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(Above) Johnny O'Mara (1) leads the start of the second moto main. (Inset) Jeff Ward in the winner's circle.
(Below) Mark Barnett lost second overall when mud jammed his brake assembly. Rick Johnson motors by.
AMA/MiJler High Life Supe,.e,.oss
Series: Round 7
Wara takes points
lead at Houston
By Kit Palmer
HO UST O N, TX, APR. 20
" I' m just riding my own race from corner to
corner, worrying about nobody and trying
to win," said Team Kawasaki 's Jeff Ward
after winning his first supercross of the 1985
season tonight at Houston 's
Astrodome in Texas . " l owe a
lot to m y tr ainer J eff Spen cer.
I'v e been working out with him
8
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,
a n d he is one of the mai n reasons I' m
doing so good rig ht now . I really
have to tha n k him a lo t."
Ward won th e first mota , wh ile
Tea m Ho n da's j ohnn y O'M ar a
topped th e secon d, but War d 's 2-1
tally was enough to cla im the win .
O' Mara cou ld only manage an eig h th
in the first mo to a fter a first turn
crash a nd ended up pl acing thi rd
overa ll. Team Yam ah a' s Keith Bo wen
ro de co nsistent ly, an d it paid o ff wi th
a second overall goi ng 2-4.
Yamaha 's Broc Gl over, series points
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leader going inio tonight 's ro u nd,
h ad a ri-tisera ble ni ght.finishing 10th
o vera ll and d ropping to seco nd in th e
sta ndi ngs, two p o ints behind Wa rd ,
160- 158. H onda 's Ron Lechien also
had a p oor n ight a t ninth overa ll, but
maintains th ird in points at 144, two
ahead o f hi s teamma te, O 'M ar a.
Team H onda 's Bob H a nnah was a
no- show a t H o uston , so he co u ld let
hi s bro ken wr is t men d before the
o ut door Nat iona ls resum es in Pen n sylvan ia , Ma y 26. H ann ah wi ll most
likel y not ma ke it to th e O rla ndo,
Flor ida. Su percross next week .
Heats '
.
Almost 31,000 specta tors were on
hand fo r the sta rt of the first h eat ra ce,
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won by Tea m H onda 's David Ba iley.
T he cur rent 500cc National and Grand
Na tio na l Champion jumped o u t to
an ea rly lead a nd was ch ased by Tea m
Ta rn rns Alan King o n a Kawasa ki, H onda rider T om Carson ,
Ka wasak i's Goat Breker and Yamahamo un ted Danny Storbeck. During
th e seco nd lap, Carson dropped back
to fifth , while Breker m oved into th ird.
T h ings got exciting when Bail ey
ca me o ff a se t o f doubl e jumps a n d
overshot the left turn that immedi at ely
foll ow ed. Bail ey plowed th rough the
haybales a nd onto th e infi eld ; h e
q u ickly made a U'-tu rn an dre-en tered
th e track where h e left it. Bailey had
built suc h a large lead th at h e didn 't
even lose a position . At th e fin ish , it
was Bailey, Kin g a nd Breker all transferring to th e main.
S uzu ki's Sco tt Burnworth jammed
to th e fro n t o f th e p ack fo r th e start o f
th e seco nd h eat with j ojo Kell er
(H a n), Suzu ki's A.]. Whiting , T eam
Ta mm 's And y Stacy (Kaw) a nd Bowen
in close pursu it. Lap two saw Whiting try 10 stu ff Keller in a turn , but
th e two co ll ide d with Wh itin g goi ng
down an d Kell er d ro p ping to fourth ,
whil e Bowen m oved into seco nd,
ra p id ly ga in ing o n Burnworth, A lap
later , Burnworth got o u t of sha pe in
some whoops, letting Bowen by. From
th at po int o n, th e race was a ll Bowen 's, a s h e went on to tak e th e win.
Burnworth took second a head of Stacy
'
a n d Kelle r_ Husqvar n as . Danny
LaPorte finished a close fourth but
one spot from th e transfer spot.
Heat th ree featured an exce llent
di ce between Kawasak'i's Mark Barnett a nd Yamaha 's 250cc Nation al
C ha mp io n Ri cky johnson. j ohnson
took the lead after the fir st turn with
Barnett glued to his rear fend er. In
third follow ed Dennis Hawthorne
( Ho n) , T erry Fowl er (Ho n) a n d
O 'M ar a , H ow ever , by th e second lap ,
Barnett blew by j ohnson , th en started
to pull awa y, but n o t fo r lo ng. By th e
fourth lap , johnson began ree li ng-in
th e lead er, a n d th en th e two battled
handl ebar -to-handleb ar. Wh ile Bar nett and j ohnson were d icin g. O 'M ar a
was ha vin g
tough tim e ge tting
aroun d Fowl er and Ha wthorne, wh ile
a ll th ree were p assed by Yamaha rid er
Scooter Staffor d . With a few la ps
remai ni ng, H aw th orne dro pped to
sixt h. Wit h one lap to go , O ' Ma ra '
had 10 pass bo th Fowl er a nd Stafford
to tran sfer wh ich h e co u ldn ' t do . H e
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got by-Fowler, but not Stafford. Meanwhile, the battle up front still raged
o n, but Barnett h eld o n for th e win.
Lech ien bl it zed everyone to th e
fir st turn in th e fin al heat , edgin g
Gl over , Yam aha-mounted .lim H ol- .
ley and David McCl ain. Kawasaki 's
Bill y Lil es, Husky's Micky Dymond
a n d Ward were a ll involved in a
second turn crash th at put Ward in
th e rea r of th e p ack.
U p front , Lechien and Glover were
in a dogfight. Gl over, who was heavil y tapped a ro un d his broken wrist
' a n d injured kn ee, hung in th ere until
the fifth lap when he started to slow.
" I was trying to go to th e left of Ronn il' over th e triple jumps, but I hit the
real steep part, n ose-dived a nd cased it reall y bad," sa id Gl over. " I hit my
face o n th e cros sba r and knocked
mys elf a little dingy . I pulled over
thinking th e ra ce was over, but it
wasn' t even over yet! I hit m y face so
hard, I bent th e handleba rs and didn't
have m y sense s for awh ile."
Whil e Gl over was sti ll in a daze,
Ward , who was passing people left
a nd rig h t, slipped p ast him a n d went '
on to fini sh seco n d . Gl over held on to
th ird.
Semis
Suzuki-mo u nted Brian Myerscough
didn 't even h ave a ny problems handl in g th e first semi mota - h e led
from sta rt to fini sh. A battle over
second p lace between All ey Semar
(Yam) , Storbeck and Keller was in
high gear , but Storbeck cras hed durin g th e third lap. Semar a nd Keller
di ced until Kell er slipped by with
two laps to go. Myerscough won, fol low ed by Semar a n d LaPorte.
Dymond cap tu red the hol esh ot in
th e second sem i a nd th en developed a
sizeable lead over O'Mar a , but O 'M ara
even tua lly cl osed th at gap, a nd four
laps lat er , the lead was his. Lil es took
third .
Last Chance Qualifier
The LCQ race wa s a close dice
between ' Suzuki 's Erik Kehoe a nd
H olley. Keh oe to ok th e ea rly lead but
was pa ssed by H olley a lap la ter.
Then Kehoe's teammate, Ru ss Wageman, sta rte d pressuring in third , but
h e tried a little too hard and crashed
into Keh oe through a tight ri ghthand turn . Wa gem an went down g ivin g thi rd to Carson, wh o was close ly
chased by a nothe r Suzu ki rider, Whiting.
Once H olley took the lead, he a lso
took co ntrol a nd th en won th e race,
on ly a few bikelen gths a head o f Keh oe.
Whiting fina ll y p assed Carson on th e
last lap bu t didn't mak e the ma in.
Mains
Wh en the gat e dropped for th e first
m a in, it wa s Bailey who shot o u t into
th e lead with Ward, j ohnson , Bowen,
' Dym ond and Glover trailing. Left
behind in a first turn pile-up were
O 'Mara, H olley and Semar. By th e
end o f the first lap, Barnett was the
first to make a' move by pass ing
Glover and Dymond.
U p front, Bailey pulled away from
Ward by a few bikelengths, wh ile
both of them were making di stance
on the rest of th e pack . Gl over th en
p assed Dymond and tri ed to keep up
to th e Barnett/johnson duel over
fourth . Wh en Gl over did find a way
a ro u nd Barnett, h e crashed , taking
out Barnett with h im . At th is poi nt,
the top five were Bailey, Ward, Bowen,
j ohnson a nd King.
Bailey was in co m p lete co m ma nd
o f th e race until two laps from th e
fin ish, wh en h e a lmost ca me to a
co m p le te stop a nd fell o ver in th e
sa me turn he overshot in hi s qualifier,
letting Ward a nd Bow en by. " I was
a ll set up a nd wa s do ing everyth ing
right; I clear ed the seco nd double,
went into th e co rn er, and it went in to
neutral•l " I sai d Ba 1 y. I r (., J Icomil J " r .was 1 •
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