Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Oomiy Schmit (90) le d Jeff Ward (5 5 ) and Tyson Voh land (11 ) at the start of the second 250cc Pro moto. Vohland topped Ward in t he firs.t moto but Ward came back in round two to c laim the w in and the overall. M ike Kied rowski (7) chases A. J. Whiting (70) and Donny Schmit (9 0) in the firs t 125cc Pro class moto. Kiedrowski later won the o vera ll. CMC/Dodge Truck Golden State Nationals: Round 2 - - - -- Kiedrowski,·Ward · sail at Sandhill By Ken Faught BRENTWOOD, CA, JAN. 15 T eam Honda's Mike Kiedrowski and Kawasaki 's Jeff Ward claimed overall wins in the 125 and 250cc Pro classes at Sandhill Ranch and each took home $500 for their efforts. Both Kiedrowski and Ward did so after placing second in their d h b d f· .lfst. motos an t e!1 re .oun mg i n ro und two WIth w ins for the overalls. For Ward it was his second Golden State Nationals win in as many weeks and the victory boosted his series point lead to 41 points over Pau! Jones, ~ho has 120 .poin~s Kiedrowski also benefitted In the points chase after Sandhill. T he American Honda/Pro Circui t/Honda l ine/ Arai / Pro Honda Oils & Ch em ica ls/ Sco tt / CTi Brace/Rentha I/Du nl op-sponsored rider came into the day's competition second and left with the lead after Willie Surratt, the winner of ro und one, fin ished a distant seventh. Surratt dr opped to third in the standings, 12 points behind Rod ney Smith. Kiedrowski and Ward weren 'nhe onl y winners of the day. Joining th em in th e winner's circle were Buddy Antunez, Tyson Vohland and Er ic McKenna for their respective pe rformances in the 80cc Expert, 500cc Pro and Vet Pro classes. All three riders used perfect I-I scores en rou te to their victories and each lead their class in points with the exception of Vohland. In th e 80cc Expert class Antunez survived a knock-down, drag-out first moto with Joel Albrecht and T omm y Clowers and eve ntually came o ut on top with a I-I tally. Vohland and McKenna also earned th eir wins the same wa y as did Antunez, but managed to get away without a ny ba r-banging. Vohland easily crossed the fin ish line in the 500cc Pro class first ahead of KTM 's Mi ke Healey in round one, and had an easier time in moto two as Healey seized while running in second. Healey's' misfortune allowed Vohland to walk away from the pack with another easy wi n. McKenna also put in a pair of pe rfect rides, but wasn 't able to relax a n d take it easy like Vohland. Mckenna had to fend off Kenny Zahrt, who chased him from start to -Iinish in both rnotos, before even tua ll y taking a pair hard fought seco nds. _ . More than 3000 spectators lined the th ree-and-a -half minute-long course to watch the expert and pro level riders compete for their share of th e cash and contingencies offered by the Continental Motosport Club. The track layout was similar to the Gran Prix tracks used in Europe and was spread out over a wide hilly area. The course fea tured many high speed straights, flat turns, sq uareedge bumps and a giant hill which seemed to break up the pace. At the start of the first 125cc Pro class moto Rod ney Smith quickly shot out front followed by Kerry Mu lligan, Donny Sch mit, A.J. Whiting and Kiedrowski. O n the first lap Mulligan dropped back to fifth with Kiedrowski advancing to third behind Smith and Schmit. Whiting was fourth. Up front Sm ith q uickly opened up a small lead as Schmit, Kiedrowski, Whiting and Mulligan sta ged a four- way battle for second. The battle slowly fizzled o ut as Kiedro wski worked his way around Schmit and into the runner-u p slo t. Once into seco nd Kiedrowski set hi s sig h ts o n Smith but wasn't able to p u t a dent in Smith's lead, which had grown to eight seconds. While much of the attention was being focused on Smith, Mi ke Craig put on a strong charge late in the moto and managed to move up to fifth from his 10th place start. At the finish the Suzuki/Chesterfield /FMF/Race Tech / Bieffesponsored Smith collecting the win nearly 10 seconds ahead of Kiedrowski, Schmit, Whiting and Craig. Round two saw Kiedrowski gate better and start off in second behind .Sch m it, Tallon Vohland, who finished seventh in the first moto, was third, closely fo llowed by Smith, Todd DeHoop and Craig. Schmit's lead was cut short as Kiedrowski motored by on t he uphill, shoving Schmit to seco nd. Schmit soon lost two more positions as both Voh land and Smith snuck around the Honda rider during the next two laps. Shortly after finding his way around Schmit, Smith dropped Vohland to third after chasing him for nearly a lap and a half. Once in second Smith put on a tremendous charge, but never posed a threat to Kiedrowski who had built up a 12second lead. Back in the pack Craig, Schmit, DeH oop, Whiting and Surratt were battling for fourth. The five ri ders ' went at it for several laps before DeHoop ran into the back of Schmit's bike and went down. At the end of the 10-lap race Kiedrowski collected the well earned win with Smith, Vohland, Craig a nd Whiting rounding out the top five. However, after the race Craig and Schmit were docked two positions for cutting the track. The decision by CMC officials moved Whiti ng to fourth and Surratt to fifth . Craig dropped to sixth over Schmit. Ward's wi n in the 250cc Pro class was not as picture perfect as he would have liked it to be. At the start Ward chased Smith and Vohland arou nd the first tu rn and then moved in to second beh ind Vohland as Smith dropped to fourth beh ind Mi ke Fisher. Schmit was fifth. Up front Vohland immediately opened up a three-second lead and co n tinued to pull away from Ward as Smith tried to make up .for lost time, Pa ul Jones soon joined Schmit in sixth after he dropped Jeff Hicks to seventh. Jones then tried to catch Schmit, but the Honda rider was just too fast and a lways held on strong. Nearing the halfway point Vohland had more than seven seconds separating him from Ward. The last few laps saw Vohland continue his pace before taking a solid win over Ward, Fisher, Smith and Schmit. "Everything went great," said Vohland, " T ha t's the first ride o n that bike. I was only going to ri de the 500cc Pro class today, but I wanted to ge t a ri de on it (the 250) before the supercross seaso n starts." . As for Ward, things didn't go quite so well. After th e first mo to h is mechanic switched the pair of upside-down forks he used in moto one a nd p u t on the set of 46mm KYB's that Ward is used to. " I just co ul dn' t get going too well," said Ward, "My arms pumped up, my for ks weren't working and the bike wasn't working. I just was n't mo tivated after that. Tyson (Voh land) was ri di ng fast - he kn ows this track, plus he rode th e 500s - He's a ll wa rmed up. We're sw it ching forks and we should be able to do better next time."

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