1974 Trans Ama Series

1974 TRANS AMA SERIES

Consistent performance by the Europeans, when contrasted with the Americans' sporadic moments of brilliance, meant that the plot followed the script rather well.

Fernando Belair

THE TRANS-AMA series begins on the East Coast after a brief rest once the World Championship GP season has been decided. Thinking back to the past couple of series, it is interesting to note that the men who had just completed the GP seasons in first place were unable to win the Trans-AMA series. But while the World Champ hasn't been able to do it, for the last two years, GP runners-up have become Trans-AMA series victors.

In 1972, Ake Jonsson ran away with it. Ake had just finished a disappointing

season, just barely hanging onto 4th place in the world standings. The year before, he and Roger DeCoster had been involved in a nip-and-tuck struggle for the World Championship right up to the last race. A loose spark plug cost Ake his chance at the top spot. Last year it was the ageless German wonder Adolf Weil who at 35 totally dominated the series. He had just finished the GP season as number-two man to Yamaha's Hakan Andersson. That was the first year that Yamaha really had its mono shocker dialed in and for the forward mounted shocks on the Maicos. Of course, now, you can’t even think about doing well in motocross without a longtravel rear end. And the bikes that the GP riders compete on have sometimes got as much, or more, travel in back as up front.

This year, the series was again a runaway for Roger DeCoster. Roger, of course, was second in the title race to 1975 World Champion Heikki Mikkola. So the tradition has been carried on. Grand Prix losers (of sorts) are TransAMA winners. Naturally, the World Championship carries with it much more prestige, but the Trans-AMA series

pays better. Incredibly better.

America still hungers for top class motocross. Oh sure, we have the USGP in Carlsbad each year, but that’s in Southern California. The rest of the country has to be satisfied with local racing and local aces. During the summer there’s the Inter-AMA 250 series along with the new 125cc National series, but the Europeans are busy with their own battles during this period. The Trans-AMA series thus satisfies the American motocross appetite.

The series consists of nine races that take place in all four corners of this

country and in middle America, as well. Just about everyone in the U.S. can go to see a Trans-AMA event. And, across the country, here is what they saw.

UNADILLA

Roger DeCoster let all concerned know that he meant business this time around by running away with the first moto in the series opener at the Unadilla Sports Center in New Berlin, N.Y. Right behind Roger from the beginning of the moto was Jim Pomeroy. Battles raged on furiously behind the two leaders. DeCoster’s Suzuki teammate Gerrit> Wolsink eventually worked his way up to 3rd and Yamaha’s Pierre Karsmakers earned a 4th on his monoshocker.

Pierre’s engine is unique among Yamaha motocrossers in that he still uses an iron cylinder. The cylinder is one of the older enduro pots that has been ported to yield Pierre’s desired power characteristic. The top Yamaha motocrosser in this country doesn’t use a YZ cylinder, a chrome bore, or even Yamaha’s famed “Torque Induction” reedvalve system. Of course, there are tracks that demand the type of power that a reed-valved YZ engine produces, and that is when Pierre will resort to using the newer set-up. But by and large, he races with highly-modified, but otherwise very unracy, engines.

Karsmakers was not as fortunate in this day’s second moto, when suspension deterioration plagued him. Bultaco’s Bengt Aberg worked his way past Adolf Weil and began pulling out to a comfortable lead. Wolsink was running 3rd, with DeCoster far behind him but still in 4th. Previous-moto front runner Jim Pomeroy was suffering the same ills as Pierre and could only manage an 8th. Suddenly, less than two laps from the end, Aberg’s Bultaco just stopped. Weil inherited the lead from the former two-time World Champ.

DeCoster took the overall, followed by Wolsink and then Hakan Andersson who had ridden consistently to a 5th and a 4th.

HONDA HILLS

Husqvarna’s pride and joy, Heikki Mikkola, mended from the twisted ankle he received during practice at Unadilla (actually, the ankle injury was an aggravation of a severe sprain Heikki received during the final stages of the GP season), and he was ready to race when the starting gate went down. He took off in 5th place and within a few laps took over the lead from Suzuki’s American racer Rich Thorwaldson. In so doing, the Husky-mounted Finn overcame such speedsters as Weil, Karsmakers, Honda’s Rich Eierstedt and Wolsink. Weil moved in front of Thorwaldson while Jim Pomeroy guided his Bultaco into 4th. Mikkola held his lead to the end, but both Weil and Karsmakers had problems. Pierre’s less-than-reliable 400 had seized momentarily, dropping him out of serious contention, while Weil’s chain derailed and ruined his chances for a good piece of the day’s prize money. This hurt Adolf even more when, at the start of the next moto, he galloped into the lead and was never headed.

Behind the Maicomeister were Bultaco’s Aberg, Husky’s Mike Hartwig (a youngster from Michigan who has had

moments of brilliance, but has lacked consistency), and Gerrit Wolsink. The Dutchman and his Suzuki eventually found themsleves in 2nd place with Mikkola trailing. But Heikki was content to stay put, close on Wolsink’s heels, knowing that he had the overall in the bag. Brad Lackey dueled with Pomeroy for a while, coming out the victor in this moto but finishing one place behind Pomeroy’s overall 3rd.

This was the first race that Mikkola had contended in the series and he easily dominated. Had Heikki not had to go home to I-~inland where his wite was expecting their second child, he certainly would have made a dent in the overall series positions and could possi bly have been the victor.

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ROAD ATLANTA

Roger DeCoster took a pair of 1 sts— followed in both times by Adolf Weil—to take the Road Atlanta TransAMA event. The first time around Rog had no difficulty in obtaining and maintaining the lead. In this moto, his Suzuki teammate, and former Maico pilot, Willi Bauer, was 3rd, with Pomeroy 4th. In the second moto, DeCoster had his hands full with Weil’s tactics, but managed to hold him off. Meanwhile, Pomeroy claimed the same finishing position that Bauer had in the previous moto; Willi could only hold onto 5th. Between them was Hans Maisch, a factory Maico rider and one of the heirs to the Maico factory.

Roger’s victory was undoubtedly welcome, but there’s little doubt that he would have liked another shot at Mikkola. One wonders what the outcome would have been, or even just what the racing would have been like in that second moto if Weil, DeCoster and Mikkola had been going head-to-head. Weil was already riding the ragged edge and, a couple of times, even beyond that. He did manage to momentarily get by Roger in the final moto, but just overcooked it into a corner and slipped back into 2nd.

It looks as though Roger is just going to have to wait until the 1975 GP season to avenge his defeat this year.

ORLANDO

The sandy strength-sapping tracks like the one at Orlando, Florida are custom made for Dutch racers like Wolsink and Karsmakers, who have had considerable practice riding the tricky stuff in their homeland. They know that endurance pacing is more important in sand than on any other type of track. Also, they’ve picked up a few tricks on machine prep for sand tracks that they teach to their mechanics. This is very important, for sand eats away at everything.

Riders began dropping out early in the first moto as the sand took its toll on both men and machines. Broken chains, leaky shocks with seals eaten away by the pesky grit, and a few seized engines caused DNFs. Even Karsmakers was not spared, as the forks on his Yamaha seized with sand inside them. DeCoster stuck a piston; and Christer Hammargren’s Kawasaki lost its shocks, as did all of the Can-Ams.

Ake Jonsson was holding a slight lead on his factory Yamaha. Ake used to ride for Maico and last year fitted a pair of Maico forks to his GP monoshocker. Yamaha didn’t like this too much, so they set out to copy the Maico set-up for Ake. They’re trying to reproduce not only the action of the forks, but the geometry as well. It sounds like a fabulous combination—Maico geometry and fork action, with a monoshock on the rear. The best of both worlds.

Ake’s lead was beginning to get larger when suddenly he lost the seat off his bike. When the seat went off, Wolsink went by, never to look back. Jonsson’s teammate Hakan Andersson moved into 2nd, Bauer into 3rd and Pomeroy into 4th. But Jim wasn’t satisfied with his position and he squirted by Bauer’s Suzuki and almost caught Andersson as the flag fell.

Wolsink knew he had it sewn up soon after the second moto got underway. The only threats to his overall victory were Pomeroy, who snapped a chain, Andersson, who got a terrible start in this moto and was running somewhere in umpteenth place, and Brad Lackey, who, with a 5th in the first race, stood an outside chance at the overall win. But Lackey crashed in the early stages of the race and continued to crash as he rode WFO trying to catch up. So Gerrit just motored around in 3rd place, content to let the Yamahas of Karsmakers and Andersson take the first two spots. After having finished 2nd in so many overall scores, the Dutch dentist finally had his first total victory.

ST. LOUIS

If you recall an editorial piece I included at the end of my 125 World Cup article in the November ‘74 CW, the name Edison Dye won’t be foreign to you. He was granted the contract to hold a Trans-AMA event in the St. Louis area, at St. Charles Speedway. Dust, which has been the cause of most of the disillusionment with the promotional capabilities of Mr. Dye, was not present in St. Louis this time around. Instead, it rained for several days before the event, making the track very muddy and the event rather unappealing from a spectator point of view.

So, Mr. Dye held onto his promised prize money rather than delivering it to the AMA officials two days before the event as required. On the day of the event, he decided that he would be taking enough of a loss on the pre-race publicity expenses that he had already incurred, and that the net from the gate would not cover those expenses and the expense of the prize money, so he called the race off. Had the promoter cancelled the race two days earlier, when he should have, many of the privateers could have been contacted and could have saved themselves the expense of the trip to St. Louis. But he waited until the last minute to call it quits, thus causing much anger and the needless expenditure of lots of dollars by people who are not factory-paid professionals.

LAKE WHITNEY

The promoters in Texas faced very much the same problem that presented

itself in St. Louis. But, these guys honored their contract and, although the race was extremely muddy, it was held. You can bet that the promoters didn’t get rich on the event. In fact, they probably lost money, but they can get another shot at it next year when Texas motocross fans will be even hungrier for the sight of an International class race and will undoubtedly throng the track. Hopefully, they’ll make more than enough to cover this year’s loss.

Although Husky’s Arne Kring, a former bicycle mechanic turned motocross star, grabbed the lead at the start, Ake Jonsson, still showing those who have called him “over the hill” that he’s got what it takes, passed Kring soon after the start. The Europeans floundered around in the mud almost as badly as the Americans, but with just a little more control. Enough control, that is, to keep from falling as often, thereby allowing them to dominate the first few places. One crash that did involve foreigners was the one whose outcome would determine the win. Jonsson slipped in the goo and when Kring tried to squeeze between the fallen rider and a trackside tree, they tangled bars. The battle then was to see who could get it started and into gear first. Jonsson won and kept his lead intact. Kring crashed again later and DeCoster smoothly slid into 2nd, with Jonsson’s teammate Hakan Andersson taking 3rd. Pomeroy took 5th behind Kring.

It looked like Pomeroy was going to walk away with the whole thing, something that hasn’t happened to an American since Jim Weinert won the Houston Trans-AMA last year under identical track conditions. Bimbo jumped to a lead in the second go-round and quickly began to stretch it. Jonsson was involved in a first-turn crash and had to be carted off to the hospital with an injured leg. DeCoster was somewhere in the middle of the pack trying to pick up positions in the slimy goo, while the only other rider with a chance at the overall victory, Andersson, was trailing far behind because of his involvement in the same pile-up that took Jonsson out.

Behind the flying American leader was Belgian Harry Everts on the Austrian factory Puch. DeCoster worked his way up to 3rd by mid-moto, followed by hometown favorite Steve Stackable and his Maico.

The bubble burst for Pomeroy right at the end of the moto as he lost the chain on his Bui, allowing Everts the moto win and DeCoster the overall. The problems that the Bultaco team has been having with thrown chains would be enough to make just about anyone give up in disgust. And when the chains hold up, the gearboxes give them problems. That would be Aberg’s undoing two weeks later in Livermore. And the jinx even struck during the week in between.

PUYALLUP

For those of you who know little of Harry Everts, here is some info on him:

Harry is a young Belgian who campaigned a factory Puch in the 250 class in Europe this year, finishing 3rd in the World Championship behind the Champion Moisiev (KTM-Penton) from Russia and runner-up Jaroslav Falta (CZ). This was Everts’ first fully-sponsored year on the GP circuit, and although his debut was less dramatic than American Jim Pomeroy’s first-race GP victory in Spain in 1973, Harry’s consistency, along with the outstanding reliability of his motorcycle, netted him a much higher overall placing in the standings during his first year than Pomeroy earned in his. Many Belgians are hailing him as the new Joel Robert as they look for someone to replace the semi-retired legend who brought their country six world titles, five in a row.> Both records may never be equaled, but the Belgians sure think Everts has a good chance. In any case, Harry won his second race and took his first overall victory of the series at the Puyallup, Washington track.

Facing their third rainy weekend in a row and second mud-o-cross in as many weeks, the riders continued to slip, slide, crash and burn in the mucky gorp, much to the delight of the spectators. Not that the spectators enjoy seeing riders crash, but the constant inconsistency that mud provides, made for the innumerable position changes that always keeps spectator interest alive. And the rain and mud didn’t deter many spectators from coming to the races. In all, more than 11,000 came to see Everts’ victory. Roger DeCoster, who won the second moto after a first-moto 5th, took 2nd on the final scoresheet. One of the real surprises of the day was Yamaha's Japanese pilot Yukio Sugio, who carried a 4th and a 6th into an overall 3rd. Japan is as motocross crazy as we in the states are and it is reflected in the quality of their riders. Sugio and Suzuki’s Koji Masuda are prime examples of the rider level that the Orientals have attained.

First American of the day went to Rich Thorwaldson, but the best single ride was Mike Hartwig’s 2nd place in the first moto. Hartwig is particularly good in the mud and the track certainly had its share of that.

LIVERMORE

Due to handling difficulties, Honda abandoned its four-stroke 350 and got a couple of big-bore two-strokes ready for the Trans-AMA series. Rich Eierstedt who normally rides nothing larger than a 250, had a little trouble controlling the extra power early in the series, but by Livermore he had it down pat. Taking the lead in both motos, Rich held off Aberg for the majority of the first moto before tiring and falling off the pace to finish 5th. Bengt Aberg eventually overtook Stackable, who was in 2nd, and closed on Eierstedt. Waiting until Rich began to tire, the Swedish Bultaco ace and overall winner at the Motocross Des Nations moved in swiftly once he felt the leader’s pace slacken.

Eierstedt’s Honda teammate Rex Staten paced himself well enough to finish 4th in this moto, but like most of the competitors, there would be very little similarity between his finishing positions in the two motos. Aberg was the only rider who appeared to be consistent, as he ran a solid 3rd in the final leg behind DeCoster and Weil, who were tangling fiercely in the lead after early leader Eierstedt fell, finishing 17th. But the Bultaco bummer struck Aberg once more; he sheared the mainshaft in his trans and DNF’d with less than two laps to go. DeCoster was handed the overall win since he took the checkered in the last race. This victory secured the series title for the dethroned Belgian. Willi Bauer made it a one-two sweep for Suzuki, their second of the series.

Rider inconsistency was the order of the day at Livermore and was borne out by overall finishes in light of riders’ individual moto finishes. For example, Adolf Weil finished third OA with moto finishes of 16th and 2nd. American Mike Runyard, who was 4th overall, had a 14th and a 4th. Part of the inconsistency could be blamed on the thick dust that clogged many an air filter. That problem cost Pomeroy a good overall finish; and the dust bug also bit Stackable. Twice.

SADDLEBACK

The CYCLE WORLD Trans-AMA finale featured some of the finest racing I’ve ever had the pleasure of witnessing. The series title had already been awarded to Roger DeCoster, but there was in excess of S1 5,000 in prize money to be given away at Saddleback’s rough and tumble track on this December Sunday. You know that each and every rider was giving it his all for a piece of the purse.

Yamaha’s Pierre Karsmakers, riding his last race for the monoshock people (he signed with Honda during the week succeeding the race), took a 1st and a 2nd into the winner’s circle ahead of DeCoster’s 3rd and 1st. Pomeroy, who was 2nd to Pierre in the first race, had a chance to take the overall, but in the final moto he could neither catch leader DeCoster nor hold off Karsmakers. It was Pierre’s day and he wasn’t going to be denied. He passed Pomeroy in the middle of the second moto and was content to hold his position and earn lst-place money.

Meanwhile, Pomeroy, whose engine mounts were beginning to crack, was being pressured by Jimmy Ellis’ Can-Am and Gerrit Wolsink’s Suzuki. Wolsink got by Ellis, but it was far from the easiest pass he’s ever had to make. In fact, it took him nearly the whole moto to do it. He charged after Pomeroy on the final laps, but Bimbo gassed it up and pulled away. Pomeroy was 1st American overall in the series, with Brad Lackey 2nd.

Adolf Weil lost his first Saddleback race this day. Up until this time, the old man of motocross had been unbeatable here and rated Saddleback as one of his favorite tracks in America. Weil finished a strong 4th in the first moto, but looped the bike—redesigning his exhaust stinger and rear fender loop-in the second. Pomeroy was really pressuring, trying to get by into 2nd, when the ageless veteran just fed it too much throttle.

So the battle is set for the GP season next year. DeCoster has proven that he’s still got what it takes and Mikkola, in his only appearance, proved that he intends to give in to no one. The GP races should prove interesting. But next year’s Trans-AMA will hopefully prove to be equally so for statesiders. Especially if Mikkola can make it.

SUPPORT CLASS

Consistency wins in motocross. And one rider who has been consistent all series long is Husqvarna’s Kent Howerton. Kent, from Texas, won the opening two rounds and never lost his points lead. It looked for a while as though Marty Smith, Honda’s 125 National Champ, might overtake Howerton once Smith got used to the extra power of a 250, but the youngster couldn’t do it. Mest of Marty’s problems came from simply gassing it too much. He rarely crashed in corners, just looped it off starting lines and coming off jumps. Either Howerton or Smith was the victor in each of the events, with the exception of Puyallup, where Bultaco’s Kenny Zahrt took the muddy 1st.

Riders in the Support class are being groomed for future competition in the International class. Howerton and Smith are both smooth and incredibly fast. Kent, who has more experience on the larger machines than does Smith, will probably be ready for the big time sooner, but you can bet that Marty, Zahrt and a whole bunch of others won’t be far behind. 0