Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126943
First-year Junior Steve Azeltine (22n leads 19B6 Junior champ Bryan McDowell during the Junior main; Azeltine won, McDowell crashed. Jorgensen exits tum four during the feature race. riding the cushion on the 5/B-mile horse track at Los Angeles County Fairgrounds. Jorgy jets at PomonaRM By Farren Williams Photos By Mitch Friedman POMONA, CA, JAN. 10 Veteran Camel Pro contender Alex "Jorgy" Jorgensen battled fiercely with heat race winners Pete Hames and Curtis Cannon before finally claiming the 1S.-lap Expert main event at the Suzuki/Mike . . f Kidd Promouons Pomona Hal Mile, held before 3616 fans on the SIS-mile oval at Los Angeles 2 . County Fairgrounds. The event was held in conjuclion with the Nissan Great American Motorcycle and ATV show. Honda-mounted jorgensen look the lead from Hames on lap three and never looked back, leaving Hames to do second-place ballle with Harley- mounted Cannon. Cannon traded second with Hames for much of the race and look over the runner-up position for good on lap 14 when lhe veteran dirt tracker lost the brakes on hIS Dodge Brothers RaClng HarleyDavidson. jorgensen had pulled way OUl in front of the Hames/Cannon ballie by lap 10, bUl an aggressively-riding Hames - with Cannon in tow began closing the gap by lap 13, only to lose his rear binders on the neXl go-around. "I thought I was going to reel him in, but my brake broke about lhe next-to-last lap," Hames said. "From that point on it was just hold on and hope to finish. I'm just glad I finished third." Texan Terry Poovey, lheonly nonCalifornia to finish in the top five, took the distant fourth-place spot, crossing the line just ahead of Fresno's Don Howard. Roundingout the tOP 10 were Michigan's Brian Atherton, Mike Imerbitzin, Darin Balderston of Arizona, Roger Thompson and Chad Felicio. Jorgensen served notice from the beginning that he would be the man to beat by becoming the only rider during Expert qualifying to break the 30-second barrior. Jorgy's fast qualifying time on the over-sized 5/8-mile oval topped the clock at 29.411 seconds. Felicioqualified second fastest with a 30.183 time, and Poovey, who was riding a borrowed Harley-Davidson, filled out the top three positions when he stopped the timers at30.188 seconds. Cannon was fourth fastest with a time of 30.533, and Howard was fifth fastest with a 30.557 circuit; Hames had no official time due to mechanical difficulties, but since there were only II experts on hand he automatically made the main event. Cannon just managed to win the first five-lap Expert heat over Jorgensen, while Hames beSted runnerup Roger Thompson in the heat two, after second place Felicio dropped out of the race with an ailing Wood! Rotax. Hames nabbed the holeshot at the start of the Expert main, and traded the top spot with jorgensen for the first couple of laps. Jorgensen pulled away on lap three, leaving Hames and Cannon to argue over second, then set a hot pace until a few laps from the finish. "I tried to slow it down a bit near the end," Jorgensen said. "I would go high, run in the deep stuff, and square the corner. They (Cannon and Hames) definitely had me worried the whole time. When they're running that close, you're always worried about them." Cannon, who was elated with his second place clfort, credited his performance to not giving up. "I know they have a lot more experience and I knew I JUSt had to hang in there with them," said Cannon, who adrni tted he had some problems. "I couldn't see. I had lost all my tearoffs by the fourth lap, and to make matters worse my throttle grip was slipping off and I couldn't keep it on the gas. I tried to keep my hands on the handlebars and every now and then wipe my face shield. jorgy would get in front of me and when all that spray hit me I would have to slow down." "All that spray," was produced [rom a cushion track surface thal had been a quagmire before the event. The track had been so wet that promoter Kidd hired two helicopters at a cost of $400 an hour each - and had them hover over the track for two days to dry it out. The result was an almost perfect cushion, but the track