Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

(From left) Winner Bob Hannah. trophy girl and Darrell Shultz pose in muddy winner's circle. Donnie Hansen got down and got second. A MA/ W rangler® Supercross Series: Round four Hannah zaps Atlanta mudfest By Tom Mueller Photos by Dale Brown ATLANTA , GA, FEB . 27 It was Bob Hannah's game all the way when the final went off amidst mud and ruts at the Miller High Life Superbowl of Motocross in Atlanta's Fulton County Stadium. Team Yamaha's Hannah came up with something he hasn't seen in a while - a holeshot -and from there increased his 8 lead over Honda teammates Donnie Hansen and DarreIl Shultz until the checkered flag waved. Unseasonably warm southern temperatures were replaced by a rain and sleet storm on Friday, which left th e floor of the stadium a quagmire as race time approached on Saturday. Riders were treated toa track lying in standing water wh en practice went off, where lines dissolved eac h lap and traction was almost non-existent. "There's no way those bikes wiIl go the distance," said George Ellis of Honda's pro support program. "Look at all the water- coolers, they're steaming after a few minutes of practice." "You can 't really aim for a line, " said Hansen after his practice session. " Yo u point your bike and end up three lines over!" Complaints concerning the track were voiced by most riders, and many of the top ranked entrants wanted to run the event on a non-points-paying basis. "The promoters spend thou sands of dollars preparing th e course, and then they won't spend $500 for plastic to cover it when it rains," said Glover. "It's a quagmire out there. They've done it before (covered the course), and since it stopped raining we could have had a nice track. There's no reason for this." " We' re going to run for points tonight," said the AMA 's Manager of Prof essional Motocross , Carroll Chandler. "We are going to cut th e heats. semis and consolation races to si x laps ea ch (i nstead of 10). We're goi n g to hav e to sta rt working with th e promoters more on th ese even ts - we owe th e crowd a good sho w." Hansen a nd Shultz were tied for th e points lead going into th e round, an d Hansen now holds th e lead by a sca n t point over Shultz, 95 to 94. Hannah moved into third in th e standings with 84, displacing Honda's Johnny O 'M ara, who now has 78. Current Supercross Champ Mark Barnett rode the strongest race of the eve n in g . from last to fourth and retained fifth in standings with 71. The top five now leave the pack behind in points. The next closest rider is Yamaha's Brae Glover with 49. The fastest rider in practice was Glover. who turned a one minute. 24 second lap. Though bottlenecks and stalled riders inhibited some of the racing, AMA referee David Dye and crew did an efficient job of keeping the program on schedule. An esti mated 15,000 fans attended the event. Preli m in a r i es Heat one belonged to Suzuki 's Barnett from start to finish. He came out of the hole in the lead on his water-cooled RH works bike· and smoothed out to hold a 12-second edge on Hansen at the finish . Hansen held second the entire race. with teammate Chuck Sun pushing hard from third. Suzuki's Denny Bentley came up into th e fourth and final transfer slot in the heat and stayed there. Kawasaki Team Green 's Bily Liles got a slow start but carved to fifth . He wa s looking at Bentley's rear fender wh en he lipped o ver on the Miller High Life Mountain, th e huge hill which was a lso the finish line in th e center of th e field. Hu sq varna 's Kri s Bigelow put hi s bike's tractability to use and landed th e holeshot in heat two. A number of riders were left in a pil e-up in turn one as Bigelow expanded his lead over Kawasaki su p p orte d Dan Conway and Shultz. It looked like Bigelow was going all the way until he stuck his Husky in an engine-deep rut.Jetting Shultz squirm into the lead. Honda pro support rider Steve Martin moved into third with Kawasaki 's Tom Benolkin in town after Bigelow bobbled again in the same rutted section. Martin maintained second behind Shultz to the flag, despite a severly overheated water-cooler which was emitting big bursts of steam. Benolkin used his air-cooled fourspeed to hold third, and Bigelow went to the final with a fourth, edg-

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