Cycle News

VOL. 51 ISSUE 23 JUNE 10, 2014 P137 Jobe was learning to race under DeCoster's guid- ance and had even raced DeCoster's practice bikes in select Belgium and other European events. Even though he was only 19, Jobe was honed to a knife's edge by the time he came to Unadilla, so the clash between him and Howerton would prove to be much more competitive than anyone had dreamed. Even though both were Suzuki riders, Howerton seemed to have a slight edge in equipment at Un- adilla. He was racing a works monoshock RH250- 80 full floater tuned by Greg Arnett. While he had the choice of racing the monoshock, Jobe had won the European rounds of the World Championship on a more conventional twin-shocker and that's what he wanted to stick with in New York. By Sunday, Unadilla's natural grass track, mapped off only by yellow tape, had been churned to a deep brown ribbon of pure motocross, navigating up and down the sloping hills. It dawned hot and muggy and would ultimately reach into the upper 90s with high humidity, conditions most of the European rid- ers rarely faced. Despite the weather, over 20,000 hardcore fans filled the Upstate New York facility. Shultz and Husky's Mike Guerra were fast out of the gate at the start of the first 45-minute moto with Guerra taking control halfway through the first lap. Then Jobe moved up to pass Shultz and began to pressure Guerra. By lap three it was the Belgian taking over. Jobe had a solid lead and at first it ap- peared that he might run away with the moto, but Howerton seemed to finally waken from his slumber and began clicking off fast laps. He got by Shultz and Guerra and then halfway through the moto he was closing on Jobe. A huge cheer rose from the crowd when they saw a battle for the lead was about to happen. "I stuck behind him for a few laps to check out his lines and what he had," Howerton would later say. "The track had gotten really rough and I could see he was making some bad line choices." So after a bit of observation of the rookie GP sensation, Howerton pounced and made the pass stick. He charged through on the edge of a set of whoops and then slammed the door on Jobe in the following corner. From there Howerton cruised home to a 17-second win over Jobe. Jobe had gotten a pit signal late in the first moto that his closet rival in the 250cc World Champion- ship, Dimitar Rangelov dropped out of the race. Rangelov came to Unadilla with his face badly swollen, having just gone through surgery to repair broken facial bones. With Rangelov out, the world title secure, Jobe could go all out for the win in the second moto. Howerton took the early lead in the second moto, but fans got just what they wanted when they saw it was Jobe running a close second to the Rhinestone Cowboy. This time Jobe seemed to soak up what he was learning running just behind Howerton and within three laps he had passed the American. Howerton later claimed he knew Jobe was there. By GP rules, all Howerton had to do was stay within 16 seconds of Jobe to win the overall. He trailed much closer, however, rarely more than a second behind. Howerton later conceded that he was surprised Jobe was maintaining such good speed and look- ing stronger than he thought he would. But then the heat became a factor. Jobe, who'd looked so smooth most of the second moto, started getting sloppy in the final 10 minutes. Finally he overshot a turn and slid out. Howerton sped past and went on to win by 15 seconds to sweep both motos and his second straight U.S. GP. It took Jobe long enough to recover that Shultz moved up to battle him. On the last lap Shultz went for the pass on an uphill jump, but got sideways off the launch and crashed. Jobe was home free for second. Howerton's amazing 1980 run continued and the GP win was icing on the cake. The young Jobe proved he could run with the best America had to offer and he'd just clinched the World Champion- ship, while Shultz was happy to score a podium result at a GP. CN THE COWBOY AND THE BELGIAN Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives

• Cover