Larry Lawrence | July 6, 2016
The 1985 AMA Supercross Series was one of the most hard-fought titles in the history of the series. There were eight winners in the stadium series that year, all of them would become legendary riders. There was a mix of riders, brands and personalities and there were five riders in the hunt all the way to the last event. In the end Kawasaki’s Jeff Ward, who only won a single race that season, came out on top the champion, by just two points over Yamaha’s Broc Glover, with Honda’s Ron Lechien, Rick Johnson on a Yamaha and factory Honda’s Johnny O’Mara all very much in the picture as well. The series ended in controversy after the AMA assessed Ward a light penalty for riding backwards on the track in the final round at the Rose Bowl. Protests flew and an appeals board ultimately decided the title. It was a difficult ending to what was otherwise an epic championship battle among all-time great riders.
The Miller High Life Superbowl of Motocross, as the series was billed, began at San Diego’s Jack Murphy Stadium. In an historical oddity, the ’85 AMA Supercross Series races would be decided in a motocross format, with the scoring of two motos deciding the overall winner. In San Diego Johnny O’Mara had perhaps the first-time distinction of winning an AMA Supercross without ever taking the checkered flag first. His 2-2 in San Diego gave him the victory over Glover and Johnson, each who’d won one of the motos. Glover had the overall in the bag while running second to Yamaha teammate Johnson in the second moto, but he crashed late in the race and O’Mara slipped by to finish second and take the overall.
After his San Diego miscue, Glover was out to set the record in round two on a chilly evening in Anaheim, and he did just that. Going 2-1 Glover took the overall victory over Kawasaki teammates Jeff Ward and Mark Barnett and with it Glover held the series lead by two points over Ward and Johnson.
Ron Lechien and his factory Honda were unstoppable in the Seattle Kingdome doubleheader stop of the series. Lechien won three of the four motos of the double header and walked away with a convincing sweep of the two rounds. It marked the only two-race winning streak of the series. Glover was consistent, winning the first moto of Saturday’s race and finishing second overall both nights, left Seattle with a 12-point lead in the series over Rick Johnson.
The series moved east to Atlanta’s Fulton County Stadium at the end of February and 46,000 fans showed up to watch Mark Barnett score an historic victory, his last ever in AMA Supercross. “This one feels as good as my first win,” a jubilant Barnett said after scoring a 2-2 to earn the Atlanta SX win. Lechien and Wardy finished second and third on the night. Glover, who took fourth, was still leading the series, now by 18 points over Lechien and Ward who were tied for second.
It was another race for the record books at Daytona, as Honda’s Bob Hannah watched as one leader after the other fell by the wayside. Hurricane was able to master the challenging Daytona Supercross track and become the first three-time winner of the race. It was a thriller as Ward led, got completely stopped by lap riders causing Hannah to hit him from behind, putting Ward on the ground and Hannah into the lead for good. Hannah would win by 12 seconds in the only race of the season that wasn’t a two-moto format. Fittingly it would turn out to be Hannah’s final AMA Supercross victory.
Glover chipped a bone in his left wrist and this would make a major difference in the championship. In spite of the pain Glover finished fifth at Daytona and still hade the points lead by 12 points over Ward, but the wrist would bother Glover for the remainder of the series.
Round seven was at the Houston Astrodome and it proved pivotal. Ward broke through to score his one and only victory of the season with a 1-2. Keith Bowen and Johnny O’Mara rounded out the podium finishers. Ward’s win combined with an ailing Glover’s 10th, put Wardy into the series lead for the first time, by just two points over Glover.
In Orlando it was Lechien scoring his third victory of the season with a resounding 1-1. That made him the race wins leader of the ’85 series. In fact, only Lechien and O’Mara (a two race winner) scored more than a single victory in that year’s series. Bowen proved his Astrodome result was no fluke and again finished runner up, with O’Mara rounding out the podium. As a result, the series left Orlando with the closest points battle in Supercross history. Ward held just a one-point edge over Glover with three rounds remaining. Not only that, but Lechien’s victory moved him back into the championship picture. He was only four points back from Glover.
At the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Rick Johnson put his name on the list of ’85 Supercross winners. Johnson finished ahead of Jeff Ward and David Bailey in Dallas. Ward’s second gave him 10 points breathing room on Glover, but suddenly Johnson was surging and now third in the standings and confident that the closing two races in California would go his way.
The penultimate event of the ’85 series was at Los Angeles’ Memorial Coliseum and it was David Bailey scoring the victory in front of 46,500 fans, making him the eighth rider to win a Supercross that season. Glover surged back to finish second overall in L.A. in spite of his sore wrist with Lechien third. That meant Glover and Ward, who finished a sub-par sixth, were tied in atop the standings going into the final round. Lechien was only four points back and Johnson still had an outside shot at the title, 10 points out of the lead.
Another oddity of 1985 was the long three-month wait for the final round of the Supercross series, which didn’t happen until Aug. 17 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. The finale, watched by nearly 42,000, was filled with controversy.
Glover finished fifth in the first moto ahead of rival Ward. That meant that it was winner take all in the second moto. Whoever finished in front of the other would win the title. All eyes were focused on them in the second moto. As the early laps shook out it was O’Mara leading Ward with Glover right there in third. Glover knew he had to get by Wardy to win the title. Ward established a gap on his rival, but in the closing laps Glover pulled out all the stops and on the last lap only a bike length separated the two. The crowd was on its feet, realizing they were watching the battle for the title materialize before their eyes.
A slight bobble by Glover ended his challenge of Ward and his shot at the title.
Ward was thrilled with scoring his first Supercross championship. “I knew Broc was gaining on me,” Ward explained. “I was content where I was. I wasn’t going to try to pass O’Mara, I just wanted to keep Broc behind me. I had some bad starts and some crashes earlier in the evening, but I never lost my momentum, which was key.”
While it appeared Ward had clinched the title, Yamaha thought otherwise. During a heat race Ward crashed on a jump and then rolled backwards down the jump to bump-start his Kawasaki. Yamaha sought to have Ward disqualified, but the AMA had only issued his a $500 fine. Kawasaki pointed out that Ward was docked a lap for the infraction and was forced to ride a Semi to qualify for the event and felt the AMA had done the right thing.
A little over a month after Pasadena an appeals board denied the protest filed by Yamaha and Ward was officially named champ.
The series ended with controversy and many felt had the AMA stuck with precedent established in earlier events, Ward very likely would have been DQ’d and Glover would grace the record books as the 1985 AMA Supercross Championship. Yet in spite of the contentious way the series was decided, there’s no denying the ’85 AMA Supercross season will go down in history as one of the all-time best.
