Race Watch
RACE WATCH
Bell and Howerton Win Supercross Openers; First Woman Runs In Daytona 200
FAST WOMEN
Women in racing always attract a lot of attention,mostly because of the nature of American media. You can count on a television talk show host or national general interest magazine to find it oh so unusual that a pretty young thing jumps on one of those . . . those . . . motorcycles and tears around the racetrack. It’s all so unladylike, and so unusual, especially when the woman involved is good looking.
The result is a lot of girls getting a lot of attention and a lot of sponsorship and not getting a lot of results, or at least, not getting a lot of results that really count.
Carter Alsop is a beautiful woman with a whole list of “first woman to . . .” entries in her portfolio, but has been hindered in her racetrack performance by combinations of unreasonably high expectations due to excessive press, uncompetitive machinery, lack of track time, bad luck and an inability to as yet come to terms with the serious business of riding motorcycles quickly, as opposed to talking about riding motorcycles quickly.
Whatever. The point of all this is that Gina Bovaird, 30, is a woman with a lot of attention, a lot of sponsorship and some pretty good results.
Gina has won club races. Not Junior races, not Novice races, but WERA Expert level GP races, riding both a MT125R Honda and a TZ250 Yamaha.
Moving up to the AMA Novice class with her TZ250, Gina had the highest Novice trap speed at Daytona 1979, 141.6 mph. At Sears Point later that year, she led her heat race for two laps and finished fifth, but crashed in the final.
And at Daytona 1980, Gina became the first woman to qualify for the 200-mile Formula One race, riding a new Yamaha TZ500 tuned by her husband. Tom. The Bovairds took a second mortgage on their house to buy the bike.
Riding a TZ500 at all is serious business, and Gina took that one step farther by riding it fast. Cycle World watched with interest as Gina brought her lap times down steadily, consistently during Speed Week practice.
In qualifying, Gina Bovaird rode her TZ500—a motorcycle she had never ridden before Speed Week, and the largest, quickest, fastest GP road racer she has ever been on—around the Daytona road course in 2 min., 14.634 seconds, qualifying 42nd out of 80.
Significantly, Bovaird’s time was just 0.263 sec. slower than Benny Del Monico,> who qualified at 2:14.371 and finished the 200-mile raee in eighth plaee on his TZ750.
Gina ran in the front half of the held until she erashed. uninjured, about halfway through the race.
Gina has already raced overseas, so to speak, in Jamaica. After Daytona, she left for England to compete in several races with sponsorship from Kelly Girl, a temporary help agency, in addition to her usual group of sponsors, including Castre. Hawaiian Tropic, Castrol and Shoei.
Okay, we’ll admit it. You’re reading this piece because Gina Bovaird is a woman. More than that, she’s the first woman to raee in the Daytona 200, and in doing so she went reasonably fast and passed a lot of guys and did a good job.
WORLD ICE RACING CHAMPIONSHIP
The Russian ice racing team won the 1980 World Ice Speedway Racing Championship, held in Eindhoven, Holland. Finishing with team members first and second in 11 heat races and first and third in their 12th and final heat, the Russians scored 59 out of a total possible 60 points in the Championship.
The heats were held over two days, each
team running 12 heats, each heat including two teams of two men each. First place in each heatrace was good for three points, while second paid two points, third paid one point and fourth scored zero points.
Seven countries competed, including Czechoslovakia, Sweden, Flolland, Austria, West Germany, Finland and Russia. Czechoslovakia finished second. Sweden third. Holland, the host country, was last.>
The bikes used are similar to Speedway bikes seen in this country, but with long steel spikes fitted to the tires. Fender-like guards cover much of the circumference of the tires, to protect riders during close racing or contact. To start the fuel-burning Singles before a race, competitors often must first use blowtorches to thin the oil in the crankcases.
Riders interested in European ice racing as a career should report to Siberia for training.
SUPERCROSS SERIES OPENERS TO BELL AND HOWERTON
Chuck Sun crashes over the handlebars as Howerton pulls off with the lead and Wise in close pursuit. Sun remounts to claim 4th.
Ïhe 1980 motocross season got under way at Seattle’s Kingdome stadium with Team Yamaha's Mike “Daddy Long Legs” Bell running away with the Yamaha sponsored douhleheader of the AMA sanctioned Supereross Series. In the two nights of back to back racing. Bell was clearly the dominant rider in the held and did an excellent job of filling in for absent teammate and three-time Supereross Series Champion Bob Hannah, w ho remains out of action w ith a slow ly healing broken leg.
At Saturday night’s Series opener. 29.000 enthusiasts saw Team Honda's new' star Chuck Sun put his RC250 Pro-Link nike in the front of the pack for the first five Japs of the 20-lap feature. Then Bell came on strong to take the lead from the Oregon rider and never looked back. The evening proved to be a complete Yamaha benefit as Bell’s teammates Broc Glover and Marty Tripes also passed Sun to finish second and fhird. Glover, the AMA’s 125cc National Motocross Champion was making a rare "Supereross appearance because it was a Yamaha sponsored event, and even surprised himself with his high second-place .finish. Tripes was racing a YZ250G production bike while all his teammates were mounted on OW 40 works bikes, and for Tripes it was his first race appearance for ramaha since leaving Team Honda last fall.
The start of the 25-rider main event for ^Sunday’s race had two top contenders> eliminated from contention almost immediately. Darrell Shultz of Team Suzuki bailed off hard and was run over by Tripes. Tripes was ablç to resume the race from the back of the pack, but Shultz was left out of the action with a pulled neck muscle.
This time, Bell was not even challenged in the early stages of the race as he led from the first corner to the checkered flag. A long battle for second place between Steve Wise of Team Honda and Warren Reid of Team Kawasaki finally fell to “Texas Tornado” Wise, with Reid being nipped for third on the final straightaway to the finish by teammate Jeff Ward, both on KX250 Uni-Trak bikes. Team Yamaha rider “Rocket” Rex Staten rounded out the top five.
From Seattle’s Kingdome the Supercross Series next traveled to Oakland Coliseum. but heavy rains forced a one week’s postponement of the race inside the flooded open-air stadium as the mud track was cleared out and replaced with sand.
Once the Honda sponsored event got off the line on the rescheduled Sunday afternoon it was Honda rider Chuck Sun once again stealing the hole shot with his ProLink works bike as teammate Steve Wise charged his way up into second, tailed by Suzuki’s Kent Howerton in hot pursuit. Series points leader Bell had dropped his Yamaha on the opening lap of the feature as he landed sideways off a jump, but was able to rejoin the race from last place, eventually working up to 11th by the end of the race to retain his Series points lead by a slim margin.
Up front. Wise hounded teammate Sun for two laps in an attempt to take the lead away, but then as Sun was balked by a lapped rider. Wise crashed into him from behind and dropped his bike. This allowed Howerton to slip into second and go after Sun for the lead as Wise quickly remounted in third. The race turned into a three-way battle for first place at this point and drove the rain drenched crowd into a frenzy. When Howerton pulled up beside Sun coming out of a turn and blocked his line over a rutted jump. Sun went flying over the handlebars, giving the Suzuki rider the lead. Wise tried to retake the lead from Howerton in the closing laps as he pulled right up behind the “Rhinestone Cowboy’’ a number of times, but Wise was just too fatigued from his charge back up to the front after crashing with Sun earlier and Howerton stayed out in the lead to take the win. —Jim Gianatsis
USGP NUMBER 10
The 10th Annual U.S. 500cc GP will be held at Carlsbad Raceway, California, June 22, but an American still hasn’t won the race overall. -4
The first event was won by Sylvain Geboers of Belgium, followed by Ake» Jonsson (Sweden) in 1972, Willi Bauer (West Germany) in 1973 and the incredible Dutch dentist Gerrit Wolsink in 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977 and 1979. Finland’s'1 Heikki Mikkola won in 1978.
Best overall American finishes at Carlsbad include Brad Lackey, fourth in 1971; Mike Bell, third in 1978; Chuck Sun, third in 1979.
Information on the race is available from Grand Prix Motorcross, Box 2820, Mission Viejo, Calif. 92690, (714) 495-6906.
CHIVINGTON IMPRESSES WORK
Dan Chivington finished fifth in the Daytona 250cc Expert race. Normally, that wouldn’t get us too excited. Even the fact that Chivington had to overcome the dis* advantages of running off the track during the race and seizing his bike on the last lap* wouldn’t normally make us pay a bunch of attention, since we are admittedly Superbike and Formula One fans.
But in the pits after the 250cc race, one"' of our reporters was talking to Yamaha Motor Canada’s Bob Work, the man who tuned Steve Baker to the Formula 75& World Championship in 1977, and the man who built the TZ250 that Ron Pierced used to lead each lap of the 1978 Daytona 250cc race until the bike broke. Work said^ that he could have prepared a 198-lb. super-weapon 250 from parts he had seen^ at the factory during a recent visit, and that^ he had asked Pierce to ride it. Unfortunately, Pierce’s fat Honda contract pre-., dudes him riding any other brands, so Work shelved the project.
Our reporter asked Work if he had seen any up-and-coming 250cc riders worth" watching, expecting Work to name Eddie Lawson.
Instead. Work said “Number 46. I don’f, know what his name is. But I was watching him in the Turn Two horseshoe, and he was the only one getting through the turn the way I think a rider should get through it.”J
Number 46 was Dan Chivington. g]
