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/126414
magazine's Super Huoky. All three
emerged from the mishap no more
than badly shalten, but Darrell was a
lap down before he could get running
again.
For five laps Wise kept himself
hanging off Weinert's rear fender.
The tricky sand traclt offered
numerous lines to pass and on the fifth
lap Wise pulled the fans to their feet as
he edged past Weinert and into the
lead. The Texas Tornado put a little
distance on his adversary which only
lasted for a few laps. Weinert
consistently pulled back up to renew
their battle in earnest.
Meanwhile, the action behind the
dueling duo kept the Superdome
rocking with the screams and yells of
40,000 spectators. Warren Reid
pushed his way past Kawasaki's Teenie
Me.anie, Jeff Ward, to pressure
teammate Semics and give Honda
three of the four top positions. Ward
was turning in a spectacula! ride !In
what was nothing more than a box·
stock production KX-250 the
untrickiest of the best performing
machines among all the factory
exotica. Handlebars were twisting in a
fight between Yamaha's Bell and
Honda's Gibson for sixth place, and
between Tripes, Gillman, Hannah,
Howerton and' LaPorte over eighth
place as the race reached the halfway
mark on lap 10. Steve Martin, riding
under the Yamaha Support Team
program and for Cycle Springs
Yamaha in Tarpon Springs, Florida,
was top privateer in I ~th.
On the 12th lap Weinert began to
catch his second wind and dosed up
the 40·foot gap Wise had been holding
on him for the lead. Their battle was
renewed as Weinert pulled up beside
Wise on every straight section of track
and blackened the red rear fender of
the RC Honda with front knobby
prints in the turns. Their bikes
scrambled for traction in the damp
sand, shaking themselves in violent
shudders which the well conditioned
athletes fought to control every time
the powerbands reached their torque
peaks in each gear.
Both Mike Bell and Marty Tripes
broke free of their skirmishes and
moved up towards tile leaders as well.
Marty was obviously feeling none the
worse from the Cycle News sponsored
riverboat party the. night before where
he had won a . $200 bet in 'chugging
down a pitcher of gin and tonic in
record se_tting 42·second time.
Hannah backed down from a counterchallenge from Marty to do the same,
even when table stakes were raised to
$500.
"I called them the 'Oh·me·ah·my·
God whoops! That's what I said every
time I came up to those things, just
gritted my teeth and blasted across,"
explained a battle weary Weinert.
The Superdome course is famous for
its treacherous 150' section of offset
angled whoop-de-doos which are set
up to make them impossible for a rider
to ride across in any semblance of
rhythm or style. Most riders just tried
to roll their way across them slowly
and stay up on two wheels. The faster
riders were forcing eac!) other to ride
full·throttle across the tops of them
and pray' they carne out alive at the
other end.
.
Weinert hit the "Oh-me·ah-my-Gotj
whoops" for the 15th time, pulling up
beside Wise and then pushed slightly
ahead as they dropped down into the
mud hole in the next turn. The
Jammer took the harder inside rut and
pulled ahead to take the lead again as
Steve swung wide and bogged for a
moment in the softer outside sections.
Each lap Wise would pull up beside
Weinert on the whoops as the two
playe