Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

third over Bo wen and Suzukimounted Ro ss Pederson of Canada. In th e final heat race, Ward took the hol eshot a nd easily won th e moto, while most of th e ac tio n took pla ce over second. Yamah a 's Broc Glover was running second ear ly o n with Honda 's George H olland glued to h is rear fender. But ha lfway through th e second lap, Glo ver was involved in a spec tac ular get-off over a pl at eau jump. H is fro nt wheel landed between two whoops on top of the p latea u jump and he was headed for a big endo , Gl over hit the . ejec t button a nd j um ped off his mo torcycle in mid-air, but Holl and cam e over the jump a nd p lowed into Glover 's downed Yam aha. Wh ile Holland tri ed 10 break free fro m Glover's bik e, Todd Del-loop, on a Suzuki, slip pe d by in to secon d. Holland got back underway in third, while Gl over regrouped ba ck in eighth. Holland passed DeHoop back during the sa me lap, whi le Glover started his charge up through the fIeld. Moving into fourth was Suzuki's Donny Schmit, who was in his firs t race since dis locating his shoulder in a January practice crash. Schmit worked his way past DeHoop and took over third, while Glover charged into fifth after displacing Cagiva's Mike Healey. When it was all over , Ward took th e win ahead of Holland, Schmit, DeH oop and G lover. For being the only rid er to attempt a nd clear th e triple jumps, J ohnson was given th e Coors Cool est Move award, a $500 check from Coo rs. Semis The first semi had th e cro wd o n its feet. Suzuki-mounted Dean Matso n sto le th e holeshot over Kehoe and Canadian Allan Dyck. Keh oe quickl y stu ffed Matson in a turn, taking over the lead , but two laps later Kehoe go t o u t of co ntrol in a section of rutted wh oops, went off th e tr a ck a n d cr as h ed; Matson bounced back into th e lead . By th e time Kehoe remounted, th e factory Suzuki rid er was in second pl ace but approximately seven seco nds behind Matson. Kehoe set after th e leader and with two laps to go, Kehoe slipped by Matson in the whoops, but Matson retaliated in the next turn. With less than a la p 10 go , Kehoe sq uared-off a shar p righthand turn, cu t in front of Matson 's lin e and cap tured the lead . A few turns lat er, Kehoe crossed the fin ish line for the win , jus t a few inches ahead of Mat son. The second semi was uneventful compa red to th e first sem i as H onda 's J eff L ei sk scored a n easy wi n, although there was a tu ssle o ver second pl ace. Yamaha rider Bill y Frank looked 10 have second pl ace wrapped up but with two laps to go he cras hed hard in th e same pl ace Gl over had bail ed off earlier. At th e sa me time, while runn in g th ird, Suzuki rid er J eff Frisz went off th e track in a section of wh oops giv ing Cagi va rider H ealey second place behind Au stralian Leisk. Third went to Honda-mounted Ri ck Ryan. last Chance Qualifier In th e LCQ Frisz was cruising o u t in front over Rya n and Frank, but Frisz bai led through th e whoops, then bai led again while ru nning third, putting him opt of contention for the night. Ryan found hi mself in the lead with Fran k close behind. Ryan held on for the win over Frank, who took the final transfer position of the night. Main The start of the 21-rider/20-lap main event saw Ward power his _Kawasaki into the lead over Johnson , 00 00 0') ...... Jeff Matiasevich (201) was the rider to beat in the 125cc class. but no one could. Matiasevich topped both days and leads the 125cc Western Region Supercross Series point standings. Dubach, Kehoe, Schmit and Larson. Trailing the front runner s were Dym ond a nd Leisk, both of wh om went down in th e first tum , as well as Glover and Holland. . By th e end of the first lap, La rson had cras hed back to 19th, and Schmit had was hed o ut to 20th , mak ing th e top 10 rid ers Ward, J ohnson , Kehoe, Lech ien , Dubach , Matson, Stanton, Kalos, H eal ey and DeH oop. After two laps, th e field began to spread o u t with Ward running ahea d of J ohnson, a nd Lechie n mo ving in to fourth and pressu rin g Kehoe for third. At th is point, the triple j ump that o nly Johnson had cleared was beginning to p lay a n importa nt facto r, with J ohnson ga ining ' on Ward in th is section. But it event ually didn 't matter because Ward hi t a rock with hi s front wheel heading into a turn a nd crashe d, letting Johnson by. " I came o u t of th e tunnel and there was a roc k in th e groove and my Iron t wh eel hit it a nd I washed ou t," said Ward. At the same tim e, Lechi en sho t past Keh oe and into third, making th e top five Johnson, Ward, Lechi en , Kehoe and Dubach . J ohnson found himself with abo ut four seconds on Ward , wh o was bu sy fen din g off Lech ien. Lechi en dogged his teammat e for th e next two laps before pu ll in g a lo ngs ide Wa rd over a double Jump and passing hi m in the next turn . . " When I fell I pa nic ked. I go t up rea l quick, and I tried to ride rea l fast through the ru ts to catch up, but I started mak in g maj or m istakes. I tightened up," said Ward. " T hen Ronnie got behind me. I trie d to loosen up a littl e bit, but he was pushing me hard, so I mo ved over and let him go by." Once into second, Lechien turned o n th e boo st and se t o u t a fte r J ohnson. Meanwhile, Dymond was o n th e ga s and moving up through th e pack aft er his cra sh. Kehoe, who was all alone in fo urt h , had a scare wh en he tried a different line in a section of whoops and rod e off the track. His Suzuki 's rear whee l ca ug ht a straightaway full of banners, which wrapped up in the hub and spokes. "The banners messed up my rhythm; th e bike wasn't as responsive a nymore, so I had to ride the whoops and doubles differently," said Kehoe , who maintained fourth place over Dubach and Stanton. Up front , Lechien was catching Johnson. Lechi en, who swept the 1985 Seattle Kingdom e doubl ehead er, was charging hard and had the cro wd cheen ng. But two laps later, Lechien suddenly slowed and was looking down at his Kawasaki. " I go t a rock caug h t in my brake, or my chain g uide," said Lechien . " I didn 't kn ow wh ere it was; it felt lik e th e br ak e was stuc k on , or some th ing. I j ust kept riding and it . (the rock) go t Out of there." Th is gave J ohnson pl ent y o f brea thi ng room, and allo wed Ward to close in on Lechi en . But after rea lizing hi s motorcycle was o kay, Lech ien pi cked up his pa ce and p u lled away from Ward. By th e 10th lap, th e field was extremely sp read o u t, with ga ps between Johnson, Lechien, Ward, Kehoe and Stanton, alt ho ug h Stanton was being pressured by the hardchargi ng Dymond. Short ly aft er, Dymond double-jumped by Stanton for fifth, but th e Yamaha rider found ab out a 10-second ga p separating himself from fourth-place Kehoe. Dubach , who was running sixth, cras hed wh en he mi ssed a shift in a turn and fell o ver. The rest of th e r ace was un eventful , a l t ho ugh Lechien was ga in ing o n J ohnson. "T he track is real dema ndi ng and it's hard to ge t that energy to make a cha rge," said Lechien . As th e race wound down , it was just a matter of ho w far J ohnson coul d lap his way throug h the field. By th e lim e th e checkered flag flew, J ohnso n had lapped everyo ne bu t Dymond, Kehoe, Ward a nd Lechien. J ohnson , who swep t last year 's Sea tt le Super cro ss, led Lech ien , Ward, Keh oe and Dymond across th e fin ish lin e. Kehoe's fourth-place finis h was hi s best Supercross pl acing ever. 125cc Main Kawasaki-mounted Matiasevi ch and Larry Ward were the two heat ra ce winners going into th e 125cc main event, a nd when th e gate dropped for the 12-lap final, Mati asevich shot into th e lead in ches ahead of Ward, Cra ig , Davis and J o n Nelson. After Craig blasted by' Ward it became obvious that there was going to be a two-rider battle down to th e finish. For the rest of the race, all eyes wh ere focused on Matiasevich and Craig, as the two speedsters set th e pace. Matiasevich would stretch hi s lead to a few seconds on Craig, but Craig would 'came back and cu t that deficit to o n ly a few bik e lengths. This battle went o n throughout the race as the y worked th eir way aro und lapped traffi c. Back in th e pa ck and flyin g was Kawasaki rider Mike Kiedrow ski. After a so-so star t, Kied rowski zigzagged through th e pack until he had sol e co nt ro l of third place by the eigh th lap. In fo urth was Davis , followed by Ward a n d J immy Gaddis. With th e chec kered flag in sigh t, Matiasevich had ta ken co mma nd and took the win abo u t three seconds ahead of Craig. Kied rowski held on to finish third, while Davis and Ward rounded o ut th e top five. Sunday heats Lechien started Sunday 's racing off with an easy win in th e first heat race. Lechi en blasted into th e lead over Schmit , Dymond and Leisk . During th e .first lap, Dymond sho t past Schmit and started ch asing Lechi en , just lik e Satur day's heat race battle. The results were th e sam e, too, with Lech ien holdin g off Dymond for th e win. . A battle for thi rd raged all moto long between Frank, Leisk, Mat son and DeHoop. T he fight lasted until lap four whe n Leisk slipped past Frank in a wh oop sectio n and pulled away. Leisk wo und up tak in g fourth beh ind Schmit, whi le Frank edged o ut Ma tson fo r fifth . The second hea t race featured a fantastic battle between Kehoe and War d. At the sta rt Kehoe blasted into th e lead ahead of Ward , but Ward mot ored to th e outside of Kehoe during th e first lap and took th e lead. Kalos foll owed in th ird with Frisz and H olland ru nn ing fourth and fifth. During th e secon d la p, Ward clea red the triple jumps for th e first tim e of th e weekend, as did Lechi en in his heat race. But whil e a pproach ing th e triples on th e third lap, Ward 's front wh eel sligh tly slid o ut causing him to lose momentum and land on the face of the third jump. Ward bottomed his Kawasaki 's sus pension on impact, shot off the track and cras hed. Whi le Ward desperately tried getting his bike on course again, Kehoe motored by and int o the lead. Ward managed to hold second, just ahead of Kalos , th en set out after Kehoe. After 'taking the white flag , Ward was in ches behind Kehoe and looking for room to pass. Ward saw his chance when Kehoe 7

• Cover