Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Overall winner Ron Lechien (60) leads Jacky Martens (9 ). Eric Geboers (1) and Jeff Leisk (18) at the start of the second moto. World Cham~ionshi~SOOcc MX Series: Round 7 Lechien dominates Hollister U.S. GP By Ken Faught Photos by Kinney Jones HOLLISTER HILLS, CA , JUNE 18 American Ron Lechien collected his firs tever 500cc World Championship Grand Prix overall win, 'sweep ing both motos at Hollister Hills SVRA Park. The Kaw asaki rider used a pair of sol id starts di 500 to d e f ea t d e f.en In g cc W,?rld Champion ~nd current senes point standings lead er 6 Eric Ge boers o f Belgium. H o wever , th e Bel gi an H onda HRC rider's 2-3 rnoto finish es were good enough to earn him the runneru p spot a head of Au stralia 's J eff Leisk, a lso aboard a H o nda , who rounded o u t th e day's top th ree overa ll fini sh er s with a pa ir o f fourths . . . ~rn Da,,:e T horpe, ",:ho was five pomts behindGeboers I~ th e standmgs . ~ommg .in to .H ollister , J ell to 29 pom ts be~md h IS H RC teammat e af ter dropping o u t o f th e seco nd mot o, Thorpe ':Vas sevc;r~1 p!aces shy of a points-pa ymg positron 10 round two wh en he elected to pull off t~e co urse to save h im self from pote.nu al danger th at co u ld be ca,used If h e were lO cra sh. !horpe s ~bsen ce a ll?w~d com p a.tn ot Ku~t Nicoli to ga m in . th e pom t sta nd ings , where he now lies 14 poi nts .bc;hind in th ird. Kawasaki 's NIcoll fin ished th e da y o u t in sixth overall. The firs t rnoto saw Geboers holeshot Lechien , H o nda's J eff Stanton a nd th e rest of th e 40-rider pack. Lechien q ui ckl y sn u ck around G eboers for th e lead in th e first 40mrnute p lus two -lap m oto a n d fellow Ame rican Stanton , th e newly crowned Supercross champ , did th e sa me a short tim e la ter. A few la ps a fter taking over th e ru n ner- u p p?sIUon ?tanto n cras hed back to ~Ilnth. Leisk reeled 10 Geboers la te 10 the ~ce, but It was too late as th e three-li me .World Champ IOn. co lleered th e checkers seco nd behind a long-gone Lechien . . MOlO ~wo s~w Am enca n G P cc ;>ntender BIlly LIl es shoot p as t Lechien an d Leisk early in th e race which set up th e best battle o f th e GP as Lechien sta lked his fellow America n Kawasaki rider for nearly half th e rnoto. Lech ien eventua lly fou nd hi s way into th e number one posit ion and managed to open up a co mfortable lead with Kawasaki -m ounted Liles ta ki ng second, a nd h is best GP fini sh th is year, a hea d o f G eboers, Leisk a nd N icoll. In the 125cc Support class, Su zuki's J im my Gaddis wrapped up th e overall win with a 1-2 score. H e beat Ka wa sak i 's Jeff Matia sevi ch a n d Honda tea mster Mike Kied rowski in the fir st m o to , then Kiedrowski cha rged from third to wi n the seco n d moto an d lock up second overa ll. Matiasevich scored third overall with his 2-3 score. Du rin g th e sche d u led pra ctice session th e da y before th e event, th e p ro mot er, AMA a nd FIM o fficia ls were presented with a maj o r p rob lem. Many o f th e riders an d team managers co m p la ined tha t the trac k was unsafe due to dust and a da n gerous new sectio n. The FIM jury m et a nd eli mi na ted th e new sectio n, but nothing co u ld be done abo u t th e dust. The four hours of sched u led practice was chopped to o ne hour, a nd qual ifyin g practi ce was co m. p letelyeli mi nated. "T h e riders were upset wit h th e amou nt of dust o n th e track ," said AMA Pro fessional Mo tocross Manager Roy J anson. "There hasn ' t been a dece n t rain here in th ree years, a nd this area is dry . Our p ri mary so u rce of wa ter is a 100,000 ga llon wat er tan k that sits upon a hill , th at is fed bya well. Las t year the we ll p ro d uced eno ug h for th e ta n k to be fill ed in a matter of hours. T h is year it o n ly p u mps six ga llons a m inu te a nd that's n owh ere near enough. We've bee n wate r in g th e course s i nce Monday (five days before th e p ra ct ice sessio ns), a n d the grou nd j us t won't hol d it; th e weather 's aga ins t us. We a lso brought in severa l wat er trucks a nd plan to water throughout the n ight. " Bu t, unfortunately, th e prob lem wa s on ly partially cured. T he ex tra water cleared th e dust, b u t left the tra ck sa tu ra ted a nd created another prob lem - mud. Nearl y all of th e rid ers agreed tha t mud was better th an dust , but th ere were still scheduling p robl ems that had to be dealt with . Th e ori gin a l format was cha n ged twice due to Saturday's problem s in an effort to try a n d p lease everyone, and some riders threa tened to pu ll th eir entries if th e problem s were n't fixed in a hurry. " I was em ba rrassed ," sai d Stanton. "The Europeans co me h ere. to ride, no t wait around, an d trac k con dition s go fr o m one e x treme to ano th er . It was dusty yesterday, and today it's a mudbath. I ho pe next year they can p ick a better track. T hey shou ld have kn own if th ere hadn't been wat er here in three years, it wou ld be lik e this. But th e o fficia ls did mak e a n im provement a nd a t least it's better tha n it was yesterday." On ce S u n day's pro g ram g ot underway, q ua lify ing began to determ in e th e riders who wo uld ride th e p a ir o f 40- mi n ute plus two-la p mo tos, The rid er s rode a ti me d p ra ctice, and th e q uickest rider got fir st choice of start ing p ositi ons, all th e way down to 40th place. Riders who quali fy ou t of the top 40 ar e put o ut of th e progra m a nd .become specta tors, H onda 's Stanton p roduced the fastest single lap tim e a nd sto p ped th e clocks a t 2:02.40 to beat Lech ien 's 2:04.88. G erma n Dietrna r La ch er , who broke h is arm a t last year's Hollister event was third, less th an a seco n d o ff o f Lechien 's p ace. G eorges J obe was fourth with a 2:06.59 lap ahead of J a cky Virnon d's, ab oard th e mega -bu ck Innovation Sports/C'Fi H onda , 2:06.85 time. 500cc GP W h en th e first rn o t o ro lled Gebo er s ga te d p erfect ly to lead Lechien , Stanton, Leis k, Mervyn An st ie, Kees Van der Yen, Jared Smith and Jobe aro u n d th e first turn. Vim ond went down in th e first turn, a lo n g with severa l o the r rid ers. " When I went into th e first turn,"

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