Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

_ ... ~ -- .. - ....... -.. - ._ 'e " h ad probl ems a ll da y." Ra y Cosgro ve had hi s chain come off and jam in th e sp rocket. Once th at was fixed h e ca me up with a flat tir e. " I figured th ere was nothing to it, " sa id Cos grove. " My Maico has a quick-change hub, so I zipped th e wheel and tireoH a nd th en spent a bo ut ten minutes getting th e a ir bottle to work. That scratched an y cha nce o f a top fini sh. " J eff Fredette's da y started off bad. " I got a flat tire in the firs t tight section and by th e time I got it fix ed I had lo st five minutes. I carried the five m inutes all day and th en lost a n addi ti ona l o ne minute in th e next 10 last check." Kevin LaVoie was sidelined with a busted transmission. He spent th e m aj ority o f hi s day wait ing for someone to help him get back to th e staging ar ea. Vic Ely su ffered a similar fate, but nursed hi s bike home. Engin e sei zu res en ded th e rides o f Dwight Rudder and J ack Penton. R udder made it to th e final test before hi s bike seized. Penton was within two m iles o f th e la st check when hi s engine decided it wouldn't go anymore. Mike Melton took the 125cc Intent cla ss win with ease. He was th e only rider in that class not to lose an y points on th e tr ail. " It was fun to ride. The time sch edule was good and I didn 't have a ny problems ," said Melton. Melton was in the fir st group of riders to tackl e th e fin al test, a timed, three lap , dead en g ine sta rt MX in groups of ten. Melt on took th e win in his heat, but got a lot of pressure fro m J ohnny Martin .The margin of victo ry for Melt on was ha lf a bik e length after th e three to ur s of th e nearl y two m ile course. Martin had be en in co m ma nd o f th e 175ccI ntent class a ll day an d took an easy wi n. "The o n ly problem I had a ll day," sa id Martin, " was at the wat er crossing. It seem s th e pl aces I pi ck 10 put m y foot dow n are a lways th e deepest." T he seco nd h eat sa w Stacy post th e fastes t time o f th e day in th e final test. Ed Loj ak fini sh ed seco nd , four seco n ds behind Stacy for seco n d fast est time. H ad Loj ak not lo st two minut es o n th e trail he would have been only six points (secon ds) behind Stac y in th e final stan d ings . " Hey , you goua giv e those gu ys a bit of a n edge now a nd then ," joked Barry Higgins afte r he won hi s h eat . H iggin s ca me from next to last to wi n ove r G ra y Leon ard in a n ex cit in g race. Kevin Pi asecki was a lso in th e hunt until a bobble cost him th e lead. H vde h ol eshot hi s heat, but was soo nbeing hounded by Cunningham. Cunningham went down twice, leavin g H yde with pl enty of breathing room. By th e time it was acknowledged that Stacy had posted th e best score, he was heading for theairpon in Knoxville to catch a plane back to Buffalo. ' 'I' ll be at work at Dunlop bright and early Monday morning," said Stacy with a sm ile, " an d I'll be at Alabama next week. I like their special and final tests. It should be fun ." The final results and medals will be mailed out to all riders. The resul ts of the A and B classes will appear in next week's Results section. • In a tough run , Frank Stacy was the toughest. Only ten Intent riders earned gold medals. AMA One-Day _Qualifier Series: Round 3 Stacy rocks 'emin Tennessee By Gary Van Voorhis TELLICO PLAINS, TN, MAR . 28 "I enjoyed the heck out of it," said Team Maico's Frank Stacy 'after posting the best overall score in the Foggy Mountain ISDE Qualifier. Stacy's 961.2 points (seconds) were . well up on Husqvarna's Mark Hyde who tallied a 984 score. R oun dine' out th e ~op f" 10 109 ive the. overall standings were 12 Husky's Terry Cunningham at 1001, Can-Am'sJohnny Martin 1002.6 and Kawasaki's Drew Smith witha 1003.7. " T h e only problems I had all day were two crashes," said Stacy. "Once, I went over the handlebars and slid down th e trail on my helmet and th e other time I was just cru ising a lo ng a nd h it a patch of ice -- th er e was no wa y to save it. The bik e and I are fi na lly co mi n g together. We've made some~han~estogetabit!D0repower an~dlaledmthe~u.spe~slOntobetter suit my style of riding. Stac y rode a 250cc Alpha I Maico. Runner-up Mark Hyde had vision problems. " A rider in front of me kicked up a rock and it knocked out one lens from my glasses," said Hyde. "I tried to ride with m y glasses on, but it was harder th an rid ing without them. I gassed it up on th e road sections 10 compensate for going a bit ca u tio us on the trails. My gas cre w had so me of m y older gl a sses waiting a t a lat e check. They weren ' t very good, but at least I co u ld see with the pair I finally used." Over 250 rid ers showed up to co ntest th e Volunteer Riders M.e. organized evem . The 128.6 m ile co u rse co n sis ted m ainl y of OR V trai ls cut into th e C he ro kee Nati onal For est. " We went with th e OR V trail s," said Dile Brown of th e sp o nso ring club, " to facili tate th e orga niza tio n of th e even t. We ha ve to o btai n perm ission for land use from both Ten nessee a nd No rth Ca rol in a as well as three forest ran ger di stricts. Deal in g m ainl y with p erm anent trail s mad e putting 10get he r th e trail packa ge easier. If we had blanket perm ission to u se th e terra in to th e full est we co u ld put o n a n ISDE. We've go t tra ils out there jflherokee National Forest ) yo u wouldn 't bel ieve." Kawasaki 's J ack Penton was th e fi rs t rider o ut o f th e sta rt area a t 7:30 a.m. It wa s cl ea r and co ld and would warm up sl igh tly during th e day. The riders headed ou t onto th e trail wh ich led th em to a one lap timed run on th e track where the final test would beat the end ofthe run . Husqvarna's Ed Lojak wa s faster here by two seconds over Stacy. No one else was even close. The trail pace for the Intent class kept the riders on their toes. So much so, many were hitting checks on their minute or into their grace. Lojak, running head to head with Stacy, had his problems in the section between checks five and six. "I guess I got caught sleeping," said Lojak sheepishly. " I just pla in missed an arrow and got lost. That cost m e 120 points for being two minutes late and made me mad. I had gotten a flat tire earlier, repaired it and not lost an y time in a tighter section. " Flat tir es a n d th e tight sch edu le got to a lot o f Intent rid ers. John Fero r. Result s . 125cc INTENT: 1. Miko MoltoR (Hus ll004.2; 2. ...Ion Zin o (KTMI 1217.4; 3. Glon n Hollingshood (KTM) 1288; 4. Ko~h Mooro (KowI1871.4; 5. Ron Knorr (Kow)6011 .6. 175cc INTENT; 1. John Mortin (C·..., 1002.6; 2. Poto Loonord (C·AI 146 2.8; 3. Joff Fredono (Suzl 1690.8; 4. WiIIlom Portins (Yom) 1926.5; 5. Rsndy Klino (Yom) 1997 .6. 2500c INTENT; 1. Fronk Stocy (Moi' 961 .2; 2. Torry Cunningham (Husl 1001 ; 2. Drow Smith (Ksw) 1003.7; 4. Fritz Kodlec (Kowl 1008.6; 5. Kevin Piosocki (KTM) 1025 .9. 500cc INTENT; r . Mort

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