America Vs Europe = Suzuki
AMERICA vs EUROPE=SUZUKI
At Unadilla's 250 USGP of Motocross, National Champion Kent Howerton Beat World Champ Georges Jobe, and the Winner's Rostrum Was Solid Suzuki
Jim Gianatsis
Kent Howerton came to the grass covered hills of Unadilla Valley Sports Center with everyone expecting him to win the United States 250cc Grand Prix of Motocross for the second year in a row. There was no reason to expect he wouldn’t. In the period since his last victory at Unadilla, Team Suzuki’s “Rhinestone Cowboy” scored the overall victory in the International class of the Trans-USA Series and went on to dominate the 250cc Nationals—picking up the 1980 Championship—to prove that he is the winningest rider in America.
Even though Howerton and other American factory team riders don’t regularly contest the 250cc World Championship, it is generally understood that our own National riders are faster than the Europeans who regularly contest the 250cc Grand Prix races. The 500cc World Championship is the toughest, most competitive class in Europe, the class where the best riders are found. The 250cc Grands Prix are left to riders who can’t cut it in the 500cc class, or to new young riders trying to scratch their way to the top. None of the major Japanese factory teams seriously compete in the 250cc Grands Prix as a result, leaving the class to the smaller European bike manufacturers whose riders usually race productionbased bikes. In all three classes of the American Nationals and in the 500cc World Championship class every Japanese team factory rider has an exotic works motocrosser.
What Howerton didn’t expect when he came to Unadilla this year was the competition he would receive from a teammate he had never seen before. Nineteenyear-old Georges Jobe of Belgium—a first year rookie on the European Suzuki Team—had amassed a huge points lead in the 250cc World Championship leading into Unadilla.
The only fully-supported-by-a-Japanese-factory rider in the class, Jobe held a huge 67 point lead over his nearest rival, Husqvarna’s Dimitar Rangelov of Bulgaria. And yet, the youngster was nervous despite the fact he could afford to lose six points in the standings to Rangelov at the American event and still have enough points left to clinch the 1980 Championship before the last two remaining races in Sweden and Finland. Nervous because this was his first full year in the Championship and he was leading.
Only the year before Jobe was in high school and the unknown protege of former Suzuki World Champion Roger DeCoster, learning under DeCoster’s guidance and racing his practice bikes in selected Grands Prix and other continental events. Now at Unadilla Jobe was anxious over wrapping up the World Championship so he could get back to the seemingly more important task of winning the following weekend’s Belgian National over countryman Raymond Boven.
The strategy should have been for Jobe to ride a cautious race at Unadilla, but he didn’t. Over every inch of knobby-chewed loam it was Jobe fighting Howerton for the overall win. Jobe was mounted on a conventional twin shock RH 250-80 works Suzuki prepared by factory mechanic Raymond Rebull and Jobe’s brother Claude, while Howerton rode the newer and supposedly better monoshock RH 250-80 Floater tuned on by Greg Arnett. Jobe had been offered a choice of the new Floater himself, but since he had won the opening GPs of the year on the twin shock bike he was reluctant to switch mid-way through the season.
Howerton should have expected help in fending off Jobe from more American riders, but most of our 250cc National riders were conspicuous by their absence. Neither Kawasaki or Yamaha sent riders, and Honda just brought Steve Wise. The reasons for the embarassing turnout varied from injuries received at the previous week’s Superbowl Supercross to the difficulty and expense of preparing a bike and sending it, the mechanic and rider all the way across the country from the factory home base in Los Angeles to the Adirondacks of New York for just one race that Howerton was going to win anyway. The only backup Howerton would have came from his own U.S. teammate Darrell Shultz and stateside factory Husqvarna rider Mike Guerra.
The European GP stars, on the other hand, came in full force—some 20 riders. The only top running 250cc class contender not to appear was Czech rider Jaroslav Falta on the factory CZ, fourth overall in the world standings, possibly because of political reasons. Many of the European riders did worse than expected even up against the smaller number of Americans, with many even beaten by American privateers. The main reason was the Europeans just weren’t used to the heat which at Unadilla was in the 90s and very humid. Some also had their problems, like Maico’s bad boy of motorcross, Neil Hudson from England, who was forced to retire after the day’s first moto when he hit his mending broken foot on a large rock. Husky’s number two man in the standings, Dimitar Rangelov the Bulgarian Bruiser, had to retire during the first moto when his badly broken face—stitched together after a Grand Prix crash just two weeks before—swelled shut around his eyes.
MOTO ONE: HOWERTON BEGINS PROVING WHO IS BOSS
For practice on Saturday the track had been three feet deep in grass, but now as Darrell Shultz mowed his Suzuki through turn one to take over the lead of Sunday’s opening moto the grass had been churned to earth. Latching on behind Shultz were Guerra, Jobe, Howerton, Ellis, Martin Tarkkonen, Dieffenbach, Boven and Wise.
Mike Guerra quickly stuffed his production Husky past Shultz half way round the first lap to claim the lead amid the roar of approval of the some 20,000 fans jamming the edges of the course. Next it was Jobe displacing Shultz back another position before moving up to within striking distance of Guerra, powering his way past to claim the lead for himself on lap three.
There was no way Howerton was going to let Jobe run off with the race so easily. He turned up the throttle, rattling his way past Shultz and then Guerra like he was rapping his way down a picket fence, catching up with Jobe on the fifth lap. From there it only took the Rhinestone Cowboy half a lap to check out the soonto-be champion’s riding style, then gas across the inside line of a rough set of whoops to outdive Jobe into a tight lefthanded berm where Howerton slammed the door shut and claimed the lead.
Riders back in the pack were dropping like flies. First Rangelov pulled off because he couldn’t see, then Dieffenbach wobbled his Honda into the pits, suffering from the heat . . . “We had cold weather the last seven weeks in Germany ... I could not hold on.” Next Steve Wise followed Dieffenbach in with a sprained foot caused when he caught it in his own rear wheel, “I felt like a novice out there, doing something dumb like that.”
Finishing positions were fairly well set halfway through the moto. Howerton continued to slowly increase his lead over Jobe the remaining 20 min. to the finish. Shultz repassed Guerra to take up third position. Kees van der Ven, the bright new young star of Maico who won both motos the previous Grand Prix in Holland had a fifth position in the bag. Right behind van der Ven the last half of the moto was Team Moto-X Fox’s JoJo “Machine Gun” Keller on a modified production Honda to claim the top non-factory position of sixth, finishing ahead of Boven, Nicklasson, Hudson (injuring his foot the last lap) and privateer Jimmy Ellis.
MOTO TWO: JOBE MAKES HOWERTON EARN THIS ONE
Jobe’s second place finish behind Howerton in the first 45-minute moto earned him the points cushion he needed to claim the 250cc World Championship. Now, for the second moto, Jobe could go all out as he tried to fight with Howerton for the day’s overall win, which would be the icing on his crown.
Howerton had other ideas. He jumped into the lead off the line with JoJo Keller right behind, trying to hold onto second spot. But Keller, blinded by the roost Howerton’s Suzuki was throwing off its rear wheel, ran off the track and into the hay bales. As Keller picked himself up at the back of the pack Jobe took control of second, followed by Guerra, Shultz, Laguays, Dieffenbach (back out to tackle the heat a little more successfully this time), Ellis and van der Ven. The front runners were already sorted out in roughly their first moto finishing positions and it looked for a moment as if no action would take place. But then, Jobe turned up the wick began closing on Howerton.
Jobe shadowed off Howerton’s rear fender for a lap looking for the right position on the track to take him, then stuffed his way past the Rhinestone studded star on a rough high-speed sweeper. Shultz followed Jobe’s move and passed Guerra in the same place a few seconds later for third. Back a little ways Dieffenbach found himself engaged in a heavy fight for fifth with Laquaye on the SWM as van der Ven closed his Maico up to join the battle. Guerra dropped his Husky, remounted in seventh, was passed by hard charging Kawasaki rider David Bailey, but then both of them moved up a position when it was Dieffenbach’s turn to fall.
RESULTS
For 10 min. Jobe led as Howerton held back about 50 ft. playing a waiting game. Then Howerton moved back up to within striking distance of Jobe, stuffing the front wheel of the Floater Suzuki into Jobe at every corner, yet not trying any all-out attempts to pass. It seemed as if Howerton was cat and mousing, waiting for the youngster to buckle under the pressure from the more experienced cowboy.
Finally Jobe lost his composure in one corner and slid out. Howerton wheeled his bike past to claim a 15-sec. lead, which would last the remainder of the moto and give Howerton the overall win for the second year in a row.
Before the second moto played out Darrell Shultz found that Jobe’s getoff had put the Belgian within striking distance and he tried to pass him. But Shultz got sideways on the uphill jump where he attempted to pass Jobe and fell himself, assuring the positions would remain unchanged. Kees van der Ven took fourth spot, behind the Suzuki sweep but another impressive ride by the factory Maico rider who is certain to be a top contender for the championship next year. David Bailey on the Gary Bailey Motocross School Kawasaki took the top privateer spot for the moto in sixth to give himself an extraordinary sixth overall in his first GP event.
The Bel-Ray 250cc United States Grand Prix couldn’t have been a better day for Team Suzuki as they collected the top three overall finishing positions. Kent Howerton got the win he expected. And a new 250cc World Championship hero was crowned in Georges Jobe, the youngster from Belgium.
