Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Dave Emde and Don Greene. Immediat ely a fter taking th e lead , Neto began putting one to two seconds a lap on Filice, who in turn wa s well up on Renfrow . Back in th e pack, riders on th e move included Con La w, Rusty Sh arp, Joh n Long, Rhys Howard and Busb y. T he fifth lap fo u nd little cha ngei n the order, but Ren frow an d Paulk were warming th e pavement with a ba ttle over third. Sharp was up to fourth, ' with Hum ble, Greene and Law following. Lo ng he ld eighth. McDonald 's bike had come to a stop in turn one on lap four, and McDonald was a lready back in the pits. By the 10th lap Neto had a 10seco nd margi n on Filice. Renfrow still circu la ted in third with Paulk following. Law m oved past Sharp to Ho ld fifth with H um b le seve nth. Bus by, working h ard to overcome h is th ird -wa ve, 76th position start, was a lready u p to II th o . When th e crossed flags were give n to the rid ers on th e 13th lap , Bu sb y had climbed to seventh . Behind h im were H ow ard , H u mble, Long and Greene. From lap s 13-26, Neto contin ue d to ride smoothly and q uickly , stretching h is lead to 17 seco nds over Filice. He u p pe d th e average speed of the rac e from 99 mph on lap five to 100 mph o n lap 10 to 101.923 mph forth e entire di stance. Fi lice stayed steady in secon d , arid it a ppeared that Ren fro w ha d a loc k on third. Law was working his way up, though. He cli m bed to fourth on la p 19, and as he ad vanced, so did H oward. Busby had gotten up behi nd Sha rp in sevent h, but could not conti n ue charging. His front brakes had begu n malfunctioning on th e 10th lap, and he h ad to back off. The final laps' ch ance for an excitin g finish seemed to line u p with the .battle for fourth, as Law and Howard were wit hin drafting range o f each o th er by the 24th lap. T he drama of th e final lap, however , could not have been predi cted. Neto a nd Filice took the ch eckered flag in first a nd second without in ci den t. When Renfrow 's turn ca m e, he was nowhere to be seen. In a crue l blo w after a good ride, he had run ou t of gas on th e east banking. Despite having ridden nearly 100 miles, he still pushed the bike the remaining distan ce to finish 12th an d earn himself th e cheers of th e crowd. T h us, the LawI H oward battle was now for thi rd , and the Erhlich pilot took it by a whisker at the flag. "I made a mistake," said Howard la ter. " I led h im comi ng ou t of the chicane. Chalk it up to inexperience. Paulk took fif th, in spite of having changed to th e wrong gearing jus t befo re th e race and not bei ng able to use six th . Bu sby fi n is hed in the num ber six slot, fo llowed by Sharp, Long, H umble and G reen e. After the race Filice sai d, "The bike wouldn't shift u nder a lo ad, so I was shifting at 11,500 rpm. Neto was riding well , and th ere was n't too m uc h I co u ld do. I wo u ld li ke to tha n k Bud Aksland." Law, who finished 38t h here last year, sai d , " I really enjoyed it . We did well considering we d idn't have the motor fired u p unt il we got he re." • SUPER SERIES NEXT STOP . 15th Annual Hangtown Motocross Classic March 27 P-:,airie City OHV Park, Sacramento METZELER WINS VET EXPERT CLASS, COWPUNCHER NATIONAL HARE SCRAMBLES 1st Vet Expert-Barry Higgins, Maico on METZELER T h rough 70 miles of ruts and mud holes, former ISDE rider. Barry H iggins rode Metzeler to th e Vet Expert victory in the Cowpunch er AMA National H are Scrambles, H ollister, CA February 27. Results 26 LAP FINA L: 1. An tonio Neto (Yem ); 2. Jim Fili ce (Yam); 3. Con Law (Eh r); 4. Rhys Howard (Yam); 5. Russall Paulk (Yam); 6. Dave Busby (Yam); 7. Rusty Sharp (Yam); 8 . J ohn Long (Yam); 9 . Hug h Humble (Yam); 10 . Don Greeno (Yam ); 11. Joe Lach ine t (Yam); 12. Randy Renfrow (Yam); 13 . Bruce Maus (Yam); 14. Steve Baron (Yam); 15. A la n Ward (Yam); 18. Dav id Emde (Yam) ; 17. Dan Gug lielmo (Yam); 18 . Stanley Ming (Yam); 19. Dav id Ge iger (Yam); 20. Peter Trevitt (Yam), . ~- METZELER (~ ', BARRY HIGGINS 15

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