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/126979
Expert Suzuki rider Buddy Antunez (76) wrapped up the M inicycle Grand National Championship w ith first and second place finishes. M ike Kiedrowsk i (4 ) captured the Motorcycle Grand Nationa l Championship t itle . His best f inish was in the 250cc Stock Pro class. Pros Jeff Mabery (5 4 ), Kiedrowski (4) and Kyle Lewis (7 7) battle early in the 250cc class. NMA/Coca Cola Motocr.oss Grand National Champ-ionshiR Antunez, Kiedrowski victorious at Ponca City By Troy Scott PONCA CITY. OK, AUG. 3-9 . Suzuki rider Bu ddy Antunez and Kawasakimounted Mike Kiedrowski captured the 12th Annual National .Mo tosp ort Associatio n Minicycle and Motorcycl e Grand Na tio na l Cham pions hi p ti tles at Ponca City' the grand finale f . ' f 27 ' o a. ~enes 0 reg io na l qualifiers , held all across th e 16 U n ited States. Antu nez to ok th e Minicycle Ch ampionship with a first pl ace fini sh in the 83cc Stock Expert (12+) class , a nd a second in the 83cc Mod ified Expert (12+) class, whi le Kiedrowski used consistency to wrap the Motorcycle G NC. Kiedro wski finis hed second a nd third in the 250cc Sto~k and M~ifie~ Pro clas~es, a nd ~ .th u d and ninth m th e !2:Jcc Mod ified and P ro classes. More than 1500 rnot ocrossers from as far away as Canad a a nd New Zealand a ll co nverged just o u tside the sma ll to wn of Pon ca Cit y. Man y of ' the factori es. suc h as Ya maha, Suzuki a nd Kawasa ki, were on ha nd to help a nd su p port the rid ers who needed it. The firs t da y a t Po nca begins wi th the seem ingly end less task of qual- ifyin g the 1563 rid ers through 59 even ts a nd six straight days of racing. TIle fin al run-off motos took place Su nday, th e fin al da y of racing, and 20 mot os were held. The track itself was co nsidered good and safe by most of th e rid ers. Approximately 2600 tons of new dirt was hauled in for the race. There were no do uble jumps or any obsstac le considered " da ngero us" by the rid ers. T he first run-off moto Sunday was th e Stock Int ermediates. Low point rid er going into th e run-off was Kawasaki-mo urned Tallon Vohland who went in with a 1-3 rnoto score fo r four points. The o n ly rider within reach of Vohland was Honda rider Ri ck Sim me t who had six po ints . Next was Ph il Lawren ce a nd hi s Yamaha with 10 points. Wh en th e ga te dropped for th e start of th e deciding mo to, it was Si m mer blasting into th e lead followed by H o nda rid er Pa u l Cortez, Voh land and Jason Langsford . Voh- • la nd sta rted working o n Cortez, and th e two riders began ca tch i ng immet, Head in g down a long straigh t. Cortez held th e thro ttle open a nd took the ins id e line, edgi ng by S im me r fo r th e lead . H o we ve r , S im rne t q u ic k ly re ta lia te d and stuffed passed Cortez before he cou ld th in k about pu lling away. Back in . second, Cortez and Vohland were going at it again, and Vohland fou nd th e opening he needed to snea k a ro und Cortez. On th e next lap, Cortez dropped wa y back. giving third 10 Mike Durbin. By th e halfwa y p oint, it was Simmer slightly ahead of Vohland, the n followed Durbi n , La ngford a nd Lawrence. Wit h two laps to go, all eyes were focused on the Simmetl Voh la nd due l for the lead , and Voh land made hi s move in th e long stra igh t, passing Simmer for go od . At th e same tim e, La ng ford dove under Durbin for third. Vohland went on to tak e the win a head of Simmer, Langford a nd Durbin. In th e 83cc Stock Intermedi a te (12+) class, Mike Bro wn ja mmed his H onda into th e front of th e pack. Brown was chased by points leaders Will y Bowden and Tim Hod es. The to p three rid ers spe nt th e e nt ire rno to p lay in g fo ll o w-the leader. and it was H odes who had hi s wor k cu t out for him . In order to wi n the overa ll, he had to pass Bowden a nd bea t h im . But his hopes quickly vanished wh en he clipped th e side of th e track and was sent over th e handlebars. H e quickl y remounted, still in control of third place, but H odes lost sig h t o f Bo wden. Bro wn wo n the rno to but had a high 12 point score, wh ich pretty much knocked him out of contention for the overall. Bowden finis hed second for the overall, wh ile H odes wrap ped up second 0 1A. T h ird overall went 10 Yamaha rider Ch ad DeH oop . Going into the run-off moto in the 250cc Stock Pro divisio n, Ya maha rider Do ug Dubach a nd Kawasakimounted J eff Matiasevich were tied for th e lead with three points each. Second in points was Mike Kiedrowski (Kawasaki) with seven. . Wh en th e ga te dropped , however, it was J ay Mann (Ka wasa ki) stealing th e ho lesho t with Yamaha rid er Scott Chesser, Du bach , Kawasa ki-armed L o well T homso n, Matiasevic h, Chris Young (Ya ma ha) and Jeff Pestan a (Ya ma ha) in clo se pursu it. D u bach wasted littl e tim e in taking cont ro l of the lead. Chesser, wh o was runn in g seco nd , crashed a n d surrende red his posi tio n to Pestana, who was working his way u p with Thomson a nd Mat iasevich hot o n hi s rear fender. Mari asevich was on th e move, however, as he