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/126476
(Top) The crowd really spurred Moates to victory.IAbove left) Gerard Rond goes under Chuck Sun in the second moto.IAbove right) Lackey led part of the second moto, but fell for a disappointing day. .USGPI In one of his final bids for the lead, Carlqvist jumped to the inside of Moates off a d itch and appeared to ha ve the hot fast line up the follow ing short straight. However, he got mired in some th ick mud and that was it; Moates became onl y th e third American to ever win a GP moto at Carlsbad. LaPorte held off Vromans for th ird with Breker fifth , Lackey and Honda's Chuck Sun going six/seven. Staten. Kawasaki's Gaylon Mosier and Ivan van den Broek on a factory 490cc Maico filled the first 10 spots. Rest ing in his truck after the moto, Moates explained his comeback. "I lost a nine-second lead whe n I fell down. I thought. " If I can catch up with them , I can win this one...• The fans ' cheering gave him the boost needed to fight back up. La Porte was upset with himself. "I just blew it, " he said disgustedly . When DeCos ter went down , his bike hit La Porte's, and there were tire marks burned int o the top of La Porte's rear fender . The two European Suzuki riders . jean·jacques Bruno and Gerard Rond, both fell on the downhill at around the 20 ·minute mark while running sevent h and eigh th. They opte d for th e twinshock works bikes while Americans LaPorte and Marty Sm ith rode the singl e shock floaters. All eyes were on the first tum for the start of the second moto waiting for Moat es to do it again . He let no one down as he snared t he holesho t. Staten - with an American fla g taped to his helmet - Moat es' rea m mate Ga ry Semics, and Bru no stepped in right behind the leader. Moates had several seconds over th e field by the end of the first lap. Bruno forged int o second followed by Staten, Sem ics, Sm ith, Lackey and Sun. Staten dropped off the pace the next lap as Rond shot up into fifth behind l.ackey. Semics began falling back and would eventually finish seventh. While Moates and Bruno diligently kept pace in front . Lackey, Rond and Sun moved in behind them and freight-trained around the course in a tight dice. It brought the trio within range of Bruno and on lap six. Lackey passed him on the downhil l. Bru no was apparently experiencing some sort of difficulty, letting both Rond a nd Sun by on th e ne xt la p a nd droppi ng ou t altoget her by mid -moto. Knowing he could pick up a lot of points with Ma lher be .sitt i!,g th e. race out , La ckey p ressed on and closed on Moates, th e crowd ch eering th em bot h on . Breker had mo ved in to fift h by la p eight , but a broken tranny a few laps later force d him ou t. " I felt good , too , re ady to sta rt charging," he sai d afterwards. By la p 12, Lackey was ready to strike. As they went up .the Ca rlsbad Freeway, he too k the inside line, al mos t goi ng under Moa tes in the tu rn at the top. Moa tes held him off t here, but Lackey then took his brand new , blue-engined KX500 hurtling pa st the Yam aha pilot on th e d own hill for the lead. " I slowed and he passed m e. so I followed and found th e good lines he was using," Moates said later. He stayed righ t on the big Ka w's tailpipe and whe n Lackey went over a berm going into Rattlesnake Gulch, took the lead back without hesitation. Lackey didn't get going again for several laps . The order now was Moates with about three seconds over Rond, LaPorte th ird after ge tt ing tangled in a second turn pile up that left him abou t 30th. and Sm ith . Sun. Vromans, Honda 's aak Van Velth oven j im Gibson, Sem ics. T on the factory KTM an d Yam a ha mou n ted Laurence Spence fr om Ireland followed , finishi ng th e moto in tha t order. In the post -ra ce weigh -in , Moates' bike tipped th e scales a t 227 po unds , but some ga s was still in th e ta nk. The gas was drained a nd th e side pa nels re o mo ved to m ak e su re no ba llast was placed in the a ir box to ena ble it to meet the m inimum weigh t requiremen ts. This time it weighed 224.5 pounds. jus t over the 224 po unds m in imum! It caused LOP's Laurens Offner some tense mome n ts. Carlqvist went d own ea rly in the moto a nd was never a factory as in the first round . He was credi ted with a 38t h place fin ish . The master of Ca rlsb ad , Gerrit Wolsink , had a bad day. His reedvalved Maico had some shock problems a nd he re-twisted the kn ee he hurt in Holland last week . 250cc S upport In the first 250c c Support moto, Kawasaki's Warren Reid headed the pack out of tum one with Yamaha teamster, Broc Glo ver close behind. As they rounded the tight horseshoe, though . Glover slipped and went down with several more riders be coming ta ngled up behind. At the end of a lap , Reid led fol lowed by Suzuki's Brian Myerscough , Reid 's teammate j eff W a rd , Moto·X Fox Honda rider Tommy Ben olkin , local ace T on y W anket on a Moto-X 11