Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Rick Johnson (2) crashed during Sunday's mai n. giving Jeff Wa rd (1) the lead. Later it wa s Ward who crashed and gave Johnson the win. , Ron Lechien finished third on both days. well behind Ward in each event. Here he passes Doug Dubach in Sunday's main. On lap four J ohnson was all over Holland and passed hi s teamma te when H olland got out of shape in the wh oops. By th is tim e Ward was several seconds a hea d, while back in fourth Matia se vi ch led Kehoe, Gl over a nd Lech ien in a tight battle for th e postiti on. Ward's largest margin over J ohnson was nearly five seconds, but after ' lap five Johnson began to slowly trim th at lead . In the battle for fourth Kehoe briefly passed Matiasevich before fall in g in a tight turn and losing severa l positions . Mat iasevich , Glover a nd Lech ien then exi ted a turn three abrea st, 'with Mat iasevich losin g th e fourth pos tio n on the foll ow in g straight. U p fro n t Ward s tayed a few seconds clea r of J ohnson until lap eigh t wh en he got out of shape over th e triples and almos t cras hed upon landing, which all owed J ohnson to mov e in . Johnson pulled alo ngs ide Ward through th e following wh oop secti on, a nd for th e next several tu rn s th e two riders stayed side-by-side until J ohnson wa s finall y abl e to ga in an advant age. Wh ile th is was happen ing L echien had wo rked around Glover a nd was moving in on H olland for third. Back in six th Matia sevich sti ll . kept G lo ver in sight. ' At the halfway point J ohnson had put three seconds o n Ward. A large ga p sep arated Ward fro m team ma te Lechien, who had passed H oll and a lap earlier. Gl over held fifth over Mati asev ich a n d St an ton , whil e O'Mara battled by Keh oe for ninth. Gl over soo n made a move on H oIland but was quickl y rep assed as the two rid ers swap ped fourth severa l tim es until H olland gain ed a sma ll advantage on lap 12. Matiasevich sta yed close behind this duel until he crashed a lap later , all owing Stanton, O 'M ara and Kehoe to go by. Up front Johnson was ch arging and had lapped up to sixth pl ace by lap 15 while Ward struggled after his near get-off, so me 15 seco nds behind. Lechien was still far behind but well ah ead of H olland, who had Yamaha's Glover on his tail once again. Gl over chased H olland for several laps until he flew by th e Honda pilot with just over a lap re m a m mg. On th e fin al ci rc u i t J ohnson cru ised o ut front to the win , nearl y 30 seconds ahea d of Ward . Lechien was a dis tant third, well ahead of G lover, wh o had broken away from H olland on the last lap. O'Mara crossed th e lin e in six th for hi s best finish of the year . " Je ff got a little fu rther o ut front th an I wanted ," sa id J ohnson afterwards. " I just set my sigh ts on him, I 'wa nted to beat him. I don't think Jeff mi ssin g that jump change d th e race, I th ink I was riding faster. It pl a yed a big factor, but I was just riding a little better. I can' t get too confident , th ough . I've go t to say my prayers a nd get eigh t hours sleep and come back and hit it ha rd again tom orrow ." " I wasn 't even thinkin g of going after th em ," said Lechi en . " Whoever gets in fro n t doesn 't have to go th rough traffi c, they ge t to get o n tha t pace ri ght at the sta rt ." " I guess I'm happy with fourth , the guys th at beat me are 1-3 in th e point standings,' : Gl over said. " I used tons of ene rgy (early in th e race) a nd my arms sta rted pumping u p. Once that happen s you have to work twice as hard, a nd I mad e a lot of mi st ak es a n d los t a lot o f mom entu m." "That was a decent rid e consid eri ng I was back ,in th e pac k," said O 'Mara, " I' m pl eased with sixth . I've been ou t of th e top 10 and haven't run with th ose guys, and it's hard to get back th ere." Michael J ones grabbed th e ho lesho t a t th e sta rt of th e 125cc main followed by Chris Col em an, Rob ert H ayes, Jr. and Carl Vaillan court. By lap two the top three remain ed th e same, but DeH oop had moved into fourth and Mike LaRocco had tak en ' fifth . LaRocco leaped past DeH oop o n th e third lap th en battled with H ayes before getting by on the next circuit. LaRocco was on th e move and a t th e halfway point took second whe n Coleman didn't a ttem p t the triples. Jones had a three-and-a-half second lead at thi s tim e, but La Rocco began to clo se that ga p. On lap 10 J ones . got s tuck in traffi c, all owing LaRocco to mov e up on his rear fender. . As th e white flag ca me o u t La Rocco mad e h is mov e on th e start straight a nd passed J on es just after the fir st turn. After th e pass J ones lost touch with LaRocco, wh o wen t on to win by a few seconds. Col eman was a di stant third ahead of DeH oop a nd Ha yes. Sunday In th e first 250cc h eat of th e afternoon, Dubach fin all y got a good start and mad e it through th e firs t turn without hitting th e ground to lead th e first heat. But Matiasevich was righ t there a nd sh ot by exiting the fi rs t turn and led Dubach, Gl over , Stanton, Manley, Fisher and Lechien th rough the second corner. Gl over passed Dub ach on th e first lap , th en went insi de of Matiasevich in th e uphill hairpin to tak e th e lead. Glover clipped Mat iasevich wh en he mad e th e pass, sending th e Kaw asaki pilot to th e di rt . A turn la ter G lover sta lled, putting Dubach ou t front as Lech ien scooted to second. Stanton moved by Manley for third, but on the next lap Gl over passed th em both and wa s back to ' third behind Dubach, who had been passed by Lechi en. At th e halfway point.of th e heat Lechien , Dubach and Gl over were all tightly bunch ed with Fish er not far behind. Gl ov er put a m o ve o n Dubach , but two laps later step ped off in a tightturn, a ll owi n ~ Dubach to move back into second wtth Fish er taking over third. Mat iasevich had been chargi ng after his fall a nd bumped Manley o ut of a transfer position when he took over fifth. As the race came to a clo se Lechien held a comfortable lead over Dubach. Fish er was clo sing fast with Gl over on hi s tail , and on the fin al lap Gl over went to third but was too far behind to get Dubach. Fish er took fourth and Matiasevich got th e fin al ticket to th e main. Ward t ame out blazing in heat two as he led Keho e, Tichenor, Andrews and Bowen out of turn one. Bow en passed Andrews in the second turn, but by lap two Andrews had passed him back. Out front Ward quickl y established a small lead over Keho e, while Tich enor held a solid th ird. The real battle was for fourth as" Bowen and .Andrews swapped the position several times during the first half of th e race. At th e h alfway p oint Bowen fin ally broke free, while ou t front Ward enjoyed over a five second lead a hea d of Keh oe. T ich enor was a few seconds behind in third. Nothing changed for th e remainder of th e race and Ward took an easy win over Keh oe, T ic henor, Bowen a n d Andrews. Sch m it was first to th e first turn in the third heat, but it was Johnson leading the way to turn two. Leisk, H olland and O'Mara rounded out th e top five. On th e first lap O 'Mara landed short in the triples and lost p osi tions to Pederson and Mat son. Near the end of th e lap H olland had go ne to second and Leisk had also moved by Schmit for third. H olland was able to stay close to J ohnson for a co up le of laps, 'the n the ' lead er starte d moving away. Leisk stayed cl ose to . H olland a nd put some di stance on Schm it, while further back Pederson, Matson and O'Mara sta yed close. Ma tson and ' O'Mara scra p ped for a ,la p . until Mats on moved away and pa ssed Pederson. . Du ring the second half of the race J ohnson was styling wa y out front a nd went on to an easy win. Leisk kep t H olland in sigh t, but that's abou t all he cou ld do . Schmit finished a lone in fourth while Matson led a yellow freight train including Pederson a nd O'Mara to fin ish fifth and grab the transfer to th e main. J eff Beckington holesho t th e first semi, but both Manley and O 'Mara charged by before the second turn. O 'Mara stuffed ins ide of Manley to tak e the lead and Stanton moved up to third. Manley staye d close to O'Mara a nd on lap three pa ssed him o n the fro nt straight then open ed up a three-second lead over th e next lap. Stanto n rem ained close in thi rd, but he fell on th e fifth lap a nd lost a lo t of time but not the third position. O 'M a ra kept Manl ey in sig h t during th e latter stages of the race , but on the last lap Manley put some lappers between th em .that kept O'Mara from doing th e triples. That locked up th e win for Manley and O 'Mara still got the fin al transfer to the main. Pederson charged to th e front of th e pack a t the-start of semi two but Sommo passed him j ust after the start. Pederson stayed close and got th e lead back near the end of lap two when Sommo didn 't mak e a double, which also allowed j o]o Keller and Kalos to get by. Ka los put the l?ressure on Keller on lap three and

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