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/126397
YAMAHA WElCOMES RA FANS CE at Astrodome . " As soon as Briggs moved OUI to a co m fo rra h le lead , Aldana started feeling the heat from Aksland with Joey Perdue (Ya m ) and Frank Word (Yam) in their wake-. On th e eighth lap, Aksla nd flew past Aldana on the jump and 'Ald a na crashed in th e following turn . The ensuing confusion moved Rick Ho cking. . who 'd crashed earlier. into third . So Briggs the unknown took th e final heat followed by Aksland and Hock ing . Spectators were more than a little surprised to see Steve Eklund sitring in the back row of the first sem i. But Steve Morehead's fact ory Harley was the victim of a broken frame. (T he downtubes were extended in order to lower the weight of the engi ne and the welds broke. ) " It wasn 't a good night." sa id H-D Racing boss Dick O 'Brien. Hank SCOll broke int o t he lead of he race with Lance Jones (H· D) and onny Burr es in pursuit . Eklund tore hrough the pack from his last place tart and was fourth a t the end of on e ap behind SCOll , Jones and Kidd . The rder remained sta tic for one lap. then oth Kidd and Eklund went to work , ike taking the lea d and Eklund assingJones for th ird . As riders landed from th e jump they ere faced with a hard right . a short traight and a hard.left back onto the val. Kidd exited the right hander ide and entered the left to the inside. klu nd was doing exactly the opposite nd it enabled him to take the insid e way from Kidd as the y accelerated nro the ova l. At the halfwa y point klund used the inside to get past and e stayed in the lead to th e finish . cott was third and Rod Spencer urth . Eklund .took the one ticket to e National and sent the others to the ophy race. With Springsteen. feeling worse . scra tched from the second sem i. th e door was left wide open for Scott Pearson (H ·D West) to lead wire to wire . Mike Caves (Yam) ran second from flag to flag. Billie Labrie (H :D) . ran third early but lost it to Dave. Aldana who in turn lost it to rooki e John Wincewicz. Wincewicz held it to the end , and fin ished ahead of Randy Wa ldrop a nd Labrie. Aldana sta lled his en gine tryin g to avoi d T ed Bood y. Junior Invitational Louisiana's Mark Strother sho t out in front of th e Junior In vitational . followed by fast qual ifier Don Shobert arid St eve Pendergraft. Pendergraft was soo n out of the ra ce a nd chasing th e leading pa ir were Shannon Slocum and Billy Orr. . After closing right up on th e leader, Shobert made his mov e on lap six , grabbing the poin t pos ition and holding onto it for the remai ning six laps. Strother, who like Shobert was Yamaha -mounted , retained second to the flag . J im Bradley work ed his Buhaco up through th e late stages of the race to fin ish th ird . Trophy Ra.ce W incewicz (Messele r T ri) led at th e sta rt of the trophy ra ce but a mid -pa ck crash brought out the red flag. On th e second start , Mike Kidd had the lead over Hank Scott and Wincewicz. Bu t on the sweeping 'ova l turn after the infield section , Wincewicz tangled with a rider who missed a shift and crashed. Two other riders hit h im as bikes ' • went everywhere. The ambu lance rolled . but miraculously, nobody had to be taken to the hospital. Wincewicz's bike however , lost the front end and had to be carried back to the pits. Mike Caves and Buddy Rob inson were al so involved . but made the restart . Kidd took the le a d over Rod Sp encer as ' th e rac e was finall y underway for .good . Mike Caves and Rand y Wa ldrop ' were' sandwiched between Spencer and Ted Boody. Boody took over third as Spencer went after Kidd, getting by him briefly on th e fourth lap. On the sixth lap, Kidd again fell victim to being passed on th e insid e ex iting the infield. Spencer pulled it off and led the rest of the ra ce. Kidd remained in second ahead of Bood y, Ca ves. Waldrop a nd Phil McDonald. National The main event was a three -row sta rt with sem i-final winners Eklund a nd Pearson on the back row . Fa y had th e pole , but Gary Scott had th e holeshot. John Hateley fell as Gennai and Fay pursued Scott. At th e end of the first of 25 laps, the order was Scott , Alex Jorgensen , Fay , Gennai, Dennis Briggs a nd Randy Goss. On the following lap, Jorgensen pulled off th e jump du e to engi ne probl ems but got goi ng aga in moments later. Fay took over second. A lap later Fay passed Scott in the right hander , and sec on ds later , Eklund clipped a ha ybale with his handlebar. went down , and Hu rst got tangled in th e same area . Brad gOl going first , with St eve gelling underway nearly three-quarters of a lap behind . Almost im m ed ia tely, Fay started putting d istance between the pack and himself. Also , the pack sta r ted rem oving d istance between itself and Ga ry Scott,. who was tiring. On the seventh lap . Gennai moved into secon d and H ateley took h imself completely out of the picture by crashing again, On the follow ing lap SCOll had Goss . on his fender. Next time around it was SCOll looking at Goss' fender. Behind SCOll now were Rick Hocking , Skip Aksland and Dennis Briggs . On th e 14th lap , Hocking moved his Knight Fabri ca tion Hond a: into fourth . In front of him , everybody was mai ntaining fairly scattered distances . . Four laps la ter Jorgensen was out for good with mec han ical troubl es , Aksland used the same lap to take over fifth. Eklund m eanwh il e had p ass ed Hurst and was busy making up the d istance between himself and th e main body of the pack. The order was prelly well set for the fin ish . Ricky' Graham , who had been running towards the rea r of th e pack, went down on lap 20 , shortly after Eklund passed him . Time ran ou t for Eklund when the ch eckered flag came out just before he was able to make a move on SCOll Pearson. who was chasing Ga ry Scott. The final overall order nad Fa y leading Gennai, Goss, Hocking and Aksland . Gary SCOll . Pearson , Eklund , Briggs , Graham , Hurst , Hanlon , Jorgensen and . Hateley rounded out the field . • Results NATIONAl: 1. Mickey Fay (Hon); 2. John Gennai fTri); 3. Randy Goss (H-Dr; 4. Rick Hocking (Hon); 5. Skip Aksland (Yam); 6. Gary Scott fTr;); 7. Scott Pearson IH-OI: 8. Steve Eklund (Yaml 9. Dennis Briggs ; (Yam); 10. Ricky Graham (Yaml : 11. Brad Hurst (Yam); 12. Bruce Hanlon (Yam); 13. Ale. Jorgensen CBSAI; 14. John Hateley [Tril • . TIME: 11 :04. 97 125 Iapsl. TROPHY RACE: 1. Rod Spencer (Yam); 2. Mike Kidd (Yam); 3. Ted Boody lAmer) 4. Mike Caves 1 ; 0ss1 5. ; . Randy Waldrop (Yam); 6. Phil McDonald (H-DI; 7. Mike Sullivan fTri); 8. Hank Scon (Tril; 9. Buddy Robinson fTri); 10. Sonny Burres (Hot'l ). TIME: 5:1B:B6112Iapsl JR INVITATIONAl: 1. Don Shobert (Yam); 2 Mark Strother (Yam); 3. Jim Bradley (Bull; 4. Shannon Slocum (Bull; 5. Jeff Warramore (Yaml; 6. DoveJones (Yam); 7. Jim Pyle (Bull ; B. Cary Carpenter (Suzl; 9. Rues Gourley (Bull; 10. Barry Brond (Bufl; 11. Billy Orr • (Han); 12 Steve _graft (Yaml. TIME: 5:28:86 11 21aps1 . 7