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/127552
eMOTOCROSS e White Bios. Four-Stroke World ChamEionship_s Mike Young powered his H usqv arn a to a do uble-moto sweep i n th e Open Pro Motocross clas s on Sunday . Rich T aylor (8) finis hed second in the O pen Pro TT class. Greg Zitterkopf (2) DNF. Young thumps 'em By T o n y Alessi "I' 14 PERRIS, CA, MAY 16-17 was ready th is year ! The bik e was perfect, I've been training, and everything just worked out perfectl y," said Mike Young abo ut hi s double-m oto sweep of th e Open Pro class at th e White Bros, Four-Strok e World Championships, held at Goat Breker's Perri s Raceway. , The two-d ay event dr ew hundreds of riders and spectat or s alike. Satur- day 's race featured IT scrambles on a smooth, flat course that was continually raked and prepped th rou ghout the day. The 'Pro riders were req u ired 10 compete in two hea t.races wh ere th e top four riders went to the mai n event , followed by one semi which also took four riders 10 the fea ture. Sunday's trac k fea tured the tradi tio nal mot ocross form at, co m p lete wi th jumps and ruts, and provided for p lenty of h andl eb a r-to-handlebar rac ing acti on . Rex Staten holeshot the first O pen Pro mo to o n Sunday, but enco unte red mecha nical problem s during the early lap s that event ua ll y for ced him to retir e. Yo ung p icked up the lead and rod e smooth and confi den t, while an all -o ut bau le for second was raging between Greg Ziu erkopf and ATK's T y Davis. Cruising in fourt h was Gordon Ward, who p u lled clear of Rich Taylor afte r Taylor's rear brake mount dislodged and .caused him to DNF th e moto. Young opened a 10-second gap at the ha lfway point, while Ziuerkopf and Davis con tinued their heated battl e for second. On th e fin al lap, Zitterkopf made a cri tica l error wh en he stalled his mach ine before an off-ca m be r u phi ll tu rn, and Davis became ent angled in his machine. Wh ile th e two riders tried in desperation to remo un t and restart, Ward flashed past and sq uirt ed into the runner-up spo t. Davis regrouped to fini sh third, well clear of Pete Murray and ATK 's Willie Mu sgrave. Zitterkopf took too lo ng to restart, and fin ished a heart-breaking sevent h . Davis, Young and .Ward ran in the top-three. spo ts at the onset of the second m ot o . Davis and Young q uickly left Ward behind, and set th e stage for a terr ific battle for the lead tha t would rag e until th e fourth lap , whe n Davis crashed at th e base of the fin ish line turn. " I disloca te d m y shoulder la st month, and it' s fun ctional bu t ha s no strength ," sai d Davi s. " It' s still pretty mu ch in the recovery stage." Young now enjoyed a cons idera ble _=_ lead over Ward and Davis, and styled hi s LaHabra Suzuki/ R ace Tech / Sh oei /FMF/Power Bar / Smith-backed Husqva rn a around th e co urse. Young met the checkered flag with a commanding lead over Ward and Davis. Ziuerkopf rode cau tio usly finishing fourth in front of l\1usgr ave and T on y Am arad io. For hi s p erforman ces, Young pocketed nearl y $2000 in purse and bonus mo ney. ' Pri or to Satur day 's P ro IT main event, J erry and Grace Bur tin, the o rigina l o wners and o perators of the Perris Raceway facil it y during its incep tio n in the early 1950s took one para de lap in thei r go lf cart. Wh en th e flag d ropped , T aylo r thundered in to th e lead followed by Zitt erk opf, Sta ten a nd Kyle Lewis. Davis was running fifth and had his hands full with Ward and Don Gri ewe. Four laps into th e race, Lewi s seized th e cra nk on his machine and began . what would evolve in to a race filled wi th mecha nica l failures. On lap six of the l 5'lap feat ure, Ward also retire d wi th mechanical problems , along wit h Davi s o n lap seven , and Zitterkopf o n eig ht. With most of the competitio n o ut , the battle was between Taylor an d Sta ten . The vetera n of over two deca des of mo tocross com petition , State n turned up th e wick in the lat e stages of the race and took comma nd . Staten went on for a convinci ng win over Taylor and Murray. Mini ace Casey J ohnson smoke d the Mini Modified Pro class in Sat urday's IT event o n a highly-mod ified Ji m Labine/Dave Bush-prepared KXR80. J ohnson rode wi tho u t eq ual durin g both rnotos, building up impressive lead s each tim e. Eri c T orkko and Mike ' Hanley raced clo sely in the first rno to , with Torkko co ming o ut as the runnerup. Bobby Langin dazzled the crowd with his wild , feet- off-the-p eg a ir maneuvers throughou t the seco nd . rno to , and finished in the runner-u p . spo t. Johnson was back for more during Sunday's motocross event, and handily won th e first rn oto , but was later disqualified wh en hi s machine was found 10 be fueled , without hi s knowl edg e, with propylene, a chemical fuel addi tive th at is stric tly prohibited from four-strok e co m p eti tio n . La ngi n in herited the first moto win, but felt his bi ke was much faster th en Joh n son 's and said o penly th at J oh nso n sho uld have been able 10 keep his win . Scott Murphy scored the runner-up spot wh en Eric Torkko pulled off the track a lap early wh en he mistak enly co nfu sed th e whi te a nd chec kered flags. J ohnson poured 89-octane u n leaded gasoline in hi s bike in front of race officials before the start of hi s secon d rnoto, th en promptly went ou t and smoked the competi tion winning with a 12-second lead over Murphy. Tim Olson scored a wire-to-wire win in the first 350cc Novice class mot o, riding wi thout equal during th e length of the race. Donnie L uce prevailed over Tony Parsons after an early-mot e battle, Olson go t the jump in th e secon d rno to bu t did a face p lant in the first turn. Olson was run ove r by the ent ire pa ck, then remounted and mad e an impressive charge from nearly half a lap down to first, in jus t under eigh t laps. Luce was the runner-up .for the day, fo llo wed by Parsons and Brent Itzina. Lex Malan and David Glass had the best ba ttle of the da y during both Open Intermediate class motos. G lass had th e hor sepower advant age , and fought off Malan th roughout the first moto