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/126339
~ 00 ~ Q) ..0 e Q) > o Z l.8ke WhItney winner Rex Staten (111 gets h18 Deve o.tennan-tuned Yamahe totally sldewllya in pursuit of earty leader Jim Pomeroy 1101, Marty Smith (11 and ..r1e Trans-AMA MX Series - Round 6 Hannah clinches title as Staten tops L : Whitney; Sun, Boone injured . By Jim Gianatsls LAKE WHITNEY, TX , OCT. 29 It was a day of mixed emotions at Lake Whitney • Cycle Ranch for the sixth round of the seven · race 1978 T rans- AMA MX Serles. B 0 b "H ur. . "H hd d h his ncane anna estroye t e motocross tory books as expected and brought to an end a year-Iong winning f . h hi d . " strea k Wit IS ommat~on 0 the 1978 Trans·AMA Senes. In 12 the process Hannah became the first American to win the series title since it began in 1970. Backing up Hannah's stellar performance was Yamaha teammate "Rocket Rex" Staten who made the Lake Whitney race his first major victory . Rex took his Dave OstermanP repared works OW-39 Yamaha to 1.3 moto placings for the day 's overall win ahead of England's Graham Noyce on the factory RC -450 Honda, with Hannah having to settle for third after a first mota crash. ' Once again, Hannah's winning 420cc works Yamaha was prepared to perfection by mechanic Keith McCarty for thedynamite duo's third major title win of the season . Ironically though, Hannah had the final points needed to clinch the title handed to him easily when Roger DeCoster was involved in an opening moto crash and was forced to retire with an injured knee. DeCoster, four time Trans·AMA MX Series Charripio~ for _ S~~uki, was holdin~ down a distant second place in the . . mto t he race b ut pomt stan dimgs gomg . still had a theoretical chance at beating Hannah out of the champion ' shi-the Trans.AMA Series needs drastic revisions to return it to the pure form of natural terrain racing it grew from with its roots planted firmly in European soil. DeCoster and the other top Europeans have claimed time and time again the American tracks are "too fast and not challenging enough." This year the design of American motocross tracks has seen a dramatic shift to high soeed injury-inducing r courses . More factory riders have been injured this year than ever before. All of Team Honda and half of Team Yamaha has been lost to injuries during this year. Lake Whitney Cycle Ranch has to . be the turning point. Chuck Sun was rushed to the hospital unconscious and in serious condition with leg and possible internal injuries after a wideopen third gear encounter with a fourfoot wide oak tree used as a trackside boundary. Sun wasn't the only Boone ~r.oke .h is l ie r r morning's practice session trying to avoid two other downed riders in his way . Maico's Darrell Shultz was involved in a getoff that broke his front teeth and put him out for the day. Texas rider Bobby Pickard was also seriously injured. 500cc International The pile -up which involved Roger DeCoster occurred in the opening 'K H ' moto. ' ent owenon was trytng to f r h pass me way too ast tor t e comer we were going into," explained Roger . Suzuki teammate Howerton recounted what happened. "Suddenly I had looked up and saw a bike lying d own m t he b erm . frant a f me. . m There was now h ere to ga l I h a d Just . I g ood d nve a t e be rm . ff h gotten a rea . ' m th i d was rea IIy gomg e ast tum an way too fast. I must have been going 70 rru es an hour at Ieast . R oger was '1 only going half that fast as I came up hi . h h d h on rm. I mig t ave rna e me tum or overshot the berm safely , but my path i was bl oc ked by t h e d owne d bike In t h e I e ldn't avoi hi . Roger." avoid unng berm. I cou n't Howerton was left with a bruised leg, but went out to do well in the d . d secon mota anyway. DeCoster retire from t he fi mota a f ter t he eras h ,ut b irst came back to pull an excellent start in third place in the second mota. He passed Gary Sernics for second and was closing on Hannah for the lead when his injured knee and foot became too painful and Roger pulled back in to the pits. Hannah was also involved in one of the many first mota crashes while ~rying to work up from a poor sta~t. "I just went int o this turn whe.re 1 some other riders were already falling'::, down . I thought I could jump my way d over . 0D:e of the bikes in front of me ,li v but It lifted up and my front end got caught under it and I went down. " Honda's Jim Pomeroy had been running second after losing his'~ opening mota holeshot to Rex Staten II in the first laps. But then Pomeroy lost . the Honda in a turn and had to", ~ recov.er from the back of the pa h " . .ck ..... Semics was .runnmg hot , only to puc . his Can-Am away in the whoops and have it cartwheel through the jf mechanic's area. sd " It's like a freeway out there." That's how Pat Moroney described it. "The bumps never got bad enough to make anyone slow down from running flat out. It was j ust rough enough to keep you on the edge of being out of'~ control all the time ." I The Lake Whitney Cycle Ranch track has some natural terrain wooded nt: sections which might have made excellent additions to the course, but' rather being left in its natural state the entire course was bulldozed to death. Every section was smooth and fast. In practice just one line developed as berms built up. But such is the case of most of the tracks now on the National circuit. Promoters and AMA officials ~ . only need to look at the last foothold of European style motocross in America , Unadilla , to find what a difficult , challenging and yet safe motocross track can be like. Once past Pomeroy for the lead on the third lap, Staten ran away with the opening moro , Hannah recovered