Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

fa t~ ~ ~ Tallon Vohland (76 ) was top 125cc Stock Intermediate. Jeff Dement (2 7 ) topped the Jr. .Cycle Stock class over ~zra Lusk (2 9 8 ) and Jason McCormick (84). Phil Lawrence went 3 -5 in the 125cc Stk. and Mod . Int. classes. Rick Simmet (2 3) and Jason Langford (8 0) dice for t he lead in the 125cc Modified Int erm edi at e class . Simmet took the overall; Langford second. -. 18 barely held on over a fast-jump to overta ke T homson. Then Mati asevich set h is sig hts o n Pestana and made his move by slam ming th e door shu t on Pestana in a wide sweeper turn . At th is point. it was Dubach, Matiasevich , Pestana, Thomson an d Young. Pestana was beginning to fade. letting Thomson by. Shortl y after. Pestana cras hed ri ght in fron t of Young. Young clipped Pestana 's rear fender and crashed. too . dropping to sevent h. Kiedrowski and .La Rocco moved into fourth and fifth. Dubach held on for th e win ahead of Matiasevich and Thomson. But Dub ach was lat er disqual ified for what NMA ca lled an illigal shifting mech an ism . T his ga ve the overa ll victory to Matiasevich, Dubach 's mech anic David H ammo nd said. " It wasn' t anyth ing we tried to h ide. Do ug's been runn in g this linkage all year long a nd Kawa- saki kn ows it. I even made sure T ed (Moo rewood, NMA vice president) kn ew abou t it. I stressed th e fact th at i t was differen t. T ed sai d 'no problem ." · Moorewood sai d. " In th e conversation we had , he (H a mmond) as ked me if it was o kay to cha nge th e shifting lever. I said 'yes. no problem .' He never sa id words 'lin kage.' If he had, I wo uld ha ve told him it was okay. but he didn 't." Mat iasevichs m ech an ic J erry Cambell . who first fil ed the protest against Dubach . said. " Hey. J eff is 18 and Doug is 24. and he rides th e Nationals. H e shouldn't even be here, but he is. I kn ow its not a nice wa y to win. but it's a P roducti on class. Hi s bike is no t stock - it's not prod uction.' : The protest th at caused Dubach 's d isq ualificatio n of the moto cos t Dub a ch th e Mo to rcycl e Grand Na tional Ch ampionship ti tle. The 125cc Modified Intermediate class went down to th e wire. Going int o the run-off, th e top points were held by Simmer and Langford; both rid ers had four po ints. Pat Bennett (Kawasa ki) charged to th e front of the pack at the start of th e moto a nd led for nearl y the wh ole lap before Phil Lawren ce, Vohland a nd Simmet 'slipped by. Vohland moved past everyo ne and led wireto-wire. a nd by th e end of the race h ad a 12 seco n d lead. Simmer , how ever . need ed a second place fini sh to secure the class titl e. It was during the third lap when Simmet slip ped underneath Lawren ce in a turn , taking over th e number tWG . position. Simmer held o n for second a t th e finish for the class cham p ionship . Vohl and 's win ga ve him third in th e ov erall s ta n d i n g s, whil e Lawrence wrapped up second. The 125cc Stock Pro cla ss saw Honda-mounted Cliff Palmer jam into th e.early lead only to be passed by Greg Bowen (H o nda). Shortly after, Yamaha rid ers Larry Ward and Dubach took over th e second and third place p ositions, dropping Palmer to fourth. In the la te stages. Ward began to fad e and wound up taking fourth. Yam aha rider Mike La Rocco was working hi s way up through the pack a nd nail ed down the number two position after a sevent h place start. Bowen went on to win th e moto ove r L a R occo , Duba ch . Ward. Pal mer and Chris Young. La Rocco 's second ga ve h im th e class champ io nshi p . Bow en fin ish ed up seco nd ahead of Ward a nd Dub ach. Dubach led Thomson by two points (3-5) at th e sta rt of th e 250cc Modified Pro run-off. Wh en th e gate dropped, Young blasted into th e lead ahead of Thomson a nd Dubach. Brandon Hopkins (Kawasa ki) and Kiedr ow ski were fourth a nd fifth . Dubach event ua lly chased down Young a nd passed him o n th e fourth lap co mi ng d own th e long straigh t. T he rest of th e mot a prett y much remain ed th e same. . Young went on to take th e victo ry, but Dubach 's second was more than eno ug h to clai m th e class victory. Third in th e moto went to Thompson , wh o took second overa ll. and fourth went to Kiedro wski . wh o claimed third overa ll. In th e Pee Wee Modified division, one rid er stoo d above th e rest of th e field . and it was Jason Partridge (Yama ha) who went into th e final with a perfect two-point score. So it wasn 't too surprising to see Partridge storm to victory in th e fin al. This wasn't Partridge's on ly class victory. however. The Yamaha rider from Las Vegas, Nevada. a lso claimed overa ll wins in the Pee Wee Stock, Jr Cycle' Sto ck (6-8) a nd Jr. Cycle Modified (6-8) classes, for four class WIns. Chad Petree claimed second place finish es in both Pee Wee classes. while second place in the Jr. Cycle (6-8) Stock and Modified class es went to Justin Blake (Kawasa ki). In th e Super Mini (12-18) final, Kawasaki rider J eff Emig was th e only o the r rid er to go in to th e runoffs with flawless I-I mota finish es, equalling a two-point score. Emig holeshot and led wir e-to-wire for the class win. Brian Swink (Kawasaki) went into th e final with four points (2-2), while Jack Ricks (Kawasaki) went in with five points. Swink a n d Ricks · were n ev er farther apart than a few inches, battling back a nd forth for three laps. Over the jumps. the two riders never backed off. nearl y taking each other out a couple of times. Finally, Ri cks took ov er sec o n d from Swink through a wid e and sweeping turn. However. three turns later. Swink held the gas on over a table top jump and pas sed Ricks back. The dice remained in top gear right down to the checkered flag with Swink ho ld ing Ricks at bay. Emig easily won. Another exci ting race was the co m p eti tive 125cc Modifi ed P r o class . Going into th e final . Dubach had four points to Young's five. Tied with Young was Kiedrow ski . Young took th e early ad vantage over Dubach and Kawasaki rid er Denny Stephen son. Matiasevich and

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