Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

..... ... - , .' . Rick Johnson (top) ~ ed to his first overall National win in the 2SOs, (Above) A typical n»peck second 1JJm looked like this. Those aren't birds in the air. AMA I25/250cc National Championship Motocross Series: Rounds 1-1 Barnett, Johnson bag muddy Hangtown wins By Mark Kariya SACRAMENTO, CA. MAR. 28 The 14th running of the Coors H ang town Mo tocross C lassic at Prairi e City OHV Pa rk provided something old and something new , 10 The o ld was Suzuki 's Mark Barne tt p icking up where he left off last year and taking the overall win in the 125cc class with a 2-1 score aboard his Jeff Clark-tuned RA125. H onda's j ohnn y O 'Ma ra aced th e first rnot o a nd finish ed second th e next time around for th e runner-up h on ors. Both are now tied for th e class points lead with 47 apiece. The new part ca me in the form of the 250cc winner, a n up-and -corn er who rode 125s in his freshman year on the Nationals last year , Rick Johnson . He won the first moto by a large margin and finished behind Suzuki 's Warren Reid in the second round to pi ck up his first National win on his Bob O liver-tuned Yamaha YZ250J Pro Support ride. Reid's 5-1 rides earned him second overall ahead of Yamaha 's Scott Burnworth, who notched a 4-3 day . Rain turned the normall y dry, slick track inro a gooey. slick track. Toward th e end of the day, though. the racing line dried a bit yet retained enough grease-like qualities 10 send the unwary into th e thick glop. While it onl y rained a few times during the da y, th e in clem ent weather no doubt redu ced att endance a t the Dirt Diggers North M.C.-promot ed even t to a n estima ted eig h t 10 10,000 hard -core MX fan s a t thi s. th e op en in g race of th e AMA Nat ional ;\IOIOCross Ch am pi onship Series. Preliminaries Th e excess ive number o f rid ers en tered in both 125 and 250cc cla sses meant that qualifiers were needed 10 tr im th e field . Fift een rid ers from both I25cc qualifiers a nd th e to p five in th e co nsy would make the National line-up. Roost Facto ry Suzuki rid er Gary Dircks ran a way with th e first qua lifi er. T eam Green 's Kyle Lan drum copped second foll ow ed by Metropolitan Yamaha's Jeff Schumach er, Yamaha Support rid er Troy Blak e a nd Honda Su p port rid er Ron Turner . Mike Beier took th e lead earlv on th e first lap in th e seco nd qualifier. By the time the checkered waved at the end of three laps, the Yamaha privateer still had it over Suzukimounted Dan Turner, Hondamounted Dean Cates. Honda Support rider Randy Blair and Yamahamounted Eri c Hall. Yamaha 's Bob Hannah had to ride a qualifier since he was ungraded in this class last year (w hen he rode 250s) and finished a conservative 12th. Mark Robinson got the holeshot in the consolation race a boa rd his Honda but went down before the lap was over, giving the lead 10 Suzukimounted Chris Heisser. He looked strong until h e ran into engine trouble on the fina l lap. O'Neal Distriburing/Carrera Goggles Suzuki rider Fritz Schlegel took the win with a large lead over Suzuki-mounted David Weak , Heisser, Ri ckv Arnold on a Suzuki and Honda rider John Drury. Kawasaki 's Tom Benolkin took th e fir st 250cc qualifier from Yama ha's SCOll Burnworth on the final lap for the win. Kawasaki support rider Bill Liles finished third over Yamaha support rid er Jim And erson a n d Suzuki's DcnnvBen rlev. Yam aha 's Bro c Glover a nd Ri ck Johnson were 1-2 a ll th e wa y in th e seco nd qualifier. Yamaha-mounted Juan Benavidez pi cked up third . O nl y th e fir st four from th e 250cc co n sy would go 10 th e Nati onal. and DG Performance Yamaha pil ot Mark Murph y ens ured he would be th ere with hi s wi re-t o-wire win. Apach e H onda 's Timbo Rich ardson trailed him in while Mai co-m ountrd Mich ael Wickersh am and J im Ellison a Honda (not th e "Ca p ta in Co ba lt" J im Ellis) wer e 3-4. The four-stroke exhi bi tio n race belonged to BP Ra cing Yamaha rider J erome H eiber ger. Phil Larson 100 the first lap o f mot o o ne o n a l\Iugen Honda uruil h e jumped off o n a downh ill an d ende d up running a fter th e bik e. He ca u gh t back up to it. restarted and finished a closing second over Cl oyse Holland on a Kawa saki KLX . Larson led th e first lap of th e second moto but pulled off immediately aft er co m p leting th e circuit with a possibly broken a n kle. That left th e race 10 Heiberger again , Topflig h t Australian rider Stephen Ga ll, who had to fight his way up from a n opening la p crash the firs t moto, grabbed second this time on a BP Racing Yamaha, this one a 250. 125cc National Johnny O'Mara graphically demonstrated his Honda 's power in the first moto as h e dashed to the first turn in from. T eammate Jim Gibson followed him out of the corner with Bob Hann ah sliding in behind Gibson. Suzuki's George Holl and came a ro u nd at the end of a lap right behind Hannah. Trailing him were Beier, Northwest Honda 's Jeff Surwall , Kawa saki's J eff Ward, Barnett a nd Landrum. O 'Mara stretched his lead more on each lap . By th e halfwa y point in th e m ot o . he wa s over 25 seconds a hea d of hi s co m pe titio n. O 'Mara 's primary co m pe titio n happened to be Barnell , defend in g Hangrown a nd series cha m p io n. Barney got an a typ ica l mid-pack sta rt and was covered in mud afteronl yalap. Hi s fierce drive, however , vau lted him past every on e but O'Mara afte r som e 15 minut es had passed . From that point on. h e ch ip ped awa y - sa ns goggles - at O 'Mara 's substantial lead , but he would get no closer than nine seconds before th e checkered waved for th e Honda ace, wh o lost the front part of th e from fender. Hannah spent th e majority of th e race alone in third with Gibson doing the same in fourth . Ward picked off

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