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/127182
Mike laRocco (19) passed Ron TIchenor (11) and Lechien on th e last lap when Lechien tried to keep TIchenor from getti",g by in a corner . Semis Each of the two five-lap semi-final races wo uld advance four riders to th e main, and Kehoe mad e su re he wou ld be one of th ose riders as he scored a wir e-to-wire wi n in the firs t sem i. Gary Bro n ikowski mo ved to second on th e first lap and stayed there to the end, wh ile 1981 Su percross champ Mark Barn ett held off Cor ey Cope for third. Allan Dyck jumped o u t fron t in the secon d semi with Chris Co leman on his tai l. Co lem an, wh o also had q ual ifed for the 125cc main. , kept Dyck in his sights for the en tire race, and on the last lap Coleman made his move and took th e win. Dyck was second whi le Ross Pederso n stayed in third for th e en tire Tace ahead of Andy Stacy. Last Chance Qualifier Fo ur riders would make it to the main from th e five-lap LCQ, and th e four wh o would advance all finished close together. Tom Carson led th e wh ole race a nd was hounded at the finish by FMF's Ray Sommo, who had put o n a tremendous charge to battle by Kur t McMillen near th e end. Keith Johnson was a close four th . . Main Lech ien grabbed th e holesho t to start th e main foll ow ed by Holland, Stanton, T yson Vohland, Jeff Ward and Tichenor. Stanton passed H oIland o n th e second lap whe n H oIland didn 't do a double jump, wh ile War d pr essured Vohland for a lap before moving by on the third circuit. A lap la ter War d also moved by H olland. Lechien opened up a three-second lead on Stanton, and by lap six was entering lap p ed traffic. H ollan d co nti nued to slip as Vohland also pas sed him, putti ng La Rocco a nd Tichenor on H oll a nd 's ta il. A lap later LaRocco dropped back behind T icheno r w he n the tw o r iders touched and Tiche nor h it La Rocco's brake pedal and caused h im to stall. A little furth er back La rry Ward was locked in a battle with team mate Coo per while O 'Mara, wh o had worked up from a second-row start, wasn 't far beh ind. At th e halfway point of th e 15-la p main, Lec hie n maintained a few seco nds o n Sta n ton while Ward closed in fro m th ird. Vohland was way behi nd, and fell way back a lap later. Tichenor mov ed into fourth over H ollan d and La Rocco, while Larry Ward got by , Cooper wh en Cooper got caugh t behind a lapper. Cooper quickly retaliated, then left his teammate behind. At o ne point Stanto n had rapidly closed on Lechien , but Lech ien was able to pull away again. " Ro nnie would pass the la ppers o n th e stra ights,_then I' d run into them in th e corne rs, " Stanton said. J eff Ward was also getting closer to Sta nton , whi le La Rocco moved back in on Tichenor and H olland dropped back beh ind Cooper. On lap 13 disaster struck Lechien as he sud denly slowed and Stan ton scooted into first. Lechien continued on , obviously down on pow er, and Ward also quickly go t by. " I' m ultra -bumm ed ," sa id Lechien . " I felt reall y good, pushing away. I can 't believe it , I've never gotten in to th e winner's circl e here. I was finally doing it and th e bike breaks." As Stanton went on to take the win over Ward, a spot for Lechien on the rostrum was tak en on the last lap as Tichenor and La Rocco . wh o had been battling for severa l laps, moved in. The three riders went into the far com er together, and LaRocco came ou t with third over T ichenor and Lechien. " Lech ien kept pushing me out and La Rocco cam e i n side," said Tichenor. "Everything went good at the beginnin g and th en th e shock faded about halfway int o th e race and kep t getting worse." "Tichenor tried to pass Lechien o n the outside, and Lechi en went ou t to guard against it and I ducked inside," said La Rocco. Co.?,per fi n ish ed sixth a few seco nds ahead of O 'M ara, while Larry Ward took eighth over HoIland and Danny Sto rbeck rounded out th e top 10. " It feels ~ood to win here in Daytona," said Stanton. " T here's th e thrill of being her e for Cycle Week, plus all the sponsors and factory people are here. Winning here gets yo ur name known better." "I was going rea l fast at the beginning an d caught Stanton and Ronnie," said Ward. " I had a lo t of lappers mess me up at bad spots, and my lower back go t tired near the end and I could n ' t keep th e charge going. I wish I could've won, bu t I' m not up to speed yet." 125cc In the firs t of two five-la p heats Den ny Step henson jumped out in front of Dam on Bradshaw and stayed there for three la ps before Bradshaw blasted by o n a long, whooped stra igh t. From there it wa s all Bradshaw as he left Stephenson in seco nd. Stevie Childress was third o ver Yamaha's Mike J ones and Barry Carsten. Damon Bradshaw (center) won his th ird consecutive 125cc Eastern Regional main over Mike Kiedrowski (right ) and Denny Stephenson . Guy Cooper (10) battled w it h Honda team mate Larry Ward for several laps before securing a sixt h-place fi nish. Ward finished eighth. Suzuki's T y Davis battled with Jay Mann earl y in heat two until he landed short on th e doubl e and crashed. Mike Kiedrowski took over second and then reeled Mann in for the win. Mann fell back, giving seco nd to Jeff Beckingto n. Davi s charged back up to third at the finish over T y Wallace a nd Anders Swensson. In the main Bradshaw got th e holeshot, bu t Step henson took th e lead o n the first la p. Bradshaw stayed close for a lap, the n took the lead for good at the end of lap two. Ki edrowski, w ho had sta rted eighth, charged up and too k th ird from Jones on the thi rd lap, then a couple of laps later was 13 secon ds down in second after Stephenson crashed. Kied rowski charged and Bradshaw cru ised ou t front, cu tting the ma rgin by over half at th e fini sh . Stephenson came back to pass J ones late in the race for th ird, and Co leman ro unded o u t th e top five. " It feels reall y good to win here, you feel lik e you 've don e a lot ," said Bradshaw. " I knew Kiedrowski was closing, but I was riding conservatively because it doesn't matter how much you win by, just so long as you win." • Results 250: 1. J eff Stanton (Han); 2. Jeff Ward (Kaw r, 3. M ike laRocco (y am); 4. Ron Tichenor (Suz); 5. Ron Lochien (Kawl; 6. Guy Cooper (Honl; 7. Johnny O'Ma ra (Suzr, 8. Larry Ward (Hon ~ 9. George ' Holland (Hon~ 10. Dan ny Storbeclt (H on ~ 11. Tyson Voh land (Kaw); 12. Sha un Kalas (Yam); 13. Todd DeHoop (Suz); 14 . Ray Somma (Suz); 15 . Doug Dubach (Yam ~ 16. 8r ian Manley (Kaw); 17. Keith 80wen (Suzl; 18. Keit h Jo hn son (Ka w~ 19. Ross Pederson (Suz~ 20 . Erik Kehoe (Suz). 125: 1. Damon Br adsha w (Yam I; 2. M ike Kiedrowski (Han); 3. Denny Stephanson (Kaw ); 4 . MikeJones (Yaml; 5. Chr is Coleman (Kaw); 6. Barry Carst en (Su z~ 7. Stevi e Childr ess (Suz); B. Greg Bow en (Han); 9. earl Vaill ancou rt (Honl; 10 . Jeff Glass (Hon); 11. Ty Davis ( S uz~ 12. Jay Mann (Kaw l; 13. Dale Spangler (Suzr, 14. Billy W hit ley (Suzl; 15. Jim Chest er (Suz); 16 . Daniel J annett e (Honl; 17 . J eff Becki ngt on (Han); 18 . J ason Langford (Yam); 19. Doug Henry (Yam); 20. Derr ick Roe (Kaw ). . CAMEL SUPERCROSS POINT STANDINGS: 1. Stan to n (1501; 2. Rick Joh nson (147); 3. Cooper (113); 4 . Lochien (92); 5. O'M ara (89); 6. TIchenor (B6); 7. Jean-Michel Bayle (7 9~ 8. Kalos (73~ 9. Dubach (68); 10. Kehoe (61). 12 5cc EASTERN REGIONA L SU PERCROSS STANDINGS: 1. Bradsh aw (75); 2. Kiedrowski (58); 3 . St ephenso n (56); 4 . Davis (54); 5. Childress (43r, 6. Vaillancourt (38 ); 7. Coleman (36); 8. J ones (3 1 ~ 9. Carsten (30); 10. Bill Wallen (23 ). 13