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/126403
DAYTONA '7 IAbove) Mike Kidd jumps in to the lead in the Saturday night event. followed by Ted Boody (12) and Terry Poovey.IBelow) Despite a "short between the rider and the seat, " Terry Poovey took two seconds. Short track gold to Kidd, Pearson, Tysor & Filice By Henny Ray Abrams DAYTONA BEACH, FL,'MARCH 7·10 "We've got everything working. I'm going for Number One!" shouted a jubilant Mike Kidd after running away with the Saturday night Expert/Junior ,' combined program " at Memorial Stadium, aboard his ' U.S. Army sponsored mount, Larry Cooper. a former short tracker now helping , Texan 36 Kidd, added , "Mike did that just so I could get a chance to kiss that trophy girl ." The miss in question was' Kathy . , Esser, the southeastern rep for SureFire . . Finishing second for the second night in a row was fellow Lone Star Stater Terry Poovey aboard the Tex Peel /Bel -Ray Bultaco. Bui for "Pooh 'Bear," second wasn't good enough. -- - -- ----- ---~ "T he bike was working, but the rider wasn 't ," said Poovey. "T here was a' short somewhere between the rider and the seal." Friday night's combined program winner was Californian SCOlt Pearson on the H arley-Davidson West mount tuned by Bubba Patman. Thursday night saw Novice Greg T ysor teach the Juniors a thi ng or two with a come-from -beh ind win on t he Don Hatley owned a nd tu ned CanAm . In th e Novice only bash on Wednes· da y. San Jo se. California's J im Filice won big on the ND /Wiseco /Gran Prix Plastics/Mountain View Distributing Yam aha , which Robert Cancilla tuned to perfection . All four nights' racing were more than ca pa bly handled by referee Fred die Ephrem , who ran the programs so well that every event was finished at least an hour before the 11 p .m. curfew. The racing on th e slick grooved surface was relatively accident-free . except for Saturday night when Dave Bradley and Alan Ritchel went to the hospital with undisclosed inj uries. After two sets of elimi na tion heats on Wednesday , the 'field of 144 Novices was reduced to just 40 riders. with 10 in each of four semi -finals . The first semi went to Greg Tysor after a brief tussle with Mark Mannschreck. In third place with the last transfer to the ma in was Brian Lewis. Donnie Blanchard, J im Filice , and Terry Bird also took semi wins. with Bird's being the fast est. After one red flag start, the Novices got underway with Filice out in front on his way to a wire -to -wire victory. Bunched up in a trio behind him were Gerald Bowman, Tysor and Scott Adams. who swapped position in every comer until Adams settled into second on the seventh lap with Bowman and Tysor following him across the finish line . Following the main event Sure-Fire Distributing and several fans put up _ money for a match race between the four semi winners . and once again Filice got the good start and won , with Bird . Tysor, and Blanchard Jollowing. Two of the 40 Novices that qualified to run with the 97 Juniors got quickly to work on Thursday night. Greg Tysor and Jim Filice sandwiched Junior Gene Church in the first semi , ~i~~!:.ysor winning. ~na ld Nanney had to figh t for the second semi win over Ken Tolbert. and th e final two semis were won by Rust y Courley and Scott Adams, respecti vely. The twelve-man final consisted of a perfect 50/ 50 mix of Juniors and Novices, but four of the Novices were on the front row , and one of them , Donald Nanney , zipped to the lead with Courley, Tysor and Adams just a wheel awa y. Courley and Tysor passed Nanney on the second lap. Soon afterwards J im Filice , the big winner from the previous night , slid out and was out for th e night . Tysor made his move at the halfway point. leaving Courley to hold off the charges of Gene Church and SCOlt Adams. The order d idn 't change, and it was Tysor, the Novice , putting it on the yellow. platers. In the winner's circle, he was quick to thank his sponsor· tuner Don Hatley and all the help from his housemates at the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity at Appalachia State where he is a sophomore . "My tire wasn't working last night ," he said. " It was like riding on a wet bar of soap." The track seemed like a foreign country to a lot of riders on Friday night, and several Experts incl udi ng Hank Scott, Steve Elo , and Scott Drake didn't make it through the 27 elimination heats which are usually just a formality for the national nurnbers, A few of those who had problems in the heats were Corky Keener, whose tran ny was j um ping out of gear, and Scot t Pa rker , who crashed sp ectacularly, but m anaged to walk away . Steve Freeman won the first semi of the night , but some of the best racing of th e weekend was in the second one, as Mike Kidd went low under Randy Goss in the last turn to take the photofinish win , while Terry Poovey took an inspired third place from a second row start. Junior Bubba Shobert took the th ird sem i, and Californian Scott Pearson won the last and fastest semi. The odds were stacked in the Experts' favor as they brought eight riders to the line in the final. Scott Pearson carried the momentum from his semi into the final as he sped into the lead with Garth Brow and Steve Freeman in pursuit. Back in the pack, Poovey and Randy Goss were making up for bad starts, while Kidd motored around in last place. the victim of a gearing change. "We thought we were going to trick 'em out," Kidd explained. . Brow held second for half of the race until his main bearing went south and Freeman took over temporarily. Poove y had other plans and scooted by to take the runnerup spot to a longgone Pearson while Freeman settled for third. The only repeat winner in the winner's circle was tuner Bubba Pat man , who tuned Lance Jones' winning bikes last year, but has just hooked up with Pearson. Poovey explained that riding the new H·D was "like starting all over again after racing Bultacos for seven years ." Steve Freeman was happy with his new sponsorship from Team EH . Bill Epley and Dennis Harris. Bad luck continued to follow some Experts Saturday night , as Hank Scott slid out in his heat and headed for the van , while the same fate struck Garth Brow in his scratch heat , after winning the fastest elimination heat . A superb ride was put in by Lance Jones, . . . . 4 came_ . " last place • to nip who • • , from • t'l ... . . 4 • • __ ~