Trans-Ama Wrap-Up

TRANS-AMA WRAP-UP

In Our Ballparks, It Was Still Their Game

Fernando Belair

For the past several years, the U.S. has been honored with the post-G.P. presence of several European motocross stars, generally among them a World Champion or two. Tired as these competitors might be from a full season of racing, they still manage to thoroughly trounce the statesiders although each year the racing between them gets tighter and hotter.

On rare occasion, an American rider does extemely well against the invaders and is instantly heralded as the new sensation in American motocross. This occurred several years back to a mustached supermarket clerk by the name of Gary Bailey. Gary defeated the cream of the Husqvarna factory team at the now defunct Firecracker G.P. at Saddleback park. The tall, spindly racer edged out a corrected-time victory on his four-speed Greeves.

The same thing happened to Marty Tripes, the 17-year-old Coliseum Conqueror, who, apart from his Superbowl victories, has not been a consistent threat at any other race track. Jim Pomeroy also beat the Europeans, but he did it in their own backyard. That made Jim’s victory all the more flavorful to us. And finally, an American took an overall first in one of the Trans-AMA races, saving face in what is still the Europeans’ game.

For the Europeans, the summer and fall series (Inter-Am and Trans-AMA) are not true, nitty-gritty, get-it-on-foryour-life races. The American riders take it seriously and do their best to slip into the pack of foreigners that head each race. A different attitude seems prevalent among the visitors, though. Sure they ride fast, usually much faster than any of our riders, but for most of them it is just after-the-battle pocket money time. While things may all fit together for an American, who one day manages to pester the Europeans like a persistent fly at a picnic, for most of us it is still a race-and-learn-from-them proposition.

SPRINGVILLE, N.Y.

The opening round of the TransAMA series was full of suspense and surprises before the starting gate even fell. The Honda team couldn’t find its bikes. They were still in transit and didn’t arrive at the track until practice was nearly over. National 250 champion Gary Jones decided that he wanted to score points in the series more than he wanted to fulfill his commitments (whatever they might have been) to the Honda factory effort that wasn’t really there. So, after a dramatic speech that would have done any silver-tongued politician proud, he fired up his private Maico (which he had paid cash for) and went out for a couple of practice laps. Pierre Karsmakers and Tim Hart were enjoying the more refined handling characteristics of the monoshock Yamahas that had been flown over for them to ride in the series.

Roger DeCoster was in the States for the series and the presence of the 500cc World Champion held the crowd in awe. Not only was Roger here, but so was Gerrit Wolsink. The bespectacled moptop Dutch Maico ace was back in the land of the Carlsbad G.P. and when the flag fell, looked like he was ready to take over where teammate Willi Bauer left off last June. Gerrit’s lead disappeared as a slipping clutch allowed DeCoster and Pierre Karsmakers to get by. The overall would read in reverse for the first two riders, but the big story would not be found there. In 3rd place, and first American to everyone but Husqvarna’s surprise, was Mike Hartwig. Hartwig had only become a full-fledg^^ member of Team Husky a few montflP prior to the U.S.G.P. and already was displaying the talent that Husky had pegged him for. Mike not only raised the spirits of the American crowd, but also helped dispel the rumor that the big-bore Huskies are no longer competitive in International motocross.

PHILADELPHIA, PENN.

The first, only and last Philadelphia Trans-AMA was held Superbowl style in the JFK Coliseum under the lights. The tight, twisty, only-one-line-through-thewhole-thing course made getting a good start almost more important than finishing. For this event, and for the remaining events in the series, 250cc World Champion runner-up Adolf Weil would compete, and for the most part minate.

This he showed as he bolted into the lead in all three 30-min. motos, battling tooth and nail with teammate Gerrit Wolsink. Wolsink eventually won the event, with Weil 2nd, but the Maicomeister was here to stay.

Once again Americans scored highly as Yamaha’s Tim Hart and Bultaco’s Jim Pomeroy (a.k.a. The Yakima Yahoo) turned in consistent performances for 4th and 5th place respectively.

Not to take anything away from Hart and Pomeroy’s performances, but it seemed that to finish well, all one had to do was finish. The course was a masochist’s delight. Rugged, wheelsmashing potholes, steep jumps with less than acceptable landing areas, and generally a real atrocity. The rate of attrition was high for both Americans and Europeans. Sylvain Geboers never got past the first turn of the first moto. Gary Jones, still unofficially on a private Maico (and secretly awaiting the arrival of a factory Maico) snapped his rear shock absorbers, both of them, in half.

Pomeroy smashed up a wheel and was barely able to finish the first moto. Jim Weinert’s Kawasaki broke in half in the second moto, and in the third, Willi Bauer had his front wheel collapse while in good position to take the overall win. Roger DeCoster just didn’t like night motocross. There will be more Superbowl type events in the future, but they will not count for series points. Therefore, many riders will probably keep their expensive machinery at home and subsequently in one piece.

ONTARIO, CANADA

International motocross invaded Maple Leaf Country and with it, the Maico dominance that had already been established. There were a few new faces in the International class, but it was the oldest face that took the most money home. Adolf Weil. The old man of motocross finished 1st and 3rd in the two motos to take first overall ahead of a highly improved Sylvain Geboers who did not look like a man recently recovered from a shattered leg. Heikki Mikkola garnered 4th for Husqvarna, two > places ahead of Mike Hartwig. We wonder if maybe the factory wasn’t watching this race much closer than it normally watches an American series, since the last news we have is that Heikki will switch from his 250 to the 500 class bike for the ’74 G.P. season.

MID-OHIO TRANS-AMA

The Mid-Ohio motocross track in Lexington was prepared to a “T” for the fourth race of the Trans-AMA series. The fast track was a delight to both racers and spectators. The race was billed as the Battle of the Champions, since it was here that Roger DeCoster and Hakan Andersson tangled bars for the first time. Roger proved that he was going to be one of the fast guys when he shot into the lead at the start of the first moto. After a brief duel with Heikki Mikkola ended with the Swede parking his seized Husky and Roger a little more tired than he would have liked, Sylvain Geboers took the lead. It didn’t take Roger long to recover his lead, however. Meanwhile, Andersson was fumbling around back in the pack consistently poking into and out of the Top Ten. He finished exactly 10th.

Hakan was determined to prove that he too could win a race in America and after a 4th place first lap, began to close on DeCoster in the second moto. Roger knew that Hakan and Willi Bauer were behind him but didn’t mind letting them by, although he didn’t make it easy for them. Roger took the overall, with Hakan back in 4th, despite his second moto victory. So Roger not only won the event but the subplot Battle of the Champions.

Bultaco Ace Jim Pomeroy finished the day in 5 th, which would be his best finish of the entire series as breakage and minute problems would plague him from here on out. Torleif Hansen made an impressive debut for the Kawasaki effort with a 2nd place in the first moto, but could only manage an 11th in the second.

WASHINGTON, IND.

In Indiana, 250cc World Champion Hakan Andersson almost took home the gold. Unfortunately, the Maico team was there to spoil the day for everyone else. Gerrit Wolsink (the Dutch dentist) and Adolf Weil had more than their share of problems on the muddy trac^^ but Willi Bauer pulled it out for the team, anyway. The track was almost a nightmare as the first race got underway. The mud was thick and slippery from two days of rain. By the end of the day it had dried out substantially, but had been softened up so much that it was just one ditch or jump after another. The spectators who came to see the riders get off the ground went bananas as every rider flew almost 2 ft. through the air for every one he traveled on the ground. The neat part of the Ohio race was when Jim Weinert placed his Kawasaki ahead of such names as Adolf Weil, Werner Schutz (Maico), Kalevi Vehkonen (Montesa), Christer Hammergren (Yamaha), and Gerrit Wolsink. Jim’s 3rd overall had only been equaled in the series by Mike Hartwig iri the open at New York. But Jimmy was) keeping the best for later.

Andersson was tied with Bauer on points for the day as they motored around on their last laps. Unfortunately for Hakan, his mind was still geared to the FIM scoring system, where in case of a tie, the best time wins. But the AMA rules state that in case of a tie, the best finish in the last moto breaks the tie. Hakan was content to follow close to Willi until the checkered flag fell. He was surprised, mainly at his own lack of thinking, when told of his boo-boo. He wouldn’t let that happen again, but then, he never got close enough in any of the remaining races to have the choice again.

ROAD ATLANTA

With Tetuonic mathematical precision, 35-year-old Adolf Weil lapped coi sistently and took the International class at the well-prepared, but nevertheless rough, Road Atlanta course. Adolf’s victory put him solidly into the lead in the Trans-AMA series, a lead which he was never to relinquish. The Maico victory was overshadowed somewhat by one of the most surprising rides of the series.

Husqvarna factory rider Arne Kring, who had been rumored ready to hang ’em up because he couldn’t get back into form after a very serious G.P. crash, took the lead at the drop of the gate and never looked back. Kring pulled an incredible 5 sec. per lap on the rest of the field. The crowd, expecting to see a Maico-Suzuki duel with maybe a little Yamaha thrown in for spice, almost didn’t know what to make of it. Kring, replacing Heikki Mikkola for the rest of the series, rode like the Arne Kring oli^) old. In the second moto, he got off the^^ •ne 3rd. A WFO effort to take over first in one move netted him his own private niche in the snow fence that lines the track. Arne retired for the day with a jammed thumb, leaving the race and the overall in the hands of Weil. But he had made his point.

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Hakan Andersson finished 2nd overall, but he was too far behind Weil to have been a threat. Willi Bauer took 3rd and Wolsink completed the rout with a 4th. Mike Hartwig was again first American, but could only manage a 7th.

ORLANDO, FLA.

The sandy Florida track was just made for psyching out. And Pierre Karsmakers knew just how to psyche the Americans. He went so fast in practice that several of the riders were considering not even showing up at the starting line for the first race. After all,

• wasn’t this Dutchman/pseudo-American n acknowledged International sand specialist? There was no way they were going to beat Pierre that day. At least in their minds there wasn’t.

But Adolf knew better. A veteran of over 16 G.P. seasons, the curly-haired, blue-eyed veteran knew exactly what was going on. He could tell that Pierre wasn’t practicing, that he was just psyching. And he also knew how fast you really could go on this particular track. Finally, he knew that he could go that fast.

Adolf took the first moto wire-towire while Pierre fought his way from a poor start all the way to 2nd before the flag fell. In the second moto Maicomates Weil and Wolsink were having a party up front while Pierre attacked furiously. Pierre was riding over his head. He tried to pass the leaders on a |Äsry nasty high-speed turn that was full ^of whoop-de-doos. He got the lead, but when he looked beneath himself, his bike wasn’t there. Karsmakers had overcooked it going into the turn and had been catapulted past the two riders in front of him. His bike was cartwheeling several feet behind him as Pierre played Superman in leathers. He never got back into the race.

Eventually, another Yamaha, ridden by Hakan Andersson, passed Weil as it had done so many times during the 250cc G.P. season. Adolf didn’t really care, though. His 1st place overall was secure because Andersson had only been able to scrounge up a 4th in the first moto. Brad Lackey was first American, in 6th, after Weinert, who lead Lackey all day, had his Kawasaki seize momentarily, costing him two places.

HOUSTON, TEXAS

This is where it really came apart. Jim Weinert, an Easterner on the Kawasaki team who has at times been forced to play second fiddle to the more publicized antics of Brad Lackey, didn’t have to get out of anybody’s way at Houston as he took 1st place overall, making history in the process.

The muddy track was just right for the long stroke torque of the Maicos and Kawasakis. Weinert jumped into the lead as the rain started to fall on an already difficult track. Weil took off after Jim and looked like might pass at any time, but Weinert was riding smoothly and he> held off the mighty German for a full 40 min. The last lap flag came down and the riders powered away for just one more tour. The experience of Weil and Arne Kring, who had been closing on the leaders all race, paid off as they were able to pressure Weinert into sliding out on the last lap. Jim managed to get up in a hurry and motored in for a 3rd. The crowd was a bit disappointed, but the second race> would soon cure that.

Between the International motos, the clouds opened up and turned the track into a swamp. Weinert seemed to like it as he started in 4th place and one by one, picked off the leaders. The crowd was going berserk as Jim motored on, not looking anywhere near as fast as the Europeans, but consistently pulling away.

When Weinert was notified that Weil had retired he just let Pierre Karsmakers, who had been hounding him for some laps, by. Jim had the overall and you could see his smile all the way across the track as he took the final lap and then the checkered. Gerrit Wolsink managed to save face for the European contingent with a 2nd place finish, but the Americans took 15 of the first 17 places that day. Gary Jones, now officially terminated with Honda and riding a works Maico, finished 3rd.

PHOENIX, ARIZ.

At the sandy Phoenix track Adolf Weil made up for the previous week’s DNF by taking the lead at the start. Pierre Karsmakers got his Yamaha monoshocker by Adolf on the inside of one of the track’s many turns and a lap latej^^ Adolf fell. He restarted in about 12tl^^ place and really began hooking it. By the time the checkered fell he was only 1 sec. behind Pierre.

Gerrit Wolsink and Adolf played hare-and-hound through the second moto until Weil powered past the tiring Dutchman. Karsmakers worked his way into 3rd behind Sylvain Geboers and they finished that way. Several important things did happen at Phoenix, though. For the first few laps of the second moto, Pierre Karsmakers’ brother, Frans, led with a borrowed á^maha that was neither as fast nor as Bod handling as the monoshocker. Frans rides with a wild style that is reminiscent of Bryan Wade. But Frans is not in as good a shape as Pierre and he tired rapidly.

Arne Kring finished 5 th with two consistent rides after Husky’s early hope, Mike Hartwig, DNFd with a bike that “just quit.” Tim Hart rode to a 6th overall and regained the top-Americanin-the-series position which he lost to Weinert at the incredible Houston race the week before. Weinert lost all hope of regaining the position he held for only seven days when he broke his collarbone in a spectacular endo in one of the sandy whoopers that plagued the Phoenix course.

PUYALLUP RACEWAY, WASH.

Consistency is what wins in motocross. Pierre Karsmakers proved that old adage true when he took the overall win, his first since the series opener, with two well-contested 2nd place finishes. Gerrit Wolsink took the first moto and Adolf Weil, who lost his transmission early in moto one, walked away with the second one. Jim Pomeroy’s rear wheel blew up. It didn’t just collapse, it blew up.

Tarao Suzuki (Yamaha) and Suzuki’s Koji Masuda battled furiously throughout the race until the Yamaha rider, who, incidentally, is the Japanese National Champion, crashed and handed the overall 5th position to his fellow countryman. Tim Hart worked up to 4th, which just about sews up Tim’s position as top American. Pierre has been training Tim and it has been paying off. Also, Tim’s Yamaha doesn’t break.

LIVERMORE, CALIF.

Jim Pomeroy should have won it. He had everything going for himself that day. A good start (10th), plenty of power from his lightweight 352 Bultaco, and he was riding as fast as fast is. Then, as had happened so many times during the Trans-AMA series, suddenly one lap Jim didn’t come around. He had blown> a base gasket while leading and his Bultaco had seized. A little 75 cent part had kept him out of the winner’s circle and completely out of the results. DeCoster took the lead but soon Weil passed him and the checkered came out.

Trying to make up for his first moto heartbreak, Pomeroy again came out like a house on fire. Only this time he didn’t get as far as the lead when he Clashed and injured his ankle, among other things. He had simply been exceeding his ability and had lost it. Jim was thoroughly disgusted with the bike and himself. Roger was waiting for the exact moment to pass Adolf while all of this was happening to Pomeroy. That exact moment came on the last lap as he pulled one of his patented “now I’m second, now I’m first” passes and stole the win and the overall from the German. Rich Thorwaldson (Suzuki) was first American, in 5th behind Bauer and Wolsink.

Among the unique things that appeared at the Livermore event was a monoshock Maico. Werner Schutz rode it in the first moto, but decided that he liked the way his factory bike worked better. Also there was a scuffle between Pierre Karsmakers and Gary Jones. One story said that Pierre wouldn’t get out of Gary’s way when Gary wanted to pass and the other story was that Gary deliberately T-boned the Yamaha rider. Twice. In either case, the resulting fisticuffs really got the crowd to its feg| as if the race hadn’t already done SOT The spectators loved it but the sport could do without the adverse publicity.

The consistency of Adolf Weil made him an almost sure winner for the series even before the finale .at Saddleback Park. All Adolf had to do was finish in the top five and he would take the overall title. But Roger DeCoster likes the Saddleback course as much as Adolf does, so the battle was set in advance. The Saddleback crowd was not to be disappointed.

CW-SADDLEBACK PARK FINALE

At five in the morning there was already a line waiting to get into the park. The gates opened at six and about a half hour later the different teams ^pan arriving. They opened up shop in ^Pe pit area and the spectators swarmed to the fenced enclosure to get a firsthand look at the men and machines that had come to do battle.

The Suzukis were the first to be unloaded, and with them came a flurry of mechanics going full song in Japanese. The highly organized effort took shape immediately. Each man had a job to do and he did it, checked it and then checked it again. The bikes were prepped and ready to go long before the main brunt of the crowd had passed through the turnstiles. When Roger DeCoster, Sylvain Geboers, Rich Thorwaldson, Mike Runyard, and Koji Masuda came strolling up, the autograph hounds started giving the rent-a-cops a fit. In their usual good humor, the Suzuki teammates tried to comply with as many eager fans as they could.

Team Maico wasted no time getting on with the pre-race rituals as did the professional contingents from Yamaha and Honda. Kawasaki took its time but all was ready for the start of practice. Husky’s bikes were already prepped and raring to go.

The support class riders went out to practice first and to smooth out the cloddy track for the International riders. After about an hour of support class practice, the big boys got their shot. Many riders, particularly statesiders, were very familiar with the track and took off like bullets. The Europeans didn’t look fast at all as they hunted for the quickest line through each turn, always looking for an emergency passing line as well. By the time International class practice was flagged off, the foreigners were flying around in true highspeed fashion, making sure that the chosen paths were going to work. It was shaping up to be a really great race.

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Saddleback park is noted for seve^^ things. Among them is some of the stickiest mud in the world. The mud is generally not a part of the park—it is what the park becomes after a good healthy rain. Watching the riders practice their starts on the muddy starting line was very amusing. Usually, when you try to start on a muddy track, you don’t give the engine as much throttle as if the track were dry. You want to break the rear wheel loose a little, but not excessively, especially since momentum is of ultimate importance when climbing Saddleback’s start hill.

Maico’s Adolf Weil motored through the pits and up to the line several minutes before the first race. He looked until he found what looked like a good spot and proceeded to set up for a practice start. He snicked his radially finned 400 into 2nd gear and after a fe^^ impressive ziinga ziingas proceeded bog his machine to a comic degree in the glue-like mud. There was no roostertail of flying pyuck and debris, there was no screaming Maico and there was no smile on Adolf’s face. He brought his machine back to life with a couple of healthy prods on the starter and this time he gave it a few ziiiiiiiiiiiinga ziiiiiiiiiiiingas. With the engine above red line he dumped the clutch and proceeded squirrelly up the start hill, looking for all the world like Borris Murray with a 2.75-18 K70 on the back. There had to be a better way. A similar fate awaited all of the other riders who showed up to practice, making themselves look foolish.

But foolish was the last thing anybody looked when the gate fell. Even Pierre Karsmakers, who just sat there and dug a trench as the horde screaming beasts powered away fror^^ him. Up front was the surprise of surprises. Gary Jones was leading the melee on his works Maico, followed closely by Roger DeCoster and Adolf Weil. Jones held the lead for a much longer time than he did at the midsummer Carlsbad event, but he again gave way when he found the strain of maintaining such a lead, in the presence of the international high-pressure men tailing him, too physically demanding. Gary would end up 10th in the moto after being methodically picked off by the leading riders. DeCoster took control about 1/3 of the way through the race and was followed by Weil, who seemed content to stay 50 to 75 yards behind the flying Belgian.

Even though it appeared that he could have caught and passed Roger at will, Weil finished the moto in that 2nd^^ slot, making sure that the other Belgian, Sylvain Geboers, didn’t get too clol^P Pierre Karsmakers came from 22nd at the start to a solid 4th, ahead of the rest of the Maico gang. While he rode, Marty Tripes, a Southern Californian who does very well in his own stomping grounds, looked very fat. And no, I didn’t forget an “s.” If he doesn’t shed some of that weight, Honda just might shed him. Especially if he doesn’t win the Superbowl next year.

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If you happened to tire of watching Roger and Adolf lap a consistent three seconds faster than the rest of the field, there were several independent battles going on back in the pack which made for even more exciting racing. At one time or another, everybody from 5th place on back had to tangle with Pierre Karsmakers. Pierre won every dice, showing more than one rider the advantages of his monoshock Yamaha. Quit^^ a convincing salesman that Pierre. KoJ^P Masuda and Rich Thorwaldson, both on factory Suzukis, fought tooth-and-nail for 8th place. Koji, not wishing to take his teammate out should he crash in a WFO effort, finally gave in and backed off. Brad Lackey had his head together and held off Willi Bauer until three laps from the end, when the Maico rider powered into 6th during a momentary loss of concentration by Lackey.

Between the motos, Geboers’ mechanic spotted a small crack in the Su-zuki’s frame. He knew that it wasn’t serious and that the machine could easily go the distance in the second moto, but he made the mistake of telling Sylvain about it. Because he had just recovered from a shattered leg and the fear of injury was heavily imprinted in his mind, knowledge of the frame’s flaw would not allow Sylvain to race at full tilt in the second moto. Disgusted and somewhat afraid, he would retire early while in 12th place.

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The Maico mechanics were busy rebuilding the rear shocks on the factory bikes, being careful not to let the competition see either the internals of the shocks or the special oil they use in the shocks. With the current trend in increased rear wheel travel, all of the G.P. bikes (except the Yamahas) are running their shock absorbers several inches forward of their standard mountings. This works the shocks extremely hard requiring a rebuild after each moto. Some shocks don’t even make it that long. The Kawasaki camp mentioned that their shocks are good for about 25-30 min. in their present state of development.

The problem lies in the fact that conventional damping oils work themselves up to well over 200 degrees and burn out the seals in the shocks. The trick is to find an oil that doesn’t exceed 150 degrees in even the most adverse damping conditions. The German Maico team has such an oil. The Suzuki team has a similar oil, but theirs heats up to almost 175 degrees. Nobody else has these oils and the only other solution is to run vast quantities of oil in the shocks. This, of course, requires an oil cooling reservoir and that presents another set of problems altogether. Where do you mount this reservoir so that it is exposed to the air flowing past the bike without making it sprung weight (a la Thermal-Flow shocks) or getting it in the way of rider movement during competition?

With the bikes rejuvenated, the second moto got underway and appeared for a while to be a repeat of the first, sans the presence of Gary Jones. Roger was leading and Adolf was waiting, waiting for a mistake. After the race he mentioned that he really hadn’t planned on passing Roger so soon in the race, but the situation presented itself on the fourth lap and he took full advantage of it. DeCoster hounded Weil for the entire length of the second moto. Neither rider made a mistake except for one missed shift by DeCoster that was noted, and neither rider backed off an inch. After all, with $18,000 in prize money, this race would be of greater financial significance than any of the regular season G.P. events. >

Toward the end of the moto, Roger was getting sloppy. He got into a couple of mild tank slappers in a rough section jAile Adolf motored on as smoothly as IRt were the first lap. Realizing that 2nd place money was better than no money at all, Roger didn’t make that one, final, all-out effort to catch the aged leader. He took the checkered in 2nd place, went into the pits and popped open some suds.

Over a minute and a half behind the leaders was Pierre Karsmakers, who once again had come up from a first lap position in the high teens to take a respectable finishing position. This time, with Sylvain Geboers out of the way, Pierre gobbled up 3rd, both in the moto and overall. Weil had defeated DeCoster on the basis of similar scores but a higher finish in the final moto. Willi Bauer, Gerrit Wolsink, and Mike Hartwig (who had his Husky seize in the first moto) followed Karsmakers into the pits.

mFor Weil, it was a profitable day and rery profitable overall series victory. For DeCoster, who is not accustomed to running 2nd to anybody, it was a lesson he may someday pass along to another rider. For Yamaha, Pierre Karsmakers’ 3rd place overall made them quite happy as did the knowledge that Tim Hart’s 12th overall gave him the top American position in the series. For the thousands who watched, it was an afternoon very well spent.

FINAL TRANS-AMA STANDINGS

SUPPORT CLASS SUMMARY

f^Most of the riders who competed in e 250cc Support classes throughout the Trans-AMA series followed the entire series. There were as many varied winners in this class as there were in the International go rounds. But, as in the big-bore class, there was one rider who won more than any other. Hondamounted Rich Eierstedt dominated his class much the same way Adolf Weil controlled his. When Rich didn’t win, his name could be found not too far down the list of finishers, usually in 2nd place.

There were some riders who only got to visit the winner’s circle once during the series. Billy Grossi took his factory Kawasaki to a first at Road Atlanta, John Borg ran away with the Philadelphia Coliseum event, Tom Rapp took the opening round in New York, Billy

éléments )n at Livermore, rode his Husky and Morris to an Malone, overall who was riding out of a shop rather than for one of the factories or distributors, rode consistently all day to take the Saddleback race. The remaining events were divided up between Eierstedt and his nemesis, Bultacoist Bryar Holcomb.

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This year, the Honda factory riders and their special Elsinore racing machines took not only the AMA National 250cc Championship with Gary Jones aboard, but also the Support Class series in the Trans-AMA. Because of their performances, several of the riders (both the top placing Honda riders and the better placing riders on other makes) who rode the Support'Class this year will find themselves pitted against the Europeans in the International Class

next fall. I§1