Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

(A bov el Priv at eer JoJo Keller almost pu lled off the 250cc w in . (Belowl Rich Coon won one 125cc m oto; fini shed the other with a broken co lla rbone. Kent Howerton won his third straight 250cc Nationa l. wick's Motocross 338 toughie up the points spread for the 125cc championship between himself, Barnett and Myerscough , bu rit was Rich Coon who won th e admiration of everyone , .250c c National T he " Rhinestone Cowboy" ran away with the opening rou nds of the 2S0cc Nationals and had to be the odds-on favorite for a win at Southwick as well. I asked Howerton if he supported my prognosis, "I don't see any prob lem in ho lding on to my lead . . . as long as we don't have any problems. I know Greg will do his part in keeping the bike running right. I've set myself to winning every moto , Bell will be my most consistent challenger, but he doesn't have the speed for outdoor races like he does in the stadiums. Tripes is too on and off the pace to be a serious challenger every race. No one else is consistently fast enough to keep up with me . My Suzuki is really good and has been d ialed-in right since the start of the season, I'm in better shape now than I ever have been in my entire life, and I want to win now , more than ever before." And Howerton did look like a sure winner that first 250cc moto, parti cularly after the first few laps sorted the field out. Honda's "Holeshor " Don nie H a nsen had ju mped into the lea d a head of Reid , W ise , W osick, Tony W anket , Kirsch bau m , Kelle r, Bell, Grossi 'a nd H owert on . Bot h Su zuki's Darrell Shu ltz and Husky's Mike Guerra , another New England favorite, were taken down in a first turn crash . H a nsen ran ho t with the lead for a few laps , but then an ankle which he injured in practice began to pain him so much because of the bumpy track's pounding he was forced to slow during the moto and not ride the second moto at all . As H a nsen had slowed down , teammate Steve Wise challenged with his watercooled RC against W arren Reid's Kawasak i. T he two bega n throwi ng a lot of sa nd over th e first place posi tio n , ob livio us to the even heavier ba ttl e which began to emerge and close on them from be hind con sisting of Moto- X Fox's J oJo Keller , Mike Bell, Howert on and Kawasaki's La rry Wosick . T he four careened off each other for m ost of 10 laps. H ower ton had no p ro b lem dispatching Bell, but it took a couple of la ps and a few good tries to bust his way past Keller on the kid's home track. Once past Keller, though, Howerton found they had moved up to within striking distance of Wise and Reid as well . First Howerton passed Wise, then Keller. Reid was then the next objective , but then Warren helped make taking the lead an easy proposi tion as he fell , remounting again quickly , but not until after Kent had slipped by , Warren picked u p his pace and held Keller off to the finish line: Bell claimed fourth spot ahead of Wise , Wosick and Tripes. In the pits between motos , it was obvious that "GoGo" J oJ o Keller was angry. It was the firs t time he had reall y run u p at the front of the pack with factory sta rs and he wasn't quite used to jamm ing, bra ke checks and less t ha n pol ite tactics the factory stars were using a ll in t heir regul ar co urse of conduc ting bu siness and earning a living. T he first moto they had caught him off gua rd, but in the second moto he was ready, "I could have won that moto. Or I should have , Those guys really ride dirty and kept trying to knock me dow n or make me stall my bike . Next moto I'm going out there and win itl" And that's what JoJo did . Reid pulled the start over Keller's Mo to-X Fox team mate Len ny Giger, bu t both Reid and Giger fell on the first la p to turn the lead over to Keller. H owerton was in second spot a head of Wosick , Bell, J enn ings , Guerra and Tripes , trying to close on Keller , but JoJo was p ulling away from Kent at a n even faster rate. At I S minutes into t he 45-minute moto, Keller had a I S-second lead which grew even la rger as Howerton bailed off, turning second over to Guerra momentarily to drive the crowd wild with two New England riders out front, then Tripes, Bell and now Shultz stacked in behind Howerton . For five minutes, Howerton rubbed Guerra's rear knobby then passed the Husky factory rider to reclaim second spot which was good enough to assure Howerton of the day's overall win , But Howerton couldn't throttle back onetenth . Both Tripes a nd Bell shoved their way past Guerra as well and closed on the Cowboy for a little lasso ing practice. Howert on saw them coming and picked his pace back up to its maximum. Bell couldn't keep the higher pac e after a few laps and backed off, bu t Tripes once aga in proved he co uld go fast when he felt like it. For two laps Tripes paced just behind H owert on , checking on lines and looking for openings to pass. Then just as Tripes began ma king his bid to pass Howerton - a pass which would also give Keller the day's overall win Tripes was slowed with three laps to go by a fiat rear tire. Their heated pace , though , had whittled Keller's lead down to just four seconds over Hower- ton who made-a desperate last bid to try and catch Keller those closing laps. But cheered on by thousands of screa ming Ne w Engla nd fans , Keller mainta ined his slim lead over Howerton to win the m oto as he had vowed befor e ha nd. It remains that a privateer has never won a 2S0cc National, b ut Keller brou ght tha t goa l a little closer to reality by tak ing second overall and posting a moto win on a modified pro d uction bike against the factory stars on th eir exotic works bikes. . • Results 12Scc NATIONAL: 1. Broc Glover , 2·1lYam); 2. Rich Coon. 1-4 IHon); 3. Brian Myerscough, 3-2 ISuzl; 4 . Mark Barnett. 4-3 IS",,); 5. Jeff WlIId. lG-5IKaw); 6. Pat Moroney. 6-10 lYaml; 7. Choppy Blose, 9-11 IKaw); B. James Meenan, 12·9IKTM); 9. Jim Holley, 7-14IHonl; 10. Ron Sun. 16-7IHon); 11. Phillip larson. 5-20 (Yam); 12. Kris Bigelow, 14-DNF (Yam ); 13. Scott BurnWOr1h, 22 -16 ISuzl ; 14. Jeff Watts. 15-12 lYam) ; 15. Mike Brown, B-DNF lYam); 16. Torn Benolkin. DNF-8lYaml; 17. Mark Rakestraw, 19-13 IHon ); 18. Denny Bentley, 17-16 ISuzl; 19. David Taylor , 13-31 lY am); 20. JeH Surwall.1B-17 lYam). 250cc NATIONAL: 1. Kent HowMon, 1·2 ISuzl ; 2. JoJo Keller , 3-1 IHon); 3. Mike Bell, 4-3 (Yam l; 4. Marty Tr ipes , 7-4 lYam); 5. Larry Wosid<, 6-6 IKawl; 6. Mike Guerra, 11)-5 IHus); 7 . Bill Grossi , B-8 IHusl; 8. Steve Martin, 11·9lYam); 9 . Warren Reid, 2·DNF IKawI; 10. Steve Wise. 5-DNF lHon); 11. Frank Stacy, 16-18 IKTMI; 12. Darrel l Shultz, DNF-7 ISuzl; 13. David Bailey. 15-13 IKaw); 14 . Randy Kirschbaum, 13-15 lYam); 15. Kippy fTlOfce, 9-DNF IYam ); 16. Spencer Morrison, DNF-l0 lYam) ; 17. T on y Wankel. 12·19 IYam) ; 18. Pete Wankel. DNF-12 lYam); 19 . Dove Hollis. 17·17 IYam l; 20. J immy Ellis lYaml. 125cc NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP MX SERIES POINT STANDINGS: 1. Brae Glover 11341; 2. Brian M yerscough (132); 3. Mark Barnett 11291; 4. Rich Coo n 1961; 5 . JeH War d 1811 6. Ron Sun 1661; 7. lTI E) Chappy ; Blose/J ohn O' Mara (531 9. David Tavlor (49); 10. Jim ; Holley 1 48); 11. 5 00 11 Burn worth 1471; 12. J eH w ens 1431 13 . Donnie Cantaloupi (41); 14 . Tommy Ben olkin ; 1 341; 15. Phillip Larson 132) 16. James M eenan 129); 17. ; Pat Maroney <281; 18. Ron Tumer (261; 19. Kris Bigelow 1251. 250cc NATIONAL CHAMPIONSH IP M X SERIES POINT STAN DINGS : 1. Kent Howerton 11441; 2. Mike Bell 1 1181 3. lTI E) Warren Reid/Mike Tripes 1 ; 981; 5. Mike Guerra (70); 6. St eve Wise 1 631; 7. Darrel Shultz 1601; B. Donnie Hansen 158) 9. larry W os ick 1 ; 501; 10. Jim Ellis 1491; 11. JoJo Keller 148) 12. Bill Grossi 145) ; ; 13. Eric McKenna (44); 14 . Dave Hollis 1421; 15. Tony Wankel 1391; 16 . Greg Theiss 1301; 17. Mike Loeffler 128); 18. Kippy Pierce (24); 19. mEl Steve Martini Randy KirschbaumIPete Wankel (22) . 7

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