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MotorTranscript
00:00Drive about 8 miles due west of the Carlsbad Raceway and this is what you'll see, the Pacific Ocean.
00:07Next stop, maybe 3,000 miles to Hawaii.
00:10Not a whole lot left aside from some beautiful blue water, some great fishing and some great surfing.
00:16Beautiful, beautiful seacoast.
00:18But right now, it's back up to the racetrack where we see Billy Frank from up in Orange County getting ready to go.
00:25Frank currently rides in the 5th spot in the overall point standing team, the support rider from Yamaha.
00:31And currently 4th in those standings is Suzuki's George Hollins,
00:34who may be better known to motocross fans for his many successes on the smaller 125cc bikes.
00:403rd in the standings at the present time is Al Cajon's Brock Glover,
00:45the superstar on the Yamaha team who we saw ride into the 3rd spot in the first moto.
00:52And 2nd in points is Jeff Ward for Kawasaki,
00:54a young man who's never done anything for a living but ride motorcycles.
00:57The press used to call him the Flying Freckle, but he's finally having shed that kind of ridiculous nickname.
01:03Sitting in the number 1 spot, the crosstown rival from Al Cajon, Ricky Johnson,
01:08who you saw make that fantastic charge to win in the final lap from Jeff Ward.
01:14So this group and a whole bunch more are set for the start of Moto 2 at Carlsbad.
01:19Everybody's staring at their own individual gate, and they are away.
01:22The final moto, 250 pros, some of the best riders in the world,
01:25and it is Ricky Johnson that's going to lead it through that first left-hand turn.
01:30And that's bad news for the rest of the pack, Brock, it sure is.
01:34Johnson took a while to get to the front on the last moto,
01:37but right now he's saying, bye-bye, I'm going to get out here in front and stay there.
01:41Right behind him, though, is Scott Manning.
01:45And there's some riders who we didn't hear much from in the first moto,
01:47but got a good start.
01:48Behind Manning is Scott Tyler, number 53, Mark Banks in Ford 6X,
01:52and Brock Glover is in the 5th spot.
01:55It's he who now has to play catch-up.
01:57In the meantime, we've got Ward, George Holland, Billy Frank,
02:00and the rest of them kind of stuck back in the field,
02:02and they're going to have to work their way to the front.
02:05And that ain't easy with a whole bunch of good riders out here like this.
02:08Now a guy with the abilities of Ricky Johnson on his home turf,
02:11oh, man, he's going to be tough to catch.
02:14Well, right now he's moved out to a good, long lead on Scott Manning,
02:19almost riding alone in the picture.
02:21Here comes Manning and the rest of the guys,
02:23but you can be sure that the one man in that kind of front group
02:27that has a chance to reel him in is Brock Glover.
02:30And we don't even see Jeff Ward up among the front runners.
02:33It was he who told you, Brock, that this track is getting slippery
02:36and much harder to ride as it dries out.
02:38Well, Steve, as we expected, Glover is beginning to make his move on Mark Banks.
02:43Mark Banks, the Englishman from Suffolk, England.
02:45He rides for Team Honda of England, but right now he's got his hands full with Glover.
02:49Waisman is down. Waisman trying to muscle his way past Brock Glover,
02:53and he lost that one.
02:55Waisman a little shaken up, but he appears to be okay.
02:58Going to sit down and take a big, deep breath and think about that one for a while.
03:01Oh, boy, that's like falling down in front of a freight train.
03:04The first thing he did, no matter how much he hurt,
03:06was to get out of the way of everybody else.
03:08It looks like he's going to be all right, but here comes Glover.
03:12No question about it, Glover is on the move now,
03:15challenging Mark Banks for the third spot.
03:18Mark Banks comes over here like a lot of the Europeans
03:21to kind of do a refresher course,
03:23because they don't get any better than the guys that ride here in Carlsbad.
03:27So right now Glover pushes his way by,
03:30but I'll tell you what, Steve, Banks is giving him a good fight.
03:33Oh, you can bet he is.
03:34There's a lot of competition between especially the English and the American riders,
03:38and the quality of the American riders is so evident here.
03:41The French national champion, the Japanese national champion,
03:44they're not even factors.
03:45That's right.
03:46You talked to the French national champion earlier, and he admitted it.
03:49He said they're really good here, and you can see it right now
03:52as Brock Glover tries to break free of Banks
03:55and hopefully catch up on his rival, Ricky Johnson.
03:58Let's take another look at what caused Russ Wageman to go down.
04:02You can see here he got awful close to Glover.
04:04Glover was not about to give an inch,
04:06and Glover is just the stronger of the two.
04:09Wageman finally just goes right over the handlebars.
04:12That's about as hard as you can get off a motorcycle.
04:14Well, I think he just tried to run as hard as Glover was going through that corner,
04:18and you just don't do that unless you've got extraordinary talent,
04:22not to take anything away from Wageman at this particular time.
04:25Here are a couple of Yamaha riders fighting it out for second spot,
04:29Glover behind Scott Manning,
04:32and it's going to be Glover right there getting by.
04:35So he has moved into the second spot.
04:37Scott Manning simply can't stay up with him.
04:39But can Brock Glover make up the tremendous difference
04:42between himself and the leader, Ricky Johnson?
04:45Scott Manning is now pulling back to third,
04:47Billy Frank, a game-young kid at board,
04:49and Jeff Ward clear back in fifth.
04:51Right. That is Billy Frank and Jeff Ward fighting it out for the fourth spot.
04:55Remember now, Jeff Ward led the first moto for a long, long time,
05:00had kind of a bad start, though,
05:02and the second moto has been trying to work his way through the field.
05:05Jeff Ward, probably one of the quickest riders in the history of this sport, Steve.
05:10That says a lot for Billy Frank to be able to hold him off as well as he is doing.
05:14Billy Frank has had a very fine outing today
05:16against the best competition that you could possibly muster.
05:19And look at this. He puts a few bike lengths on Jeff Ward.
05:22Remember, Ward said he went to a new front tire
05:24because the track was drying out,
05:26felt that he couldn't take the chances in the final moto that he did in the first one.
05:30And now he's pulling up on Billy Frank, waiting for an opportunity to pass,
05:33and here it may come.
05:35No! Ward could not get around him on the inside.
05:38Now going to try him on the outside,
05:40and still couldn't get enough momentum even for the burn shot.
05:43Now it is Ward in front of Billy Frank, or is it?
05:46Oh, and they collide. They are both down and down hard.
05:50Some spectators get jostled around, but doesn't appear to be anybody down there.
05:54Billy Frank took the worst of this. He's in pain, Brian.
05:57He took a hard shot in his left leg.
05:59He's holding his left knee.
06:01Now Ward gets back on his bike and gets back underway,
06:04but not Billy Frank. He is down and he's hurting.
06:07A tough, tough shot Billy Frank took,
06:10and apparently it was that left leg that took the brunt of the collision.
06:14Let's take another look at it now.
06:16Both trying to get into the same spot on the racetrack.
06:19There they come together. Down they go.
06:21And notice Billy Frank's left leg hooked underneath him as he went down,
06:25and that is where the damage was obviously done.
06:28He is going to grab that left leg, and that's a tough, tough break.
06:32What a good ride he was having up to that point.
06:35Well, he was just so aggressive, and he lost it and ran right into Ward.
06:38But the benefactor, the Frenchman in the pink leather is Jackie Vimont.
06:41He is now up to fourth and trying to pass Scott Manning for the third spot.
06:45Notice that Vimont is carrying 70 on the back of his leather, Steve,
06:49but 7P is his number in the race.
06:5170 is his number in France,
06:53and he's carrying this number over here in the United States.
06:56But right now, he doesn't care what number he's got on his back or on his bike.
06:59His eyes are concentrating on Scott Manning immediately ahead of him.
07:04And right now, Manning is holding him off.
07:06Well, Vimont, though, is proving why.
07:08He has been several times the French national champion,
07:11and typical Frenchman, he likes to style it over the jumps,
07:14even though he's trying to pass for third spot.
07:16Well, he's going to try to dive underneath him into turn one.
07:19Can't make it work.
07:21And now, Manning takes that big, long jump,
07:24but he'll go up, huck a hard right, and come parallel,
07:27right back to the other jump and make another one right here.
07:30There's a point on the racetrack where everybody's flying in opposite directions.
07:33Pit signals are off.
07:35The crews are crowding more and more crowded on the racetrack.
07:38They're like bullfighters out there with a pit board.
07:40That's right. The yellow flag is out in that turn, of course,
07:43for Billy Franklin, who is still down there.
07:45But the Frenchman is a delight to watch.
07:47He's a photographer's dream.
07:49Especially with those pink leathers on.
07:52Now you can see George Holland, number 65, on the Suzuki
07:55in the yellow riding suit, closing up on Jackie Vimal.
07:59Notice how George kind of hunches down over the handlebars.
08:02He's got kind of that bulldog driving style.
08:05The other guys kind of stand up on the bars.
08:07George has kind of hunched down over him, and he's a small, compact man anyway.
08:11He has not been running quite as well as we expected him to run in this race.
08:16You know, I thought maybe he'd be right there with a leader.
08:18Well, he's usually very, very competitive on 125s, as we said before,
08:21but certainly not a bad performance today.
08:24Here comes Jackie Vimal, moving up on Manning.
08:28No, don't get me wrong.
08:29Anybody can even stay right-side up on one of these things.
08:32He's doing a great job, much less ride them the way these guys do.
08:36Oh, yeah, and you figure there's over 7,000 riders in the ZMC
08:39and only a couple of hundred pros,
08:41and a half a dozen capable of winning a race like this.
08:43This is the elite.
08:45Okay, there goes Vimal training inside on Scott Manning.
08:48Still can't make it work.
08:49Dirt tracking through that corner, down over the big double drop jump,
08:53and Manning holds on.
08:54Holland right in back there,
08:56waiting for a little slip on the part of either Manning or Vimal.
08:59Holland tries the inside.
09:01Almost caught the rear wheel of Vimal.
09:03Vimal by him, Steve.
09:04Oh, boy.
09:05I'll tell you, this is a terrific three-way duel.
09:07Vimal, Manning, Holland.
09:09What a show.
09:10In the meantime, of course, way up front, Ricky Johnson and Brock Glover,
09:15but Vimal, Manning, and Holland can taste that third-spot money right now,
09:20and they're riding as hard as they can to get it.
09:23Well, viva la France.
09:25This boy is really cooking.
09:26He is indeed.
09:27Pulled out now to a point where, look at this,
09:30Holland trying Manning on the inside off that jump.
09:34Can't make it stick, but here he comes again.
09:37Scott Manning now is being challenged very hard by Jordan Holland.
09:41You described Holland earlier as a bulldog,
09:43and that's the kind of performance he's putting on now,
09:45just gritty, tenacious.
09:47He knows in his own mind he's going to get Manning,
09:49and it's sometimes that mental outlook that will get it done for you.
09:53Well, Manning certainly isn't giving up by any means.
09:55Right now, though, they've got that big jump,
09:58and George Holland carried his bike a little bit farther,
10:02far enough really to take over the number four spot from Scott Manning.
10:07What a race.
10:10Rick Johnson continues to lead it here in dominating style
10:13at the Golden State Nationals.
10:15Right now, he's gathering up a slower rider,
10:18but I'll tell you what, a formidable man indeed.
10:20That is Atsushi Okabe, the current national champion of Japan,
10:26and I'll tell you what, Ricky just blew right by him.
10:29Oh, indeed he did.
10:30The Japanese, in fact, there's a pair of them over here,
10:32hoping to run a number of races this year.
10:35A little stiffer competition might turn them into better riders.
10:37At least that's what the factories hope.
10:39Ricky Johnson, just a superbly turned out athlete,
10:42an excellent surfer, a snow skier, a water skier, he can do it all.
10:46For that matter, so can this man, Brock Glover,
10:48currently running in the second spot.
10:50Who would have thought in such a short time,
10:52considering that motocross only started in this country in 1968,
10:55that guys like Brock Glover would become such highly paid superstars,
10:59travel internationally,
11:00though of the caliber of his two-wheel sport,
11:02his Formula One drivers would be in automobile racing.
11:05Well, Billy Frank has been taken back to his truck in the pit area,
11:08and Brock Yates is over there to see how he's doing.
11:11Steve, I'm with Billy Frank,
11:12who was involved in that little deal with Jeff Ward,
11:14and looked pretty bad at the start,
11:16but it looks like maybe he walked away with just a wrenched knee, huh?
11:20Yeah, at the start, some guy crashed right in front of me,
11:22and I had to slow down, and I came out about last,
11:24but I passed a lot of people going on the outside,
11:27so we were good.
11:28Yeah, you were running real good.
11:30And were you trying to get by Jeff, or how did it actually set up?
11:34Well, he was right behind me for about three laps,
11:36and then he passed me going around this turn,
11:38and I thought I'd get him back on this double,
11:40and I passed him, but I landed in a hole,
11:42and my hand came off the bar, and I just slid over and hit him.
11:45So he kept going, but you were the loser, huh?
11:49Yeah, I think I smashed my knee.
11:50I hope I didn't twist it, though,
11:51because it'll take a long time if I twist it.
11:53Yeah, that hurts.
11:54Well, I'm real sorry that you're out.
11:55You were running real strong.
11:57Good to see you.
11:58A nice young kid is not seriously hurt, Brock.
12:00I'll tell you, we got a good race going on for eighth place.
12:02Scott Tyler, whose number is 53,
12:04his truth, he may say 903, but trust me, he's number 53.
12:08He has fallen from third to eighth,
12:09and Jeff Hicks is right on him, and so has Michael Larson.
12:12They want to push him back even further if they can,
12:14and they've only got about a lap and a half to do that,
12:17to get that job done,
12:18and Jeff Hicks, who has been steadily moving up,
12:20is now trying to overtake a rider who has steadily been moving back,
12:24so that could work out very well for him.
12:26In fact, here comes Hicks, number 21,
12:28onto Suzuki, tries him on the outside.
12:31No, it is not going to work.
12:33That is Scott Tyler, who may say 903 on the jersey,
12:36but he's really 53.
12:37Now it works.
12:38Jeff Hicks, number 21, has taken over the eighth spot,
12:41and that moves Tyler back to ninth,
12:44and Michael Larson, number 54, in that tenth position still.
12:47Well, Ricky Johnson may be a runaway leader,
12:50but we certainly have not had any problem
12:52finding a good race going on here,
12:53and Hicks suddenly gets off the course.
12:55He has stalled the motor, gets it restarted,
12:57so Jeff Hicks really bobbled badly there.
13:01That puts Scott Tyler, number 53, back into eighth
13:03and moves Michael Larson up to ninth.
13:05Well, that was really a tough break for Hicks.
13:07He had pretty well covered it, but look at this.
13:10There is your man heading for victory,
13:13or at least a presumed victory,
13:14Ricky Johnson riding just as hard on this,
13:17what probably is his last lap.
13:19Yes, it is the last lap,
13:21as he was really out of the starting gate, Steve.
13:24I think you're right, Brock.
13:25Until this lap, it looked like on that turn
13:27that Johnson just wasn't using that throttle grip as hard.
13:29And who can blame him?
13:30I'm sure the people he works for,
13:32the people from Honda are saying,
13:34just win the race.
13:35You can win it by 10 feet or 100 yards.
13:37Just win it.
13:38Well, right behind him, of course,
13:40is his arch rival, Brock Glover,
13:42his neighbor, as it were, from Costa Mesa,
13:44so you can be sure that one bobble
13:47is going to cost him the victory.
13:49So, right now, yeah, I think you're right.
13:51Rick Johnson is running considerably slower right now,
13:55and if he had a rear-view mirror on that thing,
13:57he could see that well behind him is Brock Glover.
14:00You know, you see these riders go,
14:02look at how easy.
14:03He's just stroking it now.
14:04Now, you see these riders...
14:05Oh, and there it is.
14:06He wins it with double Vs for victory.
14:09What a ride for Ricky Johnson.
14:11Now, little Whaley celebrating
14:13a well-deserved win here today.
14:15In fact, back-to-back motors.
14:17You can't do it any better.
14:18He's still out there playing and having some fun.
14:20Glover picks up the second.
14:21He deserved every inch of that.
14:23So, two guys from right here,
14:26locals, as it were,
14:27dominate this race from start to finish.
14:30But it was the man, Ricky Johnson,
14:32who did it all, winning them both.
14:34The first one, the first moto, the hard way.
14:36The second one, about as easy as you could hope for.
14:39Literally a flag-to-flag victory in the second moto.
14:42So, he takes that 41-point victory to carry on.
14:45The overall win, 82 points.
14:47Glover second, Jeff Ward third, despite the fall.
14:51George Holland fourth,
14:52George Holland fourth,
14:53and Jackie Beamon for a France fifth.
14:55Well, here they come into victory.