MOTOR RACING : Riders Show Off for Sponsors at Anaheim

Motor racing began the 1990s with a record attendance of 65,477 for the Mickey Thompson stadium off-road races last Saturday night at Anaheim Stadium.

Another crowd of that size is expected at Anaheim this Saturday night for the opening event of the American Motorcyclist Assn.’s Camel Supercross series. The Supercross record of 70,315 was set at Anaheim in 1987.

“Anaheim is always special,” said two-time defending champion Rick Johnson of El Cajon. “It’s almost like our Super Bowl. All of the motorcycle manufacturers are located near here and everyone important is watching. All the riders want to get the year off on the right foot for their sponsors.”

Johnson will be starting a comeback of sorts Saturday night. The veteran Honda rider broke his right wrist and tore tendons and ligaments in his arm last March 5 in a spill at Gainesville, Fla. That sidelined him for most of the rest of the year. Before he was hurt, Johnson started last year’s Supercross season with five consecutive victories.

“I found out when I came back at the end of last year that the tendon damage will never be like original equipment,” Johnson said. “But I think when it’s taped properly that I can ride well enough to get back in the winner’s circle. The wrist can’t do what it used to do, that’s for sure, and it forced me to change my riding style, but I’m looking forward to Anaheim.”

Johnson has been busy since the 1989 AMA season ended. He rode 14 races in four weeks in Japan, the Netherlands, France, Switzerland, Italy and England.

“It wasn’t quite the same as riding in a national event, but all the top riders were there and I won five ‘motos,’ including overall in Paris,” Johnson said. “I’ve been around so long it seems like I’m older, but I’m still only 25. I have some good years ahead of me.”

Johnson is a seven-time national champion and is the winningest rider in AMA motocross history with 28 victories.

“From what I saw in the foreign races, and watching from the sidelines last season, I think this is going to be the most competitive season motocross has ever seen,” Johnson said. “For the last five or six years, only a couple of guys contested for the championship. This year there could be four--maybe as many as six--riders going for it.”

The big three are Johnson, Jeff Stanton, the defending Supercross champion, and Jeff Ward of Mission Viejo, the national 500cc winner who finished second to Stanton in the stadiums last year after missing six rounds with an ankle injury he suffered during practice at Anaheim.

“As far as the championship is concerned, I think it’ll be between myself, Rick and Wardie,” said Stanton, 21, who recently moved from Sherwood, Mich., to Simi Valley to be near the Honda training track. “It’s a long season and what I want most is consistency from race to race. My goal is to win the first race, but I don’t want to do anything stupid and knock myself out of the running right at the start.”

Ward, 28, came back from his injury to win the 500cc championship, thus becoming the first rider in AMA history to win all four national championships: Supercross, 125cc, 250cc and 500cc.

“I’m looking forward to starting off healthy,” said Ward, who won the Anaheim race in 1987 en route to his second stadium series championship. “Now it’s time to go out and win some races. The new Kawasaki bike is working really good, plenty good enough to win.”

Ward, who is starting his 12th season as a Kawasaki factory rider, won’t be the only contender on a new machine this year. Johnny O’Mara, 28, a former national 125cc champion from Simi Valley, has switched from Suzuki; and Jeff Matiasevich, 20, of La Habra, is moving up to the big bikes after having twice won the 125cc regional Supercross championship.

“O’Mara is going to surprise a lot of people,” Ward said. “I’ve been training with him and he’s riding very strong.”

Jean-Michel Bayle of France and Damon Bradshaw of Charlotte, N.C., are considered the most likely challengers to Stanton, Ward and Johnson.

Bayle, who won the World 250cc championship last year and the World 125cc title in 1988, replaced Gary Cooper on the American Honda team for the Supercross series. Cooper, third-place finisher in last year’s series, switched to Suzuki as a teammate of Ronnie Tichenor.

“Jean-Michel rides really fast, I mean really fast, and I won’t be surprised when he’s in the winner’s circle,” Johnson said. “He and Damon Bradshaw are definitely the wave of the future.”

Bayle beat Ward and Stanton in a GFI California Winter series race last week at the L.A. County Raceway in Palmdale.

Bradshaw, 17, won the eastern regional Supercross championship and seven 125cc races on a Yamaha. He also won the prestigious Japanese Supercross championship in Osaka the last two years.

MORE MOTOCROSS--Round four of the 14th annual Golden State Nationals will be held Saturday at Sunrise Valley Cycle Park in Adelanto for sportsman riders, and Sunday at Carlsbad Raceway for professionals.

OFF-ROAD--The 17th annual Parker 400 will open the SCORE-High Desert Racing Assn. desert racing season Saturday with a longer event than usual but with the entire course in Arizona. A recent order to protect the desert tortoise that barred off-road vehicles from the California side of the Colorado River forced SCORE officials to schedule the entire event in western Arizona. The new course will consist of three 130-mile loops from the Blue Water Marina. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has limited entries to 500 vehicles.

The Southland Racing Assn. will hold its first Grand Prix of the year Sunday at Glen Helen Park in San Bernardino.

DRAG RACING--A warmup for sportsman drivers entered in the Winternationals will be held Sunday at L.A. County Raceway in Palmdale. The Chief Auto Parts Winternationals will be raced Feb. 1-4 at the Pomona Fairplex.

KARTS--The Los Angeles Kart Club will open its season Saturday with a full schedule of races at Saugus Speedway.

STOCK CARS--Patty Moise, NASCAR Busch Grand National driver from Jacksonville, Fla., bettered her month-old woman’s closed-course record with a lap at 217.498 m.p.h. in a Buick Regal V-8 Tuesday at Talladega Speedway. Moise earlier ran 216.607 to break Lyn St. James’ mark of 212.577.

MIDGETS--Robby Flock and Gary Howard, champions of the United States Auto Club’s Western States series, were honored at the Jolly Rancher Candies awards banquet in Ventura. Flock, who also won in 1986, scored 1,303 points to 1,287 for four-time champion Sleepy Tripp and 871 for Wally Pankrantz. Howard edged Kara Hendrick in the TQ division, 771-720. Dennis Hart, two-time USAC TQ champion, was named rookie of the year in full midgets.

COPPER CLASSIC--Rich Vogler, USAC sprint car and former five-time midget champion, has entered all four races in the Skoal Bandit Copper World Classic Feb. 3-4 at Phoenix International Raceway. Vogler plans to run the 25-mile Western States midget race, the 50-mile Silver Crown series for championship dirt cars, the 25-mile super-modified race and 40-mile stock car main event. Vogler is defending champion in the midget race.

HALL OF FAME--The International Motor Press Assn. voted nine new members into the Motorsports Hall of Fame in Novi, Mich. Inductees include drivers Mario Andretti, Jim Clark, Mark Donohue and Shirley Muldowney; off-road and land-speed pioneer Mickey Thompson, motorcyclist Kenny Roberts, aviation pioneer Glenn Curtis, stock car promoter Bill France and powerboat racer Gar Wood.