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
; AMAlToyota Supercross-Series Rounds six and seven =s .t 0) r--. 0) ...-4 Hannah devastates the Dome By Jim Gianatsis HOUSTON, TX, MAR . 16-17 With hundreds of thousands of watts of incandescent lighting surging through the exhaustclouded a tmosphere of the _ H ouston As tro dome , Team Yamaha's Bob H annah brou gh t a weeke nd of Mr. PiBB Astrodome Su percross ra cing to its knees. In ba ck- to -b ack nights of ra cing , the factory rider so 6 Hond as, like W ise's, and he used it to get arou nd Kent one lap la ter arid chase after Hannah . But Boh saw Ma rt y closing fro m 50-feet behind and wicked up the throttle to pull out a totally dominated the fifth weekend of larger lead' to win, Ma king the fivethe AMA /Toyota Supercross Series as rider cutoff to the feature behind to make th e racing more than a little Hannah , Tripes and Howerto n were bit boring. Warren Reid and R ick Burget t. Two nights of nearly-uncontest ed Qualifier number two was a Mickey runaway wins for Hannah gave him Boone versus Mike Bell battle with the series points lead, 179 points to Yamaha's Bell taking the lOp place at ' nearest rival Ka wasaki's Jim Weinert's th e finish line. Mickey's Ka wasaki was 121. with ihe 1979 series only half second ahead of Rich Eierstedr's Can completed. Weinert was one of the few Am , Jimmy Weinert who had worked riders who could have been expected his way up from a ninth place start. to keep a leash on Hannah's reign of and Husqvarna's Mike Loeffler. terror. but "The J a m m er" could only Steve Wise got to show his worth in pull off mediocre showings both nights the third qualifier as he holeshot his after his spectacu lar Dayto na perfor. Honda off the line ahead of Dannv mance, and he slipped way down in La Porte , Shaun Kelly, Scott Gillma~ the standings behind Hannah . and Gaylon Mosier. Gaylon began . The one ~ider who kept the hearts of stuffing his lime green Kawasaki Texas fans in hig h gea r d uring the towards the front to pass La Porte's Pace Ma n agem ent event, sponsored by factory Suzuki for second on just the Mr. Pi BB and the Hou sto n Chron icle, third la p . Bu t there was no way Cassin' was Tea m Honda 's Steve W ise of Gaylon could hook a line to Wise who McAll en , T X , Rid ing an exo t ic new was flying away with t he win like a RC 250 lon g stroke works bike , Steve greased ligh ten ing streak . . . clea ring proved himself to be the one rider who every ot her wall of dirt through the cou ld match Han nah 's heated pace , small jump sections. finishing seco nd each n igh t before a The fourth and fina l qualifier was a wee kend crowd of approximately freight train as Gary Semics kept his 60 ,000 people . On ly , Steve 's Hond a out front ahead of .LOP's Greg determ ined ha rd charging and t he Theiss on a Yam a ha , Moto-X Fox's fever pitched an no uncing of super Ra nd y Kirsch b aum , Marty Sm it h, mou th Larrv Hu ffm an , with assistance Kirk Bigelow and Tommy Croft. The from Larry l\1aiers , kept the otherwise only real action was Croft 's trying to bored crowd from packing up and get his factory Kawasaki around heading for home. Bigelow's KT M to make the cutoff. One reason , other than Bob finally doing so on the last lap only to Han nah , why the Astrodome races pitch a chain . Kirsch baum DNF with probably weren't too spectacular was t he first of three b lown gearboxes for the course. The track itself was the . the weekend. Ra nd y would come back safest and probably the slowest in to win the consolat ion race and b low yea rs, but it was just too easy as many another gearbox just as he crossed t he stadium tracks tend to be. Nowhere is finish line, preventing him again from a rider taxed to his ab ility and much of getting into the feature . the racing is just keeping the throttle The four' transfers from the semis to pegged open and using the berm s on the feature were Maico rider Ken the outside of the tu rn s. Hou ston Adams, R og e r Br o wn , Hi -Point . certai n ly needed more cha llenging Accessories spo nsored Fra nk Stacy on terrain like steeper a nd m ore di ffic ult a KTM , a nd Moto -X Fox's Pat approaches to the jumps, a nd whoops Mor on ey with a Hon d a . rat her t han bi llia rd tab le smooth Bo b Hann a h pulled up next to the straight. starting gate operator for t he 20- la p feat ure race , wat ch ed him slam down Friday th e lever.wh ich relea sed the backwa rd T he fou r 10-la p qua lifiers prov ided fall ing ga te sectio ns, and left th e r-est most of th e ac t ion t he fans wou ld get of t he field . Running second was to see ton igh t. In the o pe ning race, W arren Reid , th en Eiersted t , Boon e, Suzuki's Rh ineston e Co wboy, Kent Mosier , Sem ics, Bell , Bro wn , W ise , Howerton pulled off th e start ahead of Tripes and Su zuk i's Scott Gi llman . local Roger Bro wn . Rick Burgett , Dan ny La Port e was trucking his way Hanna h and Marty Tripes. W ith in under the tower j ump amid traffic and four laps, though. Hannah was wheel got his foot sucked u p into the rear ing his new OW40 works Yamaha wheel of Mike Loeffler's Husky as Mike around Howerton a nd into the lead , (Contin ued. to- page 10) Tripes ~ad onoSof_the -"!iw.. ~2r.:k:, . RC ., 7 ' -. ; • _ ~ _ . .. .. - - - -~ _ - ~ _ . (A bove) Bob Hannah totally dominated both nights of racing In the Astrodome, W showings at Houston. finishing ninth and 11th. (Below) On Saturday night. Steve