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/126406
Scott Burnworth 14411 and Warren Reid lead the 125cc first mota charge to the first turn. Ron Turner 1191, Gary Denton 17791 and Donnie Cantaloupi 13381 pursue. AMA 125/250cc National Championship l\fX Series -Rounds 3/3 Hannah/ Glover steamroller continues By Dale Brown PHOENIX, AZ, APR . 8 Bob "Hurricane" Hannah continues to be unbeaten and Broc Glover is now five-for-six in the moto win column as the Team Yamaha duo blitzed the competition at the Phoenix round of the AMA 125 /250cc National Championship MX Series held at Canyon Raceway. Taking runner-up positions to 8 Glover in the ' 125cc category were Team Suzuki's Brian Myerscough and Luft Sho cks/Yamaha-supported Ron Turner. Beh ind Hannah in the 250cc d ivision were Team Suzuki's Kent Howerton and Marty " T yp hoo n" Tripes of T eam Honda . The th ird round of the series was originally sched uled to run at (he Lake Wh itney circuit near Houston, TX . When they cancelled out. ' Canyon Ra cewa y picked up the date. The track they pr epared was very tight and twisty. and reflecting its desert nature, became somewh at dusty during the final motos. 125cc National T eam Hond a' s' W arren Reid and Suzuk i-moun ted youngst e r 'Sco tt Burnworth sha red holeshot honors as th e pack d ived in to th e tight , righthanded first turn . Sha rin g elb ows up fro n t were Jeff Ward . Ron T urn er , Robert Han dy and Broc Glover. By the end of th e first lap . W ard was showing th e green rear fender of his Mark Johnson-tuned Un i-Trak Kawasaki to Turner, Reid, Glover, Suzuki-mounted Handy, Burnworth and Honda 's J im Gibson . Brian Myerscough, winner of the opening round of the series , was buried back in the pack. Ward continued out front as Glover made shor t work of those riders between himself and the leading "TeenyMeanie.' He was in fourth on the th ird lap and then second a lap later. Behind.h im, Handy and Turner discussed ownership of fourth place behind Reid . Gibson was in fifth and he led Ward's Kawasaki teammate Chappy Blose, Myerscough , Randy Hess and Da ve Crawford, th e latter two riding Suzukis. As th e action continued, Ward stayed in the lead. H e was pulling well away from the pack, but un fortunately for him , Glover had broken away from the pack as well and was making up time on his J im Feltprepared factory Yamaha . Just a little bit past th e hal fway point, Gl over made hi s move, swoopi ng past Ward just after th e first turn . Broc could not shake the pursuit of Ward , however, and would have a shadow right up to th e checkered flag . Reid saw a high placing go down the drain in the late laps when his footpeg went away . Instead, th ird place went to Brian Myerscough, who'd made his way up through the pack almost quietly. He'd taken third away from Reid about the same time Glove r. took the lead from Ward. Following Myerscough in were privateer "Rad ica l Ron" Turner , Chappy Blose , and two more privateers, Pat Jacobson , riding for Bellevue (W A) Suzuki and Handy, sponsored by Handy Auto Service. Gibson, Reid and Moto-X Fox rider Pat Maroney rounded out the top 10 for the first moto . Hometown favorite Chappy Blose had t he holeshot in the second moto, but again teammate Ward latched onto the lead , this time before the first lap was half over. LOP Yamahariding Gary Denton held third , and he was followed by DG's Gary Dircks, Yamaha -mounted Steve Martin and Glover. Ward used th e early laps to open a lead on the field as Glover used up time dealing with traffic. Dircks held th ird ahead of Martin , Ron Turner, Glover, Donn ie Cantaloupi and Denton. Richard Coon, Myerscough, Jeffery Surwall and Pat Jacobsen comprised the rest of the front running dozen . It looked like Ward had worked up th e lead he needed to win the moto, but Glover never stopped coming. H e was in third by the 20-minute point, with on ly Dircks between him and the leader. Blose had dropped out a few laps earlier, giving "Broccoli" on e less rider to pass . Ward lost a few seconds of the lead he'd engineered when he slid -ou t briefly at the base of an uphill. It was now a three-second difference between the two . .Finally Glover made his move , diving inside Ward in a carousel left-bander and out-accelerating him up the subsequent hill. There was a three-way battle for fourth that could have been a threeway battle for the lead, as in tense as it was. Turner was leading it , but the Moto-X Fox Yamaha of Cantaloupi and the Chris Haines-tuned factory Suzuki of Myerscough , up from another bad start. , kept the pressure on. Behind them was another dice, this one between Coon and Jacobson. Myerscough was the first one to break out of the battle and go after Dircks, passing the Arizona rider with a few laps to go. Dircks faded late in the race, and would be credited with an eighth-place finish. . Jacobson and Coon moved in on the Turner /Cantaloupi battle, both passing Cantaloupi and sandwiching Turner. With two laps to go, the heartbreaker of the day happened, at least for Team Kawasaki. Ward's chain came off and "some bod y dragged the bike off th e course and held it while I put the chain back on ," said Ward after the race . Such help from spectators or anybody else outside of an authorized work area, leaves riders open t'; disqualification, which is what happened 'to ' Ward . ' '' 1' had second