Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126845
(A bove) Motocrossers Jeff Ward (2 ) and Kent Howerton (1 ) lead road racer Eddie L.8wson (4) and crew. (Below) Lawson leads Rainey in their heat. 7th Annual Su~erb;kers Lawson rules Superbikers By Paul Carrut he rs CARLSBAD. CA. ocr 27 Eddie Lawson is slowly but surely becoming the Kin g of Carlsbad. For the first four years of the ABC-TV/ Su p er bikers race, it was the motocrossers wh o dominated. O n the fifth 8 year road racer La wso n broke that tradition with his first win in 1983 and today he became only the third person to win th e race two times . And if he co n ti n ues to a ttack th e tw o-mile. multiterrain co u se in the m anner in wh ich h e is becoming accus to m ed to, it m a y be a long wait before th e throne is a bd ica ted. Lawson, on his Yamaha YZ490. was the fast est in practice, won th e fastest heat of th e day, and ran away and hid in the made-for-TV final. Def ending Superbikers ch a m p io n Kent Howerton (Ka w ) ca m e out of retirement for the race and put in an impressive performance. He started strong, faded back to fourth place, but came back in the closing laps to capture second place ahead of Honda 's Wayne Rainey and his Kawasaki teammate jeff Ward. The dirt trackers couldn 't match the top two road racers a nd rnotocrossers , but i t didn 't stop R icky Graham and Bu b ba Shobert from putting on one of th e best sh o ws of the day in their race for fifth place; "G ra ha m prevailed . So the final 1985 standings read: road racer. motocrosser, roa d racer, motocrosser , dirt tra ck er and d irt tra ck er. T he exac t type o f pa rit y the race wa s d esi gned to produce. Most o f the tea m s showed up for m id-week p ra cti ce.pri or to Saturd a y's sessio n and by Su nda y m o rni n g th e sce ne wa s se t. Lawso n . Wa rd , Ra in ev a nd H o wert o n a p p eared to ha ve lh e upper ha nd o n th e rest of t he fiel d . C hris Carr, how ever. a nd h is Wood Rot a x were the fastest on the drag strip portion of the track. Carr's modified d irt tracker wa s clocked with a radar gun at 10ยท1 mph w hile m ost of the others were clocked in th e 95 m ph ra nge. 'R u le changes for th is year's race incl ude d the rna nda torv u se o f Carl is le di rt track tires a nd " sole the use o f p roduction based en g ines. Motocross heat The m o tocr ossers o pe ned th e prog ra m with th e first heat, bu t missing from th e actio n were tw o o f last yea r's best. Yamah a 's Bro c Glover wa s out with an injured wrist a nd Rick johnson wa s in pre-contract Siberia . Still under co ntract with Yamaha , bu t recentl y signed with H onda , johnso n was set to ride a Pro -Tee fourstroke Yamaha. The bik e, however. didn't show up on Saturday for practice and neither rider nor machine showed up for Sunday's race. When th e flag dropped to sta rt the first heat, it was T eam Green stealing th e limel ight in turn o ne . Ward led Howerton with th e eve nt 's onl y Euro pean, Belgian Eric G eboers, third into the tarmac hairpin at the end of the dragstrip. Ward immediately opened up a lead as the pack went from pavement to dirt and he never looked back. Howerton and Geboers, m eanwhile, also were at ease with their second- and third-place posi tions. Lap three saw n ew Yamaha recruit jim Holley doing battle with Honda's johnny O 'Mara for fifth with th e duo steadil y gaining on fo u rt h -p laced Bria n Manley. O'Mara soon disposed of Holley and went after Man ley on the fifth lap, but Manley h eld on 10 ta ke fourth in the six-lap heat. The three direct tra nsfers went to Ward, H o werton and Geboer s. Dirt track heat Honda teammates Graham and Shobert m et for th e fir st time since th e Sacra m en to Mile in th e dirt tra ck h eat a nd th ey wer e j oin ed in turn o ne by Mi ck ey Fa y a nd C hris Carr. G raham , o n a 660cc four-st roke in a chassi s si m i lar to the o ne o n which he wo n th e Peo ria TT. hel d th e lea d at the end o f th e fir st la p a head o f Wood -Ro la x-m ounted Carr wit h Fa y a nd Shobert close beh ind. Mike Bak er held fifth a head of teve Eklu nd. Carr moved u p to challenge G ra ham to start the th ird lap a nd the two were quickly joined by Shobert. Carr had th e horsepower o n the ta rmac. but th e Rot ax was a ha nd fu l for th e Camel P ro Rookie of the Yea r o n m o st o f the th e dirt sec tions . H e di d . however. m anage to m ake up time o n the big d irt sweeper by goi ng in hig h a n d hard o n the cus h io n. On th e fifth lap , Sho be rt took o ver fro m G raham w h i le Ca rr fo u nd himself o n his back o n th e m otocross sectio n of th e tra ck. Graham wa sn 't g ivin g up as he hounded his teammate to th e flag . Shobert prevailed with Bak er taking th e final tran sfer and Eklund finishin g fourth . Ca rr returned to the pits with scrapes o n hi s right elbow, but ready for th e semi. Speedway star " Sud de n Sa m " Ermolenko was having his prob lems with the Superbikers track and ended up ninth in the heat.