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/126398
(Above) The start of the Saturday fiMI finds Jeff Ward (26).Tommy Croft (1). Bob Hannah (1) and Marty Smith (7) leading the parade. (Below left) Hannah and Croft diced in heat and fiM!. (Below rightJ One of the best bettles of the night was a second semi clash between Marty Moates (38) and Tony DiStefano. 8 back in th e pack. To cap off a thoroughly disappointing night , he crashed again and was penalized a lap for entering the course in the wrong spot , His ninth place finish thus would go on the books as a 19th. As the race entered its late stages. Bell still had a comfortable lead , but LaPorte , Wise. Reid and Hannah were having it out behind him. Asked later if he could feel Hannah 's pressure. Reid replied. " Feel it ? He was landing on top of me off the jumps! " . But Reid didn't bu ckle under the pressure. He held his position . When Hannah tried to ou t-m uscle him in a tight-offer-camber right- ha nder Reid hel d his line a nd the H urricane knew that R eid was going to fight for . h is position . On the last lap. how ever. the Reid/Hannah battle went past Wise . who chose a different line through some whoops . The fin ish order was set and headed by Bell, La Porte , Reid , Hannah , Wise , Mosier, Smith, Tripes. Weinert and Staten. Heats The first heat featured a battle that would be repeated later in the evening. Tommy C roft took off on his Rick Jones-tuned Kawasaki and led the heat wire to wire . Behind him , Bob Hannah searched everywhere but the Cocktail Club level of the stands for a way around , but to no avail. Rex ' Staten held third from flag to flag . as Mosier moved past Pat Jacobsen and then Da n ny La Porte , La Porte's fifth got him into the final. Little Jeff Ward pulled his second holeshot of the weekend in the second heat. Making sort of a Mutt 'n' Jeff lead ing d uo , la nky Mike Bell was on Wa rd 's tai l. Gary Semics and Darrell Shu ltz were follo wing them , On the third lap , however . W ard fell as he entered a tu rn and dropped to fourth . Sh ultz took over second lat e in th e race when Semics nearly clobbered a lapped rider. Beh ind Semics, Ward and R ich Eierstedt made th e cu t-off. The third heat was a Marty Tripes show from wire to wire . as he set up a humongous lead that wasn 't even dented when he stalled his motor on the last lap , Tony DiSt efano was in second early on , b ut had problems and dropped ba ck in the pack. Warren Reid took over the runner-up position on his Bria n Lunnis-prepped read racer and was b eing followed by John Savitski and O lymp ic Cycles /Maico West -sponsored privateer Bob Myers . Weinert's green machine was the onl y thing holding DiStefa no out of a direct seed to the fina l. but it was enough. Marty Sm ith kept it up with the good starts in Seattle and led the fourth rnoto through the first couple of laps . Hond a teamma te Steve Wise a nd Yamaha privateer Steve Bau e r occu pied the 2·3 spots. Wise passed Sm it h on the second lap , and Suz uki's Ken t Howerton , who'd spent much of the previous evening crashing, passed Bau er and the top three posi tions were set. Having fina lly made it through the first turn without crashing, Ba uer's luck did not hold , however. First Mickey Boo n e and LO P 's Mark Gregson made it by, then Yamaha's Rick Burgett . Burgett went on to pass Gr egson and ace him ou t of a transfer. Semis Pr ivateers Bill Joyce and Roger Brown went for it at the start of the first semi. Bro wn , the Texan, held first for two laps, but local rider Joyce took it away and held it to the finish with Brown in second and both going on to the final. Mark Rakestra w went from fifth to third and stayed there , while Da vid Taylor went from way back to fourth . The second semi featured one of the best handlebar-banging battles of the weekend , between Ma rk Gregso n, Marty Moates and Tony DiStefa no . T he two La P riders got out front early whi le DiStefa n o moved u p from fourth . T he trio moved out well in fro nt of · t he pack. At about t he midway point , Moates took the lead . but in the short space of a lap , Gregson had it back and DiStefa no was in second. The order lasted until the last lap when Moates made a despe rat e attempt on DrStefano's position. On a tight off-camber right hand turn , Moates moved his Yamaha under Tony D, and despite the fac t