Mike Bell Continues Dominance In Supercross Series
MIKE BELL CONTINUES DOMINANCE IN SUPERCROSS SERIES
RACE WATCH
Mike Bell Out Front in Supercross; Vance Wins Again; Lawson Leads Superbike Production
A springtime session of the AMA Supercross Series saw Team Yamaha's Mike Bell stretching his early-season lead in the 1980 indoor motocross championship. In three weekends of stadium racing “Daddy Long Legs” Bell was able to increase his points margin to 276 points over second place Kent Howerton of Team Suzuki, who has 247 points.
The first race of the spring shootout, inside Pontiac, Michigan’s Silverdome stadium, featured two nights of bashing that saw Bell claiming victory the first night and then coming back the following evening to grab third behind “Rhinestone Cowboy” Howerton and his Suzuki teammate Mark Barnett. Both nights provided the crowd with thrilling finishes in the 20lap main events as Howerton came just one bike length short of Bell in a last ditch effort at the finish line on Saturday night, then came back to nip his Suzuki teammate Barnett for the win in the last 20 feet of the race on Sunday.
Round two was the next weekend’s explosive back-to-back racing inside the world’s largest enclosed stadium, the New Orleans Superdome. Once again Mike Bell took the opening night’s win aboard his OW-40 works 250cc Yamaha, ripping out a huge 12-sec. win over Chuck Sun of Team Honda in front of NBC television cameras. The next night Bell must have lost some of his magic as he could only muster a seemingly distant ninth place
finish in the final as Suzuki’s “Bomber” Barnett battled off reigning 125cc National Champion Broc Glover of Team Yamaha in a fight which went all the way from the start to the finish line.
The third weekend of springtime Supercross warfare was held at Kansas City’s Arrowhead stadium, a new location on the growing indoor motocross calendar. Kent Howerton, present series points leader in this year’s outdoor 250cc> National Motocross Championships, wheeled his RH-250-80 factory Suzuki to his third Supercross win of the season~, after jamming his way past early race front-runners Donnie Cantaloupi and Brian Myerscough. Towards the end of the feature event Cantaloupi was pushed back to fourth place by Bell.
PONTIAC SATURDAY
PONTIAC SUNDAY
NEW ORLEANS SATURDAY
Only three races remain in the Supercross Series and Howerton is determined to try and close the gap on leader Bell, employing the same consistent aggressive ness and speed which has allowed him to dominate in the outdoor Nationals. Howerton felt a special model Suzuki works bike with shorter suspension de signed just for Supercross racing actually hindered his riding earlier in the Series, and that now he has switched to riding his long-travel outdoor National bike in the stadiums he is much more competitive.
Jim Gianatsis
NEW ORLEANS SUNDAY
KANSAS CITY
SERIES POINTS STANDINGS:
