Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

a 8 ~ Matiasevich (201 ) gets the jump in Sunday's 125cc main . M ichael Cra ig (7 6) gave Matiasevich a run for his money in Saturday's ma in . Matiasevich has won all t hree 125cc supercrosses so far. H ea t th ree was do m inated by G lover, while Joh nson spe nt the ent ire race ma ki ng up fo r a mid-pack start. Dubach nailed the hol esh ot, but G lover mad e sure Dubach 's lead didn' t last lo ng . In th ird was H eal ey, followed by Pederson a nd Stanton. Halfway into the first lap, H eal ey oversho t a turn a nd cli pped a television came ra ma n, putting th e Cagiva rid er o u t of co ntentio n . Gl over passed Dubach during th e seco nd lap and ran away, wh il e P ed erson, Dubach, Stanton and Johnson diced. J oh nson eventually worked up to second, doing so on the fifth lap, but didn 't have time to catch 27-yea r-old veteran Glover. Pederson held on for third over Dubach and Stanton. Semis The first semi was led from startto-fin ish by Rya n, while Matson and O 'Mar a chased. O 'Mara passed Matson o n th e first lap, but a few turns lat er, Matson surp rised O'Mara by' returning the favor. Matson quickl y pulled a way from O 'Mara and reeled in Ryan. Mats on p ressured Ryan for the nex t th ree laps before go ing dow n in th e wh o ops, h andin g O 'Mara seco nd with Kawasaki rider Lo well Thomson pressing hard in third. Ryan coas ted home for the wi n, co mfortably a hea d o f O 'Mara , who squeaked home seco nd in front of T homson. Ca na dian Allan Dyck, a boa rd a H on da , led the first three laps in th e seco nd sem i befor e sur re nder ing th e top spo t to DeHoop. DeHoop eventu.ally pu lled away from Dyck for the wm. Last Chance Qualifier Team Yamaha's Micky Dymond came from nearly dead last in both Saturday's and Sunday's ma in to finish f ifth and fourth . 8 went wide in a sharp right-hand turn, a nd Ward sn uck by on th e ins ide. But th e race wasn 't over. With one turn to go before th e finish line, and with Kehoe ready to retaliate] Ward chose a bad line and was slowed by two lapped riders. Kehoe move m for the kill. The Suzuki pilot dove to the inside, passed Ward, an d sto le th e win. An angry Ward, shaking his fist a t one of the lapped riders, took second, with Holland, Kalos and Bowen a lso advancing stra igh t to th e main. Kehoe 's last turn pass on Ward ea rned him th e "Coors Cool Move " award and the weekend's second $500 check fro m Coors. .The LCQ was won by Thomson. who passed early leader Frisz during the sixth lap. Matson was in th e hunt in third, but clipped a high-speed double jump and crashed out of co ntention. T homson fin ished less than a bike length ahead of Frisz . Main Ward nailed a picture-perfect holeshot a t the start o f the final , but Lechien quickly dov e ins ide of Ward to steal the lead. " I ' had the hol esh o t but Ronn ie dove u nderneath me and roosted bad in every corner," said Ward. Dubach settled into third j ust ahead of Kehoe, Schmit, Glover, Frank, Kalos, DeHoop and Johnson. Dymond had a so-so start but stalled his motor in th e whoops a nd dropped to last place. " I wasn't trying to pass or get wi ld or anything, I was just trying to get through th e first lap; I wa s boxed up, " said Dym ond. " Everybody got a fra id of the ruts or something, and they just slowed up into th e turn, a nd I had to sto p a nd wait for them, but 1 sta lled (the motor)." After co m ple ting one lap, Lechien was on th e gas a nd leading Ward, Dubach , Kehoe, Schm it , Gl ov er, H olland, Kalos and J ohnson. During lap two, Dubach a nd Kehoe co ll ide d with both rider s going down. " Dubac h swapped in th e whoops going into a turn; hi s rear wheel swapped right in fron t of me, and 1 T-boned him and went over the bars," said Kehoe. "I bent m y brake lever straight out. and my clu tch lever bent straight down , so 1 had no rear brake or clutch for th e rest of the race." " I just slowed down to ho ok the inside because th e la p before 1 went wide and Erik went on th e inside," said ' Dubach . "So thi s tim e 1 went on the inside, a nd 1 don't kn ow if he wa s expecting it or not; he may have had too much drive and he hit me right in th e side." Both riders regrou ped in th e back of th e pa ck. By th e fou rt h la p , Lechien and Ward had a lrea dy built up a 12seco nd adva nt age over third place H olland, and Glover, with J ohnson now in fifth. J ohnson pa ssed both Gl over and H olland during th e next two laps bu t found o u t there was a l7 -second gap betw een himself and Ward , who was o nly three seconds behind Lechien. By the halfway point, with Lechien clicking off 53-second lap times, the d istance between Ward and Johnson got. even bigger - 20 seconds. It was obvious at th is point that Jo hnson wo u ld n't ca tch e i ther Kawasaki rider u nless one of them fell. A few laps la ter Lechien was leadin g Ward by a full six seco nds, and Ward was ahead of Johnson by approximately 17 seconds, and the race became rather du ll, except fo r Dymo nd 's climb through the pack. He was picking off riders with ease until he passed Holland for fourth. When th e ch eckered flag dropped th e top 10 riders were very spread out with Lechien taking a n easy victory, four seconds a head of Ward. J ohnson finish ed a long way behind Ward, while Dymond too k fourth. Rounding o u t th e top five was H olland. Gl over , Leisk, DeH oop , Pederson a nd Bow en mad e up the to p 10. J ohnson 's bad start di d the H onda rider in. " I cou ld n' t see wh ere th ey were going. 1 mean, wh en 1 got into third. , th ey were a lrea dy four turns a head of me," sa id Johnson. " I co u ldn ' t ga uge an ything, so 1 was trying to make up tim e, but it was just hard. They were riding reall y good. 1 just shou ld've gone faster." " Gett ing a good start was somethi ng 1 needed to do ," sa id Lechien. "That's something 1 haven't been doing. I' ve been concentra ting o n getti ng good starts a lo t, a nd it worked out for me. Once 1 got ou t into th e lead, 1 was just worried about trying to stay up. It 's so rutty ou t there that it 's hard to stay smooth. 1 knew Jeff was back there, but 1 knew he wo uldn't do anything (Continued to page 13)

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