Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

; • • ~ t o 00 0') The new 250cc World Motocross Champion - Georges Jobe. were amazed at how m uch better they handled compared to their conventional twin shock RC bikes used in Europe, still good enough though for Dieffen bach to win with at numerous GPs . An interesting note was that the American ( facto ry' works bikes of Honda and Suzuki required the addition of nearly , 20 pounds of ballast to bring them up to the 216 pound FIM minimum weight. Even Mingels' production Yamaha YZ was one pound over weight at tech inspection. MotoOne Darrell Shultz knifed his Suzuki out onto the Unadilla hillside to take the lead of the first moro on a track which just the day before for opening practice was three feet deep in grass, and now mowed down by the churning knobbies of Guerra , Jobe, Howerton . Jimmy Ellis . Steve Martin , Tarkkonen , Dieffenbach, Boven and Wise who hooked up behind "Dashing Darrell." lJ Quickly it was Guerra stuffing his ' H usky past Shultz and into the lead aamid the roar of approval of some 20,000 fansjammed around the track . Next it was Jobe who was displacing Shultz back another position before , moving up to within striking distance a. of Guerra, getting past to take the lead .a for himself on lap three . Howerton wasn't about to let Jobe roost off with the lead of the race so easi ly and dialed himself into hot pur· suit, passing Shultz and then Guerra like a picket fence to catch foreign teammate Jobe by lap five . It only took the Rhinestone Cowboy half a la pro check out the soon-to-be champion's riding style, then take the inside path across a rough set of whoops to outdive Jobe into a tight left -hander where Howerton slammed the door shut on Jobe to claim the lead. Quickly the race began taking its toll of riders as Dieffenbach wobbled his Honda to the pits, suffering from the heat. . ," We had cold weather the last seven weeks in Germany . . . I could not hold on ," Then teammate Wise followed him in with a sprained foot caused when he caught it in his own rear wheel. "I felt like a Novice out there , . doing something dumb like that ," By the halfway point in the moto the top positions were fairly well set. Howerton continued to slowly increase his lead over jobe : in the remaining distance to the finish. Shultz repassed Guerra to take up third position. Kees van der Ven , the bright new young star of Maico who won both motos the previous Grand Prix in Holland had a fifth position in the bag. Right behind van der Ven the last half of the rnoro but unable to close the gap was Team Moto-X Fox 's JoJo "Machine Gun" Keller on the modified production Honda to claim the top non- factory position of sixth. finishing ahead of Boven. Leif Nicklasson, Hudson (in juring his foot the last lap) and pri vateer Jimmy Ellis. MotoTwo Howerton was out to win the United States Grand Prix for the second year in a row as he catapu lted his way at t he start of the second moto into the lead. JoJo Keller was looking even hotter this time out as he tried to hold onto second place beneath the spray of Howerton's rear wheel, only to crash out. "I was ducking down because Howerton 'Vas roosting me . . . I looked up and all of a sudden it was haybales galorel" M ike Guerra put his Husky int o fifth overall. third American. As Keller picked himself up at the rear of the pack Jobe took control of second followed by Guerra, Shultz, Jean Claude Laguaye , Dieffenbach (back out to tackle the heat a little mroe successfully this time), Ellis and van der Ven, The front runners were already sorted out close to their pre· vious moto finishing order and for the first 10 minutes of this race it seemed no action would take place. Yet then, Jobe began turning up the throttle on his RN250·80 Suzuki and closed on Howerton's lead , shadowed him for a lap , then stuffed his way beside the Rhinestone studded star on a rough high-speed sweeper by the an nouncer's tower to claim first place. Shultz followed Jobe's move and passed Guerra in the same place a few seconds later for third . Then Dieffenbach found himself engaged in a heavy fight for fifth with Laquaye on the SWM as van der Ven closed on them . Guerra dropped his Husky, remounted in seventh, was passed by a hard charging David Bailey on his Kawasaki, but moved up a position again when it was Dieffenbach's turn to fall. For 10 minutes Jobe. who had wrapped up the 250cc World Championship the first mota, continued holding off Howerton. Kent was pressuring Jobe hard in hope for a mistake which finally came as Jobe slid out in a corner and Kent wheeled his Greg Arnette-tuned . bike on past to claim a 15·second lead that would last the rest of the moto. jobe's fall put him within striking distance by Shultz who immediately closed up the remaining distance and attempted to pass Jobe. But Shultz got sideways on the uphill jump where he tried his move on Jobe and fell himself, assuring the top positions would remain un cha nged . Howerton easily collected the second moto win over Jobe, Shultz, van der Ven in another im pressive ride, then David Ba iley on the Gary Ba iley Moto· cross School Kawasaki taking the rnoto's top privateer spot in sixth for an extra ordinary sixth overall in his first GP event. Support Class Local Newburgh, NY , hero Pat Moroney, cheered on by the highly partisan crowd, secured the 500cc Supprt class win for the second year in a row aboard his production Yamaha YZ465. In the first rnoto Moroney had to work his way up from an opening lap crash to claim third as RPM Yamaha rider Mickey Kessler fought off Kawasaki-mounted teammate Gary Pustelak for the win. In the second moto all three of the front runners went down in a first lap pile-up that saw Moroney busting all stops loose again to charge back up through the field to pass Maico rider Denny Swa rt z, Ken Adams (Yam) and Jimmy Meenan (KTM) for the overall win . Mickey Kessler collected second overall ahead of Swartz. Meenan and another KTM rider, A,ndy Stacy. • Results 250cc INTERNATIONAL: 1. Ken. Howenon 1·1 ISuz); 2. Geo

• Cover