Hangtown National Motocross
HANGTOWN NATIONAL MOTOCROSS
Mud for everyone and a big zero for Honda
Steve Clark
It dawned one of those days when anybody with brains would pull the covers up around their ears, plop a pillow over their head and go back to sleep. Actually getting up out of bed was just the dismal start of what would turn out to be a difficult day for many. The steady tattoo of rain on my van roof and my inability to see much out of my fogged-up windows, told my groggy and freezing mind that it was going to be a mess out on the track.
But it was also a mess in the pits. The red Hangtown clay turned into allpurpose grease, and the factory teams, with their rolling machine shops/parts warehouses, had to lumber over to the opposite side of the track, where the mud was a little bit friendlier. This last-minute pit area worked fine for the early risers, but was not quite large enough to accommodate all of the trucks. Some frantic scurrying around was in order for some of the riders. Marty Tripes almost had to pit in the middle of a particularly snotty path that was passable only by helicopter, but showed a considerable amount of racing savvy by pitching his van sideways and barely making it through.
Team Honda, or Team Yen as some call it, was conspicuous by its arrival in two huge semis, their sides adorned with color murals of Marty Smith. Honda always seems to have more bikes, mechanics, hangers-on and pit space than anyone. This year’s factory Hondas look about the same as last year’s. Different side panels, forks and other refinements are apparent, but still no major changes. Pierre Karsmakers left for Japan a week after this event, reporte
new works bikes and ’76 production models.
As the 125 practice started, so did the hail. Oh boy, what a great day to race. Mud and sleet are supposed to separate the men from the boys, but this was absurd. The track was an enduro loop for the riders, who were exploring lines, gradually building up berms and digging down to more solid ground. By the first moto the track had improved a little in some spots, but remained hopeless in others. In the ess-turns near the finish line, the mud just got slipperier and gooier as the day wore on, causing several bottlenecks. Trying to tell who was who during the practice laps was impossible; nearly everyone was wearing a rainsuit. Chilling and wet as it was, the riders were not|^ permitted to wear raincoats during the actual racing. The scorers had to be abl to read the numbers on their backs.
Winners of the qualifying motos wer Randy Limbeck and Ron Turner in the 125, Jim Weinert and Gary Wise in the 250. These short 10-minute you'dbetter-get-a-good-start qualifiers are a sloppy and risky way to cull a group of top riders, particularly in the mud. One splash in the face and you can’t see. You’ve lost the start, which translates as, you’ve lost the race. There is also the hazard of a less-experienced rider crashing in traffic and ruining someone else’s chance for a good finish. A better way to sort out the riders would be to hold a timed practice like they do in Europe That
Evidence of the qualifying system’s imbalance lies in the fact that last year’s 500cc first-moto winner, Rex Staten, and overall winner, Mike Hartwig, fade to qualify.
250cc PRO MOTO ONE
The tension before the start of thi year’s first National motocross was elec trie. The two-minute sign went up a people began eyeing the first turn i anticipation. Riders fired up their bikes and photographers focused in on what they felt would be the best shots. Finally the starter turned the oneminute sign sideways and, after the gate dropped, Kent Howerton led the pack through a particularly treacherous first turn, with Jim Ellis close behind. There was an area about five bikes wide that offered good traction; anything wider than that was slop. Howerton and a few others hit it just right, while the rest of the pack lost time slipping and sliding through the slimy outside line. The starting straight was so wet that some of the riders were pulling their tearoffs halfway to the first turn.
The two leaders, Howerton (Husqvarna) and Ellis (Can-Am), rapidly put distance on the pack and staged a passing duel that lasted the entire 40 minutes. To look at them separately gave the impression that Ellis was slightly faster; his bike seemed to rev higher and bounce around a bit more than the Husky. Howerton was a little smoother and a little less spectacular, but ended up the winner after being passed by and repassing the Can-Am rider more than a dozen times.
The race for 3rd place was only a little less exciting, as Tony DiStefano and Jim Weinert were each trying their hardest to be in front of the other. DiStefano finally displaced Mr. Number One at the flag. Both riders seem welladapted to their new motorcycles. Weinert’s Yamaha has a new triangulated swinging arm that looks like the one Mick Andrews designed for his trials bike. They can get away with using smaller-diameter tubing because the triangular design eliminates any previous flex. Jim’s bike also sprouted new forks and a radial head over the winter. DiStefano’s Suzuki looks like Roger’s Trans-AMA bike, except for the Maicostyle forks and triple clamps that^ DeCoster used.
250cc MOTO TWO
Trans-AMA Support class winner Kent Howerton got on his trick G.P. Husky (forget what the ads say about his riding a stock bike; obvious differences between his and a stocker are D.I.D.s, gas forks and a pair of one-off triple clamps that bring the forks 10mm closer to the steering stem), and pulled his second holeshot of the day. The same group that followed him around in the first moto—DiStefano, Ellis, Weinert and Semics—was right behind him again. Only this time Howerton immediately squirted a comfortable distance ahead of the pack and stayed there for the whole race. Second place, however, was really up for grabs, since Ellis, Billy Grossi (Suzuki), and DiStefano all occupied that spot at some time during the race. First it was Ellis trying to hang onto the rapid Husqvarna rider; he stayed within passing distance for about five laps, but ultimately fell. His CanAm was fitted with long-travel S&W shocks in a cantilevered position, Marzocchi forks with an offset front axle and straight-across triple clamps a la Maico, and an up-over-and-down pansion chamber.
Grossi and DiStefano were next line, swapping positions several times for about 15 minutes until Billy starte to pull away. He likes the fast, spec tacular outside lines, even in the mud But DiStefano was never far behind; when Grossi dropped it on the last lap, Tony D. was there to capitalize on his mistake for a 2nd-place finish.
Karsmakers, Weinert and Semics were among the leading riders until all three of their bikes succumbed to mechanical ills. Karsmakers, who was taking different and more difficult lines than anybody, dropped out when his factory Honda ate a chain. Semics’ Kaw seized solid after about 30 minutes, right in front of the pits. And Weinert, after crashing late in the race, restarted his bike only to find that it ran backwards. The same thing happened to his motorcycle last year at the Bay Mare National. Grossi and Ellis finished 3rd and 5th, respectively.
125cc PRO MOTO ONE
The 125 class favorite had to be Marty Smith. He won it easily last year and only a little less easily the year before. But this time around some interesting factors came into play, one of which was painted yellow and black. Yamaha finally found some horsepower. Last year’s potential rocketship evolved into the real thing. It is fast, it handles, and it may be as good or better than the red-framed G.P. Honda. It was impossible to compare the two works bikes this time, though, because Honda, the biggest, fanciest race team in the country, didn’t have enough spares for its G.P. bikes. So Smith and Tom Croft (the team’s new 125 rider from Southern California), were forced to ride modified production models. *
The 125 riders, having peaky engines to deal with, had a harder time staying in control than the 250 riders, particularly in the first moto when the track was at its worst. But that didn’t stop Croft from getting the holeshot ahead of Tim Hart. He kept it for three laps until Hart moved by and started to stretch his lead over the rest of the pack. Dan Turner (Bultaco) moved into 2nd about the time Croft was starting to have mechanical problems, and Doug Raines (Kawasaki) got bumped to 3rd Croft slowed and eventually dropped out. This procession went along smoothly until the twelfth lap, when Hart’s Yamaha threw a chain, letting Dan Turner get by for the win. Hart got things sorted out in time to finish 3rd, and Raines got the 2nd spot. Marty Smith suffered from a horrendous start and was never in contention for the win. But he did manage to work his way up to 5th. • «
125cc MOTO TWO
Fate must really despise 125 Bultacos, because first-moto-winner Dan Turner’s bike wouldn’t fire in time for the second race, forcing him to spectate. Marty Smith got with the program and nailed it, pulling a beautiful secondmoto holeshot. But he could only keep the lead for three laps, because it was Tim Hart’s day and he wasn’t about to let any Honda rider throw mud on his goggles. So he passed the kid in the Captain America suit and proceeded to lap every other rider on the track except Smith before winning the moto and the overall.
Bruce McDougal was maintaining a solid 3rd, but his chain decided that it didn’t like all that mud, so it promptly broke, preventing a 1-3 placing by Yamaha. Smith got a distant 2nd as Ed Cole meandered in for 3rd and Doug Raines for 4th.
The dreary swamp-infested day ended up offering some really exciting racing. Fate may not smile on Bultacos, but she had a warm feeling for the thousands of spectators who came to watch. It was worth getting out of bed for afterall. 0 Jjgj
RESULTS
