Money Talks ...Or Does It?

MONEY TALKS ...or does it?

Can YOU Believe A $125,000 Parse At The Snake River Motocross And No Europeans?

Fernando Belair

AT TIMES, WORKING in this industry can be frustrating, particularly when covering racing events. Racing events that one way or another get all screwed up, fall behind schedule, don't follow a pre-established agenda and generally have everyone, racers included, wondering, "What the hell is going on?"

As journalists, we've covered an interminable number of competition events. Good ones and bad ones. Many of them have been AMA run events.

êd the AMA has definitely had its re of screw-ups at these events. So it is particularly refreshing when we see them get it all together and pull one off without a single hitch.

The professional motocross events at the Snake River Canyon were great. They ran six races in six hours, got each event off on the hour, just like they said they would, and everyone went home without complaint.

The general rule is that the bigger an event is, the more trouble it is to pull off. The reverse was actually true at the World's Richest ($125,000 purse) Motocross. No problems with the pros, but referee Chuck McCall was wearing some scars from having been force fed a knuckle sandwich by the father of one of the amateurs who competed early in áto week. Well, nothing's perfect.

^^The racing was, with the exception of the last moto at the U.S.G.P. at Carlsbad, the finest I've ever seen. With that much money at stake, why shouldn't it be. Everyone was putting out 110 percent in order to get in on some of the cash that was available. Some riders even rode more than one class.

Pierre Karsmakers rode both the 250 and 500cc events. Gary Jones, Ron Pomeroy and others rode the 125 and 250 races, while Brad Lackey rode the smaller and larger bike events. But the Iron Man Award goes to Jim Pomeroy, who rode every single race on the program. A little greedy maybe, but certainly a capable performer.

Our sympathy goes out to those who didn't win any money, our congratula-

tns to those who did and also to the 1A. Let's see more of these well-run events in the future. [5]