Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

(Above left) The pack of 125cc Novices head into a soggy first turn. Chris Gunter slithered to the win ahead of David Campbell and Dennis Munns. (Right) Billy Whitley survived the early morning muddy conditions and topped the 125cc Stock class, while William Surratt took second. Scott Brown competed in four different class. His best finishes were in the Super Mini Pro and Super Mini Pro Stock divisions, with two seconds. By Keith Spencer LAKE WHITNEY, TX, MAR. 9-11 The Grand National Motocrqss Champion's annual and often ignored international Finals ran over 1,000 entries through qualifiers and racing on a muddy Lake Whitney track this weekend. The G NC' s mentor Jerry Surber got help from sponsors Pro-Circuit, Main Jet Trailers, Preston Petty 14 Products and Oakley as expected, but a lillie expected help [rom Mother Nature, who opted to water the track each night with several inches of rain. Many of the racers and fathers would have appreciated a lillIe less help as the races each morning were sloppy and the fast stans chancy. By the end of the day, however, the track dried to a deep, soft but rideable surface. Ex-motocrosser, road racer, flat tracker, et~., Steve Wise staned, yet, another career. He kicked o[f his motocross ministry with a Sunrise devotional service at the track. Steve will take his ministry to other GNC races, but it is not known to what other events he will go to. After the qualifying matos, as many as three per class, were ended on Saturday, the talk in the pits was of the I25cc Ex,penconfrontation the following day. Local Kawasaki rider Carroll Richardson and Team Green! Klemm Research rider Bader Manneh had convincingly won their qual- ifiers with competition from fellow Kawasaki riders Paul Denis and Rodney Barr, and Yamaha riders Dennis Hawthorne andJe[f Schumacher. Two riders entered were notably not regular I25cccompetitors. Hawthorne made his name around Texas on a big-bore Husky. and former LOP National rider from Nebraska Greg Theiss who has 500cc National experience. Richardson, a regular Whitney competitor, had his work cut out but turned in a perfect score for the win. After seeing Kawasakis as the force in the 125cc and Mini classes all weekend, Richardson found himself in third at the stan of the final behind a coupleofquick Yamahas with Schumacher leading and Oklahoma's Dennis Daft in second. Mannah and Denis, both expected to be threats, were mired back in the pack after first turn miscues. Barr, Yamaha rider Jason Ouo, Doug Harrington (Kaw), Theiss: (Kaw) and Jerry Surber Jr. (Han) made up the pack behind Richardson. In the first laps, Richardson sq\leezed past "Schu," and Harring- Team Green's Ronnie Tichenor captured second in the Minibike Senior class behind Yamaha's Mini ace Eddie Hicks. ton and Ouo swapped positions. Surber also displaced Ouo on the seventh lap. Though the first four riders were having a baule, the man most obviou lyon the move was Loui iana Yamaha rider Alley Semar. He slashed his way from way outside the top 10 into seventh behind Surber. The top four riders disappeared from the field with Richardson passing Schu in the late laps and leaving him second over Barr, Semar, Daft, Surber and Mike Boston, a ebraska Kawasaki rider who had followed Semar into the top 10. Richardson, Schumacher, Barr, . Daft and Surber made up the top five overall. . In the Mini class the man of the weekend was Eddie Hicks. l£hedidn't get knocked down. he won. It seems that he is untouchable this year. Kawasaki's Ronnie Tichenor, long a force at the Florida Mini Olympics _ but never in the limelight in the races funher west, won everything that Hicks and his DMC Yamahas didn·t. New for this year were two Mini Super Pro classes. The cut-off ages for the Mini Senior and Stock classes inGNCis IS, but other organizations allow riders on Minis until they are 16. The Mi ni Pro class has a purse, paid in savings bonds, and allows riders 16 years of age to compete. There are no changes allowed in the Stock class, but modified bikes run in Mini Super Pro. Hicks topped the Mini Super Pro Stock class after taking second to unsponsored Texas Kawasaki rider Jason Upshaw in the first moto and winning the second after a fine baule with leader SCOll Brown and his Honda. Brown ended up second ahead of Kyle Lewis (Kaw), Upshaw, and Ward. Hicks had an easier double mota win in the Mini Super Pro class. There his DMC Yamaha was nOldisplaying the horsepower shonage it was in the Stock class. Brown and his Pro-Circuit Honda ended up second again with Upshaw, Ward and Arizona Honda rider Raben Naughton filling the top five. Lewis and Tichenor were the favored riders going into the 12-15 Mini Stock class. In fact, the top four riders going in ended up in the top four overall. Tichenor was the victor over Lewis with Upshaw, on a Carter's Yamaha for this evelll, third and WaHl and Brown founh and fifth. The Mini Senior class saw a few new names in the top five, though Hicks took the win over Tichenor. Texas Kawasaki rider Tommy Collier was third. Tennessee's Cun Libby and Kenny Kizzar founh and fifth on Kawasakis. Tichenor won again in the 105cc Mini class with more new names in the top 10. Kansas Kawasaki rider Jeff Emig was second over Texas Team Green rider SCOll Chesser and Dennis Stephenson (Kaw). Then came two Kondas with Brown and Shaun Kalas aboard, Lewis, Hicks and Upshaw. Picking up his first GNC Championship trophy after four years of trying was James Prasifka. Junior Jackson and his Kawasaki were the combination of the weekend in the Mini 7-11 classes. He won both the Mini Junior and the Mini 7-11 Stock divisions. Jackson also placed 10th in one of the Mini Super. Pro classes. Yamaha rider Phil Larson on the

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