MOTO X VOLUME 1 NUMBER 2

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S~ring" Super Series --Round two. "You naughty dirt, make me faw down ... now I'm gonna hit you wid the head" - Greg Upton. (Photo: Gary Whyte) Greg Wilson rounding Nasty bend. (Photo: Gary Whyte) Stylish Steve van Straaten on his Gary Whyte) Me, the muck and my motor. (Photo: Gary Whyte) Moto X S.A. Page 10
HX U.S.A. GAVIN McKELLAR At the beginning of the year I was fortunate enough to tour the U.S .A. by Greyhound Bus, finding it a terrific country with really good Motocross. The 5th Annual Winter AMA series was taking place down in Florida, so I jumped a bus and headed South. It was held at the Jacksonville Track, a very sandy man-made circuit surrounding a small lake which is occasionally guilty of engulfing a rider and his mount. Saturday is amateurs' day, which sees these riders, whose favourite phrase is W.F.O. (which obscurely means to go flat out) really go for it on their heavily kitted machines. These guys are very serious about their racing, in fact, so serious that they travel in vans and motor homes from over a 1 000 miles away just to ride. After a good day's racing with magnificent prizes, the amateurs move out of the pits to sleep around the track leaving the pros to move in. Sunday is very exciting. Like the amateurs, the pros also have elimination heats ensuring that only the best 50 or so riders actually compete. Paying an extra 5 dollars enabled me to get into the pit area to see the men and machines. The first thing that struck me was the excellent preparation of the bikes by the works machanics. Over there, MX draws an immense crowd, a lot of the tootsies wearing racing jerseys with their hero's name and number printed on the back. Jacksonville hosted some really great racing with Bob "Hurricane" Hannah putting on an excellent show in the 250 event. An extremely fast Danny La Porte winning the 125's on his works Suzuki. The next race of the series was at the St. Petersburg circuit which was excellently prepared for the meeting. All starts are by means of a starting gate which is very effective. If anyone happens to jump the start, the race is re-started, the offending rider is turned around to face the other direction which makes a good start that more difficult. At this meeting I was fortunate enough to meet a couple of the top riders who spoke to me readily about S.A. and MX here. Danny La Porte was interesting to speak to, and Billy Grossi is a real comedian, although watching Billy race you wouldn't think so. Tony Distefano would not speak to me till he heard I was a South African, but even then he was still very shy and probably worried about his race. Jimmy Ellis and Bob Hannah were also very friendly, but Bob was so plagued by pit tootsies that he disappeared into the sanctuary of his truck. . Heading west to California, stopped off and watched an interesting race in the Houston Astrodome. A track has been built inside this huge structure which enables the meets to be held at night. The riders really move, the meeting is well sprinkled with wipe outs, in which many riders are usually involved because of the narrowness of the track. The atmosphere is really terrific. It would be fantastic perhaps one day to see a stadium built in South Africa. All in all MX in the States is really great with fantastic amounts of money involved. At a larger meeting one can get as much as 300 Dollars for 10th place! For prizes like this, you really ride hard to be placed. It can only be hoped that in the future we, here in South Africa could meet these standards. Factory rider Danny La Porte seated on one of his works Suzuki's. (Photo: G. McKellar) montt£ia NEW MODELS CHAIN & SPROCKET 199 Main St, Johannesburg TEL.: 23-6894 Tony de Gersigny (Sales) Sarel Jooste (Workshop) cappra-125 VB (D) Moto X S.A. Page 11
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MOTO X VOLUME 1 NUMBER 2

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