Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

(A bove) David Bailey went 2 -1 fo r the 500cc overall. (Below) Geo rge Holland captured a hard-fought win in the 125cc class. 12 T he first 250cc moto looked to be another Jeff Ward runaway, but G lover h ad d ifferent ideas . Ward took the lead a few tu rns into th e race af ter passi ng Holland. Shortly after. Gl over a lso found a lin e by H olland a nd set after Ward . J ohnson was foun d in th e m iddle of th e pack. Once into seco nd, Gl over sta r ted picking away at Ward's lead unti l G lover was inc hes beh ind the Kawasaki rider. During th e fifth lap, Gl over pulled a longs ide of Ward in a stra ight, but Ward sla mmed the door sh u t on him in th e foll owin g turn. After that point, Ward steadily pulled a way from Glover. At th is point. Johnson got in on th e p icture as h e m oved in on Gl over. Three laps from the finish. J ohnson quickl y di sp osed of Gl over , th en set a fter Ward. A few turns into th e fin al go- 'round, Johnson pulled up a longside of Ward in a straigh t, a nd sn uc k in side of Ward in th e next turn . Johnson held on for th e win . Glover took third, a hea d of Holland, Bill y Frank (Ya m), Russ Wageman (Yam) and Fr en ch rider Jacky Vim ond (Yam) . • The second m oto was a ca kewa lk for Johnson. He quickl y blasted into th e lead, while Ward got tangled up in a fir st-turn pile-up. Gl over was fifth. By th e time Gl over worked h is wa y into seco n d. J ohnson was a lrea dy lon g gone. Ward managed to find fou rth pl ace o n th e six th lap before cras hi ng into Frank, wh o had cras hed , and dropping to eight h. With Johnson n in e seco nds a hea d o f G lo ver. a ba tt le raged over third between Yamaha rider Scott Mannin g, Vi mond and H ollan d , which lasted for the rest of the race . At th e finish. it was J ohnso n wa y out in fro nt, whi le Gl over took a safe second. The ba ttl e over th ird was wo n by Vimond: fou rth went to Holland, wh ile Mann in g took fifth . The sta rt of th e first 500cc moto saw Yamaha-mounted Ph il Larson tak e the holeshot, foll o wed by hi s brother Mik e, Eri c Marnoch (H o n) , Holland's Kees van d er Yen an d Alle n Berluti 11\I·S). Both Phil a nd Mik e pulled away from the rest of the pack . wh ile Bai ley developed clutch problem s wh en th e adj us ter ca me loose, renderin g Bailey a lmost c1utchless at m idpack. A ways back in third was van der Ven, wh o was foll ow ed by Berluti. Five laps from th e fini sh , Mik e passed hi s brother Phil, just before Phil's tran smission fell a part. leaving him only one usable gear. Bailey, wh o had worked into th ird, passed th e crippled Yamaha rider for seco nd. At th e finish it was Mike Larson . Bailey, Phil Larson, Jim Ellis (Yam ). van der Ven and Pete Mu rra y (M-S). " Every th ing went wrong a t first, " said Bailey. " Bu t halfway through th e ra ce, I sta rted ge tti ng used 10 riding without th e clutch and began feeling better. but it wa s too late." Un like the first moto, Bailey had a £lawless second moto, despite being pressured by Rick Johnson the wh ol e wa y. " I didn't ride th e first 500cc moto because I wanted to concentrate on th e 2505." said Johnson, who eas ily beat Bailey ea rl ier in th e day in a 500cc qualifier. Honda rider and 500cc series points leader Will y Si mons, wh o ca me fro m nea rl y dead las t to fifth in th e firs t mo ta , fi nis hed th ird in th e seco nd to clai m th ird overa ll. Mike Larson p laced seventh , a nd co mbined wi th h is first-mo te win . h e too k seco n d overall. The sta rt o f the firs t Vet Pro mot a saw Honda CR500-m ounted Kenny Zahrt jam int o th e lead followed by Gary Jones (C R500), Randy Rodrig uez (AT K560) a nd Sta ten. T hese positions stayed th e same for th e first two laps before Stat en crashed a fter tangl in g with Rodriguez's rear tir e. Staten recovered in six th , th en began hi s drive back to th e front. Meanwhile, both J ones an d Rodriguez slip p ed by Zahrt, a nd th e battle for th e lead commen ced . The duel raged o n throughout the mota. At times, the two riders were side -byside . but Jones held back the charge. With four laps to go, Jones opened up a Iour-bikelen gth lead before ta king th e win. Staten worked his wa y in to th ird , ahead of Zah rt and Erick Hilton (Yam). Staten shot out of th e gate and into th e lead at th e sta r t of the second mota, while Rodriguez. Zahrt and J ones tried 10 keep Staten in sight. Staten went on 10 easily lake the win. but the duel over seco nd wa s the o n e to watch. Zahrt snuck up and made a su rp rise pass on Rodriguez on th e third lap. While trying to sla y close 10 th e Honda rider, Rodriguez m iscued a set of high-speed jumps and bailed heavil y. " I think I might 've hit him (Zah rt) th en hit th e side of the track," said Rodriguez. " Las t week I crashed h ard, too, and I had to slay in bed all week. I'm pretty sore." SinceZahrt beat J ones a t the finish, Staten was able to ca p tu re hi s fourth win of th e seri es. Second overall went 10 J ones; third Zahrt. For the fourth straig h t week . hundreds a n d hundreds o f Sportsman mot ocrossers turned o u t for th e arn ateu r p ortion of th e Golde n Stat e Nat ional s on Saturday, a nd in th e 500cc Beginner class , Yamaha rider Christo p her Smith fro m Cas tro Valley, Ca lifo rnia, used a bit o f fast riding a nd so me good lu ck to ca p ture the overa ll. In the first moto, ho wever , it was Do nny Moore from Moj ave, Califo rn ia . wh o dominat ed. Moore crossed the checkered flag in th e lead, while Chris Wilinski (Han ) an d Dane Locke (Ha n ) followed. Sm ith sa lvaged a six th. ' T he start of the seco nd mo w sa w a number o f rid ers ge tti ng hung up in the backwards-falling ga te, in clud in g Moore. Sm ith found himself leading th e pack, whi le Moore had to work hi s wa y up th rough th e co n ges ted field . Smith 's 6-1 score wa s good en o ug h for th e overall, while Ray Ba yly labored hi s wa y u p from a midpack start 10 fifth. wh ich gave him seco nd o vera ll. Third overall went to Locke (3·6), followed by Brad Van Li ew (8-2) a nd Er ik Brown (7-4). Lo cke's third overall p u ts him into . the series points lead with four ro unds remaining. Honda rider But ch Smith from Hespe ria , California, took hi s Honda 10 th e 80cc (12- 16) Intermed iate class win after spe n di ng both rnotos di eing with series p oints leader Chad Pederson (Han) . In the first rnot o , Sm ith an d Peder so n battled for th e lead, wh ich Sm ith eventuall y won. Ped erson fin ished second ahead of Ronnie Densford (Kaw), Robert Shipman (SUl), Robbie Perez (Suz) a nd Jeff Grafton (Yam). Both Smith a nd Pederson took a back seat 10 Densford in the second moto. Densford cam e back for revenge and sm o ked everybody. while Smith edged Ped erson for second. Densford: wh o pl aced sixth in th e first rn oto, captured th ird o vera ll. H owever, th e o vera ll went to Smith. while Peder so n finish ed seco nd . Clive Ch effins (Han ), rid in g h is fir st Golden Sta te race o f th e series , captured the o verall in th e Old T im ers Jun ior class af ter co m bining two seco nd-p lace fin ishes . In the first m oto , Fresn o's Gary T row er gra bbed th e hol eshot, while p u rsued by Cheffins a n d series p oints leader Jerry Young (Han). Young immediat ely passed both riders and pulled awa y. Halfwa y through th e mota, Ch effins stalled his en gine and dropped to fourth . Sh ortly a fter , T rower a lso sta lled it , giving Yamaha-mounted T erry Pratt second. Having quickl y mad e up the lost ground, Cheffins sta rted pre ssuring Pratt near the en d of th e race. Less than 100 feet from the ch eckered flag. Cheffins ca ugh t Pratt napping and snuck into second. Young took the win followed by Cheffins, Pratt, Trower, Tom Bristol (Ya m) and Dave Fleming (Suz). During th e second moto, Trower bu ilt up a large lead right after th e start when Young stalled his mount , and h is attempt 10 bump-start it left him in the brush at th e side of th e tra ck. With Cheffins in second, a battle for third took pl ace between Pratt and Bob Jackson (Suz). Jackson took over third at one point when Pratt came to a stop in a left-hander. Pratt chased Jackson for the next two laps before taking over the number-three spot for good. Trower took the win, but Cheffins' 2-2 score gave him th e overall. Pratt took third. Mike Steinhoff (Ha n) and Brad Townsend (H a n) traded moto wins in the highly-competitive 125cc Beginner division three class. However. it was Steinhoff who nailed the overall by virtue of winning the tiebreaking secon d mota. Third went to Darin Dri scoll (S uz, 3-4), while fourth and fifth went to John Crow (S u z, 5-5) a nd Brian Burns (Ka w , 8-3). • Results MINI EX: 1. Kyle Lew is(Hon ) 1·1; 2. DennisSteph· enson (Kaw ) 2-2; 3. Jimmy Geddis (Suz)3-4; 4. Paul Winn (Vam) 4- 6; 5. Chris Neal (Yam) 15-22; 6. Terry Swan son (YamI 7 -5; 7. Buddy Antunez 15uz) 6-11 ; 8. Shan e Trittl er (Vam) 11-7 : 9. Jeff Emig (Kaw) 10-8: 10. Steven Kotajarv i (Kaw) 12-12 . 125 PRO: George Holland (Suz) I - I: 2. Larry 8rool

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