Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Damon Bradshaw (45) chases 125cc overall winner George Holland in the second mota. J ef f Wa rd (1) closed in on Jeff Stanton (7) in the second 250cc mota af ter Stanton stalled his bike on the last lap . Stanton won both motos. AMA National Championship '12 S1 2S0cc MX Series: Rounds SIS Stanton, Holland grab Red Bud gold By Ken Faught BUC HANAN , MI , JULY 2 The sign at the front gate read " Red Bud is Stanton country," and, fortunately for Jeff Stanton, the sign read right. The Michigan rider collected his fifth consecutive 250cc National overa ll win in front o f an estima ted 9200 spec ta tors . h Raci t at h e Ma Ico 1m S mil acmgsponsored Red Bud Track a nd 8 Trail event. J oining Sta n to n in the winner's circle wa s 125cc wi n ner George Ho lland. It was the H onda factory rid er's th ird overall wi n of the seaso n and it pro pel led him to th e champio ns hi p series po in t lead over Yamah a's Da mon Brad sh aw, third toda y, Mike Kiedro wski, who held the poin ts ,lead ent eri ng Red Bud , fell back to th ird, o ne step u p the ladd er from Gu y Cooper. Sta nto n a lso ben efi tted in th e poi nts chas e a nd in creased hi s lead to 43 po ints over J eff Ward, seco nd overa ll a t Red Bud . With on ly o ne round of the 250cc series remain ing , Stanton needs only eigh t poi nts to claim hi s first-ever Nat ional cha mpions h ip . In o rder to gai n those points, th e Honda rider needs o n ly to finish 13th in one of the two motos a t th e final round in Troy, Ohio, on June 16:. The absence of Johnny O'Mara and Ron Lechien allowed Ronnie Tichenor to take third in the points chase. O 'Mara is still recovering from a knee injury while Lechien injured hi s shoulder in a practice cras h at Red Bud. Both riders are ex pec ted to return for th e final round. In the first moto of th e 125cc clas s, H oll and grabbed the early lead ahead of T y Davis, but was qu ickl y overpowered by Yamaha 's Mik e LaRocco wh o ga te d third . As L aRo cco increased hi s lead , Donny Sch mit moved into the runner-up slot while H oll and had problem s with hi s rear bra ke. Brad shaw sho t past H oll and near the halfw ay po int, while up front LaRocco had built a comfortable lead over Schmit. Brad shaw kept up hi s charge to th e chec ke rs , but co uld n 't get an y closer. H olland fin ish ed fourth in front of Todd DeH oo p , Kiedrow ski a nd Ka wasaki's J eff Mat iasevich . Ro und two again saw H olland o u t to th e ear ly lead , but Bradshaw a ppeared eag er to tak e that pos ition awa y. T he two riders battled side-byside for most of the 30-min ute plus tw o -l ap m oto, u nti l Br adsha w smashed his pipe, almost immedia tely after tak in g over the lead for th e first time. Bradsh aw's lack of power forced him to drop back, while Matiasevich a nd Tuf Racin g's Dale Spangler comp leted th e top three. Kehoe was fourth with Larry War d taking fifth and G uy Cooper earn ing sixth. Holla nd's 4· 1 rnoto ta lly ga ve hi m the overall wi n over Mati asevich 's 72 a nd Brad sh aw 's 3-9 scores . For Mati asevich , a two-rim e 125cc West· ern Regi onal Su pe rcross cha mp, it was his best-ever fini sh a t a n o u tdoor Nati on al. Hi s previous best was fifth in a mot o a nd a sixth overall. T he 250cc Nati onal saw Sta nton pu t in two perfect moto scores to top Kawasaki 's Ward and 1988 250cc Nationa l Ch ampion Rick J ohnson. T he race was J ohnson 's first return to Nationa l co mpetitio n since he sev er ely i n j u re d hi s w ri st fou r m o nt hs ago a t th e Gai nesv i lle, Florida, Na tio na l. H owever, J ohnson is back, a nd nearl y u p to hi s usual speed. Ronn ie Tiche nor led Doug Dub- ach , Micky Dymond, Steve La mson, Stanton and Johnson at the start of round one, until Dymond moved up two sp ot s to take th e lead. Dymond maintained contro l until the seventh lap wh en he fell back to fifth. J ohnson sho t past th e traffi c and inherited th e lead with the a id of Dym ond's mi sfortune. Stanton was a close second a nd the last few laps sa w him pu ll right in behind j ohnson. The two H onda riders battled for a short tim e with Sta nton eventu all y comi ng o ut on top. Ward was th ir d in fro n t o f Dym ond and T iche nor. Ward set th e pace for Sta nton , T iche no r a nd J ohnson in the fin al moto. Stanton q uickl y j umped into th e lead wi th Ward co nti nua lly hounding hi s rea r fender, and it was n' t until halfwa y into the rnoto that Stanton man aged to ga in a little breathin g room as Ward faded four seconds behind th e H onda rid er. On th e last lap Stanton went down in a co rner whi ch allowed Ward to quickly close in, but the newlycrowned Supercross cha m p managed to hold Ward at bay by one bikelength. Johnson posted third, more than 10 seconds behind the leader, with Dymond and Fred Andrews com pleting the top five. The track at Red Bud is one of the longest on th e National circuit, and featur es several. high-speed straightaways, combined with four sets of double jumps. Not all of the double jumps were makable for all of the riders; in fact only five 250cc riders jumped one particular set. Weather for the race was varied with temperatures bringing the mercury up into the 90-degree range. A sudden downpour before the final 250cc moto played havoc to both riders and tra ck. The rain, however , let up aft er 10 minutes and spec ta to rs '. were able to see an exciting fin ish. 125cc Going into Red Bud , o nly three p oints se pa ra te d Brad shaw and H olland from .Kiedrowski's point lead. Thus Red Bud would be of monumentous importance and a good start would be more important .tha n ever. Holland nailed the hol eshot to lead Davis, Schmit, LaRocco, Brad shaw and Denny Stephens on at the start. As the pack exited the first turn, Guy Cooper a nd Erik Kehoe were on th e ground, victims ofa pileup. " Kehoe a nd I had fairl y decent starts ," said Coo per. " He went down a nd I tried to a void him , but 1 co uld n 't. Wh en we go t up we were the on ly ride rs left in the turn." Up fro nt, La Rocco ma naged to find a few good lin es a nd soon took over th e lead as Holl and began to fall off the pace. " I was ou t in th e lead," sai d Holland , " And my brakes just locked up. I guess th ey j ust go t hot a nd tighten ed up. ea r the half way mark it started to loose n , and I was a ble to get back up to speed." Wh il e H oll an d wa s o n th e rebound, Schmi t moved into seco nd and Brad sh a w neared in fourth. Holland and Brad shaw battled for severa l laps un til Brad sh aw was fin all y a ble to ~a i n the upper hand, taking over thud. Stephenson was fourth a hea d of Davis, Greg Bowen, T odd DeHoop, Mati asevi ch and Kiedrowski . Kiedrowski, who su ffered a poor start aft er tan gling with Matiasevich , man ag ed to pick up a positi on wh en Davis co ll ided with a no ther rid er and went down. Schmit pursued LaRocco to the end, but La Rocco managed to hold o n for th e win. Brad sh aw held o n to third over H olland, DeHoop, Kiedrowski and Mati asevich . " Every th ing went good," sa id

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