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/126520
AMA Supercross -Series: RoundIO By Tom Muller KANSAS CITY, MO. MAY 2 Team Suzuki's Mark Barnett held off Team Yamaha's Mike Bell to win his fifth Supercross race this season in the Mr. PiBB lAbove) Mike Bell (1) and Mark Barnett (6) had an Inten.. battle In the main. lBalow) Donnie Centaloupll1l1loat the water-cooling In hla bike but attn f1nlahed fourth. He lead. Johnny C'Mere. who f1nlahed fifth. here. Superbowl of Motocross at Kansas City's Arrowhead Stadium. The win put Barnett 40 points in front of teammate Kent Howerton, who is second in the standings, and with two rounds remaining Barnett ~ only a seventh place finish in either round to clinch the tide. Honda's Donnie Hansen captured third spot in the final, but was back a distance from the Barnett/Bell clash. Fourth went to Yamaha's Donnie Cantaloupi, who ran most of the race on a water·cooler minus the water. Behind Barnett and Howerton in the standings is current champ Bell with 205 points and Yamaha's Bob Hannah with 162. Rider entries were up somewhat from last week's Michigan round with 77 riders on the roster. A reported attendance of ~O,271 was a few thousand more than reported last year at the inaugural Kansas City event. The race was promoted by Stadium Motospons. Preliminaries 18 Barnett prevails for Kansas City win Barnett had come to Kansas City early in the week to ride and tr~in, while Bell had remained in Michigan to work on and test his bikes. Temperatures dropped into the mid 60's by race time with a slight breeze inside the open-air stadium, which made for optimum racing conditions. The course consisted of a high-speed straight on one side of the stadium and a jump-studded straight on the other side. In the middle were many tight turns, high-flying jumps, off-rhythm whoops and a sand pit. The jumps were the kind that spit a rider straight up into the air, and weren't too appealing to some. "Those jumps that shoot you straight up and bend your wheels (when landing) are worthless," said Hannah. "If you can keep your wheels round you might have a chance," said Bell. "My knee feels pretty good. I'm going to go for it," said Suzuki's Darrell Shultz before heading out for his second practice. A few la ps later Shultz left the field on a stretcher. He had cut a 58-second lap, and then tried to clear four jumps on one bound. Darrell fell short and smacked his tender knee during the crash. No further damage was done to the knee, but the crash made it toci painful to continue, and Shul~z once again sat out the race as ~ had done for Sunday's round last week. The four-jump section that took out Shultz also cost Maico's Alan King, Kawasaki's Tom Benolkin and Keystone's Jeff Hicks a crash in practice. Barnett took the holeshot in qualifier one, had a good lead half a lap into the race, and went on to win. Kawasaki's Warren Reid put in a strong ride and took second, holding off the charges of third place Hannah, who started around sixth. Yamaha's Rick Burgett looked to be on his way to second but crashed out on a whoop section. Kawasaki's Jeff Ward and Honda's Johnny