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/127946
(Above) Brian Melsheimer turned in a 2-1 to win the 125cc
Beginner class during GFl's Super saturday Motocross, held at
Perris Raceway in California.
(Left) Kenny Coolbeth (31) won both the 600 and 750cc Pro
classes on his Rotax 600 at the 12th annual Molson Export
Super Dirt Track, held In Trois Rlvleres, Quebec, Canada.
(Below) Jimmy Gaddis rode to wins in the 125cc, 250cc and
Open Pro classes at a Sports Riders Association of Colorado's
Supercross held In Greeley, Colorado.
Coolbeth conquers
Canadian Super Dirt Track
Gaddis grabs three
at SRAC Supercross
By Buddy Ford
Photo by Alain Assad
By Stacy Jensen
TROIS RlVlERES, QUEBEC, CANADA, MAY 9
The 12th annual Molson Export Super Dirt
Track took place at the Hippodrome Trois Rivieres and more than 3000 fans filled the grandstands to see which one of the 117 riders on
hand would be named Canada's fastest dirt
track racer and take home the lion's share of the
$10,000 Pro purse.
The battle for the lead positions in the 600cc
class was very tight on the opening laps, with
riders coming out of tum four on the first lap
five abreast. it was an incredible show. it aU
boiled down to a race between defending champ
Kenny Coolbeth and Canadian champ Steve
Beattie. Coolbeth led the first half of the race,
only to be reeled in by Beattie at the halfway
mark, and the two riders swapped positions four
more times as they rubbed tires and elbows.
Coolbeth settled into second with three laps to
go but, on the last lap, the Connecticut rider
lined up Beattie coming out of tum two and
pulled away for the win for the second year in a
row in the 600cc class. Beattie settled for second,
and defending 600cc National Champion Ronald
Beauvais took third on his Arai-sponsored Rotax.
In Canada, you can ride a 600 in the 750cc
class, and Coolbeth is very good at showing the
750s how fast the 6005 are. Last year, Coolbeth
smoked the field on the grooved track. This
year, Ceorge Roeder took the lead and held it
for a few laps, but the Ohioan was struggling to
keep the motorcycle on the narrow groove tb.,t
h.,d developed. Coolbeth finally got by Roeder
on lap four and started pulling away from the
rest of the field. It took Beattie and his Stylemaster l1arley-Davidson nine laps to get by Roeder,
and once by him he set sail toward Coolbeth
with 10 laps to go in the 2(}.lap main event. Beattie worked hard, driving deep into the groove,
gaining a couple of bike lengths on Coolbeth
with every lap. With three laps to go, Coolbeth
seemed to have saved some for the end and
pulled out an additional couple of bike lengths
on Beattie by the checkers. jason Fletcher took
the final podium spot away from the struggling
Roc'