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/141005
M o M ." '" e, N .... '" .g u, r 11: Hateley All the Way but Superookie Floors em CXl RESULTS H ouston T T National ~ Jo hn Hateley Eddi e Mulder Ken Roberts M ark Brelsford Gary Sc ott Dave H ansen Dick Man n w Z W ..J o >o JUNIORS Joe Brown Stev e Sn ider Re x Barra tt Ivan Sh igemasa Jim Rawls St eve Fos ter Tr l Trl Y am H -D Kaw Tr i SSA Y am Su' Tr i T ri Sui Sui t ,c ';':: ... >-....: -c:; ~ o 0 _ o ~ K.enny Hooens nas me best start at any rookie in the history of the AMA . By David Swift HOUSTON , TEX., J an. 28, 1972 - It was t he way a race is supposed to be. R ox y anno unces Dick Ma nn is fast quali fier. Cheers: 01 ' Bugs is go n na p ut it to 'em agai n ! But wait. Suddenl y he anno unces th at a new, faster tim e has b een set by a local kid fro m th e North, Mar k Williams. Uh- oh , better wa tc h o ut. Sure eno ugh , Williams b eats the tar o u t of everyone in his h eat. Next h eat , Man n isn't d oing so w ell a nd spends the good deal of th e race t rying to get aro und Dave Han sen. By th en, ro okie Ken Ro berts h as ru n off with th e whole affair. Sho uld be neat to see Roberts and Williams go at it. On it go es. Lots of riders have a shinin g moment stickin g th eir thu mbs in their ears and wagglin g fin gers at the rest of the pack. By the time the Main Event co mes to the lin e and everyon e has chosen a favorite , no one has chosen John Hatdey. Hatdey was the hi ghest-p lacin g rookie last year. Whe n a rid er en ters h is second season the flash has worn off. He has paid his dues. He p robably looks forward to b attling obscurity for the upcoming season. not to mention the likes of Roberts, Gary Scott, and o th er wunderkind. When th at green fla g went, C·N Don Woods loo ked photographer straight at Hateley and Hatdey lo oked straight back. "He knew he was go ing t o win," said Woods. "He had his mind made up ." Joh n migh t have been a little surprised at firs t to find h imsel f in the lead . Yo u co uld feel th at when he h it t he j ump and cam e down a bi t shakey. His team ma te Ed d ie Muld er and the tou gh kid, Ken ny , were making all kinds o f moves th at would put a lesser rider o n his h ead. The second tim e John hit the jump he h ad a sligh tly better lead a nd was ab le to put the Triumph ov er more delicately . The third time he soared up, he st ood o n the pegs, arc h ed his b ack, then set it down like a feather. From th at p oint no on e in the world could have b eaten John Hateley. He rode a sterl ing race with even en ough clas s to p ick th e fro n t wh eel up all the way down th e straigh t as he pi ck ed up th e checkered flag. The cro w d ceased to watch Hat eley 's runaway. however. when Roberts started gett ing used to the id ea he was riding a National. It was Kenny's firs t National as an expert an d he looked stiff un til he stalled the bike comi ng o ut of a sw eeper. H e h ad to bump-st ar t th e thing all b y h imsdfbut o nly lost a m er e fo ur p ositions. Ken finally started runnin g th e way h e did all last year: He p asses Mann an d th e crowd cheers. He ge ts p ast Dave Ha nsen an d Astrodome starts ro ck ing. He reels in Brelsford an d th e ar en a starts swaying with d isbelief. Man, h e's mo ving ! A co up le of m ore laps left a nd Mulder is a lo ng way in front of him. Rob erts starts han gin g it o ut more and more. Mulder 's b ike lo o ks tired a nd so do es h e. Every ti m e Edd ie loo ks over h is sho ulde r wh ile exiting a tu m, Kenny closes ano ther bike length . The w hite flag; Kenny can do it . All it takes is a wheel here and a bit of gas there. They tum left and th ey tum right and Eddie can barely hold off the kid. A ll 27,000 lungs are bellowing; if someone co uld harness th e power, he could light up Houston for a week. The final tum and Roberts pulls up besid e Mulder - o n the outside wh er e th e track has bi g holes. T he d ome turns into a thunderous roar of man and ma chine as Roberts flies past the checkered , but n ot so on enough. It was a brilliant at te m p t b ut Eddie was st ead y. It guaranteed that 2 7,000 people would be back next year. Dick Mann started the Main in fourth but gradually succu mbed to Mark Brelsford . Eventuall y, Gary Scott moved up with th at hot Kawasa ki 35 0 sin gle. With sheer ta lent h e p assed Bugs, who has a way of never seeming to no tice su ch th in gs. Ma nn and Dave Ha nsen ba t tle d h ard in an earlier heat and Bugs beat him decisively and th ey met ag ain in the Main. T his tim e, Hanse n was th e victo r. Crowd enthusiasm is h igh at th e Houston Na tionals and th ere arc alw ay s spectacular eve nts to keep them co m ing back for more. Paul Bostrom b ecame an inst ant hero w h en h e lost a gas line and h is m otor and right leg ca ugh t fire . The fir e was put ou t so fas t th at many p eople d idn't get a c hance to sec it, a nd no dama ge was done. Fra nk Gille sp ie was th e vic ti m of a firs t-lap p ile-up in his he at and had to be taken off th e t rac k in an ambulanc e. It tu rned o u t to b e in his favor as tough Frank m ad e the rest ar t and led un til Dave Aldana crash ed and call ed fo r th e race to be halted. In th e Main, he led Skip Van Leeuwen by a fo otp eg. Coming o u t of a hairpin Skip took the sam e line Frank did, only much faster . Joe Brown couldn't have looke d happier Th ey both sen t h ay in t o t he stands and were o ut of th e race. T h e Junior Main was th e perfect h oT'S d 'oeurve for th e Ex pe rt feature. Alex Armstrong led from th e start and his b ig Tr iumph gave him a com fo rtab le lead. He sm artly started p acing hims el f early in th e race. J oe Brown, rid ing a new Yama ha 360 MX , h ad t o scra tc h h is way through a couple o f o ther con tend ers who eve n t ually cras he d. Gar y Ho rton got h is p icture in th e tw o local daili es, th an ks to his error-in-j udge me nt. Brown bro ke free and decided second wasn 't good enough. He cu t off most of Armstrong's lead in th ree laps and was within st riki ng distan ce as they t o ok the white fla g. Armstr ong saw the n ew threat, gassed it in to th e firs t tum and promptly unload ed into th e h ayb ales. Naturally , th e p lace went nuts. It looked like p o or Alex had fa ile d und er pressure bu t ac t ually h is primary chai n h ad b roken. J oe Bro wn worked hard enough to d eserve a win, though.