Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

J im Gibson 's h ard rid ing netted the w in in t he f inal at To ronto's Exhibition Stadium . Kr is Bigelow (4 4 ) and Mike Mcintosh (410 ) started out front in Toronto's f inal. Ross Pederson (1) hugged the hay bales. Pederson and Molson 's Michael Mailloux celebrate at Montreal . Canadian Sup..ercross Series came very close to bein g a devasta ting sweep by all -ro und Na tiona l champ Ross Pederso n. O n ly a locki ng rear brake on Pederson 's RM 250 Suzu ki kept the ta ll, husky Albertan from running away with the fi na l in Toronto as he had done in p rel iminaries and wou ld also accomplis h the next day in Mo nt rea l. Pederson had started the Toronto final in front of the 18 fi nalists, a longside Jeff H icks, but an u n usua lly hard la nd in g from a jump bent the rear brake arm on his Suzuki. The Canadian had to settle for sixth that night in Toronto, bu t was q uick to vindicate himself by becoming the first Canadian to win a Supercross final, the night after in Montreal. Reign in g 500cc MX World Champion Brad Lackey was clea rly th e most visi ble of all American guests to the two Canadian stadium events. Despite the fact tha t he had no t raced in more tha n nine months on an earthen track and some four years in a stadium, Bad Brad showed good form. After good rides in preliminaries, Lackey had to compensate for poor starts and finished 12th in Toronto and 8th in Montreal, on a custom bike, built. [or . rhim by super-tuner '. Gibson, Pederson trade wins in front of record crowds By Marc Lachapelle TO RONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, JUNE 3 MONTREAL, QUEBEC, CANADA, JUNE 4 Diamond Jim G ibson, fresh from the Wes t German 125cc MX Grand Prix, and Ross Pederson, the great Canadian Hope, each took one ro u n d in w ha t could very well be pegged the Canadian-American Supercross Series. T he two h Id . d ~vents, e ~n cons.ec.u~lve ays In Toronto s Exhibition Sta- 16 dium and Montrea l's Olympic Stadiurn , drew record crowds that totalled , mo,r~ than 100,000. The seventh edi- ~ion of the Mo lson " Su perMo tocro ss" Itself broug~t . 60,265 people to the Montreal faci lity, Although Yamaha-mounted Jim Gibson'swininToronto,overfellow American riders Jim Holley and Jeff Hicks was a convincing one, this year's Canadian Supercross Series Steve Stasiefs ki , arou nd a Yamaha engine and his now familia r, inverted forks . " It 's fun ou t there," said a re la xed Lackey, "but the races are much too short. It 's a ll over after 15 minutes and that's j us t the time it takes me to get warmed up." Toronto Both rounds of the Canadian Supercross Championship were run according to the new Wrangler Super Series system. On a short, tight track that wou ld also be doused regularly with rain d uring the night's racing in Toronto, Pederso n q uickly established h im self as o ne of the very top co ntenders for top honors, by win ning the first qualifier over early leaders Mark Garrison, from Pennsy lvania, and Ontario 's Do u g Hoover and Mike Harnden. John Savitski and Lackey were next to fight it ou t in the second qualifier. Savitsky won it from Quebec rider Serge Gregoire after Lackey's attemp t to pass him, late in the race, resu lted in a front -end washou t that cost the champ precious seconds. Jim Gibson won the third qualifier from Tim Krogh from British Co lum bia, w hi le Jim Hooley came out on top in a superb batt le that p itte d h im against Don n ie Cantaloupi and Alberta's Darren Sharuga. Sharuga finished second. The firs t quarterfinal sent Kris Bigelow and Ontario's Mike Burr to the semis, while the seco nd quarter final was a Q uebec sweep with Arna ud Bernard's Honda lea d in g Mario ' Duham el' s to the next qua lifying rounds. Pederson went wi re to wire in the first semi, crossing the finish lin e j u m p m ore than 15 seco nds a head of second-place finisher Savi tski and Lackey. T he second semi final gave way to what was probably the n ight 's tightest racing as Terry Hofoss, twotime Canadian 125cc C ham pio n from Brit ish Columbia, started first and stayed there to the fin ish ahead of the tr io of Holley, Gibson a nd Hicks. T he last chance qualifie r was wo n by Ga by G regoire fro m Quebec, ahead of O ntario 's Mike H arnden w ho n udged Arnaud Bern a rd fro m the last transfer spot in the last corner. P ed er son , H ic ks a n d Sa vitsk i blasted through the tig h t first corner a t th e sta rt of the 15-lap final. H alf a lap into the race, Pederson had already co nceded first place to Hicks, while H ofoss took third from Savitski. On ly a la p later, G i bson h ad charged by a ll those riders bu t H icks, a th in g h e wou ld ha ve corrected another lap into the fin al. G ib son th en p ro ceeded to stretch that lead , while Hofoss had his h a n ds full with J im Holley's challenge for third place. Holley had started in n inth. Halfway into th e fi nal , Gi bson held a m ore than comfortable ten seco nd lead over th e tr io o f H o lley, Hicks a nd Hofoss, who were flyin g in very close forma tion. The order would change not among those four , but then in the la ter stages of the . final, Yamaha-mounted Cantaloupi got by Pederson and h is ai ling Suzuki. T he Canadian champ had trou ble ho ldi ng bac k tears of frustration wh en he la ter me t with the press. Bu t it was already time to pack up and hit th e road to cover th e 350 miles that separate Toronto from Mo ntreal, for the seco nd of the Mo lson -sponsored races. Montreal Pederson 's message was clear, when he was asked of h is intentions and pr.edic tio ns for the night's ma in event: "Tonight I wi n." His expression sai d the rest. After practice, o n a track that ma ny found a tri fle too easy, Gibson kep t to h is wi nn ing ways, by taki ng the first qualifier o ver Lackey by so me 24 seconds: .. , .. . . , '. I "

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