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O'Mara leads Johnson in the 250s, but sand jam m ed his chain ending his
hopes for the w in. He did, however, come back and win the 500cc class.
RickJ ohnson won the 2 5 0cc class by defeating Broc Glover and Honda's
Johnny O 'Mara. Unlike Glover and O'Mara, he rodepnly one class.
1 8th A n n ual MalDlDoth Mountain
Motocross
Leehien,
Johnson, O'Hara
shine at
HalDlDoth
By Nate Rauba
MAMMOTH LAKES. CA, J UN E 20-22
The third tim e proved to be the charm for
T ea m Honda 's J o h n n y O ' Ma ra at the 18th
Ann ua l H igh Sierra Sports Mammoth
Mountain Mo tocross. After p lacing second to
teammat e Ron Lech ien in th e
125cc cl ass on the first day and
a sa nd jammed ch ain stopped
hi s charge in th e 250cc class,
6
O 'M a ra wo u nd u p th e even t by win n in g the O p en class on da y three.
Several facto ry stars co mpeted in the
th ree day event, mak in g it li ke a
m in i-Nat io na l.
Lechien do mi na ted th e l25c c class
by leading th e 45-m inu te plus one
lap ma in even t fro m sta rt 10 fini sh.
O 'M ara starte d o ut aro u nd fifth, a nd
by th e time h e wo rked u p 10 seco nd
Lechien was a lready gone with th e
lead,
T he 250cc cla ss turned out to be a
Yamaha show as teammat es Rick
j ohnson a nd Broc G lover stayed close
fo r m uc h o f th e mai n , G lover wen t
down hard j us t over halfwa y into the
moto, a llo win g johnson to cru ise to
th e victory.
G lover ca rne back thenextday and.
a fter battling by O 'Mara in the early
going of th e Open round, loo ked
to be o n hi s way 10 victory . Bu t
a nothe r crash left him frus trated and
in seco n d as O'Mara mo tored to the
Will .
125cc
Kawasaki rider Bader Manneh led
the start o f th e first 125cc qualifi er
with Su zu ki's Bobby Moore o n hi s
tai l. Moo re bail ed a t th e bottom of
th e big downhill , g ivin g second to
H on da ride r Brian Manley. Lechien
was do wn a ro un d fifth a nd crashed
tryi ng to p a ss ea rly o n th e first lap.
Man ley stayed close to Mann eh for a
co u p le of laps. th en began 10 slo wly
fade. j ohn Drury (Ka w ) held th ird
a head of Willie Surra tt . Lechien was
on th e move a nd ca ugh t Surra tt on th e
fourth lap, bu t Surra tt was n' t abou t to
let h im by. On the next lap Lechien
passed o n th e downhill . bu t th en
Surra tt go t him back o n th e follo wing
u ph ill a nd p roceeded to hold Lechien
off for a no the r circui t. Lechien went
by for good o n lap seven , but was 100
far behind Manneh a nd Manley to
mak e a charge for th e lead. " My bars
were bent a nd it wa s kind o f hard
co mi ng down th e hill a n d I didn't
want to go down," he sa id . Manneh
took th e win well ahea d o f Man ley.
Lechi en, a nd Surratt.
After a medi ocre sta rt in th e seco n d
l25cc d ivision . O 'M a ra overtook Kurt
Hendricksen (Ka w) o n th e th ird lap
a nd quickl y moved o u t to a co m fort a ble lead. Suzu ki's A.]. Whiting went
do wn o n th e seco n d lap while in
third a nd th enspen t th e next few laps
working ba ck up '0 that position. At
th e finish it was O'Mara leading .
Hendricksen and Whiting across the
line ,
,
In the Division I conso la tio n ,
Ka wasaki-m ou n ted j . Simons moved
in to the lead on th e seco nd lap and
stayed there unti l the finis h. Doug
Gentry, D. Antil lion, a n d Dave Welty
foll owed Simons home.
Greg Vowell battled hi s wa y to the
front of th e seco nd divi sion consola tion a n d took th e win ahead of R .
Truchinski and Keith O 'Neal.
Lechien gra bbed th e hol eshot in
th e main , with Mann eh , Surratt.
H onda 's Larry Brooks, a nd Drury
(Kaw) in lOW . Manl ey went down in
th e fir st turn taking Whiting with
him. Whiting wa s able to continue,
but Manley pulled o ff with a badl y
tweaked bike. O'Mara passed Drury
on th e first lap, th en spe n t th e next
two go- arounds working hi s wa y 10
third. It wasn 't until lap six that
O 'Mara wa s abl e 10 pass Manneh for
seco n d , and bv this time Lechien wa s
a lready a bo ut '15 seco nds ahead. Back
in fourth Brooks, Surratt, and Doug
Dubach (Kaw) kept close co m pa ny
for severa l laps. Surratt wa s th e fir st
to pass Brook s on th e eigh th lap, then
Dubach went by a few laps la ter.
Whiting had been steadily moving
towards th e front of th e pack, but a
broken shock stop ped him around
mid-mote . Out front Lechien maintained a 15 second lead on O'Mara
who was we ll a h ead o f Manneh.
Duba ch , S urra tt an d Brooks kept
thi ngs interesting as th ey battled for
fourth and slo wly moved in o n Manneh . With three laps to go Dubach
wa s with in striki n g di stance , but
