Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Ward gets a push to t he pits from some fans after his igni tion failed . Rick Johnson (R1) and Jeff Ward (58) lead Mike Kiedrowski (26). Mike Fisher (11). Jeff Leisk (7 ) and Rodney Smith (4 3 ) as the second 250cc Pro moto gets underway; Johnson pulled ahead at the bottom of the hill. A fter ret iring f or two years. Goat 8 reke r is m aking a serious attempt at coming back to ride in Europe this ye~ r ; he won the 500cc Pro cl ass. 10 from Andris, wh o swap ped out of seco nd th en was pas sed by Breker a few turns later to drop to fourth. At mid -m ote Breker made hi s mov e on Watts a nd left him behind, as he set o ut after Vohland. Andris and O'Donnell fought over fourth and O'Donnell won th e figh t. For th e last half of th e moto Breker was char ging and slowl y reeled in Vohland, while Watts had dropped off th e pace. As the white flag flew Breker was right on Vohland. Breker tried to get by on the far sectio n of th e course but was sh u t off. Breker lost some distance when he bobbled in a turn, but fought back and stuffed inside of Vohland a short di stan ce from the finish line. Aft er cross in g the fini sh line Vohland went to . look a t wh ere Breker had pa ssed and appealed' to th e o ff icia ls , but Vohland wa s deni ed. Meanwhile, Watts crossed the line a di stant th ird ah ead of Andris . Europeans filled out the next two pos ition s as former 250cc World champ J acky Vimond of France tookfifth ahead of Englishman Mervyn Ansti e, riding a KTM . Vohland exp la in ed what happened aft erwards. "There's no tires or ribbons, and th e dirt co mes out to a mound. I went as far inside as I thought I cou ld go next 10 the mound and he (Breker) just drove under me; he wen t ins ide of it. Apparent ly as I was leading th e race everybody started cuttin' and going insi de to pass, so he started cu ttin '. I think they need 10 do a better job of l in i ng th e tr a ck . Wh atever happen s, It was a good race." " I got passed th ere," explained Breker. " So I too k th e lin e. I took it the whol e race. . .a lot of guys took it. H e (Vohland) sh ut the door on me pr etty hard; he was riding a little dirty, I thought, so I didn't feel too bad a bou t goin g inside of him since he didn 't give me any room (o n a no ther section of the course). I cam e .from fifth and ca ug h t him, so I was definitely faster than him; there's no hard feelings. I'd lik e to thank Bones and Pro Circuit and all my friends , it's been a team effort. " " In the last 250cc moto I crashed a nd it took th e wind out of me," said Watts abo u t h is second 500 moto. " I was hurting pr ett y bad and just couldn' t go any faster. " Ward jumped into th e lead wh en th e first 250cc Pro rnoto go t underway. Schmit was second but was q u ic kly pa ssed by Lei sk before cras hi ng. Kied row sk i held th ird ahead of Mike Heal ey, Lechien and Rod ney Smi th. After the first lap Lech ien fell back to 10th as Smi th moved to fourth. H ealey went to six th behind Fran k in the mids t of a close battle that al so incl uded G eo rge H olland , Mi ke Fish er and J ohnson , who had begun to move up from his bad start. Ward began to mo ve away on the next lap and J ohnson was up to six th. Just over halfway into th e 10-lap mot o Ward main tained h is lead over Leisk, wh o was losing ground to Kiedrowski. Johnson was now in fourth and within a couple of laps he ca ug ht Kiedrowski , wh o put up a goo d battle befor e being pa ssed. Sh ortl y aft er assuming third Johnson took seco nd from Leisk, who was also passed by Kiedrowski. Lechien was also o n th e gas and moved int o fifth near th e end of the race to set th e fini shing order. Ward took the win followed by Johnson , " Kiedrowski, Leisk and Lechien. ' "I felt good," said Ward, " but I hav e a pinched nerve in my sho ulder 'and I reall y had probl em s hanging on a t th e end ofthe moto. I felt stro ng and I'm in great sha pe excep t for this little tiny p robl em with my shou lder. I felt halfway decent, but not how I should feel. " " I got a terrible start and had to work my way back up, but this is basically a warm up race for me and we're testing some things, so it was actually good for me because it made me push real hard the whole race ," said Johnson. " I was watching the gate, that's what I'm accustomed to in Supercross. I was digging and scratching for anything I could get; I didn 't like riding back th ere . I'm watching Ward (at the start of) the next moto." Johnson must have been watching because he and Ward rounded the first corner side-by-side with Johnson gaining th e edge. Leisk was in third followed by Kiedrowski, who was passed by Fish er and H olland. Johnson and Ward were off and running, leaving .Leisk and Fisher behind. Lechi en moved by Kiedrowski on lap two th en began to close in on Fisher. Ward stayed right with Johnson until hi s Kawasaki 's ignition failed earl y on lap four. A lap later Lechien took third when Fisher n early crashed o n a rough, high -speed stra ig h t. Out front Johnson was flying and had over seven seconds on Lei sk. With two laps remaining L ei sk ba ck ed off his pace and Lechien went by. Although Lechien was on the gas , there was no way to mak e up over 10 seconds that Johnson had on him. At th e finish it was Johnson over Lechien, Leisk, Fisher and Sm ith. " I ga ve a sigh of relief because he (Ward) wa sn 't pushing me anymore," said J ohnson in reference to Ward's depa rture on lap 'four . " Bu t then I th ough t th at this is a warmup race and I wo uld've rather him push me and beat me if he was in better shape. I'm glad th at 'I won , ' but I wish th at he would have kept going to see how it would have turned o ut." When the ga te dr opped for the first 125cc Pro moto it was Ryan in th e lead. A few turns later Ryan hit a big hole in an off-camber tum and stepped off hi s bike. J eff Matiasevich and Smith both ~o t by before Ryan jumped back on In front of Hondamounted Kyl e Lewi s and Kiedrowski. On the follo wing lap R yan was in seco nd, and a lap later, he had tak en th e lead wh en Matiasevich slip ped to third behind Lewis. A co up le of seconds back Brooks led a tight battle betw een Kiedrowski, Schmit, Smith and Pau l Winn. On lap four of the eig h t-lap race Lewis got by Ryan, then a few turns later Ryan repassed him for the lead. Matiasevich fell and handed third to Schmit. Within a lap Schmit had reeled in and passed Lewis , then got (Con tin ued to page 40)

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