Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

of France. After being as much as six seconds behind, J ohnson reeled in and passed th e Frenchman just p ast the halfway p oint of the 30m inute p lus two- la p rn o to . As J ohnso n scooted to th e win, Ba yle bac ked off as he did n 't wa nt to ris k losin g th e slim poi nts lead h e h olds in the cha m pions h ip sta ndings. Finland 's Pekka Vehkonen , who is chasing Bayle for th e titl e, fin ish ed th e firs t mo to 'th ird after J oh n n y . O ' Mara , in a rep ea t of his 1986 h eartbreaker , ran out of gas o n th e fina l lap. H oll a nd's Gert-Jan van Doorn was fourth and Yamaha 's Micky Dymond ch a rged up to fif th. In the seco n d m o to J oh nson spent les s time in secon d, p assing the leader a n d reigning 250cc World Cham pi on, J oh n van den Berk oL Holland o n th e third lap . Late in the moto , van den Berk retook the lead wh en J ohnson crashe d , but less th an a lap la ter it was th e Dutchma n going down as J ohn son ap plied p ressu re. J ohnson cr u ised to th e moto win a nd overa ll victory, while van den Berk recovered for seco nd. Bayle finished third despite crashing while runnin g beh ind J ohnson a n d made it a sem i-America n 1-2 in the overall results since he rides under an Am eri can license. Dym ond 'h ad an up-a nd-do wn ride to cla im fourth in the moto ahead of Veh konen, but th e Finn edged him o ut o f third overall. Sweden 's Peter J ohansson turned in a pair of sixths to round out the top five overa ll. On being n amed the new king by H annah, J ohnson sai d, " It's always an honor to get a co m p liment from H annah. It means a lot." Alth ough he wou ld 've liked to have bea ten J ohnson, Bayle wa sn ' t too di sapp ointed with the day as h e p icked up six points o n Veh konen an d n ow leads the series by 17, 178161. Van den Berk saw hi s title h ope s become sli m mer w he n h e DNF th e firs t moto. H e now h as 139 points and ' is 14 a head o f va n Doorn . Am er ican Rodney Smith p ic ked up a few points for seventh in th e first moto to 'm ove into 'fifth in the . standings, one point a head o f Ita ly's Michele Fanton. American Broc Glover, who is campaigning the entire series, had problems a ll day , but still picked up points on Fanton with 10-14 finishes an d trails the Italian by only th ree points. In the 125cc Support cla ss, Honda's J eff Stanton raced a 125 for the .firs t time and m uscled the sm all er machine to bo th moto wins. "I wanted to ride an d get so m e track time in," said Stanton, who was riding in order to fam iliarize himself with th e track in preparation for th e . 125/500cc Na tio na l a t Unadilla later this year. H onda team m a te Mik e Ki edrowski wa s th e runner-up with a pair of seconds, and Yamaha's Damon Bradshaw co m p leted the top three with two th irds. 250cc GP Bayl e, the 1988 125cc MX World Champion who spe nt the winter riding here in th e U.S . a nd wo n th e openin g 250cc Nat ional b ef ore re turning to France, set fa st qual ifyin g time in p ractice and quickl y p icked off Johnson at the start of th e firs t mot o. G lover held th ird through the first few turns until van den Berk charged by, whil e J erem y Whatley h eld fifth over O 'M ara , Veh ko ne n, Rob H err in g, Sm ith arid J o hansso n. . Hannah was runnin g nearly last. " I just got a bad start," Hannah said. "I'Il admit, I' m a sissy on th e starts. Bayle immed ia tely set a blistering pace an d as J ohnson stayed in his trac ks the pairleft the rest of the fiel d behind. O ' Mara got by Wh a tley on II Whatley (5) , O'Mara (46), Vehkonen (2 ) and van den Berk launch out of Gravity Cavity. O'Mara ran out of gas in moto one and van den Berk's ignition failed. Vehkonen finished third overall w ith a 3 -5 score . . th e first lap then took third from va n d en Berk o n la p two. Wha tl ey q u ickly began to fade as Gl o ver , Vehkon en a nd H erring a ll wen t by also, a nd h e wou ld eventually be cre dited wi th 28th. Next it was G lover 's tu rn to slip o ff the p ace as hi s stomach began to bother h im. ' " I was too nervous a nd tried too h ard ," G lover said. " I wanted to do wel l. " Vehkonen and Herring quickly p assed G lover as th ey ba tt led for fifth , and th e skirmish en ded on la p . three wh en He rring crashe d in th e "S crew-U " gulch, th e same sectio n of tra ck th at claim ed h im in the fir st moto last year. Vehkonen wa s soon al one in fourth as van de n Berk's ignition failed. Up front, Bayle was flying and had ' put several seconds on Johnson, and both wer e far a h ea d of O 'Mara. Vehkonen was fourth , while fifth was u nsettl ed for severa l laps until Fanton won a fierce battle over Smith and Glover . Johansson a lso joined the fra y and eventually fought his way past them all. Smi th so on dropped ba ck and Fanton fell back also. " I was h aving problem s," sai d Smith. " My feet were com in g off the pegs and I got roosted so bad I go t dirt in m y throat a nd co u ld n ' t ge t my brea th. " N earing th e h alfway point, J ohnso n turned up .h is pace a nd began to ca tch Bayle. Soon h e was o n Ba yle's tai l and on the 10th lap pulled a lon gside th e Fren chman o n a rough uphill an d passed h im a t th e top. " I kne w if I kept him in sig h t it would mess up h is h ead since h e's been running away (i n other G Ps), " said J ohnson. '.'1 .had problems with lappers, " related Bayle. " It bro ke m y rh yth m a n d I made mistakes." O nce in th e lead, Johnson quickly pulled away as Bayle backed off to protect the p o ints for second since O'Mara was far behind. Vehkonen got close to O ' Mara at one point when the Suzuki rider fell , dropped back, th en inherited th ird on th e last lap whe n O 'M ara ran ·ou t of fuel. J ohansson continued to cha rge an d go t close to Vehkonen late in th e race, but nea r th e end th e Swede Gert-Jan van Doorn (4 ) and M icky Dymond (20i prepare to pass Rodney Smith in the first moto. Smith moved to fifth in the points standings. . wou ld fall to th e charging Dymond, .w ho h ad battl ed h is way up from a cl os e enco u nter with fir s t -turn tra ffic. In typical hard-charging Hannah fash ion, the Hurricane b lew th ro u gh th e fiel d after his p oor start, picking off riders on almost every lap. A m essage on h is p it board that told h im he was ca tch ing Gl over a lso helped fire the charge, and once th e battle for fir st calm ed do wn, yo u co u ld tell where H annah was on the track by th e cheering o f the cro wd. Bu t eve n H annah 's best cha rge couldn' t ge t h im any higher tha n nin th beh in d Sha u n Kal o s and . Smi th. "When yo u wrote ' Broc ' I tu rned in to an an imal , " Han na h to ld mechanic Mik e McAn drews after th e moto. " I th ou gh t I was in shape," he said later, "but I didn ' t co ntem pl at e having to pass everyone." O 'Mara, who ran out of gas on the last lap while lead in g the second moto in '86, had the same prob lem strike again with only a sh ort d ista n ce to go . H e packed it in after the moto. " I was doin g as well as I co u ld," said O 'M ara. " Bu t I'm no t in co n ten tion and ha ve a b listered hand. I'll save m yself for next week, th ere's no sense in going back ou t th ere. " • The race was O ' Mara' s first since h e broke two toes, bruised his heel and strained his knee one month prior to th e event. Van den Berk a nd Veh ko ne n led th e way th rough tu rn o ne a t th e sta rt o f moto two. Bayle immed iatel y p assed Vehkonen, but as th ey so rted ou t, J ohnson got th em both as th ey flew out of G ravity Cavit y for th e first time. .Hannah got o ff to a sligh tly better start and wa s arou n d midpack , bu t got kn ocked off before the first lap wa s complete. "S omebody took m y front wheel whe re it wa sn ' t su p posed to be," said H annah. J o hnson wa sted no ti me applying pressure to van den Ber k, an d as h e wa ited for an opening to pass, Bayle moved in fro m third to make i t a tigh t three-way battle for the lead. The battle did n 't last long, though, as Johnson motored by on the third lap at th e same uphill wh ere he got Ba yle for th e lead in rn otoone. " He was str ong since h e didn 't ride much of the Iirs t.moto," said Johnson. " I cou ldn' t try to set him up because of th e roost, so I just passed him the first ch a nce I go t." Van den Berk stay ed close to Johnson for a lap but th e H onda pilot began to pull a wa y and left th e Dutchman to Bayle. Vehkonen was

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