Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

. . Contin ed from page 11 TIME REMEMBERED u In 1984, O'Mara w ould w in the Sadd leback 12Scc National aft er a volatile du el of death with bitter rival Jeff ·Ward. Th e two riders would d oggedly chase each o th er around in both motes, never more than a few feet .apa rt. As the laps w ound d own in th e te lltal e s e co n d rnot o, the tw o w hite-clad 12Scc specialists d isappeared into the back section of th e circu it; only O 'Mara ca me ou t. It see ms the tw o had tan gled in their fight for the lead . O 'M ar a claim ed it was just racing, Ward claimed d irty ridin g. In a ny eve nt, at su m mer's en d, War d would claim th e 1984 12Scc ationa l . Championship. The 2S0cc ati ona l w ould end up being another clu b- w iel di ng affair, as the two m ost fam ou s residents o f EI Cajon, Rick Johnson and Ron Lechien, w er e in th e midst of a feud (both ontrack and off) tha t ha d reached a bo iling point. The two would butt heads on numerous oc casio n s throughou t their careers, but things were reall y seething wh en the circuit hit Saddleback. In an other di spl ay of rac e-track aggression, th e two y ou n g ri ders went a t it with every block pass, brake check and cutoff m ove known under the su n being exch anged . When the ch aos su bsided, Lechi en emerged th e vi ctor. Lech ien wo n th e Saddleback battl e, but Johnson w ould go on to win th e war, claiming the Nati onal Championship over his bitter rival by a scant eigh t po ints. In th e SO class, things were not all Occ w in e a nd ro se s, eith er'. Gl o v er and Da vid Bailey were waging w ar in an effort to win the big-bo re nati onal championship. When all was said and don e at Saddleback, it was the ul tra sm o ot h Da vid Bailey taking home the class win. G lo ver and Bailey w ould be at od ds with each other all Summer before Bailey fina lly claimed the '84 SO Na tionOcc al Ch ampi ons hip . As th e su n se t over Saddleback Park that Ap ril, it w ou ld be th e la s t time th e legen d a ry So u th ern Cal ifornia cir cuit w ould h ost a worldclass motocr oss event. Un beknownst to anyone at the time, 'insurance prob lems a n d th e ex pa n d ing u rb an s praw l of Sou thern California were about to lay claim to the Saddleback lega cy. To make m at ters w orse, 1984 woul d be the last time the AMA National Mot ocross circu it w ould visit the so uthern half of the Gold en State for eight years! In 1991, Roger D eC os ter, with th e help of a n umber of industry su pporter s, brou ght th e FIM SOOcc Grand Prix class to Glen H el en Park in San Bernardino. Glen Helen, loca ted just be low the high-desert area of Southern California and the sit e of many CMC Califo rn ia Winter Series events, would provide a gre at ba ckdrop fo r the travelin g GP caravan. Th e inaugu ra l Gl en Helen U.S. GP was a res ounding su ccess, as o ver 18,000 peo ple showed up that hot August afternoon to watch th e Europeans w age w ar against the Am ericans. It w as claimed that even th e m ost gr izzled an d jaded m otocross enth us iasts walked away from the eve nt with sm iles on th eir faces - comparing it to the go ld en d ays o f 7 0s- er a Ca rls ba d . That sw elteri ng aft ernoon, Eric Geboers of Belgium beat ou t a stubborn Kawasaki-m ounted O'Mara for the GP win. The GP returned aga in in 1991, w ith legendary French m o tocross star JeanMichel Bayle (w ho was then competing full time in Amer ica) taking th e win . Bayle w anted to prove to th e Europeans th at while he left the 'old w orld without ever co m pet ing in a SOOcc' m ot ocross GP, he cou ld take th e measure of them at h is w il l. And he did. Bayle lost th e first m ot o to American Jeff Ward afte r experiencing bra ke problems, then came back to handily win th e' secon d m o to and the overall. In 1992, th e U.S. GP was m oved up on the sch edule to tak e place in th e much coo ler and p leasant month of May (as op posed to th e smolderinghot August date it had previously run on). Bayle ag ain had no problem covering the field, storm ing to three w ire-towire moto w ins (as the format then dictat ed ). Sadly, it would be the last time th e SOOcc Grand Pri x class would run in America as financial and political struggles wi th the FJM killed off the event. In 1993, Roger DeCoster coe rced the AMA into placing a Southern California N ati onal date on the alread y tight sched u le. For the first tim e since 1984, an AMA· Na tional was going to be held in So u thern Cali fornia - al be it with a ca tc h. The AMA w anted to "sha ke down" a new National race format in which only one final moto would be run ~ to d et ermine th e winner (much like a Supercross m ain event). The Glen Helen National was chosen to be the venue for th is e xperim ent. Thin gs did not go well. . First and foremost, the San Bernar din o area o f South ern Ca lifo rn ia wa s smack in th e midd le of a gnarl y hea t w ave that cast a stifling, mind-boggling haze of light-brown h eat over the Glen H elen Park. Temper at ures w ere in th e 11O-degree range all afte rnoon an d the smoggy b row n air, indigenous to th e area at th at time of the yea r, sap ped energy and strength fro m every single competitor present. It was a m ise rab le scene that pu t the entire event in to an a lmost hypno tic state. When a ll was sai d an d d one, Team H ond a' s Doug H enry w ould claim th e '12S cc vi ctory ove r a hard -charg in g Je ff Ern ig, wh o had ex pe rienc ed ca rbu re tio n problems early in th e moto . H enry would ultimat ely go on to cl aim th e National Ch ampionship. Team Kawasaki's Mike La Rocco took th 2S0cc National win, his task m ade m uch easi er after teamm ate and new National Champion Mike Ki edrowski knocked himself balm y after a nasty p ractice cras h, thus having to sit out the Nati onal. Southern California has been the site of many great and m emorable even ts, and wi th a little bit of lu ck and su p po rt, will be in the years to come. H ere's to hoping that the Glen Helen National is a success beyond all mea sure. The Sou thern California m ot ocross industry and community are certainl y de serving of a w orld -clas s eve n t in the ir very o w n backyard... again . l'~ " A S ECTACULAR SPRING YOUR NEW BMW YCLE. SPECIAL FINANCING NOWl It's fresher than springtime. More exhilarafing than a. walk through the meadows. (Or, of course, a ride down a country Ian n a BMW motorcycle.) 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