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/126462
o 00 en - Mike Kidd 1121 took Friday'. controv....y marred win with Terry Poovey 1181 .econd and Steve Hall17UI third. Short Tracks Cole, Hall, Kidd and Scott win Memorial Stadium events By Henny Ray Abrams DAYTONA BEACH, FL, MAR. 5·8 Another edition of the Daytona Cycle Week short track races are in the book with Virginia's Mickey Cole taking the Novice win, Steve Hall of New Jersey getting the checkered flag in the Junior/Novice combined program while Texas' Mike Kidd and Ohio's Hank Scott split the double .. 30 r Expert/Junior combined programs. The 1980 session of dirt doings on Memorial Stadium's tight and rough quarter mile took on added meaning as Experts in the final two nights of racing were also vying for Harley· Davidson Dirt Track Series points. Billy Labrie could have sewed up the title and a cool $10.000 along with it. but found himself on the short end of the stick and saw both Mike Kidd and Terry Poovey move to within six and ten points. respectively. with only one round remaining. Wednesday Mickt'y Cole got off on the right foot for the start of his pro rider career with a win in Wednesday's Novice final. Cole. whose dad put together the bike with help from Industrial Insulation and Ed Atkins. survived two restarts in the final to beat self-sponsored Jim Thomas and the Bultaco Unlimited/Snap On Tools entry of Billy Herndon. After 2 I scratch heats. the field of 125 riders were whillied down to size for the' six elimination heats. Herndon. Cole and Thomas each took a win with Barry Gregg. Jerry Oschner also winning. Fast heat went to Tod Carson. The semis were up with only the tOP two transferring directly to the final joined by the third man in the fastest two of the four events. Wins went to Thomas, John Spence, Jeff Wickersham with Herndon taking the fastest semi win and the pole for the final. Herndon apparently made a wrong choice of pole positions and took the outside and got off fourth. Cole had the lead followed by Thomas and Wickersham. On the fourth lap Wickersham went down on the front straight taking John Spence' and Bill Reed along. Wickersham took a ride' to the hospital while' the' rest madt' the restart. After one false start the field finally gOl underway. Cole put himself out front and stayed there while Herndon and Thomas dueled for second. How bad did Herndon want second? "I thought I could bump him (Thomas) going into turn three. but it didn't work." Thomas held tight to tht' inside line and ended up with tire marks on his hand to show for his work . that and second place. Thursday Forty Novices joined the Junior field for Thursday's program and when the dust settled it was Steve Hall on top after pUlling together a series of crucial starts that had him leading wire to wire on his Full House/Klotz/Bauer's Cycle Center Yamaha. Hall started out the night right by winning his ht'at along with Irvin Smith. Buch Brandon. Billy Herndon. Don Nanney. Todd Smith and Charlie Freeman. Greg Tysor post~ the' fastest heat win. Next on the program we're' the' four semis. The first starte'd with a turn two crash which sent Grady Phillips to the hospital. On the re·start Davis led Tysor and Jim Filice until Tysor blew his Can· Am up leaving Davis to fend off the constant charge of Filice. Filice, a crowd favorite, stuck a wheel under Davis in turn two of the last lap and went on to win in what would be the fast semi of the night. Butch Brandon also transferred. In the second semi Todd Smith led Gomer Pyle to the finish. The third transfer went to Chris Cannon barely edging out fellow Novice Billy