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/127127
th e o ther riders because 1 wo n ," add ed J ohnson. Johnson earne d $1000 from th e $22,000 purse, plus co nti ngency pr izes, for his victory. Kehoe pocketed $408 plus contingincies. 250cc National Ward gra bbed th e early lead at th e start of the firs t rnoto foll o wed bv Yamaha 's Stanton , Kawasaki team ster Mike Fi sher , J ohnson and Kawasaki-m ounted Tom my Waits. J ohnson quickl y passed Fish er on the first lap, th en go t by Stanton to take seco nd o n lap two. H onda's J eff Leisk broke into the top five on lap two wh en he also passed Watts. Ward stre tched h is lead o n Johnson t~ more than th ree seconds by the third lap, bu t on the next circui t Johnson was closing a nd moved in on Ward 's rear fender. Leisk was o n th e move and took fourth behind Stanton when he passed Fisher; not far behind Suzuki-mounted Brian Man ley a nd Vohland fought for sixth. G lover trailed in sevent h and Watts had fall en back to eight h. _ J o hnso n go t by Ward o n la p five o f th e 30- mi n u te-pl us- two- la ps moto , whi le Lei sk moved in o n Sta nton to begin a tou gh ba ttle for third that wo u ld last for most of the race. J ohn son p ut a co up le of secon ds on Ward over the next co uple of laps a nd Leisk fou nd his way by Stanton. Gl over was on the move, as was Lech ien right behind him, and had worked up to six th . This mad e th e order J ohnson , Ward , Leisk , Stan to n, Fish er, Voh la nd, Glov er, Lech ien and Manl ey a t the halfway po int. Ward managed to briefly close the gap on J ohnson bu t the n lost all th e ground he'd made up as he stru ggled wi th an ai li ng clutch . " "The adj us ter came loose and backed all th e way in," said Ward. " I ride wi th o ne fin ger (on the clutch ), a nd it com es to my f ingers a n d I ' m sti ll goi ng, so I lo st everyth ing. " Stanton kept tabs on Leisk for th e next severa l laps, Vohland passed Fish er and Lech ien was dogging G lover. At one point Ward seem ed to slow dra stically, but he was soo n back o n th e gas and closed in on Johnso n wit h only a few la ps remaining. Stanton sudden ly ha d third all' to himself as Leisk fell back to wi th in ra nge of Vohland. Over the clos ing laps J ohnson was on ce aga in able 10 pull away from Ward as th ey threa ded through traffic, and J ohnson look the win wit h more than five seco nds 10 spare. Ward was seco nd, way ahead of StanIOn. Vohland was charging on th e last lap and moved into fourth as Leisk once again fell back beh ind Glover and Fish er. Lechien, Manley and Suzuki ' s Johnn y O ' Ma r a rounded out the top 10. " I lost my clutch about the fifth lap," said Ward after the mo to, " With ou t th e clutch 1 tried to make everything smooth , and th en I' d overshoo t somethin~. 1 couldn't pull the clu tch in and h it th e rear bra ke and skid (into th e corn ers), so 1 lost ground. 1 clicked off some reall y goo d la ps a nd caugh t up, but th en lost momentum. I cou ldn' t keep th e front end down and was a lmost loo p in g o u t." J ohnson go t th e jump on th e pack as th ey ente red turn one for the start of the second rnoto , but somebody sla mmed him a nd nearly sent him down. Suzuki-mo unted J eff Frisz exi ted th e turn with th e lead ahead of Ward , J ohnson , Gl over, Vohland, Fi sh er , Ya m ah a -m ounted Shaun Kalos and Leisk. Getting bumped lik e he did ma de J ohnson mad and he quick ly tu rned th at energy into 00 00 0") ....... Ric.k J