This Week in Kawasaki SX History: Anaheim '87
Thursday, February 3, 2011 | 11:00 AM
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This week the racers are heading on over to Anaheim Stadium for the fifth round of the AMA series and their second visit to the Big A in Anaheim. So let’s get talking about the opening round of the 1987 Supercross series—which also took place in Anaheim..
Tensions were high and the holeshot was grabbed by Kawasaki’s Jeff Ward but defending champion Rick Johnson struck fast and made a move. Shortly after that, Ward slammed his way by RJ and the dogfight between the top two stars of the day was on.
Ward on his way to victory at round one in Anaheim.
Photo: Moto Verte
Two laps in and Johnson, trying to catch the very fast Ward, crashed and knocked himself out over a set of triples. The race was red flagged. It was a shock to everyone to see Johnson sprawled out on the Anaheim track . Remember, fellow Honda superstar David Bailey had his career end in a crash just a few weeks earlier, and Johnson laying motionless on the track shook everyone up.
RJ would eventually get up under his own power, but his night was over.
Ward, Kawasaki’s stalwart rider for years and at this point a three-time AMA National Champion, was happy to get his year off on the right foot. One year ago, Ward came to the first race at Anaheim ready to defend his 1985 SX Title, but disaster struck when his throttle cable broke in his heat and denied him a transfer to the semi final. That meant no main event for the Flying Freckle.
Can you imagine if the 2011 defending champion Ryan Dungey didn’t make the main event at A1?
Anyways, Ward’s ’86 season was not one to write home about but in 1987, it was all going to be different. When the gate dropped a second time, Ward roared to the front again with his second holeshot in as many gate drops! From there, the rider wearing number the big number 3 would go all the way unchallenged to the checkered flag. It was quite a statement ride by the man on green.
Ward carried the momentum of his win at Anaheim all the way to the 1987 championship.
Photo: Moto Verte
“It was a big win for me and I remember there was a big jump that only a couple of us were doing,” Ward told me the other day. “I did it for the first two or three laps and then built up my lead and stopped jumping it. It was big!”
Just to top it all off, Ward’s teammate Ron Lechien brought it home in second to make it Kawasaki 1-2 at the opening round. Lechien’s bike was missing a side panel and a rear fender from a crash in the first main and with no time for the restart, Ronnie rode the banged up KX250 that way the entire main. To make it even better, Kawasaki support rider Jeff Matiasevich took his Kawasaki KX125 to a first place in the 125 support class.
All in all, it was the right way to start a season off for Ward and he would indeed go on to claim the 1987 Supercross championship.
Results 1987 Anaheim SX
1-Jeff Ward Kaw
2-Ron Lechien Kaw
3- Broc Glover Yam
4- Micky Dymond Hon
5- Jeff Leisk Yam
6- Guy Cooper Hon
7- Eddie Warren Kaw
8- Keith Bowen Yam
9-Tyson Vohland Kaw
10- Larry Brooks Hon
11- Ross Pederson Yam
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No Suzukis in the top 10!! Was a dryspell for Suzuki for a long time!!! Well Albee had his national Championship in 99 i think but befor that darn I cant even remember when they won a national or SX. Does anyone?
Wardy was such a huge competitor...the 80's would not be regarded as the toughest decade in MX/SX without him. Seriously.
Hannah didn't care for SX @ this point and Johnny O' was still getting acclimated to the screaming yellow zonkers. As for Kehoe & Holland.............who knows, I didn't care. I was all about riding red in those days and after the loss of Lechien in (late) '85, the firing of Johnny O', not to mention Bailey's tragedy, thought Micky Dymond was the next big thing.
I was at the '86 and '87 Anaheim races. I think it was still holding 70K+ then, as I recall. It must have been '88 or '89 when Johnny O'Mara made a comeback of sorts on a Suzuki. I think he was leading the race when the bike broke. As a big Johnny O' fan (O'Mara, not O'Hannah), I was bummed.
Barnett was the fast Suzuki guy in the 80's, Hannah was washed up when he got on it..... I remember meeting DeCoster the first time in 1969 at Cycle products west in Reseda and got his autograph I was 8 yo. Still friends today with Rog... Carmichael really brought it back to Suz.....
If Rollerball had gotten 19th, you would have listed results down to 19th wouldn't you Matthes? : ) 11th place, pretty subtle...too funny!
Thank you, glad you noticed.
Dig that result list, a venerable who's who of industry titans now.....
Hey Mathes, I always like the old time stuff and it looks like only us old timers made comments today in these comments. Ward would have been able to race after the broken throttle cable, I think with the rules now? Hay Carlsbad you seem to know your stuff!!! I Always wanted to race that track but never got a chance. Ya Im from the old days when we had to move our shocks foward in the begining of the long travel I did it myself just like DeCoster did . WE had busted frames and swingarms. Back then production bikes had to have a lot of work to compete with the fast boys.
Bring Larry Meiers Back!!!
I always liked that Sinisalo gear. it was the best
I would love a story about the 88 Anaheim sx. How it was takin over my mickey thompson ent group. How Mickey diamond holeshot on his new yamaha only to crash in the whoops, How O'mara was leading the race on his first suzuki ride.He was a sure winner and blew out the steering bearings. Wardy crashed out over a big tripple. I think RJ won.
anyone got a picture of that jump?i think i remember it being huge back in the day,would like to see how it compares to todays monsters.
You Tube 88 Anaheim and there is a heat race but no main.I was impressed how big the jumps were for back then!
The supercross where 10 times tougher back then than they ar now. I remember Ward, Johnson, Bailey, etc, etc getting STUCK in the whoops.. thats how tough they were. They used to dig trenches in between them, and if you lost your momentum, you were done.. I sen it myself...
@ th what, Mc rode for suk in 97 and won races and fro only won th championship by a few points
Fro should thank MC for the flat in Indy
O;mara's first race on the Suzuki was in 1989. Yes he was leading and his bike broke. I remember the video, he could barely balance the bike. RJ went on to win. He also won the next 4 and then finished second in Atlanta behind Stanton. That was Stanton's first win and just a week after that is when RJ injured his wrist and was never the same. He was clearly the best rider from 86' through the early part of 89' in Supercros and outdoors. I wonder how many more titles he would have won had he not been injured.
Yeah i wonder if stanton wulda had anything for RJ & if RJ had stayed healthy wulda he been able to hang with Bradshaw and MC and JMB. btw suzuki won a bunch with huffman on 125s in 94 & 95.
I have that race on VHS. The jump was pretty knarly. It shot them straight up in the air and the landing was vicious. Not to mention pre 90's suspension.
Try the suspension we had in 74 and cut our frames to move the shocks up I had Koni shocks and just like clockwork at the 15 minute mark the oil would melt and the bike would turn into a pogo stick then I was given Bilstien shocks and it was amazing the first gas shocks privateers could get.
those were the good old days welker. I just bought a '75 mono, instead.