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cott Burnworth had to fend off David Bailey in the late goings before rossing the finish line in third. Ward continued to pull away and ook the win over teammate Liles, bile Ryan pulled ahead of Whiting n the final lap and nailed down ird at the finish. emi. CaliIornian Russ Wageman took immediate possession of the lead in the first of two semis, with Eric Hall md jeff Surwall following. Wageman ~dded to his lead with the completion of each lap, while Surwall, Hall and David McClain fought ove.r second. In the closing laps, Surwall pulled ~head of Hall by several bikelengths to secure second, with james Knupp displacing McClain for fourth. Wageman took an uncontested win over Surwall, with Hall maintaining third over Knupp through the checkered [lag. Eric Eaton, who had taken a nasty raIl in his heat race, put on a good ,how to win the second semi. je(( Sutherland, Mike Shuman and Brett Cahors all fell victim to Eaton, who tlad to make up lots of ground after a ,tan near the back of the pack. By lap five, Eaton had stretched out a l5-second lead over Sutherland md Cahors. On the last lap, Cabors displaced Sutherland and laid solid claim to second, and the pair followed winner Eaton past the finish line. Shuman through for fourth ahead of Harold Robinson. Last Chance Qualifier Scooter Sta((ord was the star of the ,how in the Last Chance Qualifier, where the top four riders would go to the final event. Sta((ord jumped out to the lead from the drop of the gate, with Guy Cooper following in second. StaUord's pace was too much for Cooper, David McClain and jo jo Keller, and that's how the order stayed lhrough the finish. Final With 40 riders qualified for the rinal and only 22 positions available on the starting gate, a second row of riders formed to the rear. Warm afternoon temperatures and bright sun nad dried o~t the clay-~ased tra~, _ chunks of clay. Barnett described the starting area as having "marbles," and he picked a start position to the extreme right to lessen the problem. As the pack roared off into the first right-hander Burnworth, Carson and Ward led the way. But after the first full lap, ownership rights for the lead position fell to Ward, with Burnworth, Hardick and Barnell already several seconds off the pace. Into lap three Ward's cushion over Burnworth was a full five seconds, with Barnell passing Hardick heading through a whoop section to snatch . third. Carson held a "distant fifth. Barnett closed the gap on Burnworth on lap five and by the end of lap six was all alone in second. For Ward, who had stretched out his lead to eight seconds, it was still an extremely clean perlormance. Without the extra power a works bike might have, Bailey was having trouble getting around riders after starting back in 10th. By lap six, however, Bailey had wedged himself into fifth behind Burnworth and Hardick. Through laps eight, nine and 10 Ward was forced to contend with much lapped traffic, but Barnett was unable to trim the deficit to any less than six seconds. Bailey, however, was still on the gas and passed Hardick on lap nine and moved withi~ three bikelengths of third-place Burnworth on lap 10. In the final two laps the top four spots remained fixed, but Liles charged past Hardick late on lap II to secure fifth. With a six-second cushion, Ward sailed past the checkered flag for the win over Barnett and raised his left arm high in recognition of the victory while still airborne. Burnworth managed to stifle pressure from Bailey and came through for third, as Liles topped Hardick and Alan King for fifth. "I had to do a bit of work to get past Burnworth early on," Ward said. "I finally got by him in a sweeper - he went to the inside and I took the outside, and I just swooped by. I knew I had to get by him or I would Billy Liles put in a good ride and finished fifth. Neither Team Yamaha or Honda were present in Talladega. Bevo Forte was the extent of Bailey's pit crew. Bailey rode a nearly box-stock CR250 to a fourth overall. still had to contend with the dust thrown up by the lappers. At one time, there were six or seven of them right ahead of me in that long whooped section. I knew I had to jump at least two of the whoops at a time, but with the dust I couldn't see very well. I did it blind and came out of it well - Barnett didn't make up very much time on me. I'd like to thank our crew for doing a super job, especially my tuner, Mike McAndrews." "I'm pretty happy with second," Barnett said. "I had a really terrible start and did what I could. I trimmed the di((erence on Ward down in the late laps, but with all of the traffic there wasn't much I could do. Ward's been so close [or such a long time, and I'm glad to see him do well." "Riding the production bike, I don't know how I got the holeshot," said Burnworth, "but I would rather have the works bike like Barnett has. We seem to have the power, but our suspension could be better." A dejected Bailey said; "I wish it hadn't come down to this, where Honda decided not to back me in this bike, that puts out that little extra bit of power,l felt that I would have won today. Without the help of Bevo Forte, who did the tuning, and the aid of my dad and the people from Team Tamm, I would've never even got this far. lowe all of those people a lot." • Results 12·LAP FINAL: 1. Jeff Word (Kow); 2. Mork Bor· non (Suz); 3. Scott Burnworth (Suz); 4. David Bailoy (Hon); 5. Billy Liles (Kow); 6. Clint Hordick (Hon); 7. Alan King (Hon); 8. Allen Semar (Yom); 9. Jeff Hicks (Hon); 10. Eric Eaton (Hon); 11. Tom Corson (Honl; 12. Denny Bentley (Honl; 13. Jeff Schumocher (Yom); 14. A.J. Whiting (Hon); 15. John Reinholt (Hen); 16. Russ Wageman (Han); 17. Rodney Smith (Yom); 18. Tarry Holoss (Yom); 19. Jo Jo Keller (Honl; 20. Rick Ryon (Suzl. AMA TRIPLE CROWN OF SUPERCROSS POINT STANDINGS; 1. Jeff Word (55); 2. David Bailey (53); 3. Mark Barnen (441; 4. Scott Burnworth (39); 5. Billy Liles(31); 6. JohnnyO'Mara (26); 7. Jeff Hicks (25); 8. Rick Johnson (24); 9. Clint Hardick (21); 10. Rodney Smith(191; 11. (TIE)Alan King/Ron Lechien (18); 13. Rick Ryan (17); 14. Tom Carson (14); 15. (TIE) Broc Glover/Allen Semar(13); 17. (TIE) Denny Bentley/Eric Eaton (11); 19. (TIE) Keith Bowen/ Kenny Keylon (10). AMA/BEL·RAY GRAND NATIONAL MX CHAM· PIONSHIP SERIES POINT STANDINGS: 1. Jeff Ward (1051; 2. Oavid Bailey (1 03); 3. Mark Barnen (84); 4. Johnny O'Mara (701; 5. Billy Liles (59); 6. Alan King (58); 7. Broc Glover (551; 8. Bob Hannah (53); 9. (TIE) Scott Burnwonh/Rick Johnson (501; 11. Ron Lechien(49); 12. (TIE) Jeff Hick./A.J. Whit· ing (48); 14. Rick Ryan (47); 15. Eric Eoton (45); 16. Goat Broker (42); 17. John Reinholl (37); 18. Kont Ho_rton (36); 19. Mike Beier (33); 20. Kenny Key· .....IiIiI~iill.iiilili . . . .iiiiliilliWiiliiii~ .iiIiIlIIII............_ . . .............._ ....