Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Semis Honda rider Jeff Hicks sh ot into the early lead in th e fir st semi but was quickly overtaken by Canadian Allan Dyck , H onda rider L arry Brooks a nd Kawa saki's Mike Fisher. Soon after , Dyck dropped off the pace and fell back to third with Brooks taking over th e lead and Fisher moving into second. From this point on it was a Brooks/Fisher show. Brooks h eld Fisher at bay for a few laps until Fisher slipped by for th e lead. Once into th e top ' spo t, Fisher inched farther ahead with Brooks seemingly content in secon d. At th e finish it wa s Fisher, Brooks and Dyck. . The , second semi was a Fred Andrews runaway . Andrews grabbed the holeshot and jumped to a big lead that h e would n ever relinquish. Mo st of the ac tio n wa s for secon d between Suzuki riders Ray Sommo and Dean Matson witli Sommo getting th e upperhand. Last Chance Qualifier O nce again Matson found h imself o n the bubble in the LCQ with DeHoop leading the way. O n the seco nd lap, Matson tried diving to the inside of DeH oo p to pass. But DeHoop sla m m ed the door shut sending Matson to the ground and out of contention. Despite a little pressure by Dyck, DeHoop cruised home for the LCQ win, taking the last qualifying slot for the main. Main Twenty-one riders lined th e gate for th e sta rt of th e main event, and grabbing th e early lead wa s Dubach . Hot on his ta il was Tichenor, O 'Mara, Lechien and Brooks, while Johnson wa s ba ck in 12th. , Du rin g th e firs t lap, Tichen or overtook Dubach - for th e lead but Du bach quickl y retaliated . Then O 'Mara sta rte d pushing his teammate Tichenor and eventu ally dov e to the inside o f a turn and passed h im for second, Dubach led for three more laps before O 'Mara slipped by" taki ng over th e lead. Shortl y after, Dubach 'dro p ped his Yamaha in a tight righthand turn , letting Tichenor a nd Lechien int o second and third. At this point O 'M ara opened up a slight cu shion over Tich enor, wh o wa s su ccessfully h olding b a ck Lechien. Back in fifth was Dym on d , while Stanton a nd Bayle held sixth and sevent h. Nea r th e halfway point, O'Mara was still en joying a modest lead over Tich enor, wh o had broken loo se from Lech ieri 's a ttack. Bu i o n th e mov e in fifth was th e co me- fro mbehind charge o f J ohnson. " I go t a bad sta rt and got p in ch ed ou t in th e tight first turn ," sa id J ohnson. "Then I j ust had to ride safely a nd pi ck ' n ' choose my way through the pack." Once into fifth , J ohnson was trying to ge t arou nd Lechieri. " Ro n n ie is.al ways tough to -pass," said Johnson. " H e's reall y aggressive and do esn 't m ind co ntact. But I didn 't want to do any bu mping, so I didn 't try to push. I kn ew I h ad time." J ohnson event ua lly m ad e a clea n' inside pass on Lechien in a tu rn th en set aft er Tich enor. A co u p le of la ps later , Johnson forced hi s wa y into second and found about a threesecond ma rgin separating himself from th e leader O 'Mara , who was hoping to ~ i v e Suzuki i ts fir st supercross Win sin ce Mark Barnett , did it in 1982. With nine laps still remaining, O 'Mara knew it wa s going to be . tough holding ba ck Johnson. Guy Cooper (10) finished third overall Sunday, while Shaun Kaios (24) f inished mid pack both nig hts. " I kn ew he was coming and I let him intimidate me a little bit, " sa id O 'Mara. Plus, ,t he physically demanding . course was taking its toll on O 'M ara whA was beginning to tir e. "T he track was really tough and I wa s sta rt ing to get tired." T h ree laps later, J ohnson wa s g lued to O 'M ara 's rear fender. " I wa sn 't sure what he (O ' Mara) wa s going to do ," said Johnson. " I didn't know if he was going to try a nd blitz it a nd run aw a y from me, or let me by a n d th en do g me for th e rest of th e race." Six la ps from the finish , Johnson made hi s move ov er a tripl e jump secti on a nd O'Mara didn't put up much of a fight. " He (J ohnson ) was just plain faster th an me at th e en d," sa id O'Mara, " Then 1 was just tired a nd s ta rted m akin g so me dumb m istak es." Th ree lap s from th e fi nis h, O 'M ara landed short over a tripl e ' j u m ped a nd went off the trac k and dropped his front wheel over th e side o f a tab letop jump. " It was a dumb m ista ke," sa id O' Mara. " I kn ew I wasn 't going fast eno ug h to clea r th e jump. It was just a bad decision on my part ." Tichenor took 'over seco nd whe n O ' Mara bobbled. Lech ien closed in right beh in d O 'M a ra a nd short ly after passed h im. . " I jus t cou ld n't rid e after I went off the track," sai d O ' Mara, . Sta nton and Bayle .a lso slipped past th e slo wi ng O 'Mara befo re th e race was th rough. Du rin g th e rem ai ni ng six laps, J ohnson effort lessly ra n away for th e win , w hi le T iche nor began losing h is rh ythm, a llowi n g Lechien to close. " My arms reall y pumped up a nd go t tired ," sai d Tich enor. " I was so tired I co u ldn' t even h ang o n, a nd I was losing my. timing over th e jumps. I was just . ri d in g to o , ca u tio usly." Al thou gh Lechi en go t close, Kawasaki's Matiasevich (26) dives inside of J immy Gaddis . Matiasevich won both nights despite having t he f lu . ' Tichenor managed to ho ld on to seco n d p lace over Lechien. " I just tr ied to h ol d m y o wn pace, sta y smooth a nd stay o n two whee ls," said Lechien. " I lost the bi ke th ree tim es o u t the re, so I' m jus t h a p p y to be here. T he track was to ug h." . Sta nton wo rked h is wa y up to fo urt h by th e finish, cro ssing the line j us t a few feet ahead o f Bayle. O 'M ara fin ish ed six th a h ea d . o f Cooper , Dym ond , Bowen a n d Ka los. " I do n 't kn ow if I' m happ y o r di sappoin ted ," said O 'M a ra , " I'm hap p y to be leading the m ains aga in, which I haven't done in two-and-ahalf years; I feel positive abo u t th at. I' m goi ng to h ave to learn. to rid e ou t in front aga in: But I'm d isap po inted I fi n ished sixth . I shou ld've had seco n d and I cou ld 've th ough t th at , 'yea , J ohnson was faster than m e to day' a nd th at would 've been o kay." 1 2 5 Main The 125cc main wa s a nailbiter . from start to fin ish. Suzuki-mounted J im m y Gaddis took th e ea rly lead but was quickl y passed by Matiasevich . G addis cr u ised in second place for the nex t four la ps before droppi ng back an d even tually finishi ng fifth. U p fro nt Matiasevich loo ked to hav e e ve ry th i n g un de r co n tr o l, exce p t for local favori te Larry War d , w ho was making u p for a so-so star t. By the fift h la p , Ward was in second wi th about a th ree-second ga p separati ng th e two . H owever , Ward was ga in in g time on Matiasevich over a set o f tr iple jump s th a t h e wa s jumping an d Mat iasevich was not. Near th e mi dd le of the l2 -lap race, Ward was in ch es behind Ma tiasevich and was look in g for a line aro und the Kaw asaki rid er. H o wever , Ward bo bbled in th~ w hoops and lost valuab le seconds o n Matiasevich . 7

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