Cycle News

VOL. 56 ISSUE 3 JANUARY 22, 2019 P111 factory riders, Cooper and Ward, and highly-touted rookie Damon Bradshaw on a Yamaha. Kiedrowski was well back, just inside the top 10 battling with Mike LaRocco and Tallon Vohland. Bradshaw held off Ward to score the first moto victory, a rarity for a rookie. Late in the moto Kiedrowski followed LaRocco, who'd been gradually working their way up, passed Holland. That put LaRocco third and Kiedrowski was fourth in his first moto as a factory rider and he was satisfied with that. "At that point I was young and just wanted to go race," Kiedrowski remembers. "I wasn't thinking that much about where I finished. I was pretty happy about fourth. I didn't have any idea what was about to come." In the second moto Kiedrowski got a lackluster start and ran eighth. But then he started getting into a rhythm and a fast one at that. Holland slid out in from of him and "Kied" moved up a spot. Then a lap later he zapped moto-one winner Bradshaw to take third behind Ty Davis and Cooper. For a couple of laps, Davis, Cooper and Kiedrowski thrilled the crowd with a battle for the lead, but then Kiedrowski kicked it into overdrive, took the lead and quickly pulled away. At the checkered flag he enjoyed a 14-second lead! Bradshaw crashed and could only recover to ninth. And Larry Ward, who'd finished second in the first moto, suffered a DNF when the chain on his bike kept falling off due to a bent chain guide. That meant Kiedrowski's 4-1 gave him the over- all victory ahead of Bradshaw and Cooper. "Things were just clicking," Kied- rowski said of his stunning runaway victory in the second moto. "I was stoked with my bike and I liked the way we had it set up. Everything was good to go." Kiedrowski surprised not just the Gatorback crowd and his fellow competitors, but even himself by coming out of the box with a victory. Looking back, Kiedrowski thinks a key ingredient that helped him win in his first outing as a Honda rider was a week-long practice session he'd had with Rick Johnson earlier that year. "I practiced with Rick at his house for a week and that was a real eye opener," Kiedrowski said. "I kind of discovered then that I re- ally had to step my game up—train harder and longer and ride more." Even after scoring the win in the season opener, few believed Kiedrowski would go on to win the championship. Throughout the sum- mer he was consistent, but it was Bradshaw and Holland scoring most of the victories. Then came Washou- gal, seven rounds later, where Kied- rowski finally won again and proved that Gatorback was no fluke. "Even though there were quite a few races between my first and second wins, I wasn't panicking," Kiedrowski says. "By that point in the season I was focusing on the championship and not necessarily worrying about how many wins I had. I knew they would come, but I will say it felt good to get that victory in Washougal." Kiedrowski won again at Budds Creek in the penultimate round, but the championship was still up for grabs going into the season finale that year, mid-October at Unadilla. Bradshaw was just points behind and even Cooper still had a math- ematical shot at the title. Bradshaw won the first moto and, to top it off, Kiedrowski's bike suffered a flat rear tire. "Fortunately, Unadilla was loamy enough and I was able to still go pretty good, even with the flat," Kiedrowski re- calls. Fast enough that he was able to pass Erik Kehoe late in the moto to finish third. Now just six points separated Kiedrowski and Bradshaw going into the final moto, so there was not a lot of margin for error. Brad- shaw won the second moto too, but everything went smoothly for Kiedrowski that time around and he was able to finish second. That was good enough to clinch the champi- onship by just three points. With all the pressure going into that championship-deciding final moto, Kiedrowski said when he clinched the title, it was more a feel- ing of relief than jubilation. "I remember crossing the finish line and thinking, 'Whoo! I'm glad that's over.'" Kiedrowski would go on to compile a Hall of Fame career, but he still looks very fondly on that '89 season. "It's been so long now," Kied- rowski adds with a laugh, marveling at the fact that it's been 30 years now since that epic '89 season. "I wish you'd interviewed me 15 years ago and maybe I could have remembered more details. But I do remember just being young and having fun and really not feeling any pressure. No one expected a championship from me that first year, so it was more or less a bonus to be able to get that one." CN Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives

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