Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Doug Dubach (2 1 ) leads George Ho lland (3 ), John ny O'Mara (1 9) , Ron Lech ien (4) and Donny Schmit (1 6) at the start of the main . Ho lland passed him a short time later and fin ished second, while Dubach slipped back to sixth at the f inish. the local media. Johnson graciously dona ted the $500 to th e Ted Boody Trust Fund. More money was ra ised for th e fund later in th e even ing wh en several of th e top riders collected donations from th e crowd, which was announced as 31,217. The track was designed a nd built by John Savitski 's Stadium Dirt Designs using about 7000 cubic yards of dirt. The crew worked almost nonstop beginning th e Monday prior to . the Saturday-evening race. With 51 250cc riders on hand th e form at used was three eigh t-lap heats with th e top five riders, plus sixt h in th e fastest hea t. adva nci ng to th e 21-rider. 20-lap main. Sixth through 12th went to the two eigh t-lap sem is with th e top two in each semi going io the main and three th ro ugh 10th to the Last Chance Qualifier. which sent only the winner to the fin al. Heats Kawa saki ' s L ech ien qui ckl y pulled away from th e rest of the firstheat riders, flying farther and higher than anyone. Behind h im . two riders on the comeback trail, Yamaha's Broc Glover and Suzuki's O 'Mara trailed with Billy Frank and Micky Dymond following and Denny Stephenson. riding in both classes, sixth. O 'Mara took over third on th e fifth lap and clos ed on Lechien , who bobbled two laps la ter, allowing O'Mara to close. Lech ien still won by about 10-yards over O 'Mara with the Yamaha trio of G lover, Frank , and Dymond filling out th e top five. Sixt h -pl ace Stephenson was on to the serm, "I just got a good jump off the start and corning out of the first tum." Lechien said of his earl y lead. " I used that same part to set up passes in traffic." George Holland jumped ahead of Jeff Ward to start the second heat with Suzuki's Donny Schmit th ird a nd Yamaha 's Shaun Kalos and Jeff Stanton fourth and fifth . respectively. Ward was quickly into th e lead, moving H olland to seco nd ahead of Sch mit and Stanton with Kalos nearly falling just after th e start-finish jump. On the fourth lap. Ward's day , and titl e hopes, came to a n end. " I just mi ssed a double jump and had my foot in the wrong place wh en 1 came down: ' Ward. wh o broke hi s right a nkle wh en he " cased it on a triple" here last year. said. " The pain is abo ut 100 times worse th an last year. T he (New York ) Giants' doctor said he doesn 't think it 's broken. it's just a bad sprain and I'll be there next week," for the Southwick . Massachusetts 500cc National. " T h e outdoors is a little more forgi ving." Holland, who was riding with an injured shoulder, took over th e lead and was never challenged on hi s way to th e flag. Schmit was second. Stanton third, Kalos fourth , and Mike Fisher was fifth. By the fourth lap of th e third heat J ohnson had a 25-yard lead on J eff Matiasevich and was locking up the " Coolest Move" mon ey wit h a neverendi ng serie s of spectacu lar jumps. His o nly worry was landing on backmarkers, whi ch he managed not to do , and won easil y. Jeff .Leisk overcame a mediocre startto tak e over.second from Matiasevich late in the race with Suzuki's Eri c Kehoe fourth the entire way. Brian Manley was fifth with Kurt McMillen sixth, and into the main, by virtue of Johnson's heat win bein g the fastest by nearly four seconds. " I'm just having a good tim e," Jeff Leisk, Jeff Matiasevich (2 0 1 ) and O'Mara dice for third. Leisk held the position and O'Mara passed Matiasevich to take a season-best fourth . Johnson said. "These people see o ne supercross a year and in their eyes wh oever wins ' here is th e cha mpion." Even though Ward was out, Johnson felt he wasn 't guaranteed the titl e. " I co uld go o ut and break an ankle in th e ma in and Lech ien co uld win: Racer-to-racer 1 ca n feel for J eff." . Semis Keith Bowen wen t down in th e first corner in front of th e o ther 12 riders in the first sem i. H e quickl y ' rem o u n ted , but by then Fred Andrews was sai ling away with Ray Sommo and Carlo Coen pursuing him. Bowen moved into second on th e third lap when Coen and Sommo . tangled starting the fifth lap, putting Darrel Martens a distant third where he would finish. Andrews would hold o n to the end. finishing 10-yards ahead of Bowen with both to the maIn. Suzuki ' s 1987 Eastern Region 125cc cha m p. Ronnie Tich enor, went flag-to-flag in th e second sem i. Yamaha's Do ug Dubach was fourth off the start. moved into third o n th e second la p, and passed Denny Stephenson on th e fourth lap, stu ffing inside of him in a righ t-hand horseshoe. Dubach clo sed at the end, but it was too little. too lat e, a ltho ugh he would tr an sfer, al on g with Tichenor, in to the final. Last Chance Qualifier Stephenson. riding in hi s fourth race of th e ni ght. began to pull away in the LCQ before Robert Naughton made a late mov e. A lap from the end Naughton and Stephenson took off from a jump together, but when 7 '

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