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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127778
MOTOCROSS AMA W estern N ational Four-Stroke M XSeries Round 1: Canyon Off-Road Park (Left) Lance Smail thundered to vict ory In the opening round of the AMA Western National FourStroke Series at Canyon Off· Road Park In Phoenix, Arizo na. Smail swept both mot os. (Below) Mike Youn g (273) hol eshot t he first Pro moto, whi ch featured a healt hy contingent of four-stroke, National and World Championship MX stars. Fow ler to the cheers of the delighted cro wd. After tw o practice sessions and several Suppo rt motos of local riders and the Arizona Vintage Dir t Racing Associa tion vin tage bikes, a special cere mony w as held on the infield in mem ory of the late Do nny Sch mi t, w ho would h ave been the defending Champion of the series. Donny's widow Kari Schmit and CCM Team Manager Mike Griggs a ttended the eve nt and participated in the ceremony. Mike Young Sr. presented a plaque to Karl, who spoke briefly to the crowd about aplastic anemia, the disease that took Donny's life suddenly only a few weeks before theevent, In honor of their departed comrade, the Pro riders designated one of th e s ta rting gates with a b la ck ribb o n and lef t it un u sed in a motocross version of the military "missin g m an " form a tion . A m omen t of silence w as observed, and th en it was time to go racing. Many of the crowd of spectators had never attended an all-four-stroke motocross, and many were awed by the th under of the big th um pers charging in to the corner at the start of moto one. The Can yon track featured a fairly long start which curved slightly into a tight right-hander th at dropped into a gully. At the end of the starting straight, it was Mike You ng on his Russ Fletche r-built H usab erg 501 ou t in fro nt. But Young d rifted wide at the comer, allow ing the pack to catch u p, an d coming out of the litt le ess- turn after the sta rt it was the KTM of Smail in front. Northern California's Dave Coupe an d former National Champion Mick y Dymond we re in the hu nt as well. Smail, aboard one of the KTM 620 factory machines, led all laps of moto one without too much pressure, although Young closed the gap repeated ly during the 25-m!nute-plus-two-lap We all had a good time here and really appreciate the peopl e of Arizona hosting this event." Th e on ly co n troversy of th e d ay revo lved aro und the AMA 10Sdb sound limit. On ly the Husa bergs passe d the test, and all the other s were warn ed to meet the limit before the second .rou nd next month. CCM started the festive atmosphere off with a bang as they chartered a helicopter to fly in their three team riders just before practice. The big, six-passenger chopper circled the facility once and then eas ed onto the infield to dep osit Billy Liles, Gordon Ward a n d Te r ry race. Lap tw o saw Dym ond move into third, where he would remain to the end even t h ou gh dogged b y CCM ri der War d for the rest of the moto. Dymond rode a Husaberg 501 w hile Awa rd was astri de a larger CCM 600 that had been buil t by Geo rge Earl of Up -Tite Hu sqvarna . Ariz on a ' s Dr e y Dirck s, w h o is em ployed by Honda at its test facility in So u thern Ca lif o rni a, lined up a r ide thro ug h Dave Brosius on a KTM 620 and came from seventh place on the first lap to finish fou rth after disposing of Terry Fowler and Coupe, w ho finally finished seventh behind Liles; Liles ha d a disappointing weekend as he did not run the • By Hal Sang uinett i Photos by Kinney Jones PHOENIX, AZ, MAR, 24 M A P ro fessio na l outdoor mo tocro ss re turned to Arizona for the first time in over 15 years in the form of the opening round of the AM A Western Natio nal Fo u r-Stroke Mo tocross Ser ies at Canyon Off-Road Park. Beautiful 78-d egr ee weather, a well p repped track and a good -sized crowd greeted a str on g field of four-stroke Pros, w h ich in cl u d e d tw o former AMA Na tion al Ch ampion s, Mick y Dymond and Chuck Su n; a former SOOcc World Championshi p ru nner-up, BiIly Liles; two White Br o th er s Wo r ld 4-S troke Cha m pions, M ike Young and Gord on Ward; plus many of the West's top fou rstro ke rider s, eager to p rove their mettle in the newl v crea ted series. The AMA, realizing that no t on ly are fo u r- stroke s an im po r tant pa rt of motocross history, but also the w ave of the future in light of some recent legislation that ma y possibly lim it th e use of tw o-stroke machines on public land, has cre a te d t h e Nati onal Four-Stro ke Mot ocross Series. It will be run in tw o regions, Western an d Eastern, throughou t th e y ear, with a shoo tou t se t for Octo ber 20 at Mu ddy Cree k Raceway in Blountville, Tennessee. Mike You ng Sr., the founder of the "Sound of Thund er" series, has ptlt toget her a n eig h t-race sche d u le th at will incl ude the Wh ite Br o the r s 4-S t roke W orl d C h a m p i, ons h ips late in April; bo th th e H an gtown and Glen Helen, California, AMA Nation als; the M amm o t h Mou n tai n Mo tocross; the Washougal, Washington, AMA a tio nal a nd two in d epe n d ent A 4 races at Boise, Id ah o, and Grand Junction, Colorad o. O ver 1000 en th usias tic spectato rs enjoye d the opening d ay, many of them having raced in the Am ateu r progra m on Saturday, w here w indy con d itions dried the track and mad e for somewhat of a dust problem . But host track p romot er s Whip lash Motorsports worked into the ea rly morning hours to create t he surface for Sunday's N ationa!. "I was pleased with the track," related winner Lance Smail in a post-race interview. "There was traction a n y where, even on the rocks, which weren't the problem I was to ld they might be .