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/126601
Bob Hannah flew to a pair of fourths over the weekend despite having problems passing riders. He is now fourth in the point standings. Sitting behind Hannah g a ve O 'M ara a good perspective on th e rac e. " I was right on his (Hannah 's) tail th e whole race. I saw everything happen so I sorta knew where to go. Bob sh o u ld've gone to the inside; I don 't know why he went to the outside. It just seemed he didn't make up his mind at the right time. " Reid fi n ished a strong fifth with Glover getting restarted in time to salva ge six th followed by Wos ick , Burnworth, Keller and Sun. Sunday 10 Preliminaries Barnett returned to th e track Sunday with making amends for his previous night 's performance hi s only concern. It would seem so, a t least , j ud ging by th e way h e ripped in the first heat. leading start to finish. Gl over stayed right behind him until lap seven wh en hi s cha in jumped o ff. By th e tim e he got ro lli ng agai n, th e 500cc Na tio na l and T ra ns -U SA c ha mp had been la p ped a nd wo u ld fin ish 19th, not good eno ugh for another chance in the semi. Ba iley took th e run ner-u p spot after Glover dropped back with Ha nsen getti ng Kin g for th ird a lap before the white fla g ca me out. Shultz badgered Honda support rider Steve Martin for half of the second heat before getting by for the win. Benolkin claimed second, Reid third, and Martin squeaked in ahead of Keller for fourth. Keylon stayed just ahead of Sun, Wosick and Ward in the th ird heat. O 'Mara soon jumped into the fray in fifth. From there he kept putting riders behind him until he took th e lead from Keylon on lap six. Sun dropped back when he tangled with course banners, and Ward went out on the last lap when his chain ca me off and locked his rear wheel. Wosick got th ird whil e Fritz Schlegel p icked up fourth on h is Suzuki, theIone privateer to make the final. Burnworth got th e jump on heat four ahead of Gibson and Ron Turner. G ib son took over on lap four ,lea ving Burnworth with H annah and Honda su pport rider Dann y Chandl er sna pp in g a t hi s rear fender . Hannah poked a wh eel in sid e of Burnworth a nd eased past on la p n in e for seco nd. Rick Johnson, H o werto n and Keller leap ed into the wh oo ps ah ead of the pack in the first sem i. Beh in d them, Sports Cycle Suzuki rider Art Key made it to th e first tu rn and kept going, crashing spectacularly and suffering a broken left wrist. Howerton wrested the lead from Johnson early a n d kept it. Johnson dropped to fourth on lap seven, though. Honda support rider Phil Larson robbed Keller of a transfer on lap eight when he moved past for second. Sun, Suzuki-mounted David Taylor and Breker led the second semi off the line, but Sun and Breker quickly made it a two-man show. Breker put a move on Sun on lap four, and that was it. Rick Johnson took the lead on the first lap of the consola tion and never lost it. Ron Turner kept after h im but soon enough had to worry about Keller and Mckenna. They held position to the checkers, though , with local speedster Robb Manning fifth. Final Barn ett dial ed th e sta rt o f th e fin al perfectly a nd was n ever head ed . Keylon had hi s hands full in seco nd, trying to figh t o ff H owerton . On lap ni ne , though, the " Rh inestone Cowboy" went .down . " I don't have enough stre ng th: ' he- excla im ed lat er, " it just fell ove r! " " I th ink I cou ld've finis hed in th e top 10. I'm a litt le disappointed I fell down , but I'm gl ad I fi nished 12th. That's an im p ro veme nt. It's a little bit harder to even qualify now than before." Gibson inheri ted th e th ird-place slot a t that point with Reid in tow . Going into th e turn before the whoops, though , G ibson slowed, looked down at his engine, coasted through the turn , then gassed it back out with Re id and Shultz the only riders to pass him. "The chain ca me off, " he explained later. " I was revving it up and I didn 't know what happened. Then I looked down , a n d I knew th e ch ain was off so I was slo wing down to get off and put it back on. All of a sudden I felt it ca tch, th e ch ain went righ t back on. It was lu ck y, real lu ck y; it put me back in ac tion." T wo laps lat er , Gibson repassed Reid to take fourth. Keylon became another sta tistic with three laps to go. Probabl y th e hardest charger of the night was Shultz. After a forgettabl e sta rt, h e wa s ninth on th e opening lap. H alfway th rough th e race, he sta rted clicking them o ff faster , a nd he moved into fo urth, th en third, the n seco nd . He closed o n Barnett in the fin al th ree laps, pr ep ar ing to ta ke h im in th e fina l run to th e fla g. T he