Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

z ~ ~ <:( ~ 0 !:!:! a: u.. l.r:l 00 O'l ....... O'l c-r ~ C\l ~ • Ron Lechien sailed to victory in the 125cc class. winning both motos ·u nc hall eng ed . Erik Kehoe took second. while Mark Barnett dropped out. Rick Johnson leads Bob Hannah lat e in the fi rst 250cc moto. Johnson went on to win both motos and gain six points on series lead er. Jeff Ward , AMA National Championship Motocross Series: Round 3 Lechien, Johnson, Bailey cash ,in at Las Vegas By Kit Pa lmer LAS VEGAS , NV, MAY 19 Team Honda 's Ron Lechien and Da vid Bailey didn 't h a ve any problems wi nnin g the 125 a n d 500cc Natio n a l classes today, bu t reig ning 250cc Na ti o nal MX Champion R ick Joh nson clinched the ~50cc overall after a first-rnoto win a nd a second-mota dogfig ht with Kawasa ki's J eff Ward 6 at the third round of the AMA National Championship Motocross Series at the new Las Vegas MX Park. The track was located about 30 miles south of downtown Las Vegas in th e desert wh ere temperatures reached over 100 degrees, but amazingly, dust never became a real problem ; however, many riders did comp lain the course was a little too narrow and hard to pass on. Generally, most of them liked the supercross-type la yo u t, especially Lechien and Bailey who completely dorn i- na ted the 125 and 500cc classes, win·n in g each time out. Lechien said his win came "easy" after beating Suzuki 's Erik Kehoe , who was seco nd in each both motos. Bai ley's two-rnoto victory came a bit harder thanks to Yamaha's Broc Glover and a bad second-moto start. " I just had to work a bit harder out there today," said Bailey. " I went into today's race 21 points behind Glover in the standings, so I have a lot of points to catch up. I'm just going to have to win every time out and slowly pick at his lead." A little bit of good luck and some real determination was the key to Johnson's overall . In the first moto, Ward loo ked to have the win sewn up , but a thrown chain put an end to that. Moto two featured a great dice between Johnson and Ward for the lead throughout most of the moto Johnson pulled it off during the last lap of the race. " H e (Ward) started getting a little sloppy," said Johnson , "and I got him." 250cc Suzuki's Scott Burnworth motored into th e lead at the.start of the first 250cc moto , but everyone was called back for a restart. This didn't seem to bother Burnworth, who got the holeshot again on the restart , followed by Honda's Johnny O'Mara, Ward and Kawasaki's Goat Breker. After the pack completed one lap, it was Burnworth still out front with O 'Mara, Ward, Breker, privateers J eff Hicks (Hon) and Bria n Myerscough (Suz) and Team Honda's Bob Hannah. Ward made his move and passed O'Mara then closed the gap on Burnworth. Heading Into the thin] la p with Ward pressuring. Burnworth endoed over a high-speed jump and dropped to the rear of the pack giving Ward a decent lead over O'Mara. Behind O'Mara there was a fierce battle between Breker, Hicks, Myerscough, Hannah and Johnson. Johnso n got o n the gas and started passing th e group of riders one by one u nt il he had control of third by the end of the sixth lap. Hannah moved into fourth while Breker dropped to fifth and Myerscough passed Hicks. Hannah slipped into fourth when he passed Breker in a long, fast straight. For the next five laps, things settled down until Myerscough slid by a fading Breker and Ward came to a sudden halt. "A rock got wedged between the chain and the countershaft sprocket," said Ward, "and it partly derailed the chain." Ward quckily got go ing again, but in third place. Moments before Ward's misfortune, O 'Mara dropped back after Johnson and Hannah slipped by. With three laps left in the race, Hannah kept applying the pressure on Johnson, but the Yamaha pilot didn 't falter. Johnson took th e win followed by Hannah, Ward, O ' Mara , Myerscough and Hicks. Round two saw Burnworth grab his third holeshot in a row ahead of Hicks, Yamaha riders Gordon Ward and Jim Ho lley , J o h nson and Jeff Ward. At the end of the first lap, Gordon Ward slid out, dropping back to 12th. while Burnworth enjoyed a 2.60 second lead over Hicks. At the back of the pack were O'Mara and Hannah. Three laps later, Johnson and Ward moved into second and third while gaining on Burnworth. Soon after, Johnson jammed by the Suzuki rider, and Ward did the same a lap la ter, making it Johnson , Ward, Burn-, worth, Hicks, Yamaha rider Danny Storbeck, Ho lley . Scooter Stafford (Yam) and Myerscough. Early in the race. Ward was the only rider triple-jumping a series of jumps, but as he started gaining on the lead, Johnson began tripling also. For the next fou r laps, about five seconds separated the top two riders. Meanwhile, Hannah was riding like his old self again - on the gas and on the move. Starting from nearly dead last, Hannah was about th e fastest rider on the track, passing people in every turn, much to the deligh t of the sparse crowd. Han nah had fifth half-

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