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/127172
A 8 ~. Rick Johnson was the overall winner on the opening night of racing but could place no better than third t he next two evenings. Jeff Ward (left) and Johnson wave to the French crowd during the opening ceremonies. Ward's best finish was second place on Wed nesday night. Paris Supercross Johnson, Cooper, Lechien capture Paris wins By Alex Hodgkinson Photos' by Mota Revue/Mota Verte PARIS, FRANCE, NOV. 30ยท DEC. 1-2 No one rider dominated this year 's action in three nigh ts of racing at the Paris Supercross iri Bercy Stadium as T eam Honda's Rick Johnson and Guy Cooper, 12 and Team Kawasaki 's Ron ' ' \ li gh t. J oh n son claimed the Lechien all shared the spotwin after the first night of Tea m Ho nda's Guy Cooper scored the lowest combined final moto fin ishes follow ing the three nights of racing . He went 5 -1-7. racing o n Wednesday, while Cooper rose to th e top on Thursday ' and Lechien scored the victory on Friday. .The on ly rid er to finis h within the top six ea ch night was T eam Honda's J eff Stanton. On an O lympic scoring system it was Cooper topping the rostrum with 5-1-7 placings, and even if it had been AMA or G P points, Cooper wou ld've won out. From th e European side of things, it was evident that only Frenchman Jean-Michel Bayle was going to be able to chall enge the Americans on the most demandi ng track ever built in Bercy. Swedes Peter Hansson and Leif Niklasson, joint leaders of the FIM Rodil Wor ld Championship in Supercross, did not even make the semis on days one or two . But neither did American Micky Dymond. Having crashed three times in Europe already this year, the sole member of the 1989 Yamaha USA squad to be allowed to come over for the race, Dymond, added Bercy to his list and retired for the nigh t (Wednesday ) after going down hard in the whoops whilst chasing Bayle: Cooper, shaken in training when a riva l landed on his helmet after falling, was the only other American unab le to transfer direct but easily won his repechage. Stanton rode an immacu late race to head Bayle throughout the first sem i, while Team Green demolished ' ' th emselves in the second against Johnson. Ward faded after fast starts in each of his ' races, while American Jeff Matiasevich pulled out with strained ankle ligainents and Lechien went down hard chasing Johnson. Lechien was to repeat this through the whoops when leading the Last Chance Qualifier, and whe n J eff Leisk and Broc Glover co llided in the tunnel 50 yards la ter, the transfer spots were gifted to Finland's Pekka Vehkonen and Holland's John Van den Berk, In Wednesday's main, Ward made the holeshot and seemed the likely winner for half the race befo re fading badly. Bayle had passed Stanton, who then rod e to a lonely fourth , on the first lap and then edged inside Johnson through the whoops. When Ward faded the two Hondas went past, but within two la ps J ohnson was left to stroll away with the win, as Bayle stalled and restarted a distant third. He again caugh t up to Ward but was blocked by the Kawasaki riderthrough the final two laps. The second evening belonged to Cooper and Matiasevich . They won their heats, semis and finished 1-2 in the fina l as more illustrious names hi t the deck . ' Once agai n th e first was Dymond who took down Moore in the heat and then another rider in the repechage to again be eliminated at stage one, He was jo ined by Brooks who was knocked off the track by Hansson in the whoops and then had another rider land on his back off a jum p as he toured to the finish. J ohnson 's chase of Matiasevich in the first semi ended with him going down in the whoops and then finding out how obstructive Sta nton , ca n be as they fought for second. Bayle and Jobe were to cras h in turn on e, Leisk in the whoops and Ward at th e end of the plateau in semi n umber two. Cooper ended up passing G lover for the win. It took' Ward until the last lap to pass Dutchman Edw in Evertsen for the Last Chance Qualifier win and Lechien, a first semi crasher, only mad e th e main as promotor's cho ice. Once in th e main, how ever, Lechien chased Cooper hard for half the race before falling and remount- ' ing in sixth to leave Matiasevich with th e thankless ro le of chaser, as Cooper maintained his lead by leaping a triple which no one else even tried. J o hnson had started miserably, passed Bayle for fourth just after halfwa y but found Stanton, once again, a tougher nut to crac k until Stanton stalled and dropped to sixth. Johnson tried to catch the leaders, but in the end he could thank his cat- like reflexes tha t he kept third after twice goin!? off the ,track with legs at seat height. Ward started