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Jeff Ward (2) and RickJ ohnson (1) were back at it again in the 250cc class.
The two t raded moto wins but it was Ward with the overall.
.
.
'Suzuki 's Erik Kehoe's first-ever National win puts him in front of the
125cc points chase, only seven points ahead of Honda's Ron Lechien.
AMA National Championship MX Series:
Round 4
High Point win
Kehoe's first
By Tom Kolnowski
MT. MORRIS:PA, MAY 26
Suzuki's Erik Kehoe made the most of a flattened rear tire on leader Ron Lechien 's
works Honda and won the first 125cc mota
at the Wiseco National Motocross held at
High Point Raceway, then led
every inch of the way in the
second mota to earn his firstever-National win. As an added
6
bonus, Kehoe displaced Lechieri as
the series point leader in the class and
headed back to his home in Granada
Hills, California, with a seven -po int
cus hio n .
Kawasak i's Jeff Ward continued
h is domination of 250cc class action,
. turning in a 2-1 score to notch his
third win of th e series. The reigning
class champ , Yamaha's Ri ck J ohnson,
was looking for a repeat of hi s win at
H igh Point one year ago, but his 1-3
tally left him second for the day over
Honda 's Johnny O 'M ara and Bob
Hannah. Ward still heads the point
chase over Johnson , 189 points to
175.
Action at th e head o f th e class in
the 500cc di vision again centered
a ro u nd H onda's Da vid Ba iley a nd
• Yamaha 's Broc Glover, with th e end
result a I-I win for Bailey. After losing to Bailey by less than a second in
moto o ne, Glover p assed Bailey early
in m o to two but crashed - severely
bending his h andlebars. While Bailey cruised to the win , Glover sto p pe d
for repairs then threaded h is way
back through the pack to fin ish second
once again. Kawasaki-mounted pri-
vat eer P.hil Larson took third overall
ahead of Hi-Point-supported Eric
Eaton and Husqvarna's Danny LaPorte.
Clear skies a nd temperatures in the
high 70s prevailed for the Racer
Productions-promoted event. Additional sponsors included Pittsburgh's
KDKA-TV2, Kawasaki Team Green,
Braco Trailers', Hi-Point, Scott USA
and Ge ar Racewear.
125cc
Kehoe, in his first year of a co ntract
with Suzuki, was looking good as the
first moto of the afternoon got under
.way. "Actually, I ca me out of the ga te
second (behind Kawasaki rider R icky
Ryan)," sa id Kehoe, "and I went into
the lead heading into th e second
turn. It wa s pretty much clear sa ili n g
a fter that - until Ronnie (L ech ien)
got by me."
Lechien, who had won fo ur stra ig h t
motos h eading in to Mt. Morris, came
off th e sta rt well within the top 10,
but by lap three wa s into second five seconds behind Kehoe. Suzuki's
A.j. Whiting, Ryan, Yamaha 's Keith
Bowen, Team Tamm 's Mike Beier
and Honda Support rider Larry
Brooks were stru ng o u t behind in the
next five spo ts.
Heading into lap eight, Kehoe and
Lechien were running side-by-side.
a n d L echi en sna tc hed th e lead
momentarily. Keh oe ca me right ba ck,
pushin g Lechien a side for the lead
o nce m ore, but by lap n ine, Lechien
had the lead free and clear. Whiting,
Bow en, Ryan, Beier , Kawas aki rider
Billy Frank a nd Bro oks trail ed.
On lap 10, L echi en beg an to slo w,
a nd Keh oe , waiting a few seco nds
behi nd , took the chanc e a nd blasted
o nce agai n into th e lead. " I h it a bi g
roc k o n an uphill ," sa id Lech ien,
" a nd th e rear tube got pinch ed . We
h ad abo u t six laps left , a nd I just had
to ride th e flat o u t. My biggest p roblem was keeping Whiting back th ere."
Whil e Kehoe cru ised out front ,
Wh iti ng was moving Closer and closer
to th e strugg li ng Le chien. On lap IS,
o n e lap from th e en d , Whiting was
close en ough to Lechien to attempt a
p ass. " We were o n th e bottom of a
downhill, " sa id Lechien, " a n d I was
sort of blocking Whiting. He tried to
get inside me ri ght at the corner a n d
went down. T ha t wa s fine with m e. "
Kehoe scored hi s fir st National
rnoto win by nearly 20 seconds over
Le chien, while Whiting recovered to
save th ird . Bowen, H onda support
rider Guy Cooper, Ryan, Brooks,
Beier, Frank a n d Suzuki's Mike Healey rounded out the top 10.
Kehoe was again at the head of the
. pack in the second rnoto, and managed to , avoid a pile-up in High
Point's second corner - a downhill
right-hand sweeper: When the dust
cleared, Lechien and Whiting were
. left on the ground with their bikes
tangled. The two remounted at the
very end of the pack.
Kehoe pulled four seconds ahead
of the battle over second - between
Kawasaki Team Green 's Eddie Warren
an d Frank - by the end of lap one.
Cooper, Brooks, Bowen and Beier
were in a line behind the front three.
Lechien took a quick spill at the start
of lap two but immediately got back
up in his sp o t i n the last third of the
pack.
By lap three, Bow en pulled up
behind the Warren/Frank duel and
the three stayed in a tight formation
for a half lap. Into lap four, Bowen
made his move, first passing Frank
then moving, ahead of Warren on a
long uphill. With Bowen into second,
some 10 seconds behind Kehoe ,
Warren an d Frank resumed their dice.
On lap 10, the first four were the
sa m e, but in fifth wa s a charging
Le chien, with Cooper and Brooks
occu pyin g sixth and seventh. By lap
12, as Bowen rapidly moved in on
leader Keh oe, Le chien had swep t his
way p ast Warren an d Frank into
third.
Bo wen 's drive fell two bikelengths
short - Keh oe won , an d Lechien finished a di stant third behind Bowen.
Warren , Frank, Cooper and Brooks
foll owed th e first three home.
In winner 's circle, a swea t-cove red
Kehoe was bubbling. " I can ' t wa it to
get to a phone a nd start m aking so me
phone ca lls, " sai d Keh oe. " Fi rs t I'll
ca ll my dad, th en my sponsors. This
reall y feels great!" Suzuki tea m manage r Pat Alexander patted Kehoe on
th e back then h elped h im o pe n th e
champagne. Keh oe sp rayed the crowd
gathered a ro u nd him th en took turns
kiss ing each o f th e three trophy g irl s.
250cc
Ward stormed out of the gate in th e
first moto and spe d to a five-second
lead over Johnson, Yamaha support
rider Danny Storbeck, Bob Hannah,
O'Mara and Northgate Honda's Tom
Carson after the first full circuit.
Johnson cre p t closer and closer to
Ward during the first five laps, while
Hannah and O'Mara were circulating the track within a bikelength of
each other in their dice over third.
Storbeck was running fifth ahead of
Suzuki's Scott Burnworth, Suzuki
rider Brian Myerscough, Hannah
Racing Products-backed Jeff Hicks
and Suzuki Canada's Ross Pederson.
" I wasn't having too much trouble
keeping up with Ward's pace," said
Johnson , who won last week's Las
Vegas National, "but he fell and it
helped me close in. I finally got
ahead of him (on lap eight) and
pretty much rode my own race from
there."
Ward stayed in a solid second, one
to two seconds behind Johnson, while
O'Mara finally succeeded in his
repeated attempts to pass teammate
Hannah on lap nine, " J o h n n y and I
were having a pretty good race," said
Hannah. " It 's too bad there were two
guys ahead of us ." Hannah also added
that his left wrist - which was broken
in late March - has healed and
wasn 't giving him any problems.
Myerscough moved up into fifth
behind Hannah on lap 12, and in the
last three laps there were no changes
in the top five . Johnson, Ward and
