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/127180
Guy Cooper (10) jumped into the early lead in the 250cc main, while Ronnie Tichenor took a header. Team Honda's Jeff Stanton ended Rick Johnson's five-race win 'streak in Atlanta. It was Stanton's first major supercross win. AMA/Camel Supercross Series: Round 6 Stanton ends Johnson's streak in Atlanta'' By Henny Ray Abrams ATLANTA, GA, FEB. 25 Honda's Jeff Stanton capitalized on a rare mistake by teammate Rickyjohnson to win the Coors Extra Gold Super Challenge on a chilly night in Atlanta's Fulton County 6 ~ta~ium. Johnso~ recovered .t~ finish second with Suzuki s Johnny O'Mara third. In winning his first supercross ever, round six of the Camel Supercross Series, Stanton ended . Johnson 's consecutive win streak at .. five. Johnson now leads Stanton 147 to 125 with 10 rounds to go. " It feels really good right now," Stanton told the crowd of 28,473 bundled up against the 40 degree co ld at the SuperS port Inc.promoted event, "But it probably won 't sink in for a few da ys. My goal ' is still to win the supercross championship this year." J ohnson expressed a co m bina tion o f disappointment and relief at seeing his perfect season come to an end. " I knew it was going to happen eventua lly," he said. "It got to be a hassle with people harping on it all th e time. Now my lead's only 22 points and I'm going to go out and work just as hard for th e rest of the series." Kawasaki's Ron Lechien, still on . the mend from a thumb injury, finished fourth with early leader Guy Cooper recovering from a midrace spill to finish fifth. Yamaha's Mike - LaRocco was sixth. Cooper led the race from the start to the 12th lap when Johnson sped by on the entrance to a right-hand jump just after the start chute. Stanton was third at this point, Just past the start of the next lap Cooper , misjudged a double jump and was spit off the machine as Stanton briefly passed Johnson. Johnson passed back, but on the 14th lap he lost the front . end in a right-hand hairpin leading onto the start straightaway. By the time he recovered, Stanton was long gone. Although he made a strong charge, Johnson came up about a second short at the end. Stanton earned $5000 from the $35 ,000 purse for the win, plus another $1000 for the Coors Extra Effort Award. Johnson pocketed $3000 and O'Mara $1850. The l25cc race wasn't nearly as exciting, unless you were Yamaha's Damon Bradshaw. The North Carolinian led every inch of the l5-lap final and lapped up to fifth place. Unlike last week when he fell twice on his way to winning, this week's performance was flawless. ) " I wanted to get out away from Ty (Davis) a little and let the other riders push him," Bradshaw said. "I wanted to show the people here that th e boys from the East Coast can do it too ," Davis was an unchallenged and unthreatening second with Honda's Mike Kiedrowski recovering from a bad start to take third. Kawasaki's Denny Stephenson was fourth and the last rider not to be lapped by Bradshaw, Honda-mounted Carl Vaillancourt of Canada, was fifth. Bradshaw's cut of the $5000 purse for the l25cc class win was $1000 with Davis earning $400 and Kiedrowski $280. Heats Suzuki's Ronnie Tichenor led the , first heat down the start chute and around the dogleg right on the John . Savitski-designed track of hardpacked Georgia clay. Cooper was fast on his tail with Yamaha's Doug Dubach third, Suzuki's Erik Kehoe fifth and Honda's Larry Ward sixth. On the third lap, Cooper went around Tichenor in the right-hand hairpin leading onto the front straight and pulled a slight lead. Dubach, Kehoe and Ward followed and would finish that way. Tichenor trailed Cooper for the next three laps and on the seventh lap, he made his charge catching the Honda rider, then pasing him just after the finish line to start the white flag lap. But halfway through the final lap Cooper was again in front and when Tichenor tried a last lap pass, he got well out of shape in a set of whoops and had to back off to keep from crashing. He would finish second by about 20 yards. " H e went around me in the long set of whoops," Cooper said after winning what would tum out to be the fastest heat, "He jumped the first two, then I hopped the second two .and made the pass back. " Tichenor explained that the reason Cooper was able to make the pass back was that he was carrying too much speed into the section of whoops after the jump. "I was going a little too fast, my . foot came off the peg, and I got sideways," he said. _ ' Overall he liked the track, however, and, although the coldness made it slick, he found it easy to pass. " The turns are so wide you can do a block pass really easily," said Tichenor. "Every lap the guy in front was doing that." Honda-mounted Jason Upshaw briefly took command of the second heat before Yamaha's Shaun Kalos asserted himself before the end of the first lap. Honda's l25cc MX World