Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

..... 00 0') ..... Bernett: '" concellbated more on stIIrting and the fim corner, If yOU get there tint. no one's gonna rem you," (Top right) H....n leads Gibeon here, but Gibeon beat his teammate In the end both nights.lAbove right) Derrell Shultz (141 rode Fridey night on a painfully Injured knee. too far back in founh with Yamahasuppon rider Dave Hollis gaining the last transfer spot. Maico's Carlos Serrano latched onto the initial lead in the first semi followed by Super Seer/Trim/Yamaha rider Kenny Keylon, Bigelow and Englund. Serrano gave up his lead when he fell after the double up jWilp on lap three. He lost many posiuons but worked back up to an eventual sixth. Keylon now headed a tight foursome with Hollis, Englund and Chief Drilling Co. Yamaha rider Randy Kirschbaum right behind. Hollis fmally flew past Keylon for the lead and win on the double up jump in lap eight. Keylon also succumbed to Englund's moves to just miss a transfer. Texan Mark Rakestraw led the first half of the second semi, but David Bailey on a Moto-X Fox Kawasaki was o.n the move and displaced him on lap SIX. Only the winner of the consolation race would go to the final. Honda's Johnny O'Mara knew the pressure was on and responded by leading the race from the word go. Serrano held off Alan King for a distant second. In the final. Glover got the drive out of the gate with Hansen and Barnett keeping him company up front. Various f1J'llt lap mishaps claimed Sun, Brelter, Englund and Bigelow. Rich Coon would later get tangled up in one of the tunnels, huning his leg badly enough to keep him out of Saturday's race. Barnett picked off Hansen on lap two, and Bell dropped him back once more on the next lap. Hansen's position would not change after that. Barnett followed Glover around closely for quite a while, neither seemingly able to pull away or close up on the other. "We had a pretty good pace going the whole way," Barnett said later. "I got off pretty good, about third, and passed Hansen - he was in second - passed him right away and followed Brae for about 12 laps. He was going really good and I just picked up on all of his lines. He had a few bad lines and I had some better ones. I was going faster in places so I set up a pass." It didn't really look like a carefully thought-out, planned pass when it happened. Barnett drew alongside of Glover at the stan of the whoop-filled straight with both feet off the pegs and simply nailed the throttle to the stops. "Yeah, I was all out of control. I was so close, I figured it'd be the best time to do it then 'cause I was right next to him," recalled Barnett after the race. "He saw me coming. He jumped in front of me a little and we kind of got almost tangled up. I had to keep it wide open and I was a little out of control, but I managed to save it. I was kind of sideways, and I hit that one rut, but he kind of messed up, too, 10 I just tooIt advantage of his mistake." After that, Barnett pulled away to about a 12-second victory in the remaining laps. Glover kept second and didn't seem mightily disappointed. "I felt fine and was riding comfonably. I haven't been riding very well this year, and I wanted to do good so I was up in the front. "Barnett kind of came on real strong in that one section over the jumps. It was a pretty good pass, really. From then on, I don't know; I just lost my concentration. Mark didn't pick up the pace, really; I just slaned not driving as hard. "It felt good getting back up to a competitive pace," Glover add~. Bell had tried to make a run at the leaders with a mid-race surge. but that fell apan when his tire staned ~ing flat near the end of the race. GIbson who got a fair stan and moved into the top five on lap eight, went by Bell on lap 18 with Hansen following suit a lap later to move into founh. 'Due to a scoring mix-up, the race went 21 laps instead of 20. On the 21st lap, Hannah also passed Bell to seemingly secure fifth (the Hurricane was seventh at the end of lap one). When the error was discovered, however, the scoring went according to the rider's positions at the end of lap 20 which was understandably upsetting to Hannah and mechanic Keith McCany. Howetton held on and, despite a fall, collected seventh in front of Reid. Shulu rode a surprisingly strong race considering the condition of his knee. Mter starting off about sixth, he managed to go the distance and end up ninth with O'Mara 10th. Seturd8y A bit of drama and excitement permeated the pre-race atmosphere Saturday. Shulu had reponed1y slept with an ice pack over his injured knee and was only going to show up before the qualifiers. He wouldn't ride practice but would just see how he felt and not ride any more than necessary. The plan was for him simply to qualify for the fmal then try to get some points. if he was able to ride at all. When Shulu did limp into the Suzulr.i pit area, it was difficult to imagine him riding a jump-filled Supercross track. In the end, he watched glumly from the sidelines, helpless to do anything about earning valuable points. The previous night's win marked the sixth straight SuperCJ'Olll win for Suzulr.i, an embarassing situation for the other teams. According to announcer Larry Huffman, Yamaha Racing Team Manager Ken Clark had said tonight would be different; they were pulling out the stops to beat Suzulr.i. The Honda duo of Hansen and Gibson went to the front of the first qualifier with Barnett in third. Barnett flew past Gibson on the triple jumps leading to the finish line on lap three leaving Hansen right in front of him. It took only a lap for Barnett to slip by Hansen and after that, that's all she wrote. Burgett finished a lonely founh while Steve Stackable on a Griffin Visa Therm Maico came out on top of a three-rider fight for fifth. Sun kept the Honda holeshots alive in the second qualifier. Hannah staned poorly and was seemingly out of the hunt as he completed a lap with six riders ahead of him. However, the Hurricane apparently tapped into some of the old magic and was flying! He appeared to leap higher and farther than anyone and the crowd's din cascading downward from all pans of the 'Dome spurred him on. He was in founh by the end of lap two, third and closing on lap three, in second and still gaining on lap four. Sun proved to be a much tou@"her foe. Hannah was unable to find a way by for several laps. He almost out-jumped Sun in the triples on lap seven and clinched it a lap later in the whoopfilled straight. Reid came up a closing third followed by Englund and Keylon. Howenon, Serrano and O'Mara led off the third qualifter. Howenon had nothing but open space in front of him and let the others do the fIghting as he began to pull away. Glover, who staned around fifth, was also gassing it and by lap three had pushed the Serrano/O'Mara duel back to third. That ended abruptly on lap four, though. As they headed for the double up jump, O'Mara went to 7

• Cover