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/126440
CN 1-0 Q; ..c e Q; u Q; o The moment of truth: Kent Howerton 191 closes on Warren Reid. Warren Reid rockets through the turn as the field hits the dirt. Hakan Carlqvist The Superbikers Hot streak continues for the R By Charles Morey Photos by Mark Kariya and Morey CARLSBAD, CA, DEC. 1 Trans-USA MX Series Champion and, more recently, winner of the Triplecrown of Motocross, Texan' Kent Howerton added another notch to his "gun handle" - a works Suzuki motocross machine - at the inaugural'edition of The Super· d I hilten. A filtung en to a ate1979 winning streak., Howerton'$ 8. victory put smiles on wife Jill, mechanic Greg Arnette and Suzuki team manager Mark Blackwell's faces. "Molocrossers are better'" Jill declared, and if results teU the tale, she's right. Team Kawasaki MX riders Jimmy Weinen and Jeff Ward joined Kent on the three-level Victory podium at the completion of the 12-I!lp main event. "No guff, we're just too tough'" grinned Weinert. "They built the track for them, and we still beat 'em'" Top non·MXer, fourth place, went to the privateer of the year, AMA Grand National/Winston Pro Champ Steve Eklund. A third Kawasaki motocross rider, Warren Reid, showed; his abilities in his first ride with Team Gr~n by.. ~ fifth after crashing while raong WIth Howenon for the lead. The Superbikers, an entirely new concept intended to match the best motorcycle racers in all the various facets of the spons, must be judged as successful. The first running of the new ~nt naturally caught everyone unprepared the ideally set-up motorcycle did not exist. But. the combined talents of the motocrossers' stamina and riding skill along with their .full factory mac~n~ry preparatIon proved to be the wmmng elements. "Next year ... " said many of the privateer dirt track and road race contestants. . Before the race, motocrossers complained tbat the two-mile course, 1.1 miles of pavement and 0.9 miles of smoothly gTaded din, favored the Winston Pro Series riders. "We're completely out of our element," Kent Howerton said after his first day of practice on the course. "They're Used to riding this type of track all the time; we're notl" Indeed, the track was extremely fast by motocross standards. Average speeds approached 60 mph. Knobby tires were discarded in favor of various dirt track treads for the paved and graded sections. No motocross terrain was used at all. And yet, when initial practice was'over, it was Howenon on his lightweight two-stroke motocrosser and Mike Kidd on his 750cc f9Urstroke twin TT bike that were cutting fastest times. Two entirely different motorcycles and two entirely different riding backgrounds: .In the end, if any inequality existed, it fell in favor of the motocrossers w'ho had the facilities to test and convert their motocross machines into Superbikers machines the quickest. Works MXers quickly sprouted front wheel disc brakes, donned GoOdyear DT-II tires, squatted closer to the ground and developed more high-speed muscle at the hands of the factory mechanics. The Superbikers program mimicked a standard AMA heatlelimination for· mat with a few notable deviations. Three World Champions - Kenny Roberts, Hakan Carlqvist and Peto;r Collins - were automatically seeded into the main event. As it turned out, Robens crashed in a practice session, injured his shoulder and opted not to race. Both Carlqvist and Collins fell in the main event, although neither was runniag near the front at the time. Riders were divided into three divisions: Road racers, din t~ckers and motocrossers. Each division ran a five-lap heat race where only th-e winner qualified for the main event. The rest transferred to two more heat races where the top five qualified. Finally, those remaining raced a semifinal where the top nine made the cut for a total of 25 in the main event. The whole program was filmed by ABC Wide World of Spons for a midApril air date planned. Heavyweight I motorspon commentators Jim McKaY'f' Jackie Stewan and Chris Economaki:>l were an i~dication of the imponance q ABC placed on the event. The elimination program got off to P . an inauspicous stan as only four road racers gridded for their heat: Freddie Spencer, Eddie Lawson, Dave Aldana and Dave Erode. That number was !{uickly reduced to. three as Spencer, "the leader on the opening lap, dropped out immediately after hitting the din section. ~