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/141045
~ M ..... THE BEST SHORT TRACK RACING Cl o N . .ci u. ~ w Z w ...J U > u· In the flrst lew laps. Hocking leads Gennai (76), Mike Kidd, and Kenny Roberts (SO). separated the top five. • The evening was shaping up as one helluva battle as the heats started. Hocking powered to a convincing win in heat one over Steve Dalgarno (Bull and Ken Roberts, but in retrospect it would seem that Roberts was just checking to see how fast Hocking really was. One small wrinkle was introduced to insure that the riders who like to jump the start would be adequately punished: the penalty line Was far enough back that very few riders could recover from the disadvantage. It didn't deter many. Most of the crowd favorites breezed through the heats with Gary Nixon, John Gennai, Al Kenyon, Mike Kidd, and Pat McCaul winning theirs. Bart Markel, Tom Rockwood and Terry Dorsch, among many others, called it a night. The money began in the Semis and so did the anticipation: slipping the clutch a little early, trying to read the starter's moves, any trick that would give the rider an edge to be off the line first and into the tum . In the first Semi Keith Mashburn paid for his indiscretion and wound up seventh for his troubles while Team Bultaco rider Mike Kidd led John Gennai and Steve Dalgarno to the flag in a twelve lap romp. Semi two caused problems for everyone. Rick Hocking won after a maze of starts, crashes, fouls, restarts and general confusion. John Genna! picked up second with Pat McCaul taking third after starting from the penalty line.' The scoring difficulties here surfaced later in the Final. Dave · Hansen, Mike O'Brien, Greg Hodges and Steve Hernandez played creep and double-creep after being banished to the penalty line with Hernandez incurring the wra th of Regional Referee Charlie Watson to such a degree that he was almost disqualified. A first lap crash between Ken Roberts and Brian LaPlante created a restart that ended in a close race between Roberts, Bill Schaeffer, and Mike Johnson. Rick Hocking gathered in all the money for the Trophy Dash by leading the first lap ($ I 00) and hanging on to the checkers ahead of Gary Nixon, Mike Johnson, and John Gennai. TH E FIN AL The Final put the entire evening together; the run for the money; the Yamaha Silver Cup; and, for Rick Hocking and John Gennai, a showdown that would decide whether an Indoor Series champ would be crowned here or in the 'Frisco Cow Palace. Here the show got sticky, and, by the time the mess was straightened out there were twelve riders lined up for the Final. The additions were due to "an error in scoring". A logical explanation; however, the two extra riders, Don Castro and Darryl Hurst, were from the second heat which transferred a total of six riders. Meanwhile Gary Nixon , the alternate, was being pushed back and forth trying to get a piece of the action. John Gennai took advantage of his out s ide pole position to pull a tremendous hole shot on the entire field, but it was nullified by a red flag after Don Castro and Pat McCaul went Rick Hocking , National Indoor Champion. Second was enough.