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
It can be tough to come back after two years of retirement, as 1981 Supercross Champion Mark Barnett found out in M iami . Doug Dubach (1 6 ) was near the front until he crashed late in the race , w hile M ike LaRocco charged back from a crash and fin ished f ourth. (Left to ri ght ) Stanton, Johnson and Bayle spray champagne in t he w inner's circle. taking over second on th e seventh lap and forcing David Hand into th e LCQ. Last Chance Qualifier On the first lap of the 'eig ht-la p LCQ. only one rider, J ason Upsh aw, cleared the triple jumps go ing northto-south past th e west grandstands a nd th at ri der wou ld easily win th e race. Kur t McMill a'n gave early, a nd frui tless, p ursuit before bein g moved back by the even tual ru nner-up, Canad ian Supercross Cham p ion Ross Pedersen . Ma in 8 Larry Ward led th e 22-rider field into the 90-degree, left-ha nd bend a t th e end of the sta rt ch ute. Tich enor, still not a t full streng th, was seco nd with Matiasevich th ird and DeH oop fourth. J ohnson was in the middle of th e field over the fir st set of jumps running near O 'M ara , wh o'd almost go tte n th e holesh ot, bu t had locked bars with so meo ne and had to back off. - "I didn 't feel co m fo rtable o ut th ere, " O'Mara would later sa y. " When yo u get a bad sta rt, th at's wh at happens." Lechien fell o n the track's second left headin g do wn the field, remountin g in last. He wo ul d fin ish 12th. T ich en o r qu ickl y di sp osed o f Ward and by the fifth of 20 laps wasriding co mfortably and building a . small lead . Ward held second with Johnson now up to th ird a head of Dubach . DeHoop was fifth just in front of th e cha rging Honda duo of Stanton and Bayle. Mike La Rocco was in the top 10 before falling, out he was quickly. up. Two laps later th e ent ire complexion of the race would ch ange. Early on th e seventh lap Johnson took over' second and set out for the lead. Tichenor, wearing down from his illness, misjudged th e triple jump lie'd been making all night and crashed after landing, running into a hay bale. From there on in it was all J oh nson . ~ ' I had no energy at all ," Tichenor said. " I was trying to conserve, but I didn 't have anything left. I was throwing up and had diarrhea this morning. I didn 't have enough to go for the triple a nd I did an endo. I co uld've saved it, but I hit a hay bal e a nd went off th e track," Still , he was up and running beh ind J ohnson, however he slo wly dropped back to a n eventual sixthplace finis h. On the ei~h th lap the order was J ohnson , Tich en o r, Bayle, Ward, Dubach , a nd Stanton. T he order would hold to th e half way point when Stanton moved into fourth, despi te a sor e kn ee. " I' m not sure wha t it is, but I did so meth ing' to my kn ee," Stanton said. " It's just sore. I d idn't kn ow wha t I was doing." First Bayle o n the 14th lap, then Stanton on th e 15th passed Tichenor, Dubach made a run at him al so, but cras hed his way back to a 14th -place finish. Almost unnoticed were the steady cha rges of LaRocco and O 'Mara. With bodies flying everywhere in fro nt of h im LaRocco was able to move int o fourth on the 16th lap, hi s highest pl acing ever and in th e firs t 250cc supercross that he'd qualified for. " I was up to seventh or something, th en I dropped back," La Rocco said. "Then when I started to get up near the fro nt again I crashed on the double-double after th e start abo u t halfway. It was kind of tough with all th e ru ts ou t there. It made it hard to j ud ge th e ju mps. There was a lot of crashing o ut th ere." At the finis h, J ohnson 's pace had ta ken him to a co mfortable win a nd a more secure place in su percros s history. Bayle took second, hi s best . ever su pe rcross finish , with Stanton mo ving up to third. LaRocco was fourth ah ead of O 'Mara a n d Tich en or with Kalos seventh and Del-loop eigh th. " Every bod y kept falling around me," Johnson said, " but I just kept going. The track was a big problem for the other riders." " I 'm very happy to be on the podium finally, " the Fren chsp eaking Bayle said through his interpreter , team coordinator Roger DeCoster. H e added that he hoped his expe rience here would help in th e Wor ld Championship 125cc MX Series which begins in April in Italy. His dream, he said, was to race a full season here in 1990. 125cc Kawasaki 's Den n y Stephenson had a 20-yard lead after the first of six laps in the opening 125cc heat wi th Derri ck Roe second and Mich ael J ones third. Just past halfway J ones moved into second a nd w he n Stephen son fell midwa y throug h the final lap, Jones pounced . for the win. Stephenson got going to fin ish second with Roe third ahead o! J ason Langford. Of th e 20 riders, rune wen t directl y to th e main. After following Ty Davis for most of th e first lap of th e second heat, Damon Brad sh aw mo ved o u t front j umpi ng hi gh er and longer th an a ny of the other 125cc riders. By th e end of six laps th e lfi-year-old Bradshaw of Charlo tte, North Carolina, had a six-second win wi th Davis safely ahea d of Greg Bowen , third almost from th e sta rt. Kurtis Barron was fourth and Mark Musselman fifth . The top four from th e La st Chance Qualifier would go to the main, but Mike Kiedrowski wasn 't taking any chances. He flew past Chris Coleman on a stra igh taway and.pulled away. Coleman held second with Doug H enry and Stevie Childress moving into the final transfers lat e in the race. _ Bradshaw gated ahead of the 22rider field to start th e 15-lap main, but fell on th e first lap, dropping to 17th and handing the lead to Davis. St ephenson wa s an ea rly second with Coleman third. By th e fourth hip Bradshaw had charged to fifth and to fourth two laps lat er. H e was up to third on the eigh th lap before cras hi ng again , but two laps la ter he was back in third a nd all eyes were on him. Fir st he passed Col eman on the short straigh t before the right leadin g to the finish line a nd sta rting the fin al lap he o ut-ju mped Davi s over th e finish jump, loo king down to make sure he wouldn't land on h im. Davis held on to second ahead of Coleman and Stephenson with Kiedrowski fifth. " T his is the closest I'v e been to my house in three months," Bradshaw said, "so it 's sort of my home-co ming. Riding the 250 out West gave me a lot of experience." "I'Il just try to beat him next weekend," Davis said. " I wasn 't thinking about him, I was riding relaxed and not worrying abo ut it." Coleman admitted he got tired at the end of the race and j ust " h ung onto third." • Results 250: 1. Rick J ohnson (Han); 2. Jean -Michel Bayle (Han); 3. Jeff Stanton (Hont 4 . M ike LaRocco(Yamt 5. Joh nny O'M ara (Suz); 6. Ronnie Tichenor (Sul); 7. Shaun Kalas (Yam); 8. Todd DeHoop (Suzj; 9. Jaso n Upshaw (Han); 10. Larry Wa rd (Han); 11. Guy Cooper (Han); 12. Ron Lechien (Kawt 13. Fred Andrews (Hont 14. Doug Dubach (Yam); 15. Jeff Hicks(Hon); 16. Mike Pascarella (Suzt 17.Jeff Frisz (Kaw ); 18. John Dawd (Suz); 19. Erik Kehoe (Suzt 20. M ike Morris (Suz). 125: 1. Damon Bradshaw (Yam); 2. Ty Davis (Suzt 3. Chris Coleman (Kaw ); 4. Denny Stephenson (Kaw ); 5. M ike Kiedrowski (Han); 6. Derr ick Roe (Kaw ); 7. Stevie Childress (Suzt 8. Bill Wallin (Han); 9. Barry Carsten (Suzt 10. Brian Carroll (Suz); 11. Carl Vailla ncoun (Hon);12 . Doug Henry (Yam); 13. Patrick Berton (Han); 14 . M ichael Jo nes (Yam); 1 5. Jason Lang fo rd (Yam): 16 . Mark M usselman (KTM): 17 . Jeff Glass (Han); 18. J im Cheste r (Suz); 19: Greg Bow en (Han); 20. Roban McCohough (Han). POINT STAND INGS . 250 : 1. Johnson (125); 2.·Stanton (lOOt 3. Cooper (82); 4 . Tichenor (68); 5. Bayle (65); 6. Lechien (581 7. O'Mara (55); 8. Kalas (51); 9. ; Dubach (50); 10. Kehoe(49). 125: 1. Bradshaw (25t 2. Davis (22); 3. Coleman (20); 4 . Stephenson (l Bt 5. Kiedrowski (16 t 6. Roe (15); 7. Childress (14); 8. Wallin (13 t 9 . Carsten 112t 10. Carroll (II).