Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

Cycle News 1979 10 17

Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles

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I:' ..... I-< CI) ~ o ... u o Brad Lackey took his Steve Staslefski-prepped 440cc Uni-Trak to. 2-1 moto telly. That topped Kent Howerton'. 1-3 for the overall win. Trans-USA MX Series: Round three Bad Brad Lackey leads the way at By Jim Gianatsis NEW BERLIN, NY, OCT. 7 It may have taken him several years to do it, but Brad Lackey finally won a Trans-USA race for Team Kawasaki. Top American in the '72 Trans-AMA Series with Team Green and now America's leading GP star, Lackey tackled the world's premier motocross course at Unadilla Valley Sports Center and 6 came out the overall winner. Second went to last week's runaway winner, Kent Howerton of Suzuki. The machine Brad flew to victory on was his KX 440cc Uni-Trak prototype prepared by mechanic Steve Stasiefslti. Team Honda's top' Series points leader in the International class. Andre Malherbe of Belgium. suffered injuries in the morning practice session which prevented him from finishing the day's race and earning any points. This moved Howerton into a seemingly secure 28 point led in the Series with just two more races left to be run. Malherbe's accident occurred at a gnarly creek crossing in the valley section of the track. His RC-450 works Honda hit a deep washed out section while Malherbe was experimenting with different lines and the bike endoed, pitching him face first into the muddy water. He suffered a possible broken nose and fractured wrist. but still went out in the first moto to race in a gallant attempt to hold onto his points lead. The pain proved to be too much. though. and Malherbe was forced to pull off the track mid-way into the race and was taken to a hospital to be checked. All the riders loved the grassy natural terrain Unadilla course, despite its roughness, including Kent Howerton who claimed after practice, ''I'm having a hell of a time trying to hold on to my bike out there. The ground is tricky to read ... loamy on top and hard and slick underneath ... huge rocks stick up everywhere and are really slippery (the rocks) when wet." Despite his affectionate complaint, Howerton stole the start of the opening moto for the second week in a row. blasting his RN-440 Suzuki out into the lead ahead of the injured Malherbe, Shultz, Weinert and Chuck Sun. Immediately Jammin' Jimmy Weinert tried to forge his way to the front, but a daring move to pass Malherbe through the deep grass on the outside of a tum saw Weinert hit a hidden stone or hole and bail off his Kawasaki. When he got rolling again, it was into the pits. As Malberbe began to fade back from the pain of his practice injuries, Brad Lackey and Mike Bell had a charge going which moved them up into a fight for second place. At the 20-minute mark Bell shook off Lackey and closed with his Yamaha on Howerton. Bell was pushing himself so hard to grab .the lead his goggles fogged up with steam. As soon as he removed them though, some dirt got in his eyes, which made him slow down, and he pulled into the mechanic's area to have his eyes cleaned. With Bell out of contention, Howerton was running a strong 10 second lead over Lackey. followed by Maico wild man Danny "Magoo" Chandler who charged well enough to move up into third. Moto-X Fox rider Pat Moroney and Chandler were the crowd favorites of the Unadilla weekend as they did side-by-side onehanded cross-ups jumping down into and out of Gravity Cavity. Moroney was running in eighth spot and moving up when a crash broke the handlebars of his Husky. Bell was back up in fourth spot trying to hold off PDQ's Mickey Kessler and Suzuki's Mark Barnett. There were just three laps to go in the moto, with Howerton still leading, when suddenly Lackey began making up a lot of ground on the Rhinestone Cowboy who's footpeg had broken off and forced him to slow up some. "I could see Brad coming and started to berserk it to hold him off," said Howerton. Lackey continued to gain and there was a chance he could catch Howerton before the finish. But Brad dropped his bike in a tum on the last lap, allowing Howerton to easily one-foot-it the rest of the distance to the checkered flag. The second International moto blasted off to an exciting start as Lackey and Howerton wheeled their way side-by-side through the first tum and then Lackey pulled ahead of Kem a little further on down the track. Immediately pulling up behind to join the twosome for their lead battle was Darrell Shultz, riding an RN-440, then Suzuki teammate Mark Barnett with his RH-250 machine. For the next 15 minutes the lead became a four-way battle which really had the crowd stoked. Surprisingly, both Shultz and Barnett were able to get

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