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CNIIARCHIVES P148 including Broc Glover and War- ren Reid, two SoCal riders who had been battling each other for years, first in local events and then on the AMA circuit. A couple of career mishaps had probably kept Reid from having the success he deserved. After three seasons with Team Honda, he was wooed to Kawa - saki, where he found that even though the bikes were greener, the grass wasn't. Good but not great bikes on a squad led by an inexperienced race manager meant the team struggled, and Reid was released after two seasons. "I had a team manager who thought there was a changing of the guard in the sport," Reid says today. "He thought I wasn't 'it' anymore." He then adds, with a Detective "Dirty" Harry Callahan sneer, "I didn't agree with his as - sessment." He found a new home with Team Suzuki, a company that had also developed a somewhat nasty reputation in the indus- try. Suzuki riders were winning championships in both FIM and AMA competition on some of the best motocross bikes ever built. But being a member of Suzuki's motocross team in the 1970s meant riding with the Sword of Damocles dangling over your Bell-helmeted head. Yesterday's championship was last week's fish, and even though they were still competitive rac- ers, great riders like DiStefano, Steve Stackable and even Roger DeCoster were shown the door once the factory decided their best days were behind them. However, unlike the pairing of Warren Reid and Team Suzuki, it was a combo that nearly made some magic on that muddy day at Sacramento. Between motos, Reid instructed his mechanic to change the tire on his works Su - zuki, insisting on a tire for hard- pack conditions. On a muddy, slick track? Say what? "I decided that even though most of the track width was muddy," Reid recalls, "the very narrow main race line was hard pack. I had my mechanic, Jon Slezak, switch to the Bridgestone M22 and M23 hard-pack tires for moto two." "I holeshot the moto by flat- tracking around the outside of the four or five leading riders through the first right-hand turn. You can see everyone else was taking a braking posture, and I'm still accelerating." Reid led the moto from green to checkers, holding off Yama - ha's Ricky Johnson for the vic- tory. Unfortunately, a first-moto crash while in third place would thwart his shot at an overall win. Still, his 5-1 day gave him a second overall finish, well ahead of any of the new team riders at Kawasaki. Hangtown 1982 turned out to be a story of old names at new places and new bikes with old faces, with a little bit of vengeance from a moto - cross prospector named Warren Reid. CN Subscribe to more than 60 years of Cycle News Archives issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives Reid's factory Suzuki and his tuner Jon Slezak at Hangtown in 1982.