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/128081
from the pack on his '8 1 YZ250. Staten ha d Lechien brea th in g d own hi s back th e wh o le w a y, b ut h e m ana g ed to keep the Hond a CR250 ('79) rider a t ba y. Burn worth wo rke d a little harder in the seco nd mot o, having to chase down Lechi en, Sta te n a nd Maico rid er Da n Ber g before slipping into the lead and then slipping away. Bell did his d a mage in the 40- Plus Expert class, where any Vintage or Evolution bike is eligible . Bell was invited to rid e a Vintage Iron-resto red Yamaha 1979 YZ25O, the same mode l he used to win his first supercross race at the Los Angeles Memoria l Coliseum in 1978. (See Briefly...) Bell accepted the invite and, loo king jus t like the Bell of old, the lanky rid er won b o t h m oto s goi ng away. Yama ha-mounted Mor rill Griffith too k ru n ne r-up ho nors, followed by Husqvarna rider Rick Humphreys and Ossa-mounted Randy Lewis . Staten found his success in the aforemention ed MX d es Na tions class. This class was mad e up of three-man teams repr esent ing their rider s' nationality, or th ree riders rep re sen ting thei r ho me state. In all, 10 team s competed . Again , all Vintage and Evolu tion bikes were eli- (Above) Staten pushed his '79 YZ400 to the limit en route to the MX des Nati ons race win. (Right) Event fo under Ric k Doug hty (2) leads the Pre'65 Expert cl ass. (Below) Gary Jones rode the very same Can-A m on which he won th e AMA 250cc Nati onal MX Champions hip in 1974. gib le in the one- mo to format race, bu t th e ca tch was a hand icap syste m th at "penalized" rid er s who we re on newer bikes and benefited riders who we re on older bikes. Rid ers competing on Pre70s bikes wo uld have their scores cut in half, w hile rid er s on post-'75 bi ke s everything else would have thei r sco res d ou b led . The scores of t h e b ikes in between wo uld stav the same. Team USA - m~de up of Staten , Bell and Jones - ended u p scori ng the wi n, but it w as close. Staten won the rnot o, w it h Bell ta ki ng fourth after cras hing w hile p ursuing Staten. Both Bell an d Sta te n w e re o n . " m ode rn " Yam a h a s ('79s), so it was Jones' top finish on his '74 Can-Am 250 (see Briefly...) that really put the Ll.S, team over the top - by only one poin t. Their com bined points (mo to fin ishes plus "penalty" p oi n ts) totaled _14, followed by Team Cali fornia, with 13 poi nts. The California team was mad e up of Rick Dou ghty, Da ve Fisher and C h a rlie Rich ard s on . Tea m A r izo n a (M ike H a lpi n , Lynn Sh o u p a n d Ed Zo rne) fini sh ed th ir d, followed by the tea ms fro m Ita ly , Eng land, Holla nd, Texas and Fra nce. This year marked the second running of t he Vin tage Iron World Champi onships event, and entries nearly doubled ove r last year's championships, ballooning to 424. Glen Helen Raceway, however, was more tha n capable of han dling the la rge turnou t of rid ers on its main track. (Las t yea r, the races were held o n th e s ma lle r REM tra ck.) The main track was signif ican tly modified to bet ter facilita te the older machines (and bodies ), a s man y of the ju mp s w ere ta me d d ow n and the stad ium whoops e li mi nated . O therw ise, it w a s p u r e m otoc ross , jus t w h a t e ve ry o ne h a d - h oped fo r, th ou g h some rid e rs co mp la ined t ha t t h e tra ck b eca m e " to o roug h" for their liking. But anothe r rider resp onded by saying, "I don't think Joel Rob e r t wou ld've th ou ght it was too rou gh . This is mo tocro ss, not a TT." Th e event a lso sa w the d ebut of a n e w cla ss , Ev olut ion 3 . T h e onl y 7