Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127164
~ ~ >- ;..., ~ ~ c ~ ~ Form er 500cc MX World Champion Brad Lackey. disguised as Santa. sends a line of riders to battle for a portion of $ ~ 2.000 in prizes. Runner-up Tim Daily (215) and winner Lars Larson (behind Daily) battled early in the Sen ior Pro class race. Meyer motors at Carlsbad Christmas GP By Nate Rauba CARLSBAD, CA, DEC. 4 Derek Meyer mastered the 200cc Novice class, leading from .s tar t to finish and, leaving several battles behind, at the Coast, Racing Association 's inaugural Brad Lackey Christmas Gran Prix at Carlsbad Raceway. The event featured a six -mile co urse that . , . in cluded Carlsbad s mfam?us U.S . GP motocross co ur.s~ , portions the o ld made-for-television.Superbikers c.ourse, the dra.gstnp . and several tight woods sections with in th e facili ty's boundaries. Brad Lackey, the 1982 500cc MX World Champion a n d th e only American to have ever won the 500cc titl e, served as both grand marsh al a nd officia l starter of th e race, and he even do n ned a Santa su it to add ' to th e hol iday nature o f th e Iestivities. Christmas trees a t th e fini sh lin e a nd sign up booth a lso added to th e hol iday feeling. Approxima tely $12,000 worth o f prizes were given away a t th e trophy .p resen ta tio n by a number o f different sponsors to top fin ishers in each class, along with attrac tive trophies. Meyer led the 200cc Novice class out o nt o th e six-mile course and qui ckl y p u lled away. Jona thon Kni ght contro lled second for th e first o f five laps, while Mike Metzger, the o n ly 200cc Amateur en tra n t a nd aboard a new Suzuki RM80, battled with Dennis Ledbetter for third. The ' ba ttle ended wh en Ledb etter fell and a llowed Brian Pr idemore to ge t by. o~ 44 Pridemore was on th e gas and soo n took over second, b~t nei~her Knight nor Metzgerwa~ lettmg Im~ get away as they held a tight formation. Ledbetter stayed on th e gas and began to ca tch th e trio in the late stages of th e race. Pridemore ended up pulling away, but Ledbe tter moved in on Metzger and Knight while Marco T abita closed in from behind. . On th e last lap all four riders were battling for th ird. Ledbetter passed Metzger on th e Carlsbad Freewa y) downh ill , then tri ed to get Knight on the drags trip but was unsuc-, cessfu l. I " I wa s working until the last second, " Knight sa id afterw ards. They a ll crossed th e finish line in l tigh t order, o u t o f sight of runnerup Pridemore and winner Meyer. Knight held third a t th e line followed by Ledbett er , Metzger and Tabita. Metzger a lso raced the regular Mini class later in th e day and went away wi th th e overa ll win. The Senior Pro class also featured a good, ra ce-long battle for the lead . Tim Dai ly jumped out front a nd was closel y tail ed by Lars Larson a nd Steve Bussell for th e first lap. On lap two Larson was able to move into first, but Dail y wasn 't abou t to let him get away. They stayed close for