Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

Savitski , who was ridi ng an OW works Yamaha , as the two held on to the on ly transfers to th e fea ture . Scott Gillman b ail ed off aga in wh ile leading the secon d se mi and h is m isfortune allowe d LOP 's St eve Stackabl e and H i-Po in t R a cin g P roducts sp onsore d Frank Stacy to take the transfer positions. The conso la tio n race p ro ved to be a runaway for Ma ico's Denny Swartz . Denny collected the 25th and final tra nsfer to th e even ing's ma in event. For Mark Barnett , winning hi s qualifier earlier had been just the sta rt of his provin g a po in t. This was his fi rst Supercross of t he yea r since Suz u ki hadn't let him rac e ea rl ier events for fear he would inj ure himself prior to the 125cc Na tional s. But now. ou t of contention in the 125cc titl e chase because of an injury su ffe red ea rly in the series, "Bomber" Barnett was attack ing his first '79 Supercross with vengea nce. The gate kicked back for the 20 ·lap feature and Barnett roosted his Doug Grant wrenched Suzuki - on loan from teammate Kent Howerton into the lead . Tommy Croft tucked his Uni -Trak Kawasaki in behind Barnett and the pa ir was tailed in hot pursuit by Eierstedt , W einert , Howerton . ·Giger . Brown , Staten, Savitski , Mosier and then Hannah and Wise . Hannah was cooking quickl y and gobbled up half the riders in front of him before the end of the second lap. Ma rk Barnett, meanwhile , was pull ing awa y like a rocketship and had a 100 ·foot lead carved out after five laps. Then it happened . . ." I came over the double jump, got back too far on the seat , and the front end washed out on me go in g in to th e upcoming tu rn. My bars were bent really bad and 1 didn 't t h in k I could keep riding," was how Barnett described his spill later. Barnett remounted in fifth place as Croft in herite d the lead , trai led some eight secon d s la ter b y Hannah , Eierstedr , and We in ert. Behind Barnett came Staten . Wi se , Tripes , Mosier and St acy. Two ·laps lat er. at the hal fwa y po int of the. ra ce , Hannah was banging off Croft's gree n rear fender as the two single sho ck bik e's pil ots b a tt led for the lead. T rying to pass Croft going ac ross a set of jumps. wh er e there just was n 't any room 10 p ass, Hann ah crashed his Yam aha a nd fli pped over int o th e ha yba les. He qu ickly pick ed hi msel f a nd h is b ike back u p a nd res tarted to dig back after Croft who was some 10 seconds ahead . At the same time. Ba r ne tt pushed by Eierstedt for thi rd. Near the h a lfway po int Marty Tripes seemed 10 find a bu rr u nder h is saddle a nd did some charging tha t proved as speed crazed as the charges of Ha nna h and Ba rn ett . O n lap I S, Tripes roos ted a round Barn ett to take over third and th en seemed 10 lose int erest a nd settled into third rat her tha n c ha rge after the leaders . Bu t Tripes had again proved tha t when he wa nts to go fast, he ca n. Two la ps after his crash on the jumps. H a nnah ca ug ht ba ck up to Croft. He passed hi m in t he exact same spot where he had fall en ea rlier, a nd t he win was his. Cr oft was su rprised. " I sho u ld have known Hannah was go ing 10 pass m e there . I shou ld have kept th e door closed . The bik e is workin g so good. Everything's greatl" exclaimed Croft after th e ra ce . If th e action up front wasn't good enough to keep th e crowd sta nd ing throughout th e ra ce , there wer e ra ce lon g battles betw een th e ot he r top fac to ry stars to do so. But th e story was a familiar one : Hann ah cl a im ed the win by ye t anot her go od m argin , a he ad of Croft , T ripes, Barnett , W einert and W ise , who turned in a stro ng ride after recovering from his practice crash. Sunday Bleary-e yed m echan ics , ha ving gotten litt le slee p after prepa rin g their rid er 's bikes aft er th e previou s n ight's race, had their assigned mach in es ready for pract ice earl y Su n d ay morning. Sunday a ft ernoon 's Supercross was a whole new ballgame , but the same old song . T he first qualifie r was a to ug hie as all t he stars see med to have been lumped togethe r. Mark Barnet! tu rned in a ste llar performance as he led th e start over Ma rt y Smith , Kent How erton , Ma rty Tripes, and the rest of th e field . Bu t on th e third la p Barnett went tumbling . giv ing the front spo t 10 Smith , who was im m edi a tely pressured by Hannah. One lap la ter Smith was watchin g H ann ah's Number One jersey pulling away. Barnett charged ba ck up and passed Smith, but cou ld never get closer than 50 fe et to Hannah . Kent Howerton claimed fourth behind Sm ith and ahead of the previous evening's lOp privateer, Frank Stacy. Marty Tripes crashed ea rly in the heat and retired with a " b ad ly bent bik e ." Michigan's Kirk Bigelow stole the show in the openin g laps of the second qualifie r as he held off Weinert for a couple of laps; then both fell victim to t he hard chargin g advances of LaPorte and Semics. Arlo Englund and his Vickery Yamaha made the final transfer spot 10 th e main. Can -Am's Rich Eierstedt continued to do well as he led the start of the third qualifer . Mosier quickly passed Eierstedt but on the fou rth lap he sp illed over in a turn and Steve W ise snuck past them both to lead the remainder of the way 10 the check ered flag . Greg Robertson and John Sav itsk i joined the transferees. A crash just after the sta rt of the last qualifie r took ou t a number of goo d riders , incl u d ing Gig er , Sta cka b le , and Reid, T ommy Croft used the track block in g in cid ent to pu ll off a hu ge lead a nd an easy win . Mike Bell fini sh ed second, foll owed by Ro ger Brown , Ken Ad ams on th e T rack 'n' Tra il Mai co , and T erry Bradsh aw . Mick ey Kessler was forced from seco nd to a DNF wit h gea rbox problems . In t he semis , Bu rgett and Sta ten got two m or e T eam Ya maha bi kes int o the fea tu re , and W a rren Reid and Gaylon Mosier did the same with their double and single shoc kers. The consolation ra ce was a LOP benefit performance as Gr eg Theiss fought off tea mmates Sta ckab le and Tod Perkins and made th e feature. T he feat ure race sta rt saw Reid and Staten get ca ught in the starting gate . Croft fell in the first turn 10 nullify his chance of repeating his st rong p reviou s eve n ing's perfo rmance , and Dann y La Porte danced ou t into th e lead . Tuc ked into Dynamite Danny's slipstrea m were We in ert , Barne t t . Eie rsred t , Hannah . R o be rt so n . Gillma n , Smith and Wise . Ha ndl eb ar thrash ing in mid -pa ck was hec tic as the 39,000 fans cheered Ha n na h towards the front . By la p five, LaPorte had a good six seco nd lead over W ein ert , but Hannah was up 10 th ird and comi ng on strong . For two laps Hannah tr ied to pu sh by Weinert a n d couldn't. Fin ally, Weinert boggled his Uni -Trak in a berm and Hannah wh eeled by with LaPorte in his sights . Hannah quickl y gob bled up t he ga p and when Danny lost cont rol for an instant in a 180 · degree off-cam ber tu rn , he was on his way to victory . Barnett moved up on LaPort e , but his Suzuki teammat e di d n't wa nt to (Top) Tommy Croft battled with Bob Hannah in Saturday's feature, (Above) Hannah appears about to overshoot a turn while tailing Greg Robertson. (Below) Danny laPorte (14) and Mark Barnett (30) did well. make things 100 easy. After two laps of di cing , LaPort e b lew a shift. Ba rnett pulled al ongside coming out of a turn a nd then stuffed hi mself in front of La Po rt e goi ng into th e next on e . It wa s a real door -sh uu ing , e lb ow bumping pass th a t left LaPorte so sh ake n up he backed off the throttle and let Wein ert slip past as well . " It was ha rd ge tting around Da n ny, b ut once I did I co u ld cruise a littl e bit. If I co uld have go tten around soo ne r I mi ght have been a ble to catch Hannah a nd given him a little race ," Barnett related afterwards . As the race drew to a close Weinert fell. La Porte contin ue d to fade ba ck a nd Mike Bell mov ed into third pl ace . Frank Sta cy, the Ch eekt ow a g a W arrior, did a fantasti c job with his H i-P o in t KTM in h olding off Ka wasak i's Mosie r fo r sixt h . St eve W ise had dropped his H onda back to seventh whe n he ba nged his bad leg . And for Bob " H urri ca ne" Hannah it was yet another win . H e left Mic higan planning on wrapping up his third Supercross Championship at th e Ne w • Orl eans Supercross onJune 2. Results SATURDA Y: 1. Bob Hanna h (Yam); 2. Tommy Croft (Kaw l; 3. Ma rty Tripes (Hon); 4 . Mark Barnett (Suz): 5. Jim Weiner t IKaw ); 6. Steve W ise (Hon); 7. Mike Bell (Y am); B. Rex Staten (Yam); 9 . Frank Stacy IKT M l; 10. Rick Burgen (Yam). 11. Gaylon M os ier IKaw ); 12. Kent Howerton (Suz); 13. Rich Eierst edt te-AI; 14 . W arren Reid (Honl; 15. Danny laPorte (Suz); 16 . M ick ey Kessler (Yam); 17 . Gary Sem ics (Han); 18. John Savitski (Yam); 19. St eve Stackable IYam); 20. Greg Rob ertson IC·A); 21. Roger Brown IHon); 22. Too Perkins (Yaml ; 23. Ken Ad ams (MaO; (Ma il; 25. Lenn y Gig er (Ha n). 24. Dann y Swartz S UNDAY: 1. Bob Hannah (Yam); 2. Mar k Barn ett 3. M ike Bell (Yam); 4. J im W einert tKawl; 5. Dann y laPort e tSuzl ; 6. Frank Stacy (KTM); 7. Gaylon M osier (Kawl ; 8. St eve Wi se (Ha n); 9 . Wa rren Reid (Han); 10. S cott Gill man (Suz); 11. M arty Smith (Ha n); 12. John Savit ski (Yam); 13. Greg Theiss (Yam); 14 . Kent Howerton (Suzl ; 15. Tom m y Croft IKaw t; 16. Rex Staten (Yam); 17. Greg Rober tson Ie -A); 18. Gary Sem ics (Hon); 19. Rog er Brown (Hon); 20 . Rick Bur gen (Yam); 21. Ken A dams (Mai); 22. Davi d Bowman (Hus); 23 . K;rk B;ge!ow IKT M ); 24 . Ar lo Eng lund IYam) . (S UI); 7

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