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/143888
w 1 e =- :: § § ~ ~ CN 00 0"> .. ~ r~ $..l ~ ..0 e 0 z ~ ~ David Bailey (23) rode hard arid diced with Johnny O'Mara (9) but ended up behind him. (Top left) O'Mara rode to third.with an injured foot. (Above) Jeff Ward leads Mark Barnett and Kenny Kenyon. O'Mara took over second for good two laps from the end. Chandler held on to third, with Reid fourth over Martin and Honda's Chuck Sun. King lost valuable time when he had to stop and adjust his shift lever. In a crowd-pleasing display, the top three riders tried to outdo each other in clickers over the finish line jump while taking the checkered flag. The fourth heat was a wire to wire Jim Gibson show. In his last ride for Honda, Gibson took the lead out of the gate, trailed by Kawasaki's Goat Breker. Other riders ran into trouble, with Kawasaki's Tom Benolkin held up in the gate and Phil Larson and Jimmy Weinert among the victims of a first tum pile-up. Breker stayed with Gibson for three laps, but then Gibson ran uncontested to the flag, as did Breker. Yamaha support rider Scott 'Manning ran third in the first half of the race before losing the position to Texas Honda rider Dan Conway. Conway held his position to the end, but behind him Larson, Jimmy Ellis and Benolkin were all recovering from the first lap headaches and were closing. With four laps remaining, Larson grabbed the last transfer and seemed to have it in the bag. But on the last lap, Ellis made his move and took fourth. Semis Burnworth didn't waste his second chance and led the first semi start to finish, puJ.ling out a big lead over Jim Holley. Holley only.needed to finish second and that's what he did. Third was a battle between Snorteland, Eric McKenna (before he crashed), David Gerig and Clark Jones. Jones finished in the position, but only the first two were given tickets to the final. The second semi was a similar story, with Chuck Sun out front all the way. Alan King was in second all the way, after Steve Martin crashed on the second lap. (Martin appeared shaken, but walked away.) Denny Bentley (Suz) wound up third with Juan Benavidez fourth. Up front, King pressured Sun in the last two laps, but the positions didn't change. Consolation A Mini Expert exhibition race during intermission saw Yamaha-mounted Bobby Moore take the win with a last lap pass over Mike Healey (Hon). The consolation was to have run next, but a malfunctioning gate led to a red flag-and repair work on the gate. To fill the time, a three-lap exhibition race between Brad Lackey, Steve Wise, Doug Domokos, Preston Petty and Goodwin was run. Wise and Lackey were both given a three-quarters lap handicap while the others started. Domokos and Petty gave acknowlegement of who was running the show, taking each other out on the uphill and handing the lead to Goodwin. Wise caught up to Goodwin on the last lap. Instead of sending Goodwin packing the way the promoter arrived (via ambulance), Wise toyed with him and it finished up a virtual dead heat. When the consy restarted, Suzuki support rider Gary Denton repeated his earlier holeshot and led for two laps. A mistake on the third dropped him three positions and handed the lead to Suzuki's Denny Bemley, who then took it on in. Honda's Ron Turner was second with Juan Benavidez (Yam) third. Final Glover's last Supercross win was here a year ago, and he made it clear he enjoys performing for a hometown crowd. Glover took the lead off the gate, with a Honda platoon of Chandler, O'Mara, Keylon and Ellis packed in next. Ricky Johnson got a good start, but, "I was fifth, but then Marty Smith (14) debuted the new Cagiva in his return to racing. a few riders drifted into me on the inside and got ahead," said Johnson. By the end of a lap, Glover had already broken away from the pack consisting of O'Mara, Chandler, Keylon, Jeff Ward, Mark Barnett, David Bailey, Ellis, Johnson and Scott Bumworth. . On the next lap Glover had a foursecond margin over O'Mara. Bailey and Johnson then got busy, with Bailey passing Barnett, Ward and Keylon to occupy fourth and Johnson passing Barnett. At the one-quarter mark Glover had already built his lead up to over 10 seconds. Bailey was third, behind O'Mara and ahead of Chandler, Johnson, Keylon, Ward, Barnett and Burnworth. The next five laps featured an intense duel between O'Mara and Bailey for second, with Johnson advancing to fourth. Bailey knocked on .0'Mara's door several times, but couldn't seem to find the key to getting by. At the halfway point, Johnson moved within striking distance of the two Hondas. Then the "Too Hipp" kid struck on the II th lap, passing Bailey in a sand whoop section and taking O'Mara up in the Wrangler Corral. Fifth was occupied by Ward, with B~ett, Jim Gibson and Chandler trailing. Keylon had dropped back with mechanical ills. At the three-quarters mark, Glover still had his 12-second lead and opted to ride conservatively the final five go- 'rounds. "I rode pretty conservative. I knew I had 10 seconds and it would be awfully difficult to make up two seconds a lap." Johnson did close quite a bit of the gap, but there was no chance of overtaking Glover in the time remaining. O'Mara and Bailey were still behind him, keeping a steady distance. Bar- nett advanced to as high as fifth on lap 15, but then fell and lost four positions. Gibson then took over the number five slot to finish in front of Ward. Warren Reid wor~ed· up to seventh, followed by Chandler, Barnett and Howerton. Burnworth and Breker were next, with Hardick the first non-factory entrant at 13th. While Glover was obviously pleased with the win, Johnson's runner-up placing was his best Supercross finish to date. "I had the toughest qualifier, and when I won that I was really excited. Once I got a rider between me and Barnett, I felt more comfortable, the lines started flowing and I got around Bailey and O'Mara." "It went all right," said O'Mara, resting his foot. "I got a good. start and just stayed there - Johnson was. the only one who passed me. It could have been a different story if my foot didn't hurt so bad." "The start went as bad as it could possibly go," said Bailey. "I knew there was no chance of winning unless I got into the top four in the first few laps, so I went like a bat out of hell and was hanging onto the bike like a flag. I got up behind O'Mara and couldn't seem to get around him even though I tried everything. Once Johnson got by, everything went downhill." • Results FINAl: 1. Broc Glover (Yam); 2. Ricky Johnson (Yam); 3. Johnny O'Mara (Hon); 4. David Bailey (Hon); 5. Jim Gibaon (Hon); 6. Jeff Ward (Kaw); 7. Warren Reid (Suz); B. Danny Chandler (Hon); 9. Mark Barnett (Suzl; 10. Kent Howenon (Kaw); 11. Scott Burnworth (Yam); 12. Goat Breker (Kawl; 13. Clint Hardick (Suz); 14. Chuck Sun (Hon); 15. Jimmy Ellis (Hon); 16. Jim Holley (Yam); 17. Andy Jefferson (Suz); 18. Kenny Keylon (Hon). AMAIWRANGLER SUPERCROSS SERIES; FINAL POINT STANDINGS: 1. Donnie Hansen (257); 2. Mark Barnett (241 I; 3. Johnny O'Mara (21 7); 4. Jim Gibson (1 99); 5. Broc Glover (190); 6. Darrell Shultz (157); 7. Warren Reid (153); 8. Jeff Ward (144); 9. 80b Hannah (137); 10. David Bailey(123); 11. Rick Johnson (120); 12. Goat 8reker (101); 13. Scott Burnwonh (93); 14. Kent Howerton (86); 15. Steve Martin (751; 16. Tom Benolkin (70); 17. Mike Bell (65); 18. Jimmy Ellis (62); 19. Chuck Sun (58); 20. Kenny Keylon (50). 7