Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Cycle News 1980 04 09

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 e o .... ... 00 0') ~ < Yern_M'. "Eerthqueke Erik" Kehoe W8S _ double winner, tllking the 125cc Intermeclilltes end the Mini Stock cIess. GNC Amateur National Championships run under the Dome By Nanette Marie HOUSTON, TX, MAR. 16 Tl).ere comes a time each year when all of the sportsman motocross racers all over Texas and the neighboring, states converge upon the Hous14' ton Astrodome. They have prepared for this race for months, competing in qualifiers run aU over the United States, and earning their chance to ride in the same stadium as their big profellllional heros did only the night before. The race is the Grand National Championship Amateur Nationals, held the Sunday following tbe two nights of SupercrlB action in Houston, TX. GNC, as most competitors know it, is headed by the husband/wife duo of Jerry and Liz Surber, Together they run the club, work on the track. keep the scoring. take care of all, the press, and try to keep all of the riders going smoothly. It's a lot of work, and they have hired a lot of help to get their job done efficiently. to satisfy every rider. GNC people are everywhere during a big race. The medical crew lining the track inside the Astrodome was also amazing. Nearly 50 allendants were stationed to help any downed rider immediately, and flagmen were abundant as well. There weren't any major casualties the entire night, and nOl one rider laid out on the track without quick allention. And boy were those attendants busy. The track was run in much the same manner as the previous nights of racing. Only one gorge jump was filled in, and made into an equally difficult but safer stair-step obstacle, and an ess with two small jumps were removed right before riders reentered the starting straight. All of the sharp, steep ridges were kept from the prior race course, and very little grooming was necessary, with the exception of the first tum, which was made of soft loamy sand. Lap times were right above the one-minute mark, a bit slower than the professionals' times, and for as quick as the track was, it was very safe. It seemed almost as if the track had been previously laid out for a sportsman, with a few tough spots incorporated for the Pros, then detuned back into an Amateur circuit again. But still, there were a lot of riders going down. For the most part, the riders there were all new to stadium racing, and many of them didn't know what to expect, or how to handle going fast over the new rough terrain. The end results was a number of bikes and bodies hurling themselves through the stadium all out of control, and landing in various spots at different times with a cloud of dust marking their touchdown site. The ambulance crew was busy all day transporting the thrashed and weary back to the pits, or c~rting the injured off to the hospital for examination. However, the overall view from the riders was good. The track was not that difficult to ride, just hard to go fast on if you didn't know what you were doing. Riders came from as far away as California to race in the GNC Amateur finals as they do every year, and the out-of towners could be seen Iinlng the pits immediately after the factories and top professionals emptied from the stadium Saturday night. By sunrise. there was a massive jam of trucks, pickups, vans, mOlorhomes, cars with trailers, bikes, and people running around the section of the Astrodome parking lot labeled as "Pits." Somewhere in the neighborhood of I!lOO riders were on hand to participate in the one-day extravaganza. The program started with practice bright and early Sunday morning, then after everybody had been run through, the first round of qualifiers was lined up. The top 10 riders from this race went directly to the final main event qualifier, wlule the rest went into qualifier number two. There another 10 were taken, and the winners from that group were combined with the first round winnen and run in a third qualifier. The top 15 then transferred into the main to be held later in the evening. The only two exceptions to the rule were the Teeny Minis and the Women's Division. Those dasses ran one qualifier, then went straight into their main events. In the first main event were the 0-6year old Teeny Minis, all on 50cc s0mewhat automatic minibikes. I.t was amazing tbat thOle bikes even pwIe it around the track, Ie! alone race with a .

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