Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126776
i01 II) G ~ 0 Z ..J 0 e '" 0 ~ ~ > III II) 0 ~ 0 ~ 00 :l: 0") 11. ,.....; ,.....; ,.....; >- ,.....; ;::j ~ David Bailey continues his winning ways: He topped both 500CC motos. "I hate to win by such large margins." said Bailey. AMA/Bel-Ray Grand National MX Championship Series: Round 8 Johnson rallies to Red ·Bud. ·win By Tom Kolnowski BUCHANAN, MI, JULY I Yamaha's Rick Johnson nipped Kawasaki's Bill y Liles by fractions of a second fot the 250cc class overall win as Red Bud Track 'n' Trail hosted the Hallman-sponsored National Motocross. Liles finished just inches ahead of Johnson to claim the win in moto one, '· h peed t h en J 0 h nson too k a hi g -s 10 tour. to the front of t~e pack in the wanmg laps of t~e fmal .moto and squeaked to the WI~ over LIles. Johnson's teammate, Keith Bowen, posted his best National finish to date with third overall via a solid 3-3 effort. Kawasaki's Jeff Ward carried away his second cons,ecutive. win in t~e l25cc class, agam bestmg Honda s Johnny O'Mara. Both Ward and O'Mara had their share of spills in mota one, with O'Mara finally getting the upper hand. Ward came back stronger than ever in the final moto and marched on to the win over O'Mara. Honda-mounted Erik Kehoe topped Yamaha pilot Mike Beier for third overall. ComingoffhiswinoftheCarlsbad 500cc GP a week ago, Yamaha's Broc Glover still looked strong; Honda's David Bailey, however, reeled in Glover to win moto one, then led Glover all th~ way ~? JwiJl a ]lo-Qum closing moto. Kawasaki's Goat Breker occupied the ~rd ove~all spot as ~e has ~o. many tImes thIS year, whl.le Flondlan Mark Murphy turned 10 consistent 4-4 rides for fourth. By virtue of wins in both motos, Bailey padded his point lead in the Grand National MX Championship Series point chase over second place Ward 350 to 343. O'Mara holds third with ~02. A sun-kissed sky and warm temperatures brpught out a crowd the promoter pegged at slightly under 8,000. 125cc The Johnny O'Mara/Jeff Ward match-up again proved to be a good one as the first moto of the day roared off in a cloud of dust: O'Mara led Ward by inches with Danny Storbeck, Mike Beier and Eric Hall following. By lap three O'Mara still maintained the advantage, with Ward a strong second only a few bikelengths. behind. By lap four, however, the cards fell into the l;y> of. War{!.; A'M'P';l took Rick Johnson dominated the 260cc class. winning both moto. and moving into the points lead by two point. over Ron Lechien with five races ~. what he called a "little crash" and Ward railed right on by. Storbeck and Beier still trailed - by some 30 seconds - with Guy Cooper closing in fifth. Ward staked out a six-second cushion by lap seven, with O'Mara regaining his composure and trimming the deficit to less than two seconds by lap nine. Halfway through lap nine, O'Mara was back in the driver's seat. "I went to stick my left foot out in a berm and it just stuck," Ward said later. "I ended up twisting my knee a bit and 1 could see Johnny getting away. Since it was so late in the moto there wasn't much 1 could do, so 1 settled into a good pace after 1 remounted and followed O'Mara across the finish line." "I saw Ward go down as 1 was closing back in on him," said O'Mara. "It was all mine the rest of the way," Storbeck, Beier, Cooper and Erik Kehoe straggled in minutes later. Ward had his left leg wrapped in tape before the start of moto two then rocketed away with the lead. "I got a good charge off the gate and things looked pretty good," said Ward, "at least until lap three - when 1got to the top of a hill and crashed. 1 dragged the bik-e down with me and managed to keep it running. 1thought Johnny might catch me." O'Mara, running approximately six seconds behind Ward after "getting boxed in on the start, coming out fifth, and having to use up a bunch of energy to get into second," immediately lunged toward the fallen Ward. But with O'Mara still a rew seconds behind, Ward motored off and began to reconstruct his lead. Kehoe, Jim Anderson, Hall and Clay Hoenshell jockeyed for position a half minute behind the leaders. "I kept waiting for Johnny to put a good charge on," said Ward, "but he never did. 1 feel 1 just regrouped very well after the fall, and 1 got it in my mind 1didn't want him to beat me. It worked out really good." Ward led a struggling O'Mara the rest of the way, with Kehoe, Anderson, Beier and Hoenshell finishing in the next four spots long after the dust from Ward and O'Mara had settled. "This gives me four class wins to Johnny's t,wo,"JWard sjlid. ';IJ 1 can keep this going the title will be mine!" 250Cc Billy Liles made a clean getaway moments into moto one. "Ron Lecruen and 1 were going into the firstcomerright together," said Liles, "but I knew there was no way he was going to make that sharp left-hander at the end of the straightaway. He got squeezed in and 1 was right out front." Team Ta.mm's Alan King survived for second, with Rick Johnson, Mark Barnett and Keith Bowen in a closely-woven pack behind. By the completion of lap one it was still Liles by a slim one to two seconds over Johnson. Barnett had pulled into third, dragging a charging Bowen along, with King knocked to fifth. Lechien, mired in mid-pack in the early shuffling, crashed on lap two and recovered quickly; he was up to sixth behind King by the end of lap three. Liles would lose a bit of ground to Johnson, then quickly gain it back lap after lap. All was well for Liles until lap 10 - when Johnson capitalized on a bobble and squirted past into the lead. A lap later Liles found himself on the ground. "I spun right around and Looked around to see who was coming up behind me," said Liles. "I had a good lead over Bowen in third, but then I looked ahead and saw Johnson had also gone down." By the next lap, Liles was out front again as Johnson pressured at every corner, never more than a few bikelengths behind. Bowen held a solid third over the Barnett/Lechien dice over fourth, while King was a distant sixth. Johnson trimmed the difference to mere inches in the final seconds, with Liles holding on for the win. Bowen moved in even closer to finish a tight third, with Barnett, Lechien and King following. Liles kept up his momentum in the start of the final moto, while Johnsonand Lechien were knee-deep in trouble. "I got pushed way to the outside," said Lechien, "and a length of course markers got wedged in between the handlebars and front brake cable. 1 tugged and tugged at the rope and finally had to break it to getitout 1 wasd a~l~ tpyt~eti~~' _