Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

.... 00 O"l .... Kevin Brown (1BI shuts the door on Terry Seales (12A1 in their mota as Gray Leonard (2BI. 175cc Intent class winner Jack Penton. Mike Rosso 111AJ. Leo Anderson (9AI and the rest of the field follow. 125cc Intent class winner Rod Bush followed the pack into the turn. but moved to third by the end of the heat. AMA ~wo-Da~Qualilier Series: Rounds Perry Mountain Two-Oayto Stacy By Gary Van Voorhis MAPLESVILLE, AL, MAY 23·24 Frank Stacy continued his nearly total domination of the Two-Day Qualifier Series by taking his fourth win in five events at the Perry Mountain Two-Day. Former pro MXer Stacy rode his Drew Smith prepared Suzuki PE250 to a score . . of 2069 POints, 35 pOints (seconds) better than 22 check seven minutes early. Barr, who ndes under the Ya~alta support program, was pleased With her overall performance although not too happy about her seven minute mistake. Husqvama rid~r Ed Lojak's 2104. "I wish I could say something interesting happened out on the trail," said Stacy as he relaxed after the finish. "The truth is it was a very easy run and I didn't really have a single problem. The toughest thing I did was change a spark plug at the second gas stop on day one." The Open Intent class came down to a duel in Alabama between Husqvama's Terry Cunningham and KTM's Frank Gallo in the final (MX) test. Gallo beat Cunningham by 16 seconds to post a 12 point victory .2112 to 2124. Jack Penton took his True Sport Kawasaki to the 175cc Intent class win while KTM's Rod Bush topped the 125cc Intent class. The closest race in the event developed in the A class ranks where Maico mounted Barry Higgins took the top spot by four-tenths of a second over Husqvama rider David Greenhill. Higgins took the 250cc A class win while Greenhill was the Open class winner. Roben Lawrence, on a Yamaha, was top rider in the B division. He rode in the Open class. Suzy Barr notched her name in the record books when she became the 6nl female to finish a Two-Day qualifier. Barr was running on gold .-daI status until she apparently miscalculated her time and went into a Day One The day started very early -- 7:01 a.m. to be exact _. for Kevin Brown. He was on the first row of riders and would find himself playing trailbreaker for both days. With nearly 80 miles of the 121 mile course new trail. Brown was nOt overly happy about his early number. "The worst thing about it was that I lost two minutes in the tightest section of the course and Rod (Bush) only lost one. That really huns because I need a good score here and it's nearly impossible to make up 60 points (seconds)." The riders were thrown a curve right off. Less than two miles from the start was the first special test, a 3.1 mile collection of turns, whoop-dedoos, fast straights and a few jumps guaranteed to make a rider work up a sweat. "This is one helluva way to wake us up," said Gallo. Things went s'!1oothly for most ~Ithough when Mike M~lton I?ulled Into the first gas he noticed hIS gas tank was leaking badly. The tank was changed with Melton leaving with less than 15 seconds left in his two minute grace period. Dwight Rudder was out with a blown head gasket while Barry Avery was finding it a bit uncomfortable riding his Husky with only one working shock. Jeff Fredette was also experiencing shock problems and when he hit the second gas stop he was early enough to replace his blown left shock. Stacy was in the Suzuki pit area at the same time as teammate Fredette and was curing a rich running engine with a plug change. The Maico pits were a scene of frustration as the minutes ticked past the time Jack Johnson sltould have been in. Then word came that he was out of gas less than a mile away. Johnson managed to get gas from another rider, but hit the check one minute late. "I had to get my gas after the check," said Johnson later. "That was OK, but the next section was the tightest of the day and I lost another two minutes at that check. There goes my gold." Johnson was riding a Maico out of Barry Higgins' H&H Maico. Kawasaki's Vic Ely ended up in the DNF column when his frame snapped in two halfway down the front downtube. The second special test basically ended the day. To the surprise of few Stacy was the fastest and led all riders when the scores were posted. Lojak was 12 points back with Fredette, Cunningham and Darryl Kuenzer eight, nine and ten points, respectively behind Lojak. Higgins was on top of the A riders tally with a three point lead over Greenhill. Things were a bit jumbled up in the B class. Due to a scoring protest, Robert Lawence's score had not been posted, leaving -- at that point -- Dan McCauley sitting on top of the heap three points ahead of Kim Hughes. Psychologically, this was an upper for McCauley as his left foot was tuming very purple from bashing a stump hard enough to bend the steel shank in the sole of his boot. ''I'm so pumped the foot doesn't even hun," he said as he limped off. DavTwo The weather on the second day was just as nice as the first although many riders complained of the heat -temperatures were in the high 80's. "The riders seem to be drinking the Gatorade faster than we can make it," said Suzuki'sJohn Morgan. Many riders had little maintenance to do before the start of day two although for Barry Avery the time was too shon. "I got the shock changed," he said. "I know that cost me at least ten seconds in the second test yesterday, Now the only problem is that I didn't have time to put a new rear tire on." Avery took a gold and seventh in the 250cc Intent class. The Maico pits were again the scene of excitement at the second gas stop only this time it was Barry Higgins who was under pressure. "The exhaust pipe began to split at the seam up near the engine," said Higgins. "Then it began to crack away from the seam. I used hose clamps and patched things up with beer cans, soup cans and peach cans; anything that would fit I used," The feverish activity paid off and Higgins made it through the check with perhaps 15 seconds to spare. Since the course was run in the same direction on day two with the same time schedules for all classes, most riders encountered few problems. The special test was again directly aftv the start and as he had been on day one Stacy was still the king of the mountain and increasing his lead. The final test, four laps around a 1.2 mile MX style track, would turn out to be the decider in a number of fights for class wins. The races were dead engine start affairs with ten riders in each. Among the outstanding rides turned in was that of Kevin Brown in the first' moto. He pulled a holeshot and nevet let up under the pressure of Jack Penton. "I wanted to win bad," said Brown after. "I fell twice in the early laps when was dueling with Kevin," said Penton. "After the second fall, I decided it wasn't wonh risking the class to win thernoto." Mike Melton won his moto over Ron Ribolzi and Darryl Kuenzer in a hani fought battle that saw the three swap places continually for the first two laps. Frank Stacy had an easy time in his moto and was followed by Fredette and Lnjak who had a slight slip in concentration and pulled off after three laps, losing about 20 seconds before getting back underway. There was plenty of attention focused on the moto with Frank GaUo and Terry Cunningham. Gallo was four points (seconds) down before the start, "I was pumped on the stan," said Gallo, "I was ready to go for it. I had one problem -- a little two step action, You know, step once on the left side and step once on the right while trying to keep both wheels on the ground and the gas on in fourth (gear)." Two other motos took on imponance, Higgins picked up five seconds on A class leader Greenhill to come out dead even (2213) on points. The tie was decided by the acceleration test on day one where Higgins was four-tenths of a second faster.

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