Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Mickey Fay and Jeff Haney hold off Team Texas' Bubba Shobert. Winner Ronnie J on es ta kes a cas ual look at a pot ential line. Ronnie does Cow Palace Gold Cup It took three times to get the sixth heat to work with "Hollywood Wayne" Rainey taking all three and winning with a big lead -on Team Ka wasaki over Bub Shobert, Rocky Robinson and Sal Hoffman. Two-time former National Amateur short tracker Rick Delacy returned to the pro ranks as an Expert and held off the Steve Eklund charge after a good jump on the green. Eklund pushed hard on the Boss-framed ND special but all held their place with Rick Graham in for third on the Pete Pestoni Bul and Danney Hogue in for fourth . A good clean 'sta rt for the 10-man, 20·lap feature saw Jones and Rainey depart from the madding crowd. Hocking was running third over Spencer and Gennai with Jorgy and Dave Jones over Pearson, Bub and the only Junior on the main , Steve Harvey on the Matts Muffler, Twice Pipes by Synd Yamaha. Alex Jorgensen was making some good moves , but one bobble and a quick save weren't moving him up fast until Hocking went down . Pearson did likewise and got up in the front of the pack but let the leaders go leaving Jones just in front of Rainey and Rod Spencer. Alex passed David Jones as the parade . continued with Jones lapping through the pack. Luckily, the riders were watching signals from infield .people and no trou ble was caused in passing. Gennai fell late in the laps . but it was no problem for Ronnie Jones who cruised in with a big lead over Rainey and those two were bunches ahead of the pack. Rod Spencer had the third over Alex and David Jones. Bub Shobert took the sixth leaving the fall downers to scratch it out for the rest. A quick victory lap and Ronnie thanked the crowd for coming, thanked Helen Filice for the fine food and hospitality - a good southern boy does that - and said for everyone to come to San Jose and watch him on the mile. . By Bill Spencer DALE CI T Y. CA, APR . 30 H ouston Short Track WInner Ronnie J ones kept the loc al troops at bay taking the 20-lap featured Yamaha Gold Cup indoor short track at the old time CO Palace with relative ease W over Team Kawasaki's Wayne Rainey and Rod Spencer. Spencer was riding his first event since injurying his knee just before Houston. . 20 Former road racer , Englishman Cliff Carr brought World Road Racing Champion Kenny Roberts and the Yamaha Gold Cup event to Northern California as a companion event to th e San Jose m ile. The race drew a wide field of racers but a rela tively low figure in the stands. Roberts' deal was to ride a special match series invitational and was overwhelmingly greeted by his many loyal fans. He rewarded them with the best individual effort of the night in winning the first three events, falling off in the fourth, then taking a second in the final for a best score of 19. Only Wayne Rainey and Steve Eklund could come close at 18 each. In the final run off for the best pairs, it was Team Smoke taking the brass over Team Honda. That's Rick Hocking and John Gennai over Mickey Fay and Jeff Haney. In the regulation $3 ,000 event that had practice lasting most of the day, Ronnie Jones turned the fastest time on the Viper-framed YZ with an 8.463 . Teddy Davidson was the only other close time with an 8.471 riding a turned-down Dave Aldana mount that the new Kasawaki rider evidently didn't like and then di dn't ride . It raised a lot of eyebrows when the former regional champion got his number boards on the Champion KX ou t of Kawasaki of Salinas because the rid e belongs to Doug Chandler , th e fou r tim e amateur short tr ack champ who can beat just about the whole world on the local tracks. Texan Mike Kidd brought the Army in for third fast clock at 8.670 on th e same Honda that won all the Florida series stuff while Rick Hocking rode the ND ·sparked, Kenny Weese-tuned Yamaha to fourth at 8.699 and Wayne Rainey in for fifth on the Chris Armstrong adjusted T eam Kawasaki at 8.708 . Steve Eklund , David Jones, Keith Day, Mike Minnig and Rod Spencer rounded out the top ten. In the first of the seven regular heats, it was the Oklahoma Jones boys together with Scott Pearson in the middle of the front row but first into the corner, as usual, and never headed by the Viper framed/ Arai/Castrol machines even though Ronnie tried real hard at one point to put a wheel under Pearson. Teddy Davidson tried real hard to get by Keith Day in the second heat with lots of tire pressure but fell and was done for the night. Keith took the easy win on his Champion/ND mount over Bobby Cunnington and Mickey Fay. Smooth John Gennai took the third heat easily over Mike Kidd and Mike Minnig. Rod Spencer rode the Bud Martin tuned Valley Cycle /ND YZ to the fourth heat victory. Rick Hocking took the second after' one good bump when he caught traction and Randy Goss really gave Jimbo Filice a bump in taking third. Alex Jorgensen took th e Jorgy CanAm to the fifth heat win with Jeff "The Jet" Haney in for a close second over Mike Inderbitzen and J ohn Burnett. The Yamaha Best Pair Match Races pitted six teams against each other in round robin style competition not mixing teams, in a sort of speedway style of racing. King Kenny proved worthy of his past accomplishments in winning the first three rounds he was entered. Roberts teamed with the National Novice champ of last year, Jimbo Filice who was pretty well dialed out of things for the niltht with a motor- cycle that was all too powerful and had a suspension that wouldn't want to do anything except try to hurt him . Their first competiton was with Team Smoke. As Rick Hocking put it , "We' re gonna smoke 'em all ." The point set-up was five for a win, the 32·1 for th e rest. Roberts pulled the classic start and led the entire distance with some working on his rear tire by Gennai but to no avail. Gennai and Jimbo laid out for a rest and the crowd loved Roberts' wheelie after the win. Score five for KR, three and two for Team Smoke and jimbo's point for a 6·5 first round . The second pairing was with Team Kawasaki and Team Honda , Rainey and Denny Briggs on the Green Machines. and Haney and Fay on the Red, White and Blue babies of Jerry Griffith . Haney from the outside led it off with great style and won it easily with Briggs getting the second over Rai ney and Fay in last after a hard work on Rainey . National champ Steve Eklund and' Scott Pearson formed Team NorCal over a hastily arranged Team Texas with Capt. Kidd and Bubba Shobert. Current point leader Kidd won it with Pea rson in front of Eklund and Bub. The nex t pairing saw Team Yamaha match it with Team Honda and it was once again Haney from the outside to lead but for two straight laps . KR worked a wheel on the side of the Honda until the Jet finally let Roberts have what he wanted, the lead. Fay moved into the second spot with Haney taking third just in front of Jimbo Filice. Team Texas and Team Smoke were next and John got the roller for a ho hummer and then Team NorCal took a win and a last when Pearson fell and Eklund won over Team KX, Briggs and Rainey. In the third round the scores started to sharpen up as the winner- take-all budget came closer. Team Texas was the first to break away from the 6-5 point count by win ning when Bubba Shobert got some good lessons on passing and won over Haney with Kidd over Fay for a 7-4 score and the lead. T hen , Team Smo ke did exactly what they said they were going to do , and won both big point spots with Hocking easing to the Jerry Kennedy checkered and Gennai keeping Pearson and Eklund behind. Steve put on the pres sure but to no a vail after Pearson broke at least half the course markers in a tremendous get off. a

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