Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

.. <.0 l-4 (l,) ..0 o .-...I ·u o (Clockwise from left) David Bailey floats through fog and mud for the first 250 moto win. A consistent 2-2 finish won Steve Martin the Open overall. Mike Bell rocketed his '83 Open bike to second overall from bad starts. Glover, L.echein, Martin claim first Miller High L.ife Trans-Cal By Jim Bowman Orange, CA, Sept. 26 Yamaha teammates Broc Glover and Ron Lechein joined Honda's Steve Martin in the winner's circle as the 'trio claimed the 250cc, 125cc and Open wins, repectively, at the first round of the Miller H igh Life Trans-Cal Series , he ld at SaddIeback Park today. For many of the factory teams, 8 support riders and privateers in attendance the hardest job of the day was getting in and ou t of the p its. A stead y n igh t-long dr izzle ha d crea ted an extremely slippery welcome ma t and the event was delayed for severa l hours while the park's crews used heavy equipment to try and make th e entr roads pass able. .T4e worst part of the deal was, as Glover pointed out later, that the spectator turnout suffered because of the conditions. Once th e ma jority of the riders were in the park, Continental Motosports Corporation 's Stu Peters, wasted no tim e in getting the program going and keep ing it that way. Pro practice began right awa y and there were surprises aplen ty. Probably themost noted rider in attendance was Danny "Magoo" Chandler who had just come back from Europe ~s th e on ly rider ever to win all four motos in the Trophee and Mo tocross des Nations. Magoo looke d to be the fastes t rider in practice and was the only rider to clear the second jump of the uphill doubles in the back section. Anot he r surprise was " jamm in'" j immy Weinert who was sporting a 1983 production KX500. It 's been a whi le since the jammer 's been out in com petition and the 31-year-old former ch ampion was passing up the over-30 Veterans class for the rigors of professional competition. Joining Weinert in the circle of trick new machinery was Team Yamaha. Glover, Lechein, Mike Bell and T im Locey were all sporting preproduction 1983 YZs and their later performance backed up their claims that these new machines handle better, have more power and are -lighter. Despite the excitement of checking out the new machinery and watching all four members of American Honda's World Championship team in practice, the rain still came down. By race time, the fog rolled in so thick that Martin claimed later. that he couldn't even see the first turn until he was on top of it. When the first race started, visibility in the fog was not far better than the mud under it , and it was next to impossible to see any more than 200 feet of track from any location. It was announced a short while later that the Minis, Old Timers and Vets would not run today, just the Pros. 125cc Pro johnny 0' emerged first through thefogbank in motooneanddisappeared . 100 feet la ter followed by Lechein, Jim Gibson, Troy Blake , Mike Beier and J im Anderson. There was absolutely no way to know what was goi ng on ou t in the land of gray, and wh en Gibson broke the fog on lap two , all anyone kn ew was that he had passed Lechein and O'Mara was m issing. Later reports told that O 'Mara's --- bike had quit and left him stranded in the soup. From the start , G ibson and Lechein were close, and Lechein was keeping h is '83 Production bike close to the Honda rider 's works machine. Back in positions six through eight, and making a strong charge from the midst of the 24-rider pack, was the trio of Chris Heisser, Rodney Smith and Brian Myerscough. Anderson dropped from fourth on lap two to fall behind the charging trio and settled into seventh for the next couple of laps. On the next lap, Lechein was in the lead, and Myerscough had passed both Heisser and Smith between sightings. Meyerscough continued his charge and passed Blake on the next lap to settle into a distant third. Gibson grabbed the lead again on lap five and began to open up a lead. After the race Lechein told us what we couldn't see, " I got by him (Gib. son) and overshot the turn by the ledges...it was hard to make time. Overshoot a berm and you have to catch back up." Meanwhile, Smith, who was still getting used to his new '82 Yamahasupport 125, passed Heisser and Blake. On lap six, the top nine finishing positions were set as Gibson, Lechein and Meyerscough had spred out and nailed down the top three ; Smith, Blake and Heisser were all still fairly close, but they held their positions to the finish . Rick Ryan, Anderson and first year Pro Mike Larson were next in line, with Scott Burnworth passing Beier late in the race to round out the top 10. The !J'Show jumped into the lead

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