On This Day in Moto: May 18

On This Day in Moto May 18

May 18, 2018 4:35pm
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May 18

1979

Suzuki's Kent Howerton won the Southwick AMA 250 National over local hero Mike Guerra on a Husqvarna and New York KTM rider Frank Stacy. Series points leader Bob Hannah, who had won the first four rounds of the series and was on a 15-moto winning streak going back to the previous season, finished tenth overall after breaking his pinky finger on a fence post while battling with Howerton for the lead in the first moto.

Southwick was also the opening round of the 500 Class Championship, and Suzuki rider Danny LaPorte went 1-1 in the sand to take the overall win ahead of Yamaha-mounted "Rocket" Rex Staten and his Suzuki teammate Darrell Shultz.

1980

Over in Europe, U.S. title hopeful Brad Lackey had a 3-3 day in Finland, and the Kawasaki factory rider took the points lead over Belgian Honda rider Andre Malherbe, who went 4-1 at the Ruskeasanta circuit. To see how Lackey's whole campaign went that season, check out our friend Gilou's amazing results site MeMotocross.fr. (Click here for a PDF of the results.)

Back at Southwick for the 1980 125/250 round, Kent Howerton again took the overall in the 250 Class, but local privateer JoJo Keller stunned the motocross world by winning the second moto aboard a Moto-X Fox-sponsored Honda CR250. Keller ended up second overall with a 3-1 score while New York's Frank Stacy placed third overall on a KTM.

In the 125 Class, Yamaha's Broc Glover went 2-1 to top the 1-4 of another extremely fast New Englander, Honda-backed Rich of Ghent, New York. Suzuki riders Brian Myerscough and Mark Barnett followed, then Kawasaki's Jeff Ward. 

1996

One race after his perfect season was broken up in St. Louis by Kawasaki's Jeff Emig, Team Honda's Jeremy McGrath obliterated the field at the series-concluding Denver Supercross at Mile High Stadium. Suzuki's Ezra Lusk was second, with Emig third. All told, McGrath would end the series with 14 wins and one runner-up finish, racking up 372 out of a possible 375 points. No one knew at the time that after four championship seasons with Team Honda, Jeremy would start the next season aboard a Suzuki.