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/126401
AMA/Toyota Supercross Series-Round four Hurricane at home in Atlanta environment By Jim Gianatsis . Photos by Jack Wright and Gianatsis ATLANTA , GA , MAR. 3 It was raining. Tornado warnings were posted throughout Georgia as'dire- hearted motocross fans huddled together beneath umbrellas in the open air seating of Atlanta Stadium. Below them the man-made AMA Toyo. t k ta Sup~rcross Senes r~~ was a quagmire sea ?f floatmg g0C;>p . And only one nder was churnmg his way through the mess to certain victory in the Mr. PiBB sponsored Superbowl of Motocross III. That rider was Team Yamaha 's Bob Hannah . The Hurricane had quenched the tornadoes and parted the flood waters. It had been raining throughout the . day. For hours, water poured into Atlanta Stadium with gusting winds as mechanics unloaded- their vans into the cellar pit area hours earlier than usual in an attempt to try and waterproof their multi -thousand dollar machines, which by the end/of the evening would be turned into so much junk. Team Yamaha picked a bad night to unveil their new lowered frame OW40 factory bikes . It was equally poor timing for Honda's Warren Reid to show off his tri ck new RC 250 ·79 with twin cradle front downtube frame and center port exhaust cylinder. The mud riders were slopping their way to victory . Behind Hannah, Team Suzuki's newest addition Darrell Shultz pulled off second in the feature event on 'his Orville Shultz-tuned RH 250, with Yamaha's Rick Burgett taking third place honors on his Bill West prepped OW40. Practice was bad enough; so bad that Honda's Marty Smith wouldn't even go out and ride. There wasn't any use, Marty figured , in going out to learn a track which ,":oul~n't be there an hour later. For Smitty It would be a bummer evening as he failed to make the feature by just one position in both his qualifier and semi -qualifier. Then in the consolation race. .he left his Honda stuck hu!, deep m a rut .a nd walked away in dls~st. . For most other riders the evenmg wasn't much better. Three-time 250cc National Champion Tony DeStefano got ' 400 feet into the evening's first q~alif~ng ~oto when mud jar:nmed hIS cham with rocks and bro.ke It. He was out for the evening. And It kept on raining ... But while others f1?undered , there were. those. who prevailed, In the first qual!fier It was the foul weather warnor, Bob Hannah, who splashed his Yamaha out into the lead ahead of Team H?nda riders G~ry Semics , Marty Sm~th and Steve .w,se. But then both Smith and Wise gcH stuck somew~ere on the course f~r nearly a lap which allowed Kawasaki's Tommy Croft to move up and pressure Semics for second.. . Hannah contmued pulhr:g. away from everyone, somehow mlssmg .all the holes that ~veryone else were filhng up . Marty Smith came back from the middle of the pack joined by teammate Warren Reid who got a ne~rly last place start through the f1ymg mud of turn one. It appeared at one point that Smith actually passed Croft. Semics, or both for third or sec~nd place, but then dropped back to Sixth place on the final lap when he got stuck in muck again. Honda's Gary Semics(21) has the inside line, but Suzuki's Darrell Shultz (20) put in a second place ride. It was difficult keeping track of positions they changed so often. But what was certain was that Hannah won by almost a .Iap in the eight -lap qualifier, lapping all the way up .to third place behind Croft and Sernics, ahead of Warren Reid and Steve Barton. The second qualifier had Suzuki's Danny LaPorte and KTM's Frank Stacy side -by -side and trading mudpies for the lead halfway around the first lap after the start until they . both got bogged down. Then Marty Tripes, on a production CR Honda, . spurted his way past into an uncatchable lead as Stacy and LaPorte recovered in his wake and renewed their battle, now over. second place. Danny eventually floated his way into second place ahead of Frank for the finish . Honda rider Scott Lester collected fourth and Maico's Danny Swartz was fifth . "Boy it's deep out there," claimed Typhoon Tripes as he stretched his hands apart to signify just how deep the mud really was . "If you fall down you'll never get back up without help ." More than one rider had to be reclaimed from underneath his fallen bike . And it kept on raining ... The qualifiers kept losing more and more first lap leaders somewhere ou~ on the course. Huge jumps like the Toyota Tower were nothing more than melting mounds of mud. For the first time in Supercross history nobody won the Toyota Tower jump contest .beca use nobody could get airborne off the hill , with the possible exception of Hannah in the first qualifier, or the guy that crashed at the top and rolled all the way to the bottom. Can-Am's Rich Eierstedt was another first lap leader who got lost , turning the lead of the third qualifier over to Darrell. Shultz, who had to slither his way around Rocket Rex Staten on the second lap to claim it. Rex kept his factory Yamaha in second place before becoming stuck again. Shultz is th e most determined rider American .motocross has seen in years and doesn't want to settle for anything less than winning . He took the qualifier ahead of Moto-X Fox's Pat Moroney ', Staten , Eiersredt , and veteran mud master Barry Higgins. Darrell Shultz. the Northern California Expert's advice for surviving the mud bath was, 'J ust stay out of those ruts . Just criss-cross back and forth across the tops of them. Don't follow anybody in the ruts because you 'll probably get stuck ... and there's no way you can pass anyone in front of you, anyway. Maybe I was going so good because my throttle was sticking with mud and I couldn't slow down. I just bounced my way off the built -up berms in the corners to turn ." For the first time ever Suzuki was letting their factory American riders set up their works bikes the way they want to make them competitive. a necessary step after last year's problems. Darrell was running Works Performance shocks on his bike, and Kent Howerton was doing the same. It was Howerton who took his Suzuki to the win of the fourth and final qualifier as well. Mike Guerra had pulled off the start with his Husqvarna Support Team bike before gelling bogged down and turning the lead over to Arlo Englund's Vickery Yamaha. Arlo held his front running position for a lap until Kent splashed by on the second la p to take control. Jeff Ward, dropped Arlo one more position before the finish line to give Kawasaki second place. Mike Bell paddled inio fourth place behind Arlo and ahead of Kawasaki's Mickey Boone. Joining the 25·bike starting lineup for the feature by way of the second chance semi-qualifiers were John Ayers , Oakland Supercross winner Jim Weinert with Team Green teammate Gaylon Mosier, and' Mickey Kessler (Continued to page '0) lBelow) Burgett.IRight) Hannah,