Bailey Outduels Johnson in Main Event : He Wins Second Supercross Title Before 70,035 at Anaheim Stadium

Honda factory riders David Bailey and Ricky Johnson teased a sellout crowd of 70,035 at Anaheim Stadium Saturday night with a game of give-and-take in the Coca-Cola Supercross season opener.

The duo exchanged leads six times in the 20-lap main event with Bailey ultimately claiming a victory in front of the eighth consecutive sellout at Anaheim.

Johnson, who joined Honda this season after a long tenure with Yamaha, led for the opening 13 laps and then the chase began. At one point, the lead exchanged hands three times in the space of only 30 yards as the big crowd roared with delight.

Bailey finally took a commanding lead on the 18th lap and became only the second rider to win twice at Anaheim. Bailey also won in 1983. Kent Howerton, now retired, won in 1979 and 1981.

The race also introduced a new era of production motorcycles, and, judging by the tight, competitive racing, it appears that the return to low-cost racing is here to stay.

Every factory rider was competing on a production bike similar to the ones sold at dealerships throughout Southern California. No longer were the riders aboard exotic, $70,000 works bikes that featured expensive gearing, suspension and brake systems.

The change generally meant a difference of about $60,000 per bike as the emphasis was on cutting costs and gaining some parity in the sport. In theory, every rider would have a chance to win.

On the race track, Jeff Hicks began a night of surprises and setbacks as favorites Jeff Ward and Johnny O’Mara were shocked in their opening heat races.

Hicks won the first heat, and the surprises continued in the second as Scott Burnworth won his eight-lap heat. Neither is a factory rider, but both were competitive on their production bikes.

Ward, the defending series champion, barely had a chance to get acquainted with the Anaheim track. Ron Lechien, a new rider for Kawasaki, knocked teammate Ward off the track on the opening lap of their first heat race, and Ward was out for the night with his 15th-place finish.

Lechien won the heat race, but he certainly didn’t make a good impression with his new employer. In the fourth heat, the riding returned to form as Johnson held off Bailey to gain the win.

The results of the opening heat races only reaffirmed that racing on the production bikes promises parity in stadium motocross racing. Yamaha team manager Kenny Clark had pushed for the move for two years.

“I think it’s a good idea,” he said. “I think it’s going to bring a lot of new people into the sport. Before, the situation was that a young rider was beaten before he started.

“Yamaha has run production bikes for two years, and I don’t think we were under a disadvantage. We came close to winning the series last year (Yamaha’s Broc Glover lost the title to Ward by two points), and it gave us a good head start for this year.

“I think you’ll see even more changes to go to more straight production. Just take the bike out of the box and race.”

Yamaha gained the reputation of producing better production bikes than works bikes three years ago when Johnson, a young privateer, beat factory rider Glover on a production bike in several races.

But Bailey said the new rule won’t change the racing results.

“The new rule is not going to make that much difference,” he said. “It’s not the bike, it’s the rider. You won’t see a privateer win the main event, and they’ll be on the same bikes were riding.”

The only basic changes that can be made to a production bike are modifications to the suspension and power band and an addition of a rear disc brake. The bikes have the same frame, gas tank, engine case, cylinders and clutch as those sold in the shop.

Roger DeCoster, former world champion and adviser for Honda, said he was sorry to see the end of works bikes.

“I think the change will limit the technological development at the different factories,” he said. “I think there should be a class open to works bikes.

“Most of the factories have tried going to production bikes. The problem is, once you’ve developed a bike for the season and it’s not competitive, you’re stuck with that bike for the entire season.”

Despite his misfortune at Anaheim, Ward said he favored the move to production bikes because “it allows me to race the same bike that I practice on.”