Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

z ~ m := 0 a: /Xl w ..J < 0 > /Xl Vl 0 .... 0 :J: ~ "- 00 0') ~ ~ C'J C'J .... ;:j '" bD ;:j ~ Ron Lechien leads the first 250cc start. The closest pursuers are Jeff Hicks (22), Billy Ules (12) and Rick Johnson (partially hidden). Broc Glover said he rode hard in taking his first overall of the season. However, it turned out to be too little. too late. AMA/Bel-Ray Grand National Championship MX Series: Round 11 Ward, Lechien, Glover dust the field in Colorado By Dale Brown LAKEWOOD, CO, AUG. 12 Jeff Ward and Ron Lechien scored double; moto wins in their 125 and 250cc wins at the Coors-sponsored National MX held at the Lakewood Motorsports Park. The only split8 motodecision went to Yamaha's Brac Glover as he won the I second moto to take the battle from Honda'sDavid Bailey, but David Bailey played it smart and rode to take the title. The guarantee is a slim one point, but all that's necessary. Bailey won the war by clinching the 500cc AMA National MX Championship with one event in the series left to go. Only Bailey could clinch a title. In a Honda versus Yamaha battle, Rick Johnson and his YZ finished second to Lechien both times and so carries a three-point advantage into the final round at Washougal, Washington. Likewise, Kawasaki's Ward could only pull six more points clear of Honda's Johnny O'Mara, who turned in two seconds and trails Ward by 18 points going into the final round. The penultimate round of the series was played out on a track built just in the last five weeks after promoter Ben Cox received approval to use the land. It was located on the side of a hill and featured lots of natural terrain items like dips, 0((cambers, uphills and downhills. It also featured soil characteristic of Colorado; i.e., dusty. Very dusty. Rider vision was often hampered, but approximately 8000 spectators came to see the racing. 250cc It was to be Lechien's day; he showed it right from the beginning by snagging the holeshot in the £irst moto. Liles and Johnson trailed him, and after some position sorting, Kawasaki's Kent Howerton held fourth over Yamaha privateer Jim Holley, Suzuki's SCOll Burnworth, Team Tamm Honda rider Je££ Hicks and Yamaha's Keith Bowen. Team Honda's Bob Hannah, second the week before, was back in 12th and Suzuki teamster Mark Barnell was even further back. . In the next two laps the top four were stable, but Hannah wasn't. Looking like the Hurricane of old, he slashed his way to seventh on lap two and sixth on the next circuit. Holley dropped back to eighth behind Burnworth, Hicks to ninth behind Team Tamm's Alan King, and Barnell was up to 12th. The top three ran in sight of each other for the first part of the race, and by the fifth lap, had an II-second lead . on fourth, which belonged to Hannah after passing Howerton the lap before. Barnett was up to 10th and setting his plans for two more victims: Yamaha privateer Scooter Stafford and Bowen. Just before the 15-minute mark Johnson was up to challenge Liles for the runner-up slot. Challenge he did, passing the Team Green graduate on a steep, jump-laden downhill. By lap eight Lechien had a fiveecond lead on Johnson. That closed right up when Lechien dropped it momentarily, but Lechien re·estab· Ii hed the margin by the time the 30- minute plus-two-Iap race was over. Johnson finished second with Liles third. Hannah, Howerton and Burnworth were firmly established in 4-5-6 slots. The most action on the track during the final laps - at least what could be seen through the dust - was a battle for seventh between King and Barn~ll. Barnell caught King with two laps to go and they went back and forth several times. Finally the verdict was awarded to the "Bomber." Rounding out the top 10 were Bowen and Suzuki Support rider George Holland. Lechien made the second-moto start a near instant replay as he jelled into the lead ahead of Holley, Howerton, Johnson, Liles, King and Barnett. Hannah was waaaay back, running somewhere between 25th and 30th. By the end of the first lap the top three was the same as the previous moto: Lechien, Johnson and Liles. Howerton ran fourth ahead of Bowen, Barnett, Holley and King. Lechien was really on-form in this race, jumping to a seven-second lead at theone-third marker. Johnson was also pulling away from Liles, who was faced with the fact that Bowen had passed Howerton and was starting to catch up. Lap eight, the two-thirds marker, was when Bowen made his move and swept past for third. The two stayed close all the way to the white £lag lap, . and that was when they tangled over a jump with Bowen gelling the worst of it. He fell, remounted, and limped home seventh. Lechien had a substantial lead (approximately half a minute) lead as he, Johnson and Liles repeated their first-moto performances for the same overall. Howerton was fourth for the same pay-o££. This time King came up on top of a last-lap duel with Barnell, and his 8-5 beat Barnett's 7·6 for fifth overall. Hannah's long road back carried him to 10th in moto two, as he was nearly lapped by Lechien. His 4-10 was good for seventh overall ahead of Burnworth (6-9), Bowen (9-7) and Holland (10-8). "I got two great starts, and everything went fine after that," said Lechien. "No problems other than a little fall in the first moto. Nothing at all. " 125cc For the past three Nationals, Ward has won by taking the second moto; so it was somewhat surprising to see him holeshot the first. Suzuki Sup· port rider Rick Ryan followed Ward's tracks; tracked in turn by O'Mara and Yamaha Support pilot Mike "Lite"

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