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KARSMAKERS AGAIN!
Over Gary Bailey's Course and John DeSoto's Very Hard Luck
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Helping to make Daytona a happy weekend for Yamaha, Pierre Karsmakers one-two 'ed the moto s for a comfo rt able overall w in.
Lackey won the second rnoto , but a seventh in the first go kept him third overall. He finished the
Win terAMA w ithout an overall win . losing lots of Kawasaki Kon t ingency K ash.
by Jim G ianatsis
Photos by Charles Morey and Giana tsis
DA YTONA BEACH, FLA., Mar . 10 ,
19 73 - What had to be the large st
cro wd in the history of Ameri can
motocross, 4 0 ,000 people, jam-packed
the main grandstand at Daytona
International Speedway and saw Pierre
Karsmakers continue his domination of
the Florida circuit by winning the final
eve nt and th e series.
Mike Runyard (CZ) placed second
overall in the 500 International class
and Brad Lackey (Kaw) was third. This
eve nt was also th e firs t of the Na tio nal
Motocr oss Ch ampionshi p season.
T he 25 0 N a tio nal class win was a t ie
between factory riders Bob Grossi (H us)
and J im Weinert (Kaw), last year's 2 5 0
even t winner. Each rider h ad a first and
second to his cred it for the two rnotos,
but th e overall w in wen t to Bob for hi s
first pl ace in the final m oto. G ary Bailey
(Bul) was third overall.
500.1 NTERNATIONA L
All o f the top American riders, plus
one transplanted Dutchman , were at
)
Rick Jordan ICZ ) led into the first turn in the 250 class but Bob Grossi 16z-Husl was first at the end.
By lap seven, the race was ove r as
J ohn' s brillian t ride w as terminated by a
seize d engi ne . T he remainder o f th e ra ce
was another Karsmakers romp .
Mik e R un y ard p u t o n his best ride
of th e series to mo ve up th rough the
pack passin g Semics. , Hartwi g and Bill
Clements to gra b second at the fini sh .
Barry "Higgi ns h ad go ne out a few lap s
earlier wi th a bum engine.
Fact o ry Husqvama riders Clements
and Mark Blackwell had c ome fro m
California to co ntest Dayton a, but
neither o f th em w ere run ning quickly .
Mark's brak e pedal fell off o n the first
lap, but he w as st ill able to run abo ut
tenth througho ut th e race o nly to run
out o f gas on th e last lap. T hose sma ll
tanks on th e big Hu skies j ust ar en't up
to 4 0-min u te motos.
John DeSoto h ad brought his
Kawasaki back a u t on th e tr ack to run
th e final lap . T he engi ne seizure had
been tr aced to th e little black b o x of
th e CDI ig n it io n , whi ch ' had
malfuncti oned and alt ered th e timing.
T he b o x h ad be en repl aced, but en gines
w ith sco re d cy lin ders and mel t ed
p ist on s run p o orl y . T he Kaw asak i Team Manager refuse d
to pr ovide Joh n with a me ch an ic o r
p ar ts to repair h is engine - so me th ing
abou t J ohn bein g fo urth man on th e
team behind La ckey, Wein ert and
Lamppu ; th at parts and mech an ics were
firs t reserved lor th em . J ohn was
offered a CZ ride fo r the nex t moto, but
th e AMA said n o changing bik es d uri ng
a mo to cross so that was the end of
DeSoto 's day.
It h ad been fai rly su n ny throughou t
th e d ay, b u t by th e second moto th e
sky had d arken ed . It w as decide d to run
th e sec o nd 500 m o t o for o nly 3 0
minutes and ca ncel the thi rd one. It
w ould still be dar k wh en th e final 250
moto w as co mp leted .
Brad Lackey j etted his Kawasaki to
the fron t o f the field a t th e start of the
second and fin al rno t o. Kar smakers had
th e Yam aha close o n hi s heel s, foll owed
by Wyman Priddy , Mik e Runyard, Ron
Stockman, Higgin s and Hartwig.
Brad stre tc h ed o ut hi s lead to 70
yards on Pierre, but th e Dutchamn
wasn 't worried. He knew that La ck ey
had fini shed p o orly in th e first mota , so
Kar srnakers was con ten t t o follow him
t o th e fini sh . lie d id just t ha t, cooling it
and n ot t ak in g any unnecessary ch ances
in finishing sec ond.
In th e very uneven tful m ota , Mike
Runy ard fin ish ed third , fo llowed b y
Priddy , Har twi g, Higgin s, Stockman and
Sem ics,
Day tona. The factories' desire fo r a
presti giou s Dayton a win had m an y team
rid ers in th e 250 class , giving the ,5 00
class a sp ars ely p opula te d look as riders
go t sp read o ut over th e mil e-lon g course
laid out on the grass infield, The track
was design ed b y Gary Baile y and , in
order to get the ne cessa ry len gth, it was
rou ted across the pit road an d through
th e north end of the pi ts t o a grassy
field and back.
Nothing w as more spec tac ular all day
than the motocrossers cross ing up and
sliding their bi ke s on th e p avem ent o f
the pit road.
J ohn DeSoto had been gettin g go o d
start s o n his 4 5 0 Kawasaki throu ghout
the seri es, but his legs wer e weak fro m a
recen t o pera tio n an d he would qu ickly
drop back in the field 3S his k ne es be gan
hur tin g badly.
.
J ohn got a b eautiful start in the first
40-mi nu te mo ta and was lon g gone.
Everyone b egan wai ting for h is legs to
give o ut so he w o uld slow d own, bu t b ig
250 NATIONAL
J ohn never d id . T he Fly ing Hawaiian
It w as n ecessary to q ua lify in order
just kept fly ing and buildin g up a b igger
to ra ce Day to na's 25 0 National class .
an d bi gger lead over Barry Higgins, who
T he top 25 rid ers in the Winter-AMA
was also riding extre me ly well.
series ' 250 class wo uld a uto matically
T hey were followe d by Gary Se rnics,
qualify , w ith th e rem aining 3 0 p osit ions
J erry Hastings, Tim Har t an d t hen ,
to be fil led fro m tw o 10-min ute
Pierr e Karsrnaker s with his usu al slow
qu alifiers.
start. Hart was running very clo se
T he 25 0 class was open to b o th
behind Hastin gs w he n J err y fell in a
Experts and No vices . Any Ex pert had t o
tum . T im w as forced to cut to the
qu alify fo r th e 25 0 cla ss since only
i nsi de. los in g morn en tu m a n d
No vice rid ers we re automa tic ally
d o wnshiftin g. Pierre swung wid e around
qualified from th e series. On e hundred
th e downed Hastings and go t by Hart t o
and nineteen riders entered, amo ng
ta ke fifth .
them Experts Bob Grossi (Hus) , Jim
DeSoto w as st ill way out fro nt and
Weinert (Kaw ), G ary Bailey (Bul) , and.
fly ing by lap five as Karsm akers kept up
th e Jones Boys (Han ).
his ch ar ge to move into second position.
This was Gary Jones' first big one on
By the next lap, Pierre had moved up on
th e new Honda CR2 50M and everyone
John, but they were now lapping slower
was anxious fo r the likeable young
riders and th e big Kahuna was using
Californian to d o well when he lined up
them advantageously in holding the
for the first qualifier. He had to qualify
Dutchman at bay. J ohn was really - to make the feature and everyone in the
co nc en tr ati ng as he dodged left and
stan ds kn ew it .
right of the slower riders, forcing Pierre
As the starter put up the 3 0-seco n d
to follow his line, not bein g ab le to pass.
sign, Gary's Honda leaped over the gate.
Peter Lamppu followed him.
J ones quickly grabbed the brakes,
killed the en gine, and raised his arm . His
me chanics grabbed the bike and pulled
it back over the ga te . Something in side
the en gine h ad snapp ed, ca using the
clutch to engage and hurtle th e machine
over the gate. AMA rules state that any
ride r wh o j u m ps the start is
au to ma tically p en alized o ne lap at th e
fin ish .
.
Most of the spe ctators did n' t kn o w
that, b ut Gary d id and so did everyone
in th e in field including the AMA . In a
1 0 -m inu te qualifyi ng m o t a on a
one- mi le track there was n o wa y J ones
o r Lamppu co uld ma ke up th a t pe nalty
lap an d qualify .
FIRST QUA LIF IER
When
th e gate
finally did drop,
