125cc World Cup
125cc World Cup
Consistency pays off for Tim Hart at the Springville, N.Y. Dustbowl
Fernando Belair
AS NICE AS THE Mid-Ohio track was, Zoar Moto Park in Springville, N.Y. was touted to be an even finer one. Most of the 125 riders had heard—from the 250 riders who had competed at Zoar before—that the track was fantastic. They’d heard stories about the great width, loamy soil, endless traction and the stimulating variety of the track layout. The little guys were hyped. They’d ridden on a near perfect course in Kansas during the National series, but the Kansas track was flat.
Zoar had hills, lots of hills.
I won’t bellyache at this point about what the riders did find when they got to the track, because I’m going to let all of the steam off at the end of this story. Suffice it to say that, apart from the grassy areas that the spectators occupied, the only moisture to be found at Zoar Moto Park that day was that being sold at the refreshment stands.
The local fire department sent out its solitary unit to water the track before practice, but by the time the first moto got underway, it was like motocrossing in a talcum plant.
Both Roger DeCoster and Jaroslav Falta had gone home to the G.P. wars, so the lone European entrant in the 250 class was CZ’s Zdenek Velky. He nevertheless upheld the European dominance of motocross by effortlessly taking the ■ overall win.
As in Ohio, Rex Staten shot his Honda into the lead, this time followed by Kenny Zahrt (Bul) and Mike Hartwig on his Yamaha. The riders were really churning up the deep silt in the back sections of the course as they jockeyed fiercely for position in the initial laps. Soon, though, all of the dust and fine powder began taking its toll. First to go was leader Staten. His Honda sucked enough dirt to cause his engine to seize. Hartwig took over the lead and with it the same fate that struck Staten. The bike seized because of the dirt it sucked through an already clogged air filter.
Both of these riders were out for the rest of the day.
Jim Weinert inherited the lead and held it to the halfway point when the dirt got to his Kawasaki. Fortunately it caused the plug to whisker before it could do the motor any real harm, so Jim would at least be back for the second moto. All the while, Velky had been waiting contentedly in 4th place almost as though he knew what was going to happen. When his turn came, he took it in stride and began to open up a lead that would eventually stretch out over 45 seconds. Zahrt began to tire and slipped back into the field. Gary Semics took over 2nd, but was soon passed by Husqvarna teammate Kent Howerton.
Marty Tripes had been battling through the pack after nearly getting himself involved in a first-turn pileup that took Jim Pomeroy out. “Porky” had no trouble catching and passing Semics. As Marty was pursuing a tired Howerton, he ran out of gas on the last lap as Semics repassed Kent. Honorable mention in this moto goes to Mike Runyard, who lost the seat on his Suzuki about 20 minutes into the race, yet still managed to take 6th place.
Moto two again saw Velky come out of the first turn in 4th, since he saw no reason to press the leaders. In front of him were Pomeroy, Weinert and Gary Jones (Can-Am), all first-moto DNFers. Velky did manage to get by Jones while Weinert was working on Pomeroy. One Jim finally got the other Jim as the Kawasaki took the lead it would hold until the end. Pomeroy held off Velky, who was in turn holding Semics and Howerton at bay.
The second 250 race was held on a shortened course. The course was shortened, in fact, before the start of the first 125 event when the AMA officials decided that it wasn’t right to make the riders ride through certain sections of the track that were so powdery as to be hazardous. These sections provided almost zero visibility and had the potential to damage engines by overtaxing the air filters and allowing dirt to get in.
Not only was the track shortened for the 125 event, but it was decided that the event would only be 30 minutes long rather than the scheduled 45.
The riders who were in good shape moaned at the turn of events. Those who weren’t came out happier.
Southern California hotshoe Mark Tyer grabbed the lead at the start and set a blistering pace. But, as had been happening all through the series to Mark, his engine seized. His sponsor said that they had never had any trouble with Mark’s hopped-up Elsinore engine until they got into the series. Then everything started to go wrong. He promised that if the engine seized in the first moto, he would truck the bike up
to Niagara Falls and push it over the edge. Bruce Baron, who normally rides for Orange County Yamaha, offered his services as pilot for the ill-fated bike.
But it never did go over the falls.
After Tyer dropped out, Bruce McDougal took over and held off both Tim Hart and Marty Smith for several laps before Hart managed to get by on an uphill. It took Smith a couple more laps to do the same, but by now, Hart’s Yamaha was nearly 10 seconds ahead of the red Honda. With only three laps remaining, Smith caught Hart and several times was side by side with Tim, but Marty just couldn’t get that little bit extra out of his engine in order to get by, and the flag fell. McDougal had held 3rd and kept teammate Mickey Boone in 4th. Torbjorn Winzell of Sweden took 5th on his Husqvarna.
Boone took his Honda past McDougal’s and into the lead in the second moto. Because he’s riding with a pin in a broken leg, it takes Mickey just a little longer to get going than it does the other riders; but when he gets it together, no one seems to be able to catch him. Mickey finished 3rd overall in last year’s 125 World Cup in St.
Louis. He was riding a dealer-sponsored Suzuki at the time, so the smart folks at Honda signed him up to ride for their factory.
McDougal tired early, just like he did in St. Louis last year, and Eddie Cole got his Kawasaki by. Tim Hart and Marty Smith had both gotten poor starts.
Marty was ahead of Tim, but a five-rider pileup forced Smith to take a detour to avoid them and Hart passed him. Tim really began to fly now as he picked off rider after rider on his way to 2nd place. It took Marty longer to get going since' he was reluctant to gas it when he couldn’t see because of the dust. He^^ said, “I wasn’t gonna go fast if I couldn’t see. If I suddenly hit a guy who had gone down, then the whole day would have been over for me. At least this way I finished overall and I get paid.” Marty finished 5th in the moto and 4th for the day.
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Hart took the overall, which, if the FIM allows the 30-minute motos to stand, will mean that Tim will have equalled Jim Pomeroy’s feat of winning the first time he raced a G.P. in his class, since the World Cup is, for the 125s, the equivalent of the Carlsbad event for the big-bores. Mickey Boone took 2nd; McDougal was 3rd and Smith 4th. Eddie Cole was 5th.
The racing was great in spite of the fact that the whole day was just one screw-up after another. For more info on that, read on. [Q]
Editorial Note: Accuracy is very important in the world of reporting, of which announcers are a part. But the yo-yos the promoters got to announce the events at Mid-Ohio and at Springville, N.Y. probably couldn't tell you how dinner was the night before without screwing up the facts.
At local races, if the announcer goofs, well, most of the spectators know what's really happening since they are true fans. But you know that when a really big event comes to town, all of the wild publicity gets a bunch of newcomers out to the track. They are then fed the most irrational, mixed-up, semicoherent pile of garbage I've ever heard. And I'm not talking just about a mispronounced name or two, although it would help to get the names straight. I mean absolute, out-and-out, blatan mis truths.
Several people left Mid-Ohio convinced that they had seen Roger Day Coaster lose his 250 World Championship crown to Zdenek Velky. Imagine!
In New York, one man urged his son to go up and ask Tim Hart for his autograph with these exact words: “Go on boy, he's the Champeen o' the World at Motorcycles. ” The information imparted by the announcer left little doubt that Tim was exactly that. I could list other instances but I think you get the picture. What I would like to see is promoters who don't simply take just anybody, hand them a program and a microphone and say, “Tell it like it is, Herman." On to more important things.
I attended the first 125 World Cup event in St. Louis last year. It was obvious from the moment the first mot^J crosser set a knob on the track that unless something was done, it was going to be one dusty son-of-a-gun. Nothing was done.
I asked Edison Dye, the promoter, why a water truck hadn't been hired. He said that there were none for hire in the local area, but that he planned to take the event to one of the New York tracks the following year and he would have a truck there. I didn 't much like his explanation, but I could see that getting a water truck might have been a hassle. When I wrote my report—for another publication that I was working on at the time—I went easy on the dust issue. Anyone can make one mistake.
Well this year it was no mistake. The weatherman had been promising only light sprinkles in New York, so even if he was right, which he wasn't, light sprinkles aren't enough to drench a track during the week so that it will stay moist on a projected sunny weekend. The rain didn't come. The water truck wasn't hired (they are available in N.Y.). And the riders rode in dust the likes of which I've never seen outside the desert.
This wasn't just another motocross; this was the American round of the 125cc World Championship. And it looked like a fog bank had rolled in, only you couldn't breathe in this stuff. Even the AMA reps were mad. I asked one of them how he felt the shortening of the 125 motos to 30 minutes would stand with the FIM and he told me, ‘7 don't know and I don 't give a damn either. All we've gotten from that f....r is promises and he ain 't delivered sh-t!" He said he was referring to the promoter. Then I got the sad news that Edison Dye had contracted with the FIM to handle the event for the next five years. If he 's going to handle it right, then great. But so far he hasn't.
The first year could have been excusable. This time, no. And next year? Well, you couldn't get much of an answer out of Edison. He just kept walking around with this big smile on his face. After all, he did get more than 5000 people to come. Let's see, at $7.50 a head, that's....
