Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Jim Holley (28) dives his Yamaha inside Manley's Suzuki to take the heat race lead. Holley went on to win the moto and take fifth in the main. Suzuki-mounted Brian Manle~ (30) passes Jeff Mabery (54) to win t he main event at the San Diego Ultracross in Jack Murphy Stadium. Manley blasts ·San D-ego Ultracross By Mike Larson Photos by Kinney Jones SAN DIEGO, CA, FEB. 13 Suzu ki p ilot Brian Manley went h om e the big win n er after San Diego's Ultracross rou n d of the Mickey Thompson O ff-Road Championship G ran P rix Series. Manley not only scored the victory in • the main event, but he also I d h . acc:umu a te t e most pas.smg points to be the overa ll v!ctor 28 of the event. • Manley beat out Yamaha rider J eff Mabery in the main event and combined with the 25 points awarded for the main event win and his 22 passing points, Manley took home the win and a $788 pa ycheck. More th an 34,000 fans were in attendance at San Diego's Jack Murphy Stadium and theUltracross events had the fans screaming louder than an y of the other car, truck, buggy or ATV races all night. In the first heat rate Malcolm Smith/Dallas Baker Products/ProTee-backed Manley had the quick reflexes off the start, despite starting a few rows back due to the unique starting arrangement used in Ultracross (faster qualifiers start int the middle of eight rows), he was in first by the end of lap one. Behind Manley Yamaha-mounted Erick Hilton was in second, followed by' Yamaha/ Accurate Racing/ O ' Neal- spo nsored Jim Holley, Tyson Voh land and Eddie Hicks. . On la p two Holley moved into second and both he and Manley hooked up in a duel for first . place. Holley sai led by Manley by flying over two barriers that lined the inside of a tight right - hander. Manley, however, stayed glued to Holley's rear fender, but as the duo hit the big double on the backstraight, Manley pulled off a mid-air pass on Holley, launching himself back'into f~rst place. But Holley was back in first as they completed lap two. . Lap three saw Manley shadowing Holley around the track, then stuffing his way by in the big sweeper. Ai the end or-lap three .Man ley held the lead with Holley second followed by Team Green's Vohland, Yamaha rider Hicks and Tommy Watts. On lap four Manley continued to hold his ground, fightin g off all of Holley's attacks, while Hicks moved up to third and T eam Green /Edelweiss Kawasaki/O 'Nea l/Scott/ Arai/ Krau se /Maxim a / Acerb is-backed Watts was now in fourth. Watts disposed of Hicks on lap five, but Manley and H olley continued to battle up front. H oll ey was turning the pressure up on Manley. On lap six Holley again used his line over the barriers to get th e inside line from Manley and both rid ers went through the long series of stutter bumps side-by-side. This time Holley got the best drive out of the corner and over the double to tak e th e lead from Manley. On the final lap Manley bobbled in the stutter b umps and that was all the advantage Holley needed. Manley tried to close in the fina l moments of the race, but Holley soared over the finish line jump first. Man ley settled for second and Wa tts rounded out the top three. Yamaha/PJ IIO'Neal rider Steve Lamson led the field on lap one of the second heat race, with Shawn Wynne, Kenji Suzuki and Lance Barnett in hot pursuit. By lap two Lamson and built a small cushion on the rest 0 the pack, ur Barnett had moved to second, leadin~ a tight ly bunched six-rider freight train o f Wynne, Mike Young, Frankie Brundage, Mabery and Tallon Vohland. Things remained the same until lap four, when Brundage made -his move and got around Young, then looked for a way around Barnett. Maxima/ AXO /Scott/ PVK/Ceetbacked Brundage pulled alongside Barnett a couple times, but couldn't make a pa ss stick until lap five. By this time Lamson had sett led into a fairl y secure lead , which he held to the finish , Brundage maintained second, followed by Barnett and Mabery. In the main event Cagiva/ Renth a llPirell ilKal·Gardl Arai /Race T ech/GearlTsubaki-backed Young got by early leader Wynne and led the. field through lap one, followed closely by Wynne, Erick Hilton, Mabery, Manley and .Wa tts, who started in the middle of the pack. On lap two Young bobbled in a rough sectio n of stutter bumps, but held on to the lead. Watts put on a rea l charge and had sai led his way up to third, . right behind second place rider Mabery. Manley maintained a close fourth. Mabery moved in to challenge for the lead on lap three and . when Young had problems in the stutter bumps again, Mab ery saw his chance a nd used a smoother line toslide by Young on the outside. Once into the lead Mabery tried to put some distance on Young, but Young and Manley, who had snuck by Watts, were sta ying right behind the Yam aha rider. Manley started to charge on la p five as both he and Watts capitalized on a mistake by Young and moved into the second and third place spots. Manley was on the gas and started to reel in Mabery on lap six and by lap seven he was right on the rear fender of Yamaha-mounted Mabery. Manley pulled alongside Mabery as they came ou t of the hairpin just before the big double on the back stretch. Both riders sailed over the jump side-by-side, but Mabery held his ground and kept Manley behind him. Manley kept the pressure on Yamahaz']'T Raci n g/Ren tha l/Pro Circuit-backed Mabery on la p eight. For the first half of the la p Manley was right on Mabery's rear fender, then in the st utter bumps Ma nley used a better line and wheelied. by Mabery to take the lead. Once he got the lea d Manley started to put a little distance on . Mabery, who had a . a ll cushion on Watts at the end of lap eight. Things remained the same through the final two laps, with Manley taking the victory .. fo llowed by Mabery and Wa tts. Yamaha rider H icks too k fourth an d H olley, who crashed early in the race and came from way back in the pack, finis hed a very close fifth. Results 1. Brian Manley (Suz): 2. Jeff Mabery (Yam); 3. Tommy Watts (Kaw): 4. Eddie Hicks (yam): 5. Ji m Holley (yam); 6. Robert Naughton (Cag): 7. Frankie Br undage (Kaw); 8. Mike Young (Cag): 9 . Er ick Hilton (Yam); 10. Joe Waddington (Yaml. Point S ta ndings 1. Jim Holleyl126t 2. Tommy Watts (79t 3. Rick Ryan (n): 4. 8rian Manley (71): 5. M ike Kiedr owski (68); 6. Jeff Mabery (61): 7. Frankie Br undage (59t 8. Eddie Hicks (551 9. Larry Ward (410: 10. Cean ; Matson (40). McCormick tops Seattle AmateurSX By Clay Light SEATTLE, WA, FEB. 13·14 Well over 300 amateur motocrossers invaded the massive confines of Sea ttle's Kingdome ba ttl ing for top honors in 16 classes, during the a mateur portion of the AMAICoor Supercross Series . Ri ders from a six sta te radius were on hand, incl uding Washi ngton, Oregon, California, Idaho, Montana, Utah and several Canadian providences. Among the winners of what was actually two days of amateur competition were AMA 60cc National Amateur Champion Jason McCormick, of Oregon , and Washington 's Ty Birdwell , winners of 80cc Interm ediate a nd 250cc Junior classes, respectivel y. . Racing kick ed off at 6;30 a.rn., Saturday, a turnaround from years past when th e amateurs' program was run after Sunday's Professional competition. Referee Bill Toepfer and crews plaudits were well deserved as the event went to completion without an injury and was complete by 11:30 a.m., quite a feat for the rider totals. One of the first classes to ride what was, according to track builder John Savitski, basically the same course the professional riders would ri de, was the 80cc Intermediates, which ran combined with the 80cc Juniors, making for one of the day's best races. Kawasaki-mou nted McCorm ic k launched into the lead .with fellow Orego n rider Da n ny U lve n a nd Washington riders Shane West, Joel Howard and Idaho's Marc J oh nson giving chase. The entire field got a bird's-eye view of McCormick, the Northwest's dominant 80cc rider, taking a wire-to-wire win. . Trailing ' McCormick across the finish were West, who nabbed Ulven

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