Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

(A bov e) Johnny O 'Mara lead s Rick Rya n (6), Jim Anderson (43) and Jim Gibson (behind 4 3) out of turn one. Holland is sq uari ng inside (44) as Rod S m it h (4s) goes outside. (right top) Rick Johnson was the fastest rider on the track at times. (right) Ron Lechien showed a lot of promise. Mechanicals ended his chance at an overall. Minis CMC/Miller High Life Trans-Cal Series:' RoundZ Glover, King, Holland haul at Hollister - , By Karel Kramer HOLLISTER, CA, OCT. 3 The Continental Motos p ort's Club's Miller H igh L ife Trans-Cal Series moved to the scenic hills around H ollister for its second round, with Yamaha's Broc Glover taking the sole Pro sweep,with a 1-1 perfinished third overall. Bell was a lso . an f ormance In t h e 250cc P I o nTh '83 sto cker. k d l'k h I ro c ass. ' e O'Sh ow I00 e 1 e t e c ass G lover turned two good starts act in the 125cc class but an off-track into runaway wins, ' topping excursion and a l;pped rider cost .8 th e 3-3 tally of 250cc World MX Champ Danny LaPorte, with the factory Honda , of David Bailey third overall. Suzuki's Alan King rode strongl y all da y to accumulate a 1-2 score for first in th e 500cc class. Mike Bell was runner-up in the first moto and led at times, but he went down in a second moto, third turn pile-up. H e jumped up and hopped about in oncoming traffic for awhile before being steamrolled by Er ic Eaton. Bell took first in th e black eye class, but worked his way to 14th place and an eventual sixth overall. Phil Larson 's factory-framed, production-engined CR480 was nothing more than a distant rear fend er to the other 500cc contenders in the second moto. King was second and took the overall over Larson, and Yamaha support rider Tim Locey on an '83 YZ490 " I: , ... . , . I. e .... .... . ,I . 1 •• Honda 's Johnny O 'Mara the win. Suzuki's George Holland ran a strong 1-3 for the win , under the CMC's new point system , over O 'Mara's 2-2, Honda 's Jim Gibson was third. All three were on works machinery. Brian Myerscough was the top production bike in at fourth overall. . Paul Den is carded a perfect scor e in th e 83cc Expert class wi th h is '83 KX80. R&D 's Larry Brooks suppl ied co m pe tition for most of the da y, bu t su sp ect ed rear brake problems in the second moto gave Willy Surratt all the incentive h e needed, and he grabbed second overall. Brooks wa s third over Mike Healey on a Honda. Crowd control was excell ent for the entire da y and th ere were no serious injuries reported. The Hollis- ter SVRA track became a fast one-liner , that made life very difficult for those in the tiddler classes. 1 ,l • .,J . I . . .... .. 1\, "') .. ·".' 1t. ,,', , Paul Denis was a gr een streak out of th e gate and around the track, turnin g in lap times in the same second as the bigger bikes. Larry Brooks put his R&D Suzuki Floater into second and p ut a wheel beside th e leader whenever he could, but Denis eventually pulled away. Kawasaki's Kyle Lewis started in third, but crashed on the second lap and lost eigh t places. Willie Surratt moved into third from seventh, where he stayed until the checkered flag. Bobby Moore and Tyson Vohland rounded out the top five . Denis menaced th e others' chances wh en he made off with the last available holeshot. Mike Healey's '83 Honda pulled into second for the first four laps before succumbing to the late-charges of Brooks and Surratt. Surratt closed on Brooks and tried to outfly h im on the sky jump in front of the spectator area. He got stuffed for his efforts, but took second for good in the back section. Overall the order was Denis, Surratt and Brooks. 125ccPros The O'Show responded to the curtain call with a strong lead into the first and second corners. In the third turn straight, O 'Mara got sideways and did an "exit stage left" jog off the track. He lost positions and gave right of 'wa y while re-entering so there was no penalty. Holland took the vacant role and ran with it. Holland completed the first lap with Ron Lechien 's '83 Yamaha, and the works Hondas of O'Mara and Jim Gibson in tow . Jim Anderson, Rick Ryan and Rodney Smith filled in the next places as privateers and proved that their opening round finishes were more than mudders' luck. The track was difficult to pass on as th e turns developed one fast rut, making the 125cc class pretty much of a train. Only th ree riders did much mov in g toward th e top of the lap charts. Brian Myerscough and Scott Burnworth started 10th and 12th, but moved up together - hooking Anderson into th e duel for awhile - and took fifth and sixth. Myerscough took sixth and first '82 production bike. O'Mara took half the moto to pass Lechien 's pre-production '83 YZ. By that time Holland was slowing in traffic a nd .O 'Mara closed up. Hol- land rode too hard in the early stages and the deficit proved too much for O 'Mara at the flag. Holland took th e win over O 'Mara , Lechien and Gibson. O 'Mara, Holland and Gibson wer e again the class acts in the second moto. Russ Wageman put his Suzuki in fourth on the start, but a t the , completion of the first lap, the top three had a good lead and a comfortable spread on each other. Myerscough worked into fourth on the third lap, Lechien broke a chain at the halfway point, moving Burnworth to fifth . Gibson charged and reeled in and passed Holland and the top three seemed set. · On the last lap, O 'Mara picked the wrong lappee to follow in the " freeway" section and Gibson scooted underneath. With only a lap remaining, there wasn't enough time to repass. Gibson took the second moto with O'Mara and Holland close. 250cc Pros With a lot of very good riders vying for starting positions, it was not unusual to see a rider number 34 on a Honda in ' the line-up wearing HiPointc1othes. What was unusual was that the rider was Doreen Payne, not Da n n yCha ndler. Payne was a direct transfer without riding a consolation. When the gate dropped, however, it was Broc Glover doi n g th e tricky stuff -'- turning good starts into lead every-lap moto wins. Kenny Keylon's factory Honda was at the first turn a bit ahead of Glover's '83 p roduction bike, but at the end of the lap th e Golden Boy was in command and leading Jim Tarantino, LaPorte, Keylon and Bryan Maloney (H on). Rick Johnson started his race at she .bottom of the top 10. He began moving smoothly through ·th e pack, and after three laps johnson inhabited fifth. The top four were so far gone that it took him five laps to catch and pass Keylon. Once he was into fourth , he just left Keylon. Glover continued to stretch a lead, but the task was harder in lapped traffic. Johnson caught LaPorte in three laps and passed him within a few corners. One lap later Tarantino watched johnson go by on a ·h ill. LaPorte, seeing th at Tarantino was tired or seeing some of j ohnson's lines that fired h im up, got seriously o n the gas, passed Tarantino and

• Cover