Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

~ ~ . ~ .' . ~ ...... Broc Glover (4 ) can win his seventh champio nship and first Supercross title, but to get the crown he has to beat both Ward and Ron Lechien (6 ). Jeff Ward w ill be lo oki ng for his first Supercross t itle when the series moves to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California for the final round , Preview: Pasadena SUDercross Title showdown set for Rose Bowl By Tom Ko lnowski There was little drama surrounding th e final round of the 1984 Insport/ Wrang1er Supercross Series held at the Los An geles Memorial Coliseum; Honda's Johnny O 'Mara had led the seri es point standings nearly all the way and had a whopping 43-point lead over Yamaha's Rick Johnson heading into the race. O 'Mara only needed to score five points during the ni ght (the eq uivalent of a second in a heat race) to win the cha m p ionsh ip, a nd he did , with poin ts to spare. The situation in 1985, ho wever, is quite different. H ead in g into the fin al round o f th e 1985 AMA Su percross Series, whic h will take pl ace on th e even ing of Au gust 17 a t Pasad en a , Califo rnia 's Rose Bowl Stadium , no less than five riders have a mathematical chance of going home with the cha mpionship tuc ked in th eir pocket. After 10 races, on ly 10 points separate firs t th rough fourth in the point standi ngs, an d a t the very top of th e hea p is a deadlock at 211 points between a pair of rid ers - Kawasak i' s jeff Ward and Yamah a 's BrocGlover- wi th H onda 's Ron Lechien j us t another two points behind a t 209 for th ird p lace. Another eigh t poi nts back at 20 1 is j ohnson, wh il e O 'M ara holds fifth at 182. One of these five riders will be the next supercross cham p . Real isticall y, the title sho wdown will be cen tered aro u nd just th e to p three rid ers - Ward, Gl over and Lechien - all three seeking th eir first supercross cha m pionsh ip. Wh at it boils down to is that if an y one of th e three wins th e Rose Bowl - regardless of how th e ot he r two finish - he will be the seri es cha m p io n. There are, of course, man yot her com binatio ns wh ich _ will do th e trick for a nyone of th e top three; to beco me th e cha m p, th e rider basically m ust beat th e o the r two. " j ohnson 's chances of winn ing. the titl e ar e more remote; he would have to score 10 points more than Ward, Glover and Lechien on the night. For example, j ohnson would have to win the race and Ward, Glover and Lechien would all have to finish out of the top five overall for the night. For reigning series Champ O'Mara , it 's a long shot; he would basically have to wi n th e race and hope the o the r four riders ah ead of him in th e points ei the r finished o u t of th e top 15 or carded DNFs. Under the current race format , points are no lon ger awarded in hea t and semi races, so there is no possibili ty of a ri der betteri ng hi s points situation before th e two fin a l even t motos. Championship points are only awarded o n the ba sis of overall fini sh es in the fin al rn oto s, so it will be im portant [or a title-seekin g rider to finish consistently hi gh in both rnot os. In th e case of a tie in th e final series point sta ndi ngs, wh ich is likely to occur, the fina l race will serve as th e tieb reaker. Ther e have been 10 races and eig h t diff erent winners in th e series thus far. Lech ien is th e o n ly rider wit h more than o ne win , a nd he has three to hi s credit; th e other wins have falle n to Wa rd , Gl over , j ohnson, O'Mara , Kaw asak i's Mark Barnett, H onda 's David Bailey and H onda's Bob H an nah . Wh en th e seaso n kicked off in j anuary at San Diego. O 'Mara pi cked up where he left off a t th e end of 1984 by winning overall with a 2-2 tally , while Glover, j ohnson , Yamaha' s Keith Bowen and Ward rounded o ut the top five. Gl over topped Ward [or the o vera ll w in at th e next ro und in Ana he im a nd as su med th e series point lead. As th e series .moved .to.Seanle for a .do uble- Yamaha's Broc G lover (left) a nd Kawasaki 's Jeff Ward (right) have equal po ints going int o the final. (Bel ow) Rick Jonson trails by 10 points, header, Lechien, who had finished 12th and II th, respectively, in th e first two rounds, turned in a dominating performance, winning three out of th e four final motos and winning overall on both days . Glover's runner-up placings on both days kep t h im firmly in th e point lead, with Ward carding a fourth and a n eigh th o n th e weekend. Atlanta played host to the next round, and it was the 1981 Supercross Cha mpi on, Barnett , com ing away wi th th e win ahea d of Lechien , Ward , G lover and Bailey. Gl over still had a tig h t gri p on th e point standi ngs lead at 131 points, while Ward and Lech ien had moved into a tie for second a t 113. just before th e Dayto na race, G lover sustai ned a chipped bo ne i n h is left wrist in a practice get -off. The Daytona wi n [ell to H annah over Ward, Lechien and Bailey, wi th Gl over fin ish in g fift h and ad mitted ly ridi ng wit h m uch pain. A H ouston, Ward displaced G lover as the point leader by clicking of f h is o nly overall win o f the series, whi le Lec hien fin ished ninth , just ahea d of Gl over. Lech ien bo unced back a nd won the next race in Orlando , whi le 'Nard and Gl over fin ish ed six th a nd seventh, respe ctivel y - keeping the point race an extremely tight one . j ohns on copped h is on ly o vera ll win of th e series a t Dallas, with Ward comi ng away with second ahea d of Bailey, Lechien and G lo ver. Series leader Ward had a seven-po int cus hio n o ver runner-up Gl over and n ine points o n th ird-pl ace Lechien heading into the Los An geles race in Mav, th e 10th a nd second-to-the -las t ro uild of the series. Bailey won th e race , bu t Gl o ver and L ech ien finish ed 2-3 overall ahea d of j ohnson and Bowen, wi th Ward six th. The bottom line ~a~\hpt .Glo vn made up.seven .points a nd moved into a tie for the point lead with Ward, whi le Lechien moved closer yet to the front pair. T he riders ha ve spent the las t three months focusi ng on the outdoor Na tio na ls, an d the same three names ha ve dominated tha t aspect of the sport. As the Nationals wind down , G lover has al ready clin ched h is third 500cc Natio na l Championship; Ward has a steady hold on the 250cc point standings, with Lech ien doi ng likewise in the 125cc class . At the Rose Bowl, Gl over, 25, will be shooting for hi s seven th titl e (he a lso has three 125cc National Champioships to hi s credit) ; Ward, 25, th e 1984 125cc Nat ional Champion, will be pushing for hi s second titl and Lechi en , the yo ungest of the three co ntende rs a t 19, will be stri ving for hi s first-ever National cro wn . It 's all on the line, and with the lucra tive bonuses offered by the j apanese facto ries for winn ing th e su percross titl e (Bailey has been quoted a t sayin g that the bonus Honda offers is Sl OO,OOO), th e ac tion in the Rose Bowl sho uld be ho t in deed. M ax the best man win_~. r; 22

• Cover