er his own bad start and moved int o fifth behind Canteel on the seventh lap. Bailey took the lead just before the white flag and held it as Lauer moved int o fourth behind Hruska and Jacobson before the checkers. Bailey came out smoking in the second moto followed by Hruska , Canteel and Matt Hibbard. Lauer also had a good start and had caught Canreel for third by the third lap. As Canreel settled into a comfortable fourth . Lauer began a process of hounding Hruska that lasted until the elevent h lap . when he fina lly got by. He th en set off after Bailey, and , to everyone's surprise, erased a five-second deficit and caught him on the white flag lap. Bailey didn't offer much resista nce since he already had the race sewed up. A protest was lodged aga inst Bailey after the race, charging that he had gone too wide in one comer, but it was denied. An elated Bailey said, " I was really nervous in the first moto since my engine had seized in practice, and then there was that crash and I got really down. I managed to put all that out of my mind and started gaining. In the second moto I knew that Lauer had the energy to hold the lead when he passed me , and I didn't see 'any sense in blowing it by chasing him." 500cc National Dean Wiggins was the early leader, but , was quickly pressured by Michigan's Mark Hinkle who passed him easily on the second lap. Hinkle then drew out a comfortable lead for the rest of the race . Bob Bremm ran third through lap seven when John Way nabbed him. They remained tight for a while with Wiggins holding a comfortable second. The W~ns' rear rim gave out and he dropped out, so it was Hinkle and Way up fron t. Russel Hibbs and Roger Burman displaced Bremm for third and fourth. John Way looked like he had tlie race sewed up from the first tum in th e second moto, Glenn Taylor quickly caught Dan Gibson for second. but by lap four Taylor was getting pressure from Hinkle who soon got by. Dea n W iggins moved up through the pa ck to take fourth behind Taylor. Way looked as thoug h he had a comfortable lead, but on the eleventh lap he (Contin ued to pag e 14)