Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Winner of the 125cc main. Suzuki's Donny Schmit (401) underneath early leader Kyle Lewis and takes over the lead. nlc.-Johnson (1) leads Ward (3).and Ron Lechien (9) early in the 250cc main. Ward eventually passed Johnson and captured the win. around johnson and set out to do battle with Holland, which turned into the dice of the night.· It wasn't until the final three laps ~hen Ward actually be~ reeling m Holland, who was beginning to have engine troubles. . "My ignition started to go, and the bike wouldn't rev out," said Holland. "It sOlinded like a vacuum cleaner." During the last two laps, Ward tried every trick in the book to get around the Suzuki rider, but Holland wasn't about to let Ward by, no matter what. The. two riders banged into each other a couple of times, but Holland held his ground and plainly beat Ward, settin~ the fastest heat race time of the nIght in the process. With it, Holland collected a $1000 check from the Coors Cup Challenge for having the fastest heat race. "I barely held Ward off," said ~olland.. "If it was?'t for the i~i uon, I thInk I would ve won it a Ii ttle easier. I've got tire marks running right up the back of my pants. I bumped him; he bumped me. It was pretty fun." "It was clean racing," said Ward. "I dove in on him and he pushed me out of the corner, then I tried to push him out of me next corner he didn't budge.. If it was any other rider, somebody who didn't want the win as' bad, I would've shut off, but George has gotten really confident. He's really riding well. I like George - he's a good kid, and it's nice to have somebody else up there." johnson wound up taking third ahead of Ryan. Semis The first semi turned into a Brooks/Kehoe affair. Kehoe powered his Suzuki into the front, but Brooks snuck by a few turns later for the lead. Fowler was running second ~fore bailing big time over a triple Jump. Kehoe ~ased Brooks lap after lap, but the pnvateer Honda rider kept his cool, despite Kehoe nipping at his heels on the last lap. Brooks took the win inches ahead of Kehoe, followed by privateer Suzuki rider Scooter Stafford. The second semi was a wild one with Honda-mounted jeff Hicks taking the holeshot. Kawasaki rider Carroll Richardson,. Fisher and Gordon Ward pursued. But 16-yearold, Yamaha rider Shaun Kalos was the rider to beat, 'as he roosted his way up from a mediocre start. Kalos passed at least one rider a lap until he was in second and pressuring Hicks. 1\t the halfway point, Hicks, Kalos, Flsher, Richardson and Ward were just inches apart. Kalos eventually slammed his way by Hicks for the lead, while Fisher did the same to Richardson. Richardson crashed shortly after, also taking out Ward making it a three-way battle for th~ lead between Kalos, Hicks and Fisher. A lap later,. Fisher found a line around Hicks and started pulling away. At the finish it was Kalos Fisher and Hicks. ' Last Chance Qualifier Twenty riders lined the gate for the LCQ with just the winner transferring to the main. Hicks gated perfectly, ahead 'of Stafford and Gordon Ward. But Ward on his Hond"a' was the rider to watch as he shot passed Stafford and took off after leader Hicks. Three laps later, Ward dove inside of Hicks for the le~d, then Stafford also displaced !llcks. For the remaining five laps, It was a one-on-one dogfight between Ward and Stafford, in which Ward prevailed. Main Twenty-one riders made up the 250cc main eventl and when the gate dropped it was johnson and Ward side-by-side heading into the first turn with Lechien and Warren edgin~ in on the ou tsiEie. After roundIng the wide, sweeping, bermless, blue-grooved first turn, johnson edged put in front ahead of Ward Lechien, Warren, -R"an, Hollaftcl and DUbach. By the end of the night, the track had become very dried out, slick and du~ty~ making throttle, brake and clutch action extremely difficult for the riders, especially johnson with his tender, but now bandaged finger. johnson, Ward and Lechien had pulled away from the rest of the pack d.uring the first three laps. The three nders followed each other in tight formation, while finessing their factory mounts around the slick turns. By the seventh lap, Lechien began dropping off the pace, giving Ward room to breath. "Once Ronnie dropped back," said Ward, "men I could try some different lines. Since me track is so tight, if you try to make a pass on s~mebody, the guy behind you Gm suck you. So I had to just sit there and wait." At this point, Ward began trying different lines and surprised johrtson by sneaking around the Honda rider through an inside line in a turn that led into a triple jump. With johnson going wide, getting plenty of running room for the wide triple jump, Ward went to the inside. Despite a short runway, Ward triple jumped from the inside groove (which only a few riders had previously done) and passed johnson for the lead. In the next turn, johnson rammed Ward from behind but was unable to faze the Kawasaki rider. "I passed johnson," said Ward, "and I don't think he expected it. I think he was frustrated, and when we'went into the next turn, he tried to knock me down. He lost more time than I did." "I had one bad line," said johnson. "That was a big problem, 'cause that's where he passed me. Ward came on the inside of the turn and over the triples, and he jumped right next to me. I mean, I had two bike lengths on him going into the turn so it was my mistake he passed me.': Once into the lead, Ward slowly pulled away from johnson. "My finger was hurting pretty bad," said johnson. "I couldn't make the transition from braking to acceleration fast enough, so that's wher~ I lost a' lot of my time. He got me in the turns." Halfway mrough the race, Ward enjoyed a three second lead on Johnson, who held a comfortable margin over Lechien. Back in fourth was Holland, then came Ryan, Warren and Dubach, who was hold- ing back O'Mara. The Ryan/Warren/Dubach/ O'Mara/Leisk/King/Pederson bout for the fifth through II th places was fierce. Back in the pack, after suf· fering poor starts, were Kehoe, Dymond and Bowen. Leisk was running ninth before crashing and dropping out of the race. "I got sideways coming out of the .triples," said Leisk, "and I slid out in the off-camber turn and fell down. I guess I had my foot out and someone hit it. There's a bruise on the top of it." The remaining five laps saw little J>

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