Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

things looked somewhat bleak for the U .S. tea m when both Ward and Hannah encountered problems while running up front. After th e fir st moto, the U.S. team was in third place, three points behind both th e Dutch and Belgians, but Johnson sparked the' U.S.A team and th e Am erican crowd to life with th e 'overall moto vic tory in heat two. H annah , meanwhile, became the 'crowd favorite by topping the 125cc class with an incredib le third overall. Going into the fina l rnoto, the U.S. tea m was tied for th e lead with Belgi u m , but Johnson 's class victory was eno ugh 10 capture th e Motocross des Nations Championship. A steady downpour made th e Unadilla course extremely difficult to ride, and with the Europeans known to be such stro ng mud riders , it was felt by many ob servers that this would be the year th e U.S.'s win streak would come 10 an end. "The mud is going to make it a lo t more even," said Ward after p ractice. " If the track was dry, hard and ho t we would be superior. With the mud, it 's an even ball game. Whoever gets the holeshot is going to be right up there." Great Brita in 's Ro b H erring said, "It will give the Europeans a better chance, and i t'll make the racing a lot closer. Yesterda y (Sa turd a y) du ring practice, the tra ck was th e best I've ever ridden on - it was magic. It 's a pity the rain spoiled it a bit. " "T he Europeans have been riding in the mud all year," said Johnson. "That'll make it a little more even, because we haven' t had that much mud. " U.S. A. tea m manager Roger DeCost er said, " All we hav e 10 do is ride the best we can and pretty much ride our own race. The key is not 10 give up; it 's going to be a survival rac e. It's now more' open to more people being able to do good." U n li ke normal FIM-sanctioned race s, th e riders' star ting positions a t U na d illa were det ermined b y a drawing instead o f low est lap times during practice. O ne dr awing was used. _ Ward was lined up on the inside for the first moto wh ile Hannah was a few bikes outside of him. Wh en th e gate dropped for th e start , howev er , it wa s KTM-m ounted Van der Ven stea ling the holeshot ah ead o f Finland's Kurt Ljungqvist and Canada's Doug Hoover. Hannah and hi s l25cc Suzuki was fourth , while Bayle and J obe follow ed . Ward was midpack. " O ne or two guys beat me to th e fir st turn ," said Ward, "and m y go gg les got caked with mud. T hey a lso got knocked down bel ow m y nose and I couldn't get th em up, so I had to tak e them orr right th ere." " I used low gear, jumped ou t, did some good shifts and I cut to the in side while everybody went wide," sa id Hannah. A few turns later , however, Hannah was pas sed by Bayle, and then finished th e first lap nearl y at the back of th e pa ck. " I got barely bumped going up Screw-U (a steep downhill/'uphi ll section) ," said Hannah. "I had to shut off just for a second near the top, and that's all it took. I just stop pe d. I kept it running and tried to jump off th e bike a nd push it over the top, bu t it was lik e stepping in glue. I couldn't even move in the mud. So I just turned around a nd went back down." But H annah 's problem s weren 't through yet. " As I headed ba ck up a t the bottom," said Hannah, " a guy on a 500 kind off sh ot off me in the berm, and I didn 't even get halfway up before I had to turn around and come Jeff Ward rode his 500cc Kawasaki to a second place finish in the 500cc class during the final mota. back up again. It took a full start to get back up that hi ll. It wasn't a lo t of fun ." A lap later, Hannah was running 15th overall. " After that, it was wide open 'ti l the end." A few riders went down in the first tum of th e opening moto, one of which was Swedish rider Leif Persson. He was running at the back of the pack, and riding in a lo t of pai n. In th e first turn crash, a rider had ru n over Persso n 's neck; he fin ished Lhe moto in 30th but was later taken to the hospital for observation. By the end of lap two, nearly six minutes into the 30-minute-plustwo -laps moto , Ljungqvi st had taken over the lead from Van der Ven , Bayle, Jobe, Britain 's Kurt Ni coll and Ward. Velk en eers was ninth. By this point, a ll th e riders a nd number plat es wer e co m p le te l y cove red in mud, with many riders a lrea dy tossing away th eir goggles, incl ud ing Ward. ' A lap later. Van der Veil had ove rta ken Ljungqvist, while Jobe a nd Ward closed th e ga p. Ward was pressuring j obe and passed the World Champion and then Ljunqvist before lo sing the front whee l in th e mud. " I fell over in a berm," said Ward. "T he front wh eel just di sappeared . The su ction in the mud was so bad , I co uld n' t get th e front wh eel o u t o f the mud." Ward pi cked back up in third behind j ob e, Ljungqvist had dr opped back to fourt h. As the rac e progressed, Hannah took over fourth in th e 125cc class behind Bayle, Strijbos and Velkeneers, Up front Van der Ven and Jobe began putting on a sh ow th at kept the crowd, estimated at 22,000, on its feet. The two riders battled back a nd fourth, pa ssing eac h other lap after lap. . " We passed eac h other severa l times, " said Jobe. " It was gr eat , but I was com p letely wet. My pants were very wet and I was slip p ing off the back of m y seat everytime I opened th e throttle, especi all y o n the hills." Jobe managed to hold o n and nip Van der Ven a t th e finish . T hi rd went to Ward followed by Ljungqvist a nd first 125, Bayle. Strijbos was sixth followed b y German y's Di etmar Lacher (5 00cc ), Velk eneers and Hannah. ' Immedi atel y following the mo to , talk circul a ted th rough th e paddock a bo u t ride rs bein g p rotest ed fo r riding o u tside some of th e ba nners. DeC oster sa id, " I kn ow you ca n not respect the banners 100% ill th ese Team Suzuk i's Bob "H urricane" Hannah proved himself worthy of being picked for the U.S. team when he won the 125cc class overall. co nd itio ns, but so me of th e riders were riding besid e th e track where you cou ld be riding inside of ,it. So I brought it up 10 the jury people so they will do so me thing about it in th e seco nd heat . There isn't much we can do as far as th e fir st heat, because just abo ut everybo dy went off th e track some time." There was no officia l protest filed. A li tt le more than an hour later, the 125s were back o u t o n th e tra ck, along with the 250ccriders, who were seeing ba ttle for the first tim e. At the start, it was Van Den Berk . blasting into the lead ahead of Ita ly's Mich el e Rinaldi, Johnson , G ermany's Roland Diepold (50Occ), 1987 250cc World Champion Geboers , Strijbos, H erring and Italy's Corrado Maddii (125cc). . H eading into Screw-U during the seco nd lap, J ohnso n made h is move and darted past Van Den Berk for the lea d. while Geboers snuck into th ird , drop ping Rin aldi to fourth . At this point, H annah had moved into fif th (first l25 cc), while Strijbos , 7

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