Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

o .... o Yamaha rider Chris Young (17) led the main event from start-to-finish at the A naheim Stadium Ultracross. z « ~ til til o Cl ~ a:: w > w l%l >l%l o .... o :I: 0.. Rick Ryan finished sixth in the ma in at Anaheim. but racked up 45 pass ing points to take the series points lead . Young tops Anaheim Ultra cross By Mike Larson ANAHEIM, CA, JAN. 23 Chris Young took the lead at the wave of the green flag and never looked back, as he captured the main event win at the first round of the Mickey Thompson Off-Road 28 Ch am p io n sh i p G ra n P r ix Ultracross Series in Anaheim di S ta ium, . . Young cras hed m hIS heat race a nd finished a disappointing llth, but due to the unique Ultracross inverted ~tart format he got a front row start in the mam. That was all that the Yamaha/Answer/Scotti Renthal/ Ra ce Tech/C.O. Thompson Petroleum-backed Young need- - ed as he led the race wir e-to-wire, holding off the challenges of a hardcharging Mike Kiedrowski and Terry Fowler for the victory. The Ultracross is run as a portion of Mickey Thompson's Off-Road Championship Gran Prix events, which also includes off-road cars , tru ck and ATV racing. This year 's Anaheim race played to a sellout crowd of 65,000. In the first heat race Mark Brooks had the early lead, but went down in a rough section of stutter bumps, taking Russ Wageman and a couple of other riders wi th him. After the pi leup Denny Stephenson had his Kawasaki out front, with Rick Ryan and Tommy Watts close behind. On lap two Ryan made his move and jammed by Stephenson to take over the lead , but Stephenson, Watts, Lowell Thomson and Tyson Voh land were all within striking distance of Honda-mounted Ryan. On lap three things remained the same with all five riders in a fairly close freight train. Ryan had put a small cushion on the rest of the pack by lap four and remained in control for the rest of the six-lap race. At the checkers Stephenson maintained second with Vohland third, Thomson fourth and a fast-closing Kiderowski fifth. In the second heat race Yamahamounted Eddie Hicks led the field through tum one with Gordon Ward and Jim Holley right behind him. On lap two Holley increased the pressure and blasted his way past Ward to challenge Hicks. Ward held third wi th Dean Matso n and Willie Surratt rounding out .the top five slots . On lap three Holley found an opening and worked his way by Hicks to claim the lead. H oll ey wasted litttle time taking control of the race and kept Hicks at bay for the remaining three laps. Behind the ,lead duo Matson charged by Ward for third place on lap four then on lap five Surratt bumped Ward back another spot to take fourth. . At the ' star t of th e main event Young used fast reflexes an d a front :I: row start to his advantage as he jetted 0.. ~ into turn one in front of the pack. S::1 H eat race a:: .... started at winners Ryan and H olley the back of the field and <, z o would have their work cut out for til them to get to the front. 0.. At the end of lap one Young held s o the lead followed by Fowler, Kelly :I: .... Andris, Jeff Mabery, Larry Ward and til a: Kiedrowski. Young led the pack :I: through lap two and was starting to u put a little ground on Fowler in >l%l o second and Mabery, who was now .... in third. o :I: Young led th e next two laps, while 0.. 'Kiedrowski was steadily working his way to the front. Kiedrowski zapped Mabery on lap three, then set his sights on Fowler. It took Kiedrowski a lap to get by Fowl er and by lap five he set out in pursuit of Young. On lap six Young was beginning to put some distance on Kiedrowski, while Fow ler maintained third ahead of Larry Ward and Mabery. The next two laps saw the top five sett le into positions, whi le trying to wor k up through slower traffic. On lap nine Kiedrowski ma naged to close the gap on You ng, but his charge came up short as Young breezed across the line for first. Kiedrowski settled for second with Fowler, Larry Ward and Mabery filling out the top five. Ryan had worked his way up to sixth by th e end of the race, while Holley finished close behind in seventh. Ryan finished in sixth, but had a whopping total of 45 passing points he earned during the night, that, combined with his sixth place finish , gave him th e points lead 'in th e series. " I had some trouble earlier in the n ight when I crashed in my heat race and I was pretty sore." said Young, " In the main event I started second > . from the pole and went wir e-to-wire for the win. To win in my hometown , I guess I couldn 't ask for' a better night. My friends and family, everybody was here. " Results 1. Chris Young (Yam); 2. Mike Kiedrowski (Kaw); 3. Terry Fowler IHon); 4. Larry War d (Yam); 5. J eff M abery (Yam); 6. Rick Ryan (Han); 7. Jim Holl ey (Yam); 8. Fran kie 8 r und age (Kaw); 9. Low ell Thom son (Kaw); 10 . Tommy Watt s IKaw). POINT STANDINGS: 1. Rick Ryan 1 ): 2. Mike 77 Kiedrows ki (68): 3. Jim Holley (64 ): 4. Larry Ward 1 41): 5. Dean Malson (40): 6. Low ell Thomson (37): 7. W ill ie Surra tt (29); 8. Tyson Voh land (28); 9. (Tie) Denny Stephenson (26): Chris Young (26). Wincewicz wails in Cow Palace ST By Bill Spencer SAN FRANCISCO, CA, JAN. 22 John Win cewi cz took a hardfought win over Speedy Kell and Kirk Strong in th e Pro/Am main event during th e Amateur/Pro-Am Short Track Championship, hel d tonight a t th e Cow Pal ace. Exactly 189 Sportsmen and P roAm riders gathered in San Francisco to race in th e open ing round of the National Indoo r Series, sponsored by Budw eiser and sanctioned by the AMA. With 54 rid ers signed up for the Pro-Am show, elimination s bega n with eight qualifying heats. With onl y two riders transferring directly from the heats to th e main event, the competition was heavy. Eric Larson won the firs t q ualifying heat , and Paul Iw a n ga returned to the Pro battles by wi nning the fastest q ua lifyi ng heat of the n ight in the second round. Dave Ryan , Wincewicz (now riding a Bill y Bartel 's Har ley-Davidson), Da n Cahoon, Ricky Henson , Don Howard and Ted Boody won the remaining heats. Wincewicz took the lead in the main event on the Bartels H -D/Mike Mockabee/Tony Dodge/Bell H ar-

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