Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

~ .' B a ~ Keith O'Neal (23) and Jeff Matiasevich (32) battled in t he ma in event; Matiasevich took second place, but O 'Neal faded to seventh . Mickey Thompson Off-Road Gran Prix: Rose Bowl Watts electrlfles first Ultracross By Joe Colombero PASADENA, CA, MAY 2 Tommy Watts go t the h olesh ot on his Kawasaki KX250 and went u nch allenged for a wire-to-wire vic tory in the m ain event at the Mickey T hompson Off-Road G ran P rix Ultracross, held at the Rose Bowl. Jeff Matiasevich also . ' aboard a Kawasaki, came from th e sixth row to finish second wi th Yam aha-mounted Brian Man ley ta king th ird, Lowell Thomson (Ka w) a nd G ary Se m ics (Ho n ) ro unded ou t th e top five. W h a t is it? . This was th e first Ultracross even t in th e high ly successful a nd growi ng Mick ey T hompson Off-Road Gran Prix Series. Creat ed by former o ffroad driving great and crea tor of the SCO RE O ff-Road Seri es, th e Mickey T hom pson O ff- Road Gran Prix (MT G P) Series is a grou p of ra ces that tak e pl ace in side major stadiums around th e U nited States. Like Su percross, soi l is tru cked into th e stadium and th e ' co urse pl anners use tractors a nd bulldozers to build a n off-roa d co urse comp lete with jumps, wh oops, corners a nd stutters. Unlike Supercros s, MTGP courses are built for truck, car , ATV and od yssey racing. Seve ra l years ago, Thompson decid ed to try and bring th e excitment of off-road races su ch as th e Baja 1000 inside stadiums where fans could watch th e racing in the com fort of a ni ce chair with a hot dog in o ne hand a nd a cold brew in th e other. Thompson ' s exper ien ce with SCORE had taught him that the best show would involve a lot of variety and non-stop action. Through severa l yea rs of trial and error, Thornp- ~on came. up with a format that inv o lves hi gh-dol lar, off-road tru cks for th e truck fans, off-road cars for ca r fans buggies for buggi e fan s and four-wheel~d ATVs and odysseys for th at grou p of cheering lunati cs. T he races are run in qu ick suecession, one class after th e o ther with almos t no break s duri ng th e ent ire p rogr am. The average lap time is usu all y no more than 40 seconds for any class of vehicle a nd th e heat ra ces and main even ts average o nly five to seven lap s. The to tal show is q uick, hard-hitting, no n-sto p racing actio n that leaves the involved specta tor ex ha us ted. It 's like wa tc h ing a Rambo movi e set o n fast forward. There have been five MTGPs thi s year. Ultracross? Thompson decided to add anot her elem ent to h is off-road show at th e Rose Bowl event . Dubbed Ultracross, Thompson added hi s own form of s ta d iu m motocross to th e total form at. Because the bikes would look somewha t stupid on hi s tru ck/ car l ATV/odyssey tra ck, Thompson had his tra ck planners in corpo ra te a stadium motocross course into a nd around his standard off-road cour se. The major differen ce between MTGP Ultracross and Supercro ss is th e starting system a nd rider payba ck. ' U lt racro ss employs a tw oabreast, IO-rows-deep, rubberband start. Starting positions are determined by a timed, two-lap qualifying session whereby riders earn a spot in one of the two heat races. The fastest qualifiers are th en inverted a nd put in th e back ro ws and must race through th e field to earn a transfer to th e main. Then, in the main event , th e heat race fini shing posi tio ns are inve rted so th at th e heat race win ners are placed in th e last ro w a nd vica versa. The 10th pl ace fini sh ers en d up in the front row . The ince nt ive th at is intended to keep riders from sand- bagging th eir wa y to a 10th p lace finis h , a nd therefore a fro nt ro w starting spo t in th e main, is a system where riders are awarded passing po in ts a nd cash for eac h ri de r they pass wh o is in verted in front of them . T he passi ng po in ts go toward th e MTGP Ultracross Championship which will be awarded a t the en d of th e seaso n. T he cash goes di rectl y into the rider's pocket. H eat race passin g po int s at the Rose Bowl were worth $37.50 w hi le m a in eve n t passing points were worth $46.88. Passing point cash wi ll vary at eac h event . Some riders, suc h as Matiasevich earned II pa ssing points in th e Rose Bowl main even t a nd II passin g poin ts in hi s heat race. T ha t's $928.18 in passing cash alone for Matiasevich . Not a bad pa y bonus for a privateer. Q ualifyi ng Avtwo-lap qualifyin g session was held early in th e da y to determ in e hea t race sta rti ng pos itio ns. A little mo re th an two seconds sepa ra ted th e top 10 qualifiers as Brian Manl ey led th e wa y wi th a 39.300 clock ing followed by Keith O 'N eal a t 39.4 19 a nd Matiasevich a t 39.602. The 10th fastest qual ifier was j on Nels on a t 41.319 seconds, two seco nds slower than Manley. He a t s T he fastest ri ders from the qualifying sessio n were given ribbons for their helmets so th at th e specata tors co u ld mo re easi ly id entify th em mo vin g through th e pack from their inv erted sta rt ing positi ons. Wh en th e rubberb and snapped back for th e first heat , Pete Murray gra bbed th e hol seshot followed by Loren Poch irow ski, Gar y Sailors, Chris Heinrich a nd Ru ss Wageman. Wageman used th e next lap to pass Sai lors, Pochi row ski a nd H einrich to tak e over second pl ace. Then , Pochiro wski tangl ed with so me of th e co urse banners and went down, allow ing Sailors to tak e over third. Mea nwh i le , C h r is ' Youn g, wi th h elm et strea mers flyin g, moved from th e back ro ws up to th e fifth pl ace slo t. On the third lap, Wageman moved into th e lead by passin g Murra y . through a sectio n of stutter bumps. Mu rra y held o n to seco nd wh ile You ng, rid ing flawl essly, £lew pas t Sai lors and H einrich into 'thi rd. With Young pressuring him for seco nd p lace, Mu rra y went do wn a t the half-way point allowing Sailors into th ird. It was a t th is po int th at ninth fastest qual ifier, Doug O 'Donnell moved into th e fifth place slo t behind H einrich. On th e wh ite flag lap, Wag em an still held the lead ahead of Young while O 'Donnell put on charge that saw him pas s both Hi enrich and Sailors to ta ke over the third place slo t. At the checkered flag, th ey came across th e line with Wageman firs t, Young second, O'Donnell third a nd Heinrich fourth. Matiasevich, th e th ird fastest qualifier, came through the field a t the last minute to take the fifth pl ace slo t. For his their heat race efforts, Wagemen earned 10 passing points, Young 12 passing points, O 'Donnell 10 passing points, Heinrich three passing po ints and Matiasevich 11 passing points. Heat race number two saw jeff Stanford get th e holeshot followed by j on Ortner, T y Davis, Paul Villa a nd Wom en 's' National Motocross Ch ampion Mercedes Gonzalez. The order remained th e sam e for se ve ra l lap s until To ny Spear ju mped past Gonzal ez to tak e over fi fth . T wo turn s later, . Gonzal ez clip ped a pylo n on th e inside of a tigh t rig ht -ha nd er a nd went down, relega ting her to 15th. In the closing laps, Stanford still held th e lead with Ort ner second , Davis third; Kiedrowsk i fourth and jon Nelso n dep osin g Spear for fifth . On th e la st lap , Kied ro wski charged by Davis a nd Ortner to ta ke over second whi le Nelson also for ced h is wa y pas t Da vis a nd in to fourth. They finished wit h Sta nfor d first wi th one pas sing po int, Kiedro wski seco nd wi th 10 passi ng poin ts, Ortner third, Nelson fourth with nine passing points a nd Davis fifth . Main event The cro wd of mor e th an 67,000 ch eered during th e ent ire Ultracross main event. Compared to the bumping and grinding of th e tru cks, cars, a nd odysseys, the high-flying motorcycles looked smooth and graceful. Watts gra bbed the hol esh ot followed by Gar y Sem ics, Gonzalez, Murray and O 'Neal. O'N e al i m me d i a te ly m ov ed th rough Murray and Gonzalez to take over th ird by the fourth la p. Meanwhil e, Mari asev ich , coming from 13th o n th e sta rt ing grid, had moved into fourth a head of Gonzalez, wh o had dropped to th e fifth spot. As Wa tts ex tended his lead, Manley moved th rough th e pack and into th e Semics/O'NeallMatiasevich battle over second pl ace. First O'Neal , the n Matiasevich got by Semics, a nd o n la p seven , Manley al so passed him. The war over second pl ace grew even more heat ed in th e closing laps as Thomson passed Semics a nd joined th e battle with O'Neal , Matiasevich and Manley. Watts took the win by a large margin netting two passing poin ts in th e process. As th e tight group of rid ers came aro und for th e checkered flag, Matiasevich grabbed second pl ace and II passin g points. Manley took third with eig h t pa ssing points, Thomson fourth with six passin g poin ts and Sem ics ro unded ou t the top five. Rumor s th at certain rid ers sandbagg ed th eir wa y to front row main eve nt start i ng slo ts despite th e passin g cash , ca used Thompson to re-think the inverted sta rt ing system. " A t th e next U lt ra cross we ' ll prob abl y o nly invert 60-70% of the field ," said Thompson after the race. " We' ll draw a number to see j us t how far we'll invert th e finish ers after the heat races. That wa y, the riders wo n 't know which pl ace to sandbag back to and their safest bet will be to race to win th e heat. And, anybody who's obviously sandbagging will au tomaticall y ~et sent to the back of the starting grid." O ver 30 japanese execu tives from the big four motorcycle manufacturers were up in the Rose Bowl VIP press box to witness the premiere of Ultracross. They were most interested to see the reaction of a nonmotorcycle crowd to th e spectacl e of stadium motocros s. They weren't disap pointed , the crowd lo ved it. • Results 250 PRO: 1. Tommy Watts (Kaw); 2. J eff Mat iasavich (Kaw ); 3. Br ian Man ley (Yam); 4. Lowell Tho mson (Kaw); 5. Gary Semics (Hon); 6. M ike Pascarell a (Yam); 7. Keit h O'Neal (Hon); B. Jon Nelson(Hon); 9. Ty Davis (Hon); 10 . Russ Wageman (Yam).

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