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/126536
00 0) Johnny O'Mere lead. the fim 125cc moto start over George Holland 1452l. Jeff Werd (12). Mike Preston (911) end Scott Burnworth lbehlnd Preston), AMA 125/500cc National MX Championship Series: Rounds 8/8 California kids conquer Carlsbad By Mark Kariya Photos by Dale Brown CARLSBAD, CA, AUG. 16 The final race of the AMA's National Motocross Championship Series saw a number of firsts, among them, the first time Mark Barnett had not guided his works Suzuki to a pair of wins in the 125cc class. Instead, factory Honda rider Johnny O'Mara took ' ' a d vantage 0 f Barnett s IDJuryinduced bye to record his first ' ..12 National win with a 1·2 score. Yamaha suppon rider Rick Johnson finished in the runner-up slot with a founh in the first moto, and then passed leader O'Mara in the second and took his fITSt-ever National moto win at the Carlsbad Raceway track he'd recorded numerous local race wins on. Yamaha's Scott Burnwonh, who has al~ gone through .the ranks, here, was thIrd on the day with a 5-5. In the 500cc class SoCal riders enjoyed a fine time as 'Yamaha's Broc Glover repeated his Washougal performance with a )·1 day, followed by Suzuki's Marty Smith with a 2-5 and Mike Bell who turned in 4-4 rides to wrest second in the final point standings from Honda's Chuck Sun. The badly sprained ankle incurred in his first moto Washougal crash kept t .. JJc.t..: :'~lJ lJJJI I Sun from competing. Though he had wanted to ride earlier in the week, a trial riding session the day before squelched those intentions, and he will now tum his energies to recovering fully before the Motocross and Trophee des Nations. Barnett was kept on the sidelines with a broken collarbone, the result of a crash in practice the previous Tuesday. According to Suzuki Team Motocross Manager Larry GriffIS, "He was practicing on a track down in Montgomery, AI, and he'd been riding on the track probably six, seven laps; he'd been going over the same jump every time. It was a front wheel landing jump, and he got in on the front wheel a little bit hard, and I think the front end just collapsed on him, knocked the bar out of his one hand, he was up on his nose and over he went, "There were some ruts in that area, and what he thinks happened is instead of rolling and sliding, his shoulder hooked in a rut, and when it did, it just snapped the collarbone. "It's a clean break. He should be back for the Trans-USA." Fony-two 500cc riders sigoed up while 45 entered the 125cc class, Since the championship in both classes had been locked up, AMA Referee Butch Lee conferred with the different team managers anli elected not to run any qualifying motos. Instead, the few extra riders would line up in a second row, so long as they weren't behind any of the top 10 (per European practice). A second practice session was run after the riders' meeting instead - ) I I t J J. ,I 'J I I of qualifying motos. 125cc National The first race of the day saw O'Mara get the jump on a pursuing pack consisting of Suzuki's George Holland, Kawasaki's Jeff Ward, Suzuki rider Mike Preston, Dale's Modem Cycle Yamaha·mounted Scott Manning and Yamaha's Donnie Cantaloupi. O'Mara kept it wicked from the be· ginning on his Greg Arnette-tuned works bike and was never challenged after the first few comers. His rapid and steady pace kept him well clear of Ward, who locked onto second after edging past Holland at about the 15minute mark. Burnworth, seventh on the opening lap, sliced through the pack to founh the .next time around. He spent the next 15 minutes working his way up to Holland, displacing him soon after Ward did. O'Mara's teammate Jim Gibson got a fair stan and worked his way up to fifth by lap three. He inched up ever so slowly on those in front of him, fmally putting the young Suzuki rider back after some 55 minutes. However, Gibson was unable to keep it. Johnson, who didn't know'that the gate would be dropped as soon as the board went sideways and got a poor stan, was making good time around a familiar track, breaking into the top 10 after 10 minutes. From there, picking off riders was more difficult, but he saw the white flag before Gibson did for the fourth-place spot. Holland finished sixth followed by Kawasaki's Tom Benolkin, Cantaloupi, t l,. I II J I .} t J. :::.1) I {