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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126896
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Rick Johnson looked to have the win all wrapped up but finished third
instead. He's now five points behind leader David Bailey in the series.
feet for th e start of th e 20- lap main,
which consisted of 21 riders. Johnson, who isn 't kn o wn for hi s g rea t
starts, captured the holeshot like he
did i n An aheim , but this time, Ward
wa s glued to his rear fen der. After
Ward came H o ll a n d , Storbeck,
O'Mara, Glover and Bailey. J ohnson
and Ward began pulling away from
th e rest of th e field, while Ba iley
started working h is way up to th e
front. By th e third lap, Bailey was
third, bu t a long ways beh ind th e
J oh nson /Ward duel fo r th e lead.
Other notables such as O'M ara , G lover, Keh oe a n d L echien were fift h ,
sixth , 10th a n d 11 th .
By th e fo urth la p , Joh nson was
noticeabl y pull ing away fro m Wa rd ,
whi le Bail ey followed , eig h t seco nds
back in th ird. L ap a fter lap, John son 's lead slow ly grew a nd g rew o ver
Ward. O 'M a ra had taken cu stod y o f
fourth a nd was pulling o n Gl o ver.
H oll and h ad d roppe d ba ck to six th ,
a hea d o f Brooks, L echien, Kehoe a nd
Storbeck.
By th e 10th lap (the halfway point),
th e top six riders (Johnson , Ward,
Bailey, O ' Mara , Glover an d Holland )
were qui te spread o ut , bu t Bowen
was closing in on H o llan d . Bo wen
passed H o lla nd two la p s la ter. Johnson's lead on Ward h ad no w grown to
almost five seconds , but six laps from
. the finish, disaster struck. Johnson
la nded short over a triple jump and
crashed fairl y hard. "I just let off on
the gas a little too soon," said Johnson. "I was o n my o wn and there was
n o bo d y around me. It was just brain
fade - stupid."
)
Johnson p icked up his Honda and
re-entered the race in third, five seco nds behind Ward, and a few bikelen g th s ahead of Ba iley. A few la ps
la ter, Bail ey moved to the outside of
J ohnso n o ver a do u ble jump and
passed h is tea mmate. Bai ley fo und
seven seconds separating hi m self from
Wa rd a nd quickly start narrowing
that gap. However, Ward co ntro lled
everything, a nd h e knew the race was
nearing th e end, so he backed off the
pace j ust enough to finis h a bikelength ahead o f Bailey. J o h ns o n fi nished thi rd while O 'Mara and Glover
followed.
" It feels rea lly good to ,win, " said
lWai'd.r -.. ,.wouliPte. ~~tt lUp: there at'
Anaheim , and I'm still in there, but
I've got a lot of work ahead of m e. I'm
just going to keep winning. An a heim really hurt me , but I'm not
going to let it bother me."
"I feel terrible," said Johnson, " bu t
I'm sti ll right there. 1 a in 't givin ' up
yet , I'm going to work m y butt off.
I'm still in second an d five p oints
behind Dav id. "
Despit e ridin g w ith a p ainfull y
sore kn ee, O 'M a ra stays in th e p oints
hunt with h is fo ur th- place fini sh .
" T he kn ee is getting a li ttl e better ,
but 1still have to bas ica lly ride arou nd
it ," sa id O 'M ara. " I 'm j u st tryi ng to
ha n g i n the re ."
David Bailey (above) finished second. George Holland (below) won the
first semi over Ross Pederson and finished seventh in the main.
1 2 5cc
The first 125cc q ua lifier was a
grudge fight th roughou t th e moto
between Mann eh , Keith Turpin
(H o n), Mark Crozier (Hon), Carroll
Ri cha rds on (Kaw) and Craig Cla ncy
(H o n). Honda rider Sco tt Bro wn
grabbed the h ol eshot, but en doed o u t
of th e pi cture. Manneh took over th e
lead , but Turpin motored into the
lead a lap later. A lap later, th e two
traded positions twice, with Turpin
retai ning the lead , but it wasn't for
long. Manneh zapped Turpin, once
again , through a section of whoops.
Turpin got out of shape at the sa me
time, letting Richardson by for second.
However, Turpi n wasn 't finished yet;
he flew by R ich ardso n over a tabletop
jump, but R ich ardson took revenge
and slammed un dernea th Turpin,
re taking second place. That was
enough for T u rp i n . At th e finish , it
was Man neh, Richardson, Turpin,
Clancy Crozier and J aso n U pshaw
(Hon ).
The second and last qualifier was
much simp ler. After passing Kawasaki rider Bryan Bruner on the third
lap , H o nda -m o u n ted Robbie Naughton made it look easy as he romped
home for the win . Yamaha 's Eddie
H icks fo und h is way i nt o seco n d during the second la p a nd stayed 'th ere
for the remainder of the moto. Yamaha
ri der R a y Sommo finished third,
ahead of Surratt and Bruner.
The main event was basicall y a
Ma nneh runaway. The all-black-clad,
H allman-spon so red rider grabbed the
ho leshot a n d jump-ed out to a corn. r 'liIandirrg iead' ove Bi-bner,: E::fJtier . I
Donald Schmit (Kaw), Turpin a n d
Surratt. While Manneh cruised way
out in front , th e o ne to watch was
Surratt, who was clawing and scratching his wa y to th e front. H e eventually found seco n d a little over halfway through the 12·lap race, but six
seconds still separated th e two. Surratt began closing th at gap slowly.
On the fin al lap th ere wer e on ly two
seco nd s between Manneh and Surratt. Heading over the triple jumps,
w hich Manneh had been tripli ng all
n ig h t, th e Yamaha rider came up
short and crashed, g ivin g Surratt th e
win. Manneh recovered for third behind Tommy Watts (Kaw ). ' 'I' m
happy and disappointed," said Manneh afterwards. " T here was a lapped
rider and 1 went off that jump, but 1
didn't have eno ug h speed. 1 saw it
was coming bu t I didn 't think 1
would crash. Late in th e race, 1 was
r