Team Rundowns

TEAM RUNDOWNS

The Rich Get Richer

Jim Gianatsis

The AMA's new plan for 1978 to restrict riders to just one class in the national championships has caused the major Japanese teams to go shopping wholesale. Where they used to be able to shuffle riders from class to class, they now have to maintain larger teams to keep all the classes covered.

For two motocross giants in particular. Honda and Suzuki, it means two riders in each of the three classes— 125cc, 250cc and Open. As Honda Team Manager Terry Mulligan put it, "If we're going to try and win a national championship in 1978 we need to cover all the classes. And once you've got one rider in a class it's foolish not to put a second rider in there to back him up, especially if something happens to him at one of the races to put him out of contention. Logistically it doesn't cost us much more; perhaps an additional $50.000 to hire another rider, because all the team personnel and equipment like vans and bikes are going to be at the races anyway."

Because of the six-man teams Honda and Suzuki will be supporting this season, their expenses will be higher than ever. Taking everything into considerationequipment, traveling expenses, salaries for the team, contract monies and bonuses— both will have million dollar race teams in just America alone. Total sales of dirt bikes hardly justify the expense, but the manufacturers feel motocross promotes the entire brand if you can come out a winner.

Honda certainly has the most potent team because it has the most money. Honda's I25cc class riders will be Warren Reid and just-hired privateer national winner Steve Wise. In the 250 class it's G P star Jim Pomeroy and another new face to the team, previous Supercross champion and former Team Can-Am rider Jimmy Ellis. Honda's Open class effort features defending national champion Marty Smith, and stiff competition from teammate Tommy Croft. Together with his previous I25cc national championships, Marty Smith is the only rider in America to have won titles in two national classes. Marty hoped this year to enter the 250cc national class, which will be the most competitive and has some of his toughest rivals, but Honda encouraged him to race the 500cc class to reap the promotional value of his Number One plate and to ensure an almost certain repeat title.

Team Suzuki was still in the process of putting its effort together going into 1978 when they swooped down on a promising > new 17-year-old youngster named Mark Barnett to campaign the 125cc class. Three-time 250cc national champion Tony DiStefano will once again appear in that class. After narrowly missing the 125cc national title in 1977. Suzuki's Danny LaPorte goes to the Open class tojoin 1976 500cc national champion Kent Howerton, who has ended his three-year sojourn at Husqvarna for the opportunities offered by Suzuki.

Team Yamaha says what they had last year—an effort that took two major series titles—is good enough. Broc Glover should have an easy time repeating his 1977 title in the 125cc class, since his only real competition—Danny LaPorte and Bob Hannah—will be racing in other classes. Bob "Hurricane" Hannah is Team Yamaha's hard luck star. For the past two years he has been one of the very fastest riders in American motocross, capable of winning nearly every race when his works bikes hold together. Mechanical failures during the 1977 season possibly cost Bob all three national championships along with his chance to become the first American to win the Trans-AMA series. Bob did win two championships in 1977, when he set a precedent for factory riders by winning the Florida Winter-AMA series and the prestigious Supercross series with boxstock production Yamahas—by choice—instead of the factory rider's usual prototype exotica. Backing up Bob in the 250cc class will be Yamaha's 1973 500cc national champion and now development rider Pierre Karsmakers. Rick Burgett will hold things down in the Open class along with Mike Bell, another rider to move up from the 125s.

Hannah seems likely to be the class of the 250cc class this season, especially after outriding Suzuki's Roger DeCoster in last year's Trans-AMA series. Bob missed winning the title by just a few points after suffering two mechanical breakdowns during the series while DeCoster suffered none. Still, Bob managed to win more motos than anyone else, including Roger.

"I know 1 should have won the TransAMA series," says Hannah. "I broke down twice and Roger didn't. He only won by 21 points which is less than you get for a moto win. One time I was leading the race by 30 seconds when I broke. 1 was sure to win, and if I'd been able to finish that race I'd be Trans-AMA champion.

"I wouldn't say I'm faster than Roger. He falls just like everyone else. But he can go fast all the time. Not too many people were consistently fast last year, except perhaps for Marty Smith. It certainly showed in the Trans-ÁMA series who the fastest riders were.

"Maybe I should have won the nationals as well, but you have good and bad luck. I just had a little more bad luck. Yamaha tries the best they can to fully sort out the works bikes before they give them to me, but it's difficult to find all the problems in advance."

Team Kawasaki has always kept a low profile on the motocross scene, especially the last two years when they didn't have any competitive bikes to sell to the public. For 1978 Kawasaki has a whole new lineup of production racers they want to sell, so they've revamped the team. Jimmy Wein ert will center his attention on the 250cc class. Joining the Jammer at Kawasaki will be two riders pirated away from Maico. Steve Stackable, to campaign the 500cc class, and Gaylon Mosier for the 125cc class.

With the big companies having hired off all the name talent available for the 1978 season, the smaller companies were left to go fishing. Husqvarna signed one of its semi-supported riders from the past two years, Chuck Sun. Harley-Davidson laid off its entire MX team after the Trans AMA series and hired a less expensive privateer. Mickey Boone, who showed some potential. One rider laid off by Harley was Rich Eierstedt. He'll try to fill Jimmy Ellis' boots at Can-Am. Maico probably won't have a fully-backed rider (see "Race Watch"), and Bultaco has all but given up marketing dirt bikes in Amer ica.

It's the old proposition of the rich get ting richer and the poor getting poorer. The only private team to campaign the nationals for 1978 will be Moto-X Fox with rider Pat Richter in the 125cc class, but Fox will be receiving support from Suzuki.

You're going to see the same riders out on the track in the coming year. The only thing that's changed is that a lot of the smaller companies involved in American motocross are probably going to fade out of the picture. The AMA's new national championship program brought about a reapportionment of the best riders in the country and handed them all over to the well-financed teams, by putting together a much more expensive campaign schedule. With less stellar talent left to them, the smaller companies will be winning fewer bi~ races and probably selling fewer motorcycles.