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VOL. 53 ISSUE 26 JULY 6, 2016 P89 would make a major difference in the championship. In spite of the pain Glover finished fifth at Daytona and still had the points lead by 12 points over Ward, but the wrist would bother Glover for the remainder of the series. Round seven was at the Houston Astrodome and it proved pivotal. Ward broke through to score his one and only victory of the season with a 1-2. Keith Bowen and Johnny O'Mara rounded out the podium finishers. Ward's win combined with an ailing Glover's 10th, put Wardy into the series lead for the first time, by just two points over Glover. In Orlando it was Lechien scoring his third victory of the season with a resounding 1-1. That made him the race-wins leader of the '85 series. In fact, only Lechien and O'Mara (a two-race winner) scored more than a single victory in that year's series. Bowen proved his Astrodome result was no fluke and again finished runner up, with O'Mara rounding out the podium. As a result, the series left Orlando with the closest points battle in supercross history. Ward held just a one-point edge over Glover with three rounds remaining. Not only that, but Lechien's victory moved him back into the championship picture. He was only four points back from Glover. At the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Rick Johnson put his name on the list of '85 supercross winners. Johnson finished ahead of Jeff Ward and David Bailey in Dallas. Ward's second gave him 10 points breathing room on Glover, but suddenly Johnson was surging and now third in the standings and confident that the closing two races in California would go his way. The penultimate event of the '85 series was at Los Angeles' Memorial Coliseum and it was David Bailey scoring the victory in front of 46,500 fans, making him the eighth rider to win a supercross that season. Glover surged back to finish second overall in L.A. in spite of his sore wrist with Lechien third. That meant Glover and Ward, who finished a sub-par sixth, were tied in atop the standings going into the final round. Lechien was only four points back and Johnson still had an outside shot at the title, 10 points out of the lead. Another oddity of 1985 was the long three-month wait for the final round of the supercross series, which didn't happen until August 17 at the Rose Bowl in Pasa- dena. The finale, watched by nearly 42,000, was filled with controversy. Glover finished fifth in the first moto ahead of rival Ward. That meant that it was winner-take-all in the second moto. Whoever finished in front of the other would win the title. All eyes were focused on them in the second moto. As the early laps shook out it was O'Mara leading Ward with Glover right there in third. Glover knew he had to get by Ward to win the title. Ward established a gap on his rival, but in the closing laps Glover pulled out all the stops and, on the last lap, only a bikelength separated the two. The crowd was on its feet, realizing they were watching the battle for the title materialize before their eyes. A slight bobble by Glover ended his challenge of Ward and his shot at the title. Ward was thrilled with scoring his first supercross championship. "I knew Broc was gaining on me," Ward said. "I was content where I was. I wasn't going to try to pass O'Mara, I just wanted to keep Broc behind me. I had some bad starts and some crashes earlier in the evening, but I never lost my momentum, which was key." While it appeared Ward had clinched the title, Yamaha thought otherwise. During a heat race, Ward crashed on a jump and then rolled backwards down the jump to bump-start his Kawasaki. Yamaha sought to have Ward disqualified, but the AMA had only issued him a $500 fine. Kawasaki pointed out that Ward was docked a lap for the infraction and was forced to ride a semi to qualify for the event and felt the AMA had done the right thing. A little over a month after Pasadena an appeals board denied the protest filed by Yamaha and Ward was officially named champ. The series ended with controversy and many felt had the AMA stuck with precedent established in earlier events, Ward very likely would have been DQ'd and Glover would grace the record books as the 1985 AMA Supercross Championship. Yet in spite of the contentious way the series was decided, there's no denying the '85 AMA Supercross season will go down in history as one of the all-time best. CN Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives

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