I
i Marty Moates' Carlsbad
s
0')
~
e-,
-
~
Grand Prix winner
LOP 493cc Yanlaha YZ
B y Jim Gianatsis
Photos b y Gary Van Voo rhis and Gianatsis
When factory riders like Danny LaPorte and Rick Burgett began complaining
at the 500cc Nationals that Marty Moates' LOP Yamaha was blowing them off
on the straightaways and that they weren't making back up any of that lost ground
in the corners, you had to figure there was something a little fishy going on.
Even if Yamaha's YZ465G was supposed to be the best production motocrosser of
the 1980 season, there was no way a stocker could rip the numberpanels off its
OW41B works bike counterpart, then chew them up and spit -them out on the
roughest tracks where a works bike should have had twice the suspension.
Or could it?
16