Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

lap main, it was Storbeck a nd his Yamaha stealing th e holeshot over Johnson , Glover, Lech ien, Ward and Bai ley. During th e first lap. Johnson motored by Storbeck . ta king over th e lead . while Ward and Lechien tangled. " I wem to pass Lech ien under th e br idge," sa id Ward, "a nd th ere was cem ent sho win g (on th e trac k ). I clutched-it and the bik e went sideways a nd Lech ien cemerpunched me ; we d idn ' t qu ite go down. " Mea n wh ile, J oh nson was pu lling away, whi le Storbeck was keeping G lo ver , Bow en , Ward , Lech ien , H oI· land , Bail ey, H o lley, R yan and Dym ond at bay . At this poi nt, Bow en was the o ne to wa tch ; he was on th e gas a n d ga ining ground on th e leaders. By the fourth lap, Bo wen had passed Glover and wa s aiming at Storbeck. Three laps later, Bowen zapped Storbeck a nd was pumped. Bowen 's drive didn 't en d th ere, either. He started catching Johnson , but a few laps la ter, Bo wen 's ch anc e a t wi nning came to an end. " I got out of a rut and d id n 't make a double jump, an d 1kind of h igh sided ," sa id Bowe n . . " I th o ugh t 1was going to win it th ere for a few seconds but . . . I was bummed aft er th at for the rest o f th e ra ce and co u ld n ' t get m y con cen tra tion back going." Bowen recovered in sixth. After passing Glover on th e eighth lap, Ward inherited secon d when Bowen went down . Ward quickl y pulled away fro m Glover while steadil y gaini ng on Johnson. Lap after lap, Ward closed in on Johnson , who was noticeably making mi stakes on the track. Pretty soon, \ Var d was rig h t on J ohnson 's rea r fender. Three la p s fro m th e fin is h , War d saw hi s openi ng a nd dove to th e inside of Jo h nson and took over th e lead. J ohnson stayed close for rest of th e race but not close en o u gh to pressure Ward to make a mistak e. Ward took the victory two bikelengths a head o f Johnson. A long wa ys back in third fin -ish ed G lov er (h is best fini sh so far). Lechien followed in fourth, while Bail ey, Bowen, Storbeck a nd Burnworth rounded out the top eigh t. " J o h nson started gelling tired, and that's when I really sta rted p u lling in on hi m ," said Ward lat er. " I go t a good start, riding good , and was p u lli ng away from J eff a nd a ll the other gu ys," said Johnson. " I saw J eff go into second pl ace, a n d I knew h e was a 'stro n g rider since he and I had the fa stest lap times, so 1 had him to worrv about." O ' Ma ra sa t in' th e pits looking a litt le dejected. " I got a seventh- or eighth-place start, and 1was trying to get through traffic too quickly ," said O 'Mara, "Someone missed a double jump, and 1 sh ut it off in the air or else 1 wou ld've run in to him . I wem ove r the ba rs and everyone passed me . I th ough t I had a good ch a nce at winn ing, bu t the re is to morrow." 1 25cc Pro-Am The 125cc Pro- Am main started much like las t wee k's San Diego race - Kaw asak i rider Do n n y Schmit took the ea rly lead , while last week's winner, Willie Surratt, followed. In th ird was Craig Canoy (H o n ), Rober t Naughton (H o n) , Bret Cahors (Ho n) and Tyson Voh land (Ka w). Schmi t he ld on to h is lead for two laps before Surratt decided to make h is move by passing Schmit through a sec tio n o f w hoops . Once into the lead, Surra tt had no pr obl em s pullin g away. Canoy stayed close to Schmit in third but ha d Na ughton ho unding h im. Canoy eventual ly gave in to Naughton 's pressure and dropped to fourth . The positions pretty much stayed the same for the rest o f the ra ce as Surratt dominated. -Surra u wem o n Johnny O'Mara (above) leads Ward (1)and Broe Glover (4 ). Willie Surratt (below) won Saturday's 125ee Pro-Am. to win hi s second win of th e seri es, while Schmit, Naught on, Ca noy, Carroll R ich a rdso n (Ka w), Bader Mann eh (Ya m ), Drey Dircks (Hon ), Dean Matson (Ka w), Bryan Bruner (Ka w ) and Scott Steffy (Ya m ) ro u nded ou t the top 10. Sunday Heats Ryan aced Dymond into th e fir st turn at the start of Sunda y's heat races, but Dym ond double-jumped by R ya n , taking over the lead. However, it was short-lived a s R ya n snu ck back into the top spot a few turns later. From th en on, Ryan slo wlv pulled away from 'Dymon d , while Keh oe. Sernar and Scooter Stafford (Ya m) battled for third. On th e fin al lap, Semar found an opening arou n d Kehoe for third a t th e finish. Keh oe took fourth. Holland captured th e h ol esh ot a t th e sta rt of th e second heat, a h ead of Lechien. Alan King and Holley. By th e end of the first lap, th ough, Holley was lead ing th e way, but Lechien wa s press uring , whi le H olland dro p ped back to third. Lechien eventua lly dove to the inside of Holley in a tu rn a n d took over th e lead for good. At th e same time, H oll and zapped Holley and settled into seco nd. Positio ns staye d th e sam e for th ree laps until Ped erson snuck by Holley for th ird . Lechien won it , foll ow ed by H o ll a n d , P ederso n , H olley a n d Heal ey. The thi rd heat featured a three-way dice between O'Mara , Bowen and G lover, while local favorite Mike La rso n followed a few seconds back in fo urth . H a lfwa y thro ugh the rac e, with O' Mara lead in g , Bo wen a nd G lover slip ped by O 'M a ra in o ne move. T he n Glover started ch asing tea m ma te Bo wen for the next la p umi l G lover double-jumped bv th e leader. Glover went o n to tak e th e win , followed by Bowen, O 'Mara a n d Larson. Storbeck, Burnworth, Bail ey a nd J oh nson were the early leaders in the fo urt h h ea t, bu t the to p position cha n ged h ands wh en Ba iley passed both Burnworth a nd Storb eck. It took Johnson th ree laps to tak e co n tro l o f second, wh ile Ward worked into third after a p oor sta rt . By th e ti me J ohnson found second, Bailey was a lrea dy lo ng gone. J ohnson finish ed second, a few seco n ds a head of Ward and Storbeck. Semis The fi rs t sem i sa w Su zu ki rid ers A.J . Wh itin g a nd J eff Fri sz jam into th e lead , but Fr isz overtoo k th e to p spot aft er th e firs t lap. Fri sz pulled a way from Whiting, while Li les closed in o n second. Liles took ove r Wh it- i n~ o n lap two a nd began ree ling in Fri sz. Three laps lat er, Lil es m ot ored ou tside Fr isz in a turn a nd took o ver the lead. Frisz staye d close to Lil es umil two laps from th e fin ish wh en ~ e cras hed in th e stu tter bumps, gi vmg second and th e fin al tra ns fer Spot to Whit ing. The second sem i was domina ted by King, who grabbed th e hol eshot and went o n to win. Kell er a nd Healey sta rte d th e rnoro in seco n d and th ird a nd stayed there throughou t th e mo to. Burnworth fini sh ed fo urth. Last Chance Qualifier One o f the best races o f th e da y wa s the LCQ. Fri sz jam me d in to th e lead 7

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