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/127179
As exciting as Bra dshaw 's ride was , there weren 't a whole lot of people . on hand to see it. A Camel spokesman gave a laughably high crowd estimate of 22,340, but a number of people polled, including riders and journalists, thought the number was closer to half that. In fact, promoter Bill West of SuperSports greeted a couple of friends with, " Welcome to my private showing." He explained that the program wa s competing with a number of other local events and that the only other weekend he could get th e stadium was in two weeks time, the same weekend as th e Miami Grand Prix IMSA car race. The John Savitski-designed track was laid out around th e perimeter of the football field, doubling ba ck on itself twice. It cost ab out $150,000 to construct, but would be us ed th e following day for a monster truck show. Heats The 45 250cc riders were split into three eight-lap, IS-rider heats with the top five plus sixth place from th e fastest heat transferring to the main: . Despite suffering from food poisoning whi ch he co ntrac ted the previous night, Tichenor led the fir st heat out of the gate with teammate O 'Mara second and Cooper third. Suzuki-mounted Mi ke Morris was an early fourth with Yamaha-moun ted Robbie Taylor fifth. The lead trio quickl y sep arated thems elves fr om th e remaining dozen with Tichen or th e most flambo yant over th e multiple jumps. In a short section that ran the wid th of the field, T ich en or was the on ly ri der making a double jump o u t of a single and a table-top and in a secti on that ran the length of th e field near th e west grandstands, he was tripling what no other riders attempted. Near the halfway point O'Mara began making the double, but his rear brake had begun to stick and he couldn't get th e drive to try the triple. "It was stalling everyw here ," O 'Mara said after finishing second. " It started about the second or third lap and got progressively worse. That's when Cooper started catching me. " But Cooper would run out o f time and settle for third behind the two Suzuki riders. Yamaha's Shaun Kalos reco vered from a miserable start to finish fourth with Mike Norris fifth. Smith Racin g Goggles! P ro-C ir cui t! Answer Ra ci n g sponsored Jeff Hicks finished sixth and since this heat wo uld be the fast~st of the night, he was in the main. Yamaha's Do ug Dubach jumped into the lead of the second heat, but by the end of the first lap Jeff Stanton was out front and pulling away. His lead over Dubach was over two seconds a t the halfway mark and would be over four at the finish. His only embarrassing incident came when he crashed after showing off over th e finish lin e jump after winning the heat. But behind him .was a good battle for second. Dubach held it to th e halfway mark after which he was passed by Kawasaki's Jeff Matiasevich. A lap later Dubach fell another spot when Kawasaki's Ron Lechien flew past him on the tri ple jump and set out a fter his teammate. H e'd co me up short at the finish , settling for third with Dubach fourth and Suzukimounted Mi ke Pascarell a fifth. Nobody expected any less than a win from J oh nson in the third heat and he didn't disappoint. After following Jeff Frisz for most of the first lap , J oh nson ยท disposed o f him sta rti n g th e second circuit and breezed to an over five second win, The powder-fine track was rutting Damon Bradshaw (4 5 ) passed Ty Davis as they t ook the white flag and held him off to t ake the 125cc w in. up and although J ohnson wa nted to put on more of a show, th e conditions prevented it. " T he track's .no t reall y good for aerial acrobatics or sh owing off," he sai d after th e heat win , " b ut I did . m y best. The g uys ou t fro nt wer e riding real protectively, but there were a lot of lines and lo ts of p laces to pass." O n the seco n d lap Ya m aha 's LaRocco found one of those places, getting past Frisz for h is eventual second p lac e fin ish with Ba yl e dr opping Fris z to fou rth a lap later. By the end of the third lap the o rder of the top five was set. Fri sz drop pe d well off th e pa ce of the front-runners' for a 'fou rt h -p lace finish with th e final di rect transfer into the main going to Honda's Fred Andrews. Semis Only the top two riders from each of th e two eight-lap semis would ad vance directly to the main with third through 13th place going to the Last Chance Qualifi er. Honda-mounted Larry Ward had crashed himself out of co n ten tion in the first heat of the night, landing hard enough on his stomach to suffer abrasions. In the first semi he was up against Suzuki's Erik Kehoe, who'd also crashed in his heat rac e, the third, and Tuf Racing's Mark Barnett. . Barnett sparked a bit of nostalgia by grabbing the lead off the start, bu t Ward was quickly by with Kehoe on his rear fender. By the fourth of eight laps the order was set with Ward gradually pulling away, Kehoe second and Barnett ,th ird. For his efforts, Ward was given the Coors Extra Effort Award, $1000 in gold, by a vote of the media. "Abo u t five minutes ag o I didn 't think I'd be here, " Ward said. " When I crashed in the heat i t knocked the wind out of me. My bike's still bent because m y mechanic didn 't have time to fix it. Hopefully it'll go smoother in the main." Suzuki 's Todd DeHoop went from the green flag to the checkered flag unbothered in the second semi. At the halfway point he was five seconds ahead and would gain a bit more by the finish . "I'm trying to get my timing back," DeHoop admitted. " I laid off for two, three weeks and without riding I'm not used to the bike." Suzuki-mounted John Dawd started poorl y, but finished strong Although weak from food poisoning. Ronnie Tichenor led the main until he crashed on a triple jump. He remounted second and finished sixth. Despite a sore knee. Jeff Stanton (7 ) worked up to third at the finish to complete a Honda sweep of t he t op three.