Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

~uy Cooper (5) passed Erik Kehoe for t hird lat e in the first moto then ehoe returned the favor in the second round to lock up second ov'erall . " Rick got a good jump orr the gate a nd came over on me, which was the smartest thing to do," said Ward. "We bumped and' shut orr and was mid-pack in the first turn. I kept m y coo l because I knew I could catch up to second." Johnson passed G lover at the end of the second lap, but Glover was ba ck in front early o n la p three. Ward h ad moved through to fourth behind Dym o nd af ter tea m m a te L ech ien allowed hi m to pass, and O'Mara h eld fifth over Fish er a nd Stanton. ." 1 kind of let h im by: ' co n fessed Glover afterwa rds. '" di d n't wan t to stay in his way, 'knew h e was trying for th e ch a m pions h ip an d he's done th e sa me for me in the past. H e bobbled so I repassed him." . J ohnson retaliat ed a nd repassed Glov er a lap later , o n ly this time h e earned it. Ward trai led Dym ond for th e next few laps and took him in th e back sectio n of the track th en reeled in Gl over an d pa ssed him a few laps later. By th is tim e J ohnson wa s gone with a seven-second lead. At th e halfway point th e top five were set for th e rest of th e ra ce as Johnson led Ward to th e fini sh line by six seconds. Gl ov er stayed close behind Ward to take third while L echien h eld fou rth a h ead o f Dym ond and Stan ton. Fish er got by a fading O 'Mara la te in the race to tak e seven th. '" felt really good today: ' sai d Ward. "My a n kle didn 't hurt as ba d as it has been, but' hung to ugh. I had some problems in the seco nd rnoto, I was ba ck a ways and almost -wen t down in a couple of pileups, bu~ I !,ust kept m y cool a nd kept gomg. Although Johnson was th e first to congratulate Ward after th e finish with a handshake and em brace he wasn't happy with the outcom~ of the series. '" rC?~e sood and the bike worked grea t, !t s Ju st that j eff didn't mak e any .m ista kes a nd wa lked away with. the championship:' said Johnson. '" feel 1 was the fastest rider out th ere it 's just not time for me to win ali three cha m p io nsh ips yet. You never like t.o lose the number one plate, especially when ' won twice as many m o tos as he did. And they haven't been lucky wins; I' ve come from behind all through the seas on. If he would've been beating me th e whole series ' wouldn't feel so bad . 125cc Denny Stephenson railed around the outside to lead th e start o f th e first 125cc National moto as local favorite J ason Langford motored past Keh oe to take over second. H oll a nd held fou rt h ahead of Da vis, Coo pe r a nd Jason Upsha w. La ngford passed Ste p he nson on the first la p , an d th e two Kawa sa ki priva teers pulled ou t a sma ll ga p on Kehoe. La ngford was able to p ull a small lea d as Ste p he nson, Keh oe, H oll and Dayis and Cooper form ed a freigh t: t!'lm battle for th e followi ng positions. T he top six stayed in close formation th roughout th e first half o f th e moto , while further back a battl e be tw een U ps h a w, Scott Brown , Bryan Emig, Kyle Lew is and Donny Schmit raged. It wasn' t u ntil th e 10th la p tha t th ings began to happen whe n Keh oe m o ved b y Stephenson a n d into second, th en closed in o n Langford. Cooper passed Davis, but he was now severa l ' seco n ds behind H olland. U ps ha w began to slow a n d th e sixth spot was replaced by a duel between Lewis a nd Sch m it. Step he nson fell off the pace la te in the rno to as . both H olland and Cooper adva nced. H olland closed the gap o n Kehoe, a nd with just a few la ps to go he was by as Keh oe backed orr the pace. As the two-lap board came out, Holland had taken the lead and would s tay th er e to th e finish. Langford kept him in sight to th e I!n e, while Cooper got Kehoe o n th e f!n~1 C1r~1t for third. Stephen son finished Iifth ahead of Davis wh ile Schmit got the better of Lewis. " We came up on a lapped rid er :' said Kehoe. '" went one way and so 9id. he and George snuck by th e inside of me. I lost my concemration for a coup le of la ps and it took m e a whi le to get my form ba ck. Cooper was right on me and on th e last la p I made a dumb mistake a nd he got by." "!t wa s hard to pass out th ere. but did ca tch Erik," said Coo per. '" Broc Gloyer ( 44~ ~oleshot moto two and led for two laps before Johnson passed him; he fmlshed the day fourth overall. fifth in the final standings. was determined to ca tch him on th e last lap because we had been in a dogfight th e whol e race. " Junior Jackson led the pack a t th e start of moto two, but crashed a short time later. Everyone scrambled to miss J ackson a nd La Rocco emerged from the melee with firs t ahead o f H olland an d Ste p he nson who fell a sh.on tim e la ter and ' gave u p postro ns to Coo per, Ya m ah a su pported Larry Ward , Keh oe Todd DeHoop an d La ITy Brooks. ' La Rocco immedi ately pu t a co upl e o f seco nds o n H olland as Bro OKS moved by Kehoe. DeHoop dropp ed back Into a race- lo n g battle for ninth w i th Su zu k i- te a m m a te Sc h m i t while Da vis moved in behind Keho~ a nd Mike Kied rowski al so adva nced. By the halfway p oint La Rocco h ad stre tched h is lead wh ile H olland co u ld n't sha ke Co o p e r. Ke h o e charged an d worked past Ward an d Brooks. Kiedrowski dropped Ward further back an d began to p ress ure Brooks sh ortly af ter th e mid-point th en p assed him a few laps lat er. ' H olland charged wi th five laps to go a nd Keh oe co ntin ued hi s rapid pace a nd passed Cooper wh en Cooper's H onda develo ped ignitio n p roblems. At one poi nt H o lland looked like ~ e. w o u l d get by La Rocco before the finish, but La Rocco pou red it on and pulled orr the win. Kehoe came in third a few seconds l a~er, whil e.Kiedrowski got by Cooper s spuuenng Honda on th e last lap. Brooks alm o~t got by Cooper too, but settled for SIxth. Davi s cha rged up to ta ke seventh , Schmit won th e battle with DeHoop for eig h th as hi s teammate dropped to 10th behind Ward. '" got decent starts and rode pretty well, so I'm happy:' said Holland. ':' dialed him (LaRocco) in and was nght 011 his tail with a few laps to go a n d h e WICked It up. He was in a fast line and th ere was nowhere to pa ss so I just foll owed him around. Resu lts • 250: 1. Rick Johnson (Hon) 1·1 ; 2. Jeff Ward (Kaw) 2·2; 3 . Ron Lech ien (Kaw ) 4 -4; 4 . Broc Glover M ike laR occo led t he second 125cc moto fro m start to 'f inish and ended up f ourth overall . (Yaml 6-3 ; 5. Jeff Stan ton (Yam) 3 -6 ; 6. Micky Dymond (Yam) 8 -5 ; 7. Johnny O'Mara (Suzl 5-8; 8. Jeff Leos!< (Hon) 7 -9; 9. M ike Fisher IKaw) 10· 7; 10. Doug Dubach (y am )9· 13; 11. Kent How erton (Hon) 13·1 0; 12_Denn is Hawthorne (Kaw) 12·1 2' 13. RaySommo (Suz)15-11; 14. Fed A ndr ews (Suz; 11·1 5; 15. Clay Hoenshell (Suz) 14·1 4; 16. Robert Naughton (Suz).17.1 6; 17. Terry Tin ney ISuz) 19 17; 18. J im Kapiten (Hon) 18·1 8; 19. Brian Manley (Suz) 16· DNS; 20 . A ndrew Bradshaw (Honl 20 19. 125 : 1. George Holland (Hon) 1-2 ; 2. ERik Kehoe (Suz) 4-3; 3. Guy Copper (Hon) 3·5; 4. M ike laRocco (Yam,) 13 -1 ; 5. Ty Davis (Suz) 6-7 ; 6. Jaso n Langford (Kaw) 2 -14; 7. Donny Schmit Isuz) 7-8 ; 8. Larry Brooks (Kew) 10-6; 9. Mike Keidrowski (Kaw) .16 -4; 10. Denny Stephenson (Kaw) 5-16; 11. Keith Bow en (Kaw) 9-13 ; 12. Ronnie Tiche nor (Suz) 12 -11; 13. Billy Whitley ICag )11·12; 14 . Todd DeHoop (Suz) 15 -10; 15. Kyle Lewis (Hon) 8 -DNF' 16. Larry Wa rd (Yam) DNF-9 ; 17. Stacey Cook (Hon)1 7-15; 18. Ji mmy Gaddis (SuzI14 -DNF; 19. Bna n McG ary (Yam) 18 -1 9; 20 . Ju nio r Jackso n (Suz) DNF-17 . 250 FINA L POINT STANDINGS : 1. Ward (264); 2. Jo hn son (257 ); 3. Lechie n (208); 4. Stanto n (194); 5. Glover 11 931; 6. Leisk (186) ; 7. O'Ma ra (136 ); 8. Dym ond(1 271 9. Fisher (1161; 10. Manley ; (95); 11. Dubach (93); 12. Shaun Kalo s (80); 13. Andrews (67); 14 . Ross Pederson (57); 15. Sommo (5.5); 16. Hawthorne (3 9); 17. JoJo Kell er (361; 18. BIll y Frank(31); 19. Tyson Vohland(30); 20 . Tommy Wans(29). 125 POINT STANDINGS : 1. Holland (269); 2. Kehoe (234 ); 3. Schmit (195) ; 4. Cooper (1751 5. ; Tichenor 117n 6. Brooks (153 ); 7. laRocco (134 ); 8. DeHoop (1291; 9. Bowen (115); 10. Davis (77). 9

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