Race Watch

RACE WATCH

Additionally, 15 other U.S. riders will go on club and manufacturer teams. This year’s event will be held in Jelenia Gora, Poland, and is considered America’s best chance for an overall win in years.

Covering Your Carcass

Tearn Roberts/Lucky Strike has some of the best-dressed tires in roadracing this year. Kenny Roberts’ newest tool is an electric blanket that wraps around the slicks used on his team’s Yamaha YZR500, uniformly warming the tires to nearoperating temperature before the bike is rolled onto the track for practice or racing. The tire-warmer concept was first used by Formula One race car teams, and later adapted for motorcycle use by Roberts’ team manager, Paul Butler. Obviously, the tire blanket got a few weird looks and comments at the first race this year, but Roberts chided his critics, saying, “If we didn’t use it, somebody else would have.” And being innovative, as Roberts well knows, can split the difference between winning and losing.

MX Notebook

The Ward vs. Johnson/Kawasaki vs. Honda motocross wars keep raging. Both Jeff Ward and Rick Johnson have been riding injured for most of the season; Ward with a broken ankle and Johnson with a broken finger. Regardless, no one else seems able to beat them. Ward has clinched the Supercross championship, while Johnson has done the same in the 250 outdoor series. Throughout the season so far, the only other riders to win have been Ron Lechien and privateer Rick Ryan.

God Bless Mom, Apple Pie and Ricky Johnson

The 250 Motocross USGP at Hollister, California, couldn’t have come at a worse time. New U.S. Supercross Champion Jeff Ward was out with injuries, and so was his Kawasaki teammate Ron Lechien. And Bob Hannah was jet-lagged-out from months of travel. So the U.S. effort was looking grim.

But Rick Johnson was there and ready to race, and that was all it took to secure a U.S. victory. Johnson took both motos for Honda ahead of an impressively deep field of talented Europeans. Eric Geboers retained his point lead in the world championship series with a secondplace finsh. Cagiva’s hopeful, Pekka Vehkonen, who is second in the points, finished sixth. No Americans are currently in the running in the 250 standings. SI