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/127183
De nnis Hawthorne (1) leads t he start of the 125cc Expert class moto ahead of Brian McGary (461) . Honda-mou nt ed Butch Smith (71 0) won both t he 250cc Intermediate and St oc k Interm edi at e classes. GNC International Motocross Final Hawthorne hauls in two wins at Lake Whitney By Donald Mueller LAKE WHITNEY, T X, MAR. 10-1 2 Dennis Hawthorne's five trips to the GNC International Motocross Final finally paid off as he captured his first, well-deserved wins in the 125 and 250cc Expert classes at the 13th running ofthe event at the Lake Whitney Cycle R h anc . Tommy Clowers also took a 16 pair of Expert class wins as he topped the Mini Expert 12-16 year-o ld and Min i Open classes. J oel ~lbrecht kep t. Clowers from s,:"eeplll~ th e Mill 1 Expert classes with a Will III the Mini Stock Expert (12-16) class as Clowers slip ped to sixth in th e "divisio n. The Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki, Yamaha, Dunlop, Main Jet Trailers, PJI Oil and Scott USA-sponsored event attracted 1025 participants, and aft er th e pr evious week 's belowfreezing conditions at Lak e Wh itney, GNC promoters Jerry and Liz Surber go t a break and were blessed wit h good weather for th e three days of competitio n. Despite the hea t, no one comp lained a bo u t th e clear skies and steady breezes that kept th e track free of du st. Racin g began on Frida y with Beginner class racing, then Saturday' s acti viti es kicked off with 30 divisions of racing. After more than 40 q ua lifying and con solation races, th e final motos were run on Sunday. One of th e weekend's mo st impressive performances was undoubtabl y deliver ed by Lewisvill e , T ex a s' Hawthorne. The Kawasaki T eam Gr een /Kawasaki City / Shoei/ LCS/ An sw er/ Po n co/ R K Chai n / J eff Long Graphics/Scott USA/Oury/ O 'Bri en 's/Silkolene/Gear/Dunlop/ Works Performance-sponsored rider gave his sponsors their money's worth as he swept both the 125 and 250cc Expert classes. "Three out of four hol eshots didn 't hurt," said H awthorne. Unwillingly helping Hawthorne look good in th e 125cc Expert class were Texans T erry Tinney, who took home runner-up overall honor s with a pair of thirds in the motos, and Grayson Goodman after a 2-5 score left him with third overa ll. In th e 250cc Expert class Roy Schellenberger from nearby Grapevine, T exas , rod e his Kawasaki in what announcer Lynn Nickerson described as hi s best race in quite some tim e to second overa ll. Iowa 's Chad Pederson out-performed Californian Phil Lawrence for third o vera ll. " The track was ni ce and rough," said Hawthorne, " and the suspension worked great. LCS did an ou tstandi ng job making my 125 run stronger than everyon e else's." " As always, the Mini Expert class riders provided exc itin g racing. T exas rider J eff Dement dominated the first Mini Expert (12-16) mo to, " losing the lead for only a short time to Californian Joel Albrecht. A fourth-lap disaster left Albrecht in - fifth, where he finished behind Dement, Tommy Clowers, Timmy Ferry and Steve Olson. Dement's lu ck didn 't hold up in the final th ou gh as he never found an o peri door around fellow Kawasaki T eam Green member Clowers. Pro Circui t/Hallman/ Arai /Oakley/ Trick/Maxima /Koll er 's Colorssponsored Clow ers took th e overall win follow ed by Dem en t, while Albrecht finished thi rd in th e moto as well as in th e overa ll standi ngs. DMC/K aw a sak i/ Sm ith /PVK / Answer-backed Albr echt fared much better in th e Mini Stock Expe rt (1216) class, lead ing every lap in both motos. Clo wers led the start of the second rnoto but a first-lap crash handed Albrecht the lead . Albrecht fell lat er in the race but recovered before Dement co u ld take adva n tage of the accident. Dement fini shed seco nd overa ll with a 3-2 record for th e event. Clowers came back to ' edge oUI Albrecht and Dem ent for th e first place trophy in th e Mini Open class. Ol son kept th e throttle open to beat out Ferry for fourth in the seco nd mot a , but Ferry held on to four overall wh en th e scores were tallied. In th e Mini J unior (7-11) classes, Robbie Reynard won both the siock and modified divi sions, and he also fini shed ninth in th e Mini Open class. In the first mot o of the Teeny Mini (50cc) class, Oklahoma's Johnny Marley hol eshot and led the first lap, but he went down on the seco nd lap and ended up third behind J erry Aleman and Tony Catalc e. Aleman led th e ent ire final moto o n Sunday, followed by six-year-o ld Marl ey and Justin Buckelew. Aleman took first o vera ll in the class , Ma rl ey was seco n d ov erall and Ca ta lace took third with a fifth-place finis h in th e fin al moto, In addition 10 being th e runn er-up, Marl ey scored th e bonus of seeing his proud dad sweat as he hauled the huge trophy home. In th e fin al moto of th e I25cc Stock Interm edi ate class, Tim Hodes came ou t in front after a pil eup in the first turn. Ch asin g th e Killeen, Texas rid er were New Mexi co 's Shawn Morga and Oregonian Jeff Daily, bo th on Yamahas. The top three held their positions for th e wh ole race, but back in the pack there was some action as Arizona 's Jimmy Button took fifth from Jody North on the second lap, then fourth from Jason Young on the penu ltimate lap. Although Button had beat Hodes