Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

the IS-lap main to claim the win. Yamaha 's Mike LaRocco was a distant third behind Craig. J ohnson was awarded $5000 in gold for his efforts, while Stanton received $3000 and Bradshaw $1850 of the $35,000 purse posted by the Mickey Thompson Entert ainmen t G roup. Ma ti as evi ch to ok h ome $1000 of th e $5000 125cc purse. _ Several top rid ers were missing once again. Kawasak i's J eff Ward won't return until March 5, at th e opening ro und of the 250cc Na tional Seri es in Gainesvill e, Florida. He is sidelined for th e next two supercross ra ces du e to th e foot injury he suffered at th e opening round in Anaheim. Suzuki's Johnny O 'Mara, who has cons istently run a t th e front of th e three pr evious mains this season, was the victim of the flu bug that has been sweeping the nation. Yam aha 's Mick y Dymond also missed th e main wh en he clipped a corner marker a t the start of his hea t race and broke his right hand. T he im pact caused Dymond to go down in a small pi leup. Heats Rick Johnson (1) passed teammate Jeff Stanton to take the w in in front of 35,879 ho m et own fans. M ic hae l Craig (5 9) stayed right on Jeff Matiasevich 's rear fender for much of t he 125cc ma in . but Matiasevich pulled away for t he w in . AMAjCamel Supercross ·Series: Round 4 The Johnson show rolls on at San Diego By Nate Rauba Photos by Ken Faught and Kinney Jones SAN DIEGO, CA, FEB. II For the fourth consecutive time th is year n o one could stop Team Honda 's Rick Joh n son as he h andily won th e Coors Extra Gold Superchallenge at San Diego's J ack 6 Murphy Stadium. Kawasaki research I development rider Mike Fisher and tried, riding perhaps th e best race of his career for seven laps until he cras hed while leading. While Fisher was out fro nt, Yam aha 's Damon Bradshaw was doing hi s best to try and keep J ohnson beh ind hi m in fourth despite riding with a sore back from injuries suffered at the openi ng Cam el Supercross Seri es race in Ana he im, California. For several laps it was a classic battle between the 16-year-old rookie and th e vetera n cham p. Johnson got by him on th e eighth lap of the 20-lap main and set hi s sights on H o nda teammate Jeff Stanton, who had tak en over th e lead wh en Fisher cra shed. Stanton did his best to stop J oh nson 's dominance of the series , but just over halfway through the race Johnson shot by and slowly pulled away for a commanding win in front of 35,879 hometown fans . The win was not only Johnson 's fourth straigh t in the series , it also tied Bob Hannah's record of 27 supercross victories. " T here' re so many things to be h app y a bo u t," said Johnson. " T ha t's four in a row , but to do it here in San Diego . . . When you win in your hom etown it gives yo u som e clo u t. " 1t ' s nea t to tie th e record, bu t I have a lot more races to win to become th e winningest rider of all tim e. It's just another record for so meo ne else to break ; it doesn 't sta nd, but th e mom ent does." Sta nto n crossed the fini sh line in second while Bradshaw hung back in thi rd a nd was happy to make it o n th e rostrum . Honda's Gu y Cooper blitzed through th e pack after a poor start to claim fourth, and Suzuki 's Erik Kehoe rounded out th e top five, moving into that spot wh en Yam ah a 's Doug Dubach fell late in th e race when he ran into teammate Shawn Kalos, who had been racing with the leaders despite being a lap down. Kawasaki 's J eff Matiasevich con tinued to ro ll on in the l25cc cla ss as he also racked up his fourth co nsecu tive vi ctory. Matiasevi ch grabbed th e hol eshot from the start a nd fought off ch a lle nge s from Yamaha 's Michael Craig throughout Fr en chman Jean -Michel Bay le was first to turn one in the first eightlap heat race, but he went wide in th e corner a llowing Bradshaw, Larry Brooks, Kip Sandell , Kawasaki's Ron Lechien and Cooper to slip by. Bradshaw qu ickl y opened up a fourseco nd lead while Broo ks fought to hold off Lechien and Cooper. On la p three Lechien found his wa y by Bro oks whil e Cooper dropped ba ck behind Bayle and Kal os. Kalos cras hed, and a lap later Bro oks had slip ped back behind Bayle and Cooper then pulled off with apparent mechanical problems o n the fifth lap. Up front Bradshaw was in complete cont ro l, way ahead of a fierce battle for second between Lechien, Bayle and Cooper. Bayle tried to mak e a move on Lechien in a tight corner and clipped hi s rear wheel and went down. On the last lap Cooper made a charge and flew by Lechien. But in the next turn Cooper went high and let Lechien unde rneath, and Lechien stuffed Coo per in to the hay ba les to secure second behin d Bradshaw in the heat. " I don't know wha t I was thi n king," Cooper said. " 1 knew Lechien would try to slid e in. I just stopped and he was right there. At Seattle last week I stuffed him, so I guess we started something. I'm not upset about it." Bayle charged back from his fall to claim fourth at the finish whi le Kawasaki rider Brian Manley took th e last transfer.to the main in fifth. The second heat turned into The Jeff Stanton Show. when he stuffed Fred Andrews in th e third turn and pulled away. Suzuki's Ron Tichenor also tried to stuff under Andrews on th e first lap and fell , making the order Stanton, Andrew s, Derek Brown, Dubach and Mike Pascarella. Stanton put more than fiv e seconds on Andrews by lap three as Dubach began to make his bid for seco nd. Suzuki's Erik .Kehoe moved up from a poor start , but then fell way back . Dubach eventually moved into second, while Tichenor was on the move and had cut his way through the pack to Du bach 's rear fender by the sixth lap. T iche nor wres tled second from Du bach, and he finished th ere more tha n 10 seconds behind Stanton. Pascarella was fourth and Andrews took fifth. Tichenor's ch arge earned him enough votes from th e media to be awarded th e Coors Extra Effort award and he received $1000 for his efforts. Johnson holeshot the third heat,

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