Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

IAbove) Bryen Bruner. the 106cc Expert winner. "'ds e nert. IBelow) Merk Mehon 1420) end Mike Holy in their huted Modified bettie. IAbove) Keith B_en 19) end Guy Cooper bettie in the lete leps of the 260Cc Expert fine!. I Below)· SuzukI's only clllu winner Mike PeKe,.IIII. side in the tum that had claimed Sure. rall earlier in the race and passed Melton over the jumps for the lead. Melton was not dazzled by the move. He put the pressure right back on Healey. Healey was the swifter of the two and moved out to a safe lead and Honda's first major win in minicycle competition since the XR75 lost its competitive edge. Melton, Moore, Whitley and Brundage rounded out the top five in the run-off, but Whitley was tied for the ovmJl win with Healey, but the win WeIlt to Healey due to his beller runoff score. Whitley was second in the overall standings ahead of Moore, Melton and Turpin. The Minicycle classes at Ponca are touted as the most important, but the brass was out in force for the 125cc Expert classes. With Keith Bowen not in the line-up due to an earlier DNF, the l25cc Modified Expert runoff was left to Texas Yamaha stars Bryan Abernathy and Danny Storbeck. Both, however, had lost points in earlier motos and Kawasaki's Ed Warren lOOk the win. Tommy Wausand Yamaha-mounted Terry Fowler. Expected front-runners Todd Campbell, Alley Semar and Abernathy had gone down and were in the back of the pack. Bowen, who had started outside of the top eight, was up to sixth at that point also. Cooper was trying to disappear out in front, and helped in part by his acclimatization to the fierce Oklahoma heat that cauterized the racing surface rather than merely drying it out, he was doing a good job of it. Bowen was relentless in his pursuit. By the sixth lap Bowen was into second and rapidly reeling in the fleeing Kawasaki rider. Frisz, Mason and Manley still filled the next places, but Louisiana's Wendell Simmons had pushed his Kawasaki up to sixth. Bowen did not get close enough to pass and the order to fourth stayed the same to the finish. Simmons crashed on the last lap and WallS took fifth over Manley. Bowen's four-point score was untouchable because the next closest rider, Watts, had a 12-point score. Manley, Cooper and Mason were nexfin the final standings. . Abernathy led from start to finish with Warren, Storbeck and Kawa· saki's Paul Denis directly behind at the start. The order stayed static until the sixth lap. Storbeck chose a different line through a long series of jumps, doubled a couple of the jumps a lillIe smoother and went into second to stay. Warren finished third, Denis fourth and Colorado's Kevin McKnight's Kawasaki was fifth. Warren took the overall win over Denis, Abernathy, Storbeck and Kyle Landrum. Landrum was on a stock 1984 Kawasaki production bike. Run later in the day, the 125cc Stock Expert class was a different story, the Keith Bowen story. Oklahoma's Guy Cooper's Kawasaki carried him to an amazing lead in the second lap of the run-off after passing early leader Robby Peters and his ·Honda. At the end of the second lap, Cooper was in the lead ahead of Yamahamounted Robert Mason, Peters, Florida Honda rider Jeff Fri51, Yamahasupponed Brian Manley, Kawasaki rider Doug Holder, Kawasaki's The Junior Cycle c1;sses, especially in the 9- I I class made a giant improvement in riding skill in the time between the '82 and '83 Ponca races. All the 9-11 classes were impressive with many of the riders contesting five classes during the week. Yamaha's Damon Watkins, Kawasaki's Hank Moree and Junior Jackson and Suzuki's Mike Pascarella as well as a couple of others, were capable of lap times in the top 10 of the Expert classes. Pascarella took the overall with a win in the 83cc Modified 9- II class. Pascarella went into the final with a score of three, but the competition was fierce as Texas Kawasaki rider Dave Shade went in with four, as did Jackson. Moree and Chad Montero both had seven and Kawasaki's Cody Marek had eight. Pascarella grabbed the lead and the fierce ballle ended as Moree went down after a jump and Jackson landed on him'. In all, seven riders went down in two unrelated accidents in the same tum. Later in the day Jackson grabbed the lead in 1M unior C de Modif'

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