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/126506
ClO 0) - Broc Glover heeds the charge into tum one followed by Mark Barnett lSI. Mike Beli 12land David Taylor 1801. Kent Howerton 121 and Jim Gibson 171ar. partially hidden by Barnett and Bell. Unset! Bob Hannah succeeded in keeping Bell at bay for most of their thrilling qualifier. AMA Supercross Series: Round one Rhinestone Cowboy does the kicl By Mark Kariya Photos by Charles Morey ANAHEIM, CA,JAN. 31 Suzuki factory riders Kent Howerton and Mark Barnett gave a sell-out crowd of over 63,000 just the kind of racing they came to see at the Supercross Kickoff '81 held. at Anaheim Stadium. Both scored clear victories . h' h d' h 1D t elr eat rac~ an t~ t e final Howerton waIted until late in the race to wrestle his way past 10 Barnett, holding on to win by a slim margin at the checkered flag. Third went to 1980 Supercross Series Champion Mike Bell on a brand new works Yamaha 250 water-pumper. He also won his heat race after a stirring duel with teammate Bob Hannah. However, in the final, the deep loamy track prO\'ed to be Bell's undoing as it allowed deep grooves to develop. "I was having a hard time getting my legs out of the way in those deep berms. The traction changed a lot from that first heat race to the main. All my lines were all different and I got off the pace real quick," Bell related afterwards. "I just want to bang in there and try to win the championship again. That's why I didn't do anything stupid while I was in third because I knew those guys (Howerton and Barnett) were going a lot faster than I was so I was Just .tryl~~ to hang on and make a lot of pomts. Though Hannah looked fast in his qualifier race with Bell, he suffered a poor start in the final that left him in the middle of the pack. He could never really get u!,tracked an~ had to battle and b.ully hi.s way up t? slXth. Ram durmg the mIddle of the week brought fears tha~ the track would be too muddy. Certamly deep, sandy and loamy, most of the mud was underneat~ ~s a _ sort of base. As the e~enmg s racmg progressed, the track dId become more and more deeply grooved. T.hat and the many rough spots kept .It from bemg. a .fast ~rac,k and made It more of a thmkmg nder s trac~.. . PrehmJnanes A qualifying moto for alternate riders started off the evening's racing. Former three-time 250cc National champion Gary Jones proved to still have a bit of fire in him as he gassed his watercooled Honda into the early lead. A few laps later, though, Yamaha- mounted Todd Peterson, the scourge of the local night tracks last summer, went by Jones and kept the lead to the checkered flag. They were followed by Yamaha riders Ted Hoyt and Jim Ellis. The first qualifier saw Team Yamaha's Bob Hannah and Mike Bell fighting it out at the front from the start. Hannah led at the end of the first lap with Bell a few bikelengths behind. Bell moved up steadily ana almost flew by him off the start/finish jump accom.panied by a tumultuous roar from the crowd. Hannah managed to keep Bell at bay for the next few laps, and their battle carried them away from the rest of the pack headed by Yamaha riders Mark Lawrence and Phillip Oveland. On his way up from a mid-pack start, however, was the leaders' teammate Broc Glover and he took over third,on lap seven, with no chance of catching them at that point. On lap eight, Hannah's luck ran out as he stumbled, almost getting off. Bell was right there to take advantage' of the situation, and he kept the narrowest of winning margins over Hannah to the checkered. Following them in at a distance were Glover, Lawrence and Suzuki's Marty Smith. In contrast to the previous 'heat, Kent Howerton took full control of the second qualifiet from the outset a'!d left the fighting behind to take the checkers unruffled. Honda's Jim Gibson and Johnny O'Man ran just' in front of Team- Green rider Goat Breker with that trio running tightly in slots two, three and four. However, no one seemed to make any mistakes or gas it up enough to switch positions until a few laps from the end. All three riders bunched up as if anticipating a last lap WFO charge. Gibson apparently felt the pressure as he got out of shape in the sand pit on lap nine allowing O'Mara to sail past into second. A lap later, BTelter also danced by to settle the finishing order. Fifth at the flag was "Rocket Rex" Staten on a Yamaha. Qualifier three started off a privateer's race as Hi-Point/PCP Yamaha rider Dave Wood, Jim Tarantino on a DG Honda and alternate winner Peterson led the pack out of tum one. Steve Wise and Chuck Sun soon flexed Team Honda muscle, though, and powered their way into second and fourth with Peterson, Tarantino and Wood one-three-five. Wise flew past Peterson after the start/finish jump at the end of lap two and kept the throttle to the stop until the end. Sun quickly dispatched Tarantino and bounded by Peterson in the small, rough whoop section named the KMET Rockers halfway through the race. Peterson held on to third with Yamaha riders David Taylor and Rick Johnson rounding out the top five. The fourth qualifier found Suzuki speedsters Mark Barnett and Darrell Shultz in front from start to finish.