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/126469
Hank Scan (14) and Jay Springsteen were among the main protagonists in the battle for the lead. Scan won with Springer taking second. AMA Grand National Championship/Winston Pro Series: Round Two in'a ro.w for Hank Scott By Dale Brown Photos by Mark Kariya and Charles Morey SAN JOSE. CA, MAY 4 "I saw the five-lap sign come up and 1 waited two more laps. Then 1 just put the hammer down," grinned Hank Scott, whose victory in the D.I.D/Daido San Jose Mile was his second in a row in the 1980 Winston Pro Series. It was a San Jose Mile of tra dition , with the lead changing up 6 to severa l times per lap . Taking second , after leading for awhil e, was an on form. healthy Jay Springsteen. Third by a close margin at the fin ish line , Alex Jorgensen moved into th e point lead , tied with Hank Scott at 43 . Still ou t of the points race remains Gr and National Champ Steve Eklund . Eklund finished fifth in a hotl ycont ested heat race, but und iagnosed mech a nical ills sent him to th e pits after onl y on e lap of his sem i. Finishing a n ultra-close fourth on a borrowed motorcycle was Ricky Graham , and Randv Goss m ade it two factory Harleys in th e top five. Goss' finish gave him a tie with Mike Kidd , the point leader coming into San Jose, for third. Kidd ran on on e cylinde r through much of the ra ce; finished 14th. It was the sixth mi le win for Scott, sponsored by Sal Acosta, Branch Flowmetrics , KRW , MXL , On Any Sunday II, Lubri -Tech , Barnes Wheels, Jack Sisemore, JB Enterprises and RPM . The work on th e Ha rley-Davidson XR750 motor was done by Acosta and Jerry Branch. Of all ac tive riders, only . one - Jay Springsteen - has more m ile wins (seven) than Scott. TIme trials The ba ttle for top q ualifier went down to the on e-th ousandt h of a second before bein g de cid ed in favor of Army's Mike Kidd . Kidd's 39 .267 just edged a surprising performance by late-entry Tom Berry, who turned in a 39 .268 . Third fastest qualifier was Ga ry Scott (39.340) ah ead of Alex Jorgensen on the Ron Wood Harleythat-looks-like-the-Norton (39. 370). Hank Scott was fifth fast est qualifier (39.385) . It was a fai rly tigh t field , with th e cut-off time belonging to Mike lnderbitzen at 40 .79 1. Heats Polesitter Kidd was th e fastest off the line, but Hank Scott came whistling through the pack to challenge for the lead as he used the draft off the back straight. Scott took the point position, but Kidd sta yed right with him until an attempt to get by got him off the groove and he lost time. 1t would be one of th e few times during the day that one rider would sail alone out front , but Scott did and took th e win . The battle for the other two transfers wasn't settled as rookie Bubba Shobert pushed vet eran Co rky Keen er so hard for third that they caught right up to K~dd. Kidd was bumped out of a transfer on the eighth lap as both Keen er and Shobert got by, bu t Kidd used his high line on the followi ng la p to regain second and he held it to the flag. Keener was third and into th e Na tiona l, while Shobert led Rick Hocking and Billy Labrie into th e sem i. The second heat had its troubles getting off th e line as Steve Monger, Joe W ilson , Ricky Resweb er , Wayne Ra iney and Bruce Hanlon were sent to the penalty line. On the second attempt, Hanlon, riding a TZ350 Yamaha twostroke based racer, got such a good start off t he penalty line that they redflagged the race and made them do it again . Finally th ey got a clean start and Ted Boody took the lead in front of Jackie Mitchell and Tom Berry. The Arai Helmets-sponsored Boody kept the lead for two laps before Berry used the draft off th e front straight and into turn one to take over. First Joe Wilson, then Wayne Rainey joined the battle for transfers, but Wilson dropped back with three laps to go, and Boody retook the lead. Wilson rejoined the group on the ninth lap , and th e Busch Beer special of Gene Romero was also in the thick of th ings. Ra iney's last lap charge through turn three got him off t he groove and out of the hu nt as Boody, Wilson and Ro me ro took the transfers . Berry , Rainey and Mitchell were hea ded for t he sem i.