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/127206
Ron Lech ien (4 ) t ook the holeshot in the first 500cc Natio nal moto ahead of Jeff Ward (5 ). Tom Carson (2 5) . Keith Johnson (401 ) and Shaun Kalos (24). Ward. however. drifted wide and clipped Lech ien . causing a massive pi leup in the first tum which claimed approximately 15 riders. Riders scramble for their bikes in the first turn pileup. which included Wa rd (5) . Lechien (4 ). Jeff Stanton (not shown) and Rick Johnson (1). who had his front wheel stuck in Doug Dubach 's rear wheel. AMA National Championship 125/ 500cc MX Series: Rounds 9/2 Ward wins wild one in Washougal By Kit Palmer WASHOUGAL, WA, AUG. 27 Kawasaki 's Jeff Ward captured his secondstraight 500cc National win by combin ing 1-2 moto fin ishes at the Wash ougal MX T ra ck. Ward 's win, however, didn 't come 6 easily as he ~ad to ~harge a fter he cras hed In th e Iir st tu rn o f the first moto. Ward, a lo ng wit h team mate Ron Lechien, Honda 's Ri ck Johnson and ,J eff Stan ton , a nd a t least 10 , o the r riders, was relegated to the back o f th e pa ck by the incident. But the fa ct ory Kawasa k i rid er was the quickest 10 recover, and he weav ed hi s way up through the fiel d an d cro ssed the finis h 'line just ahead of J ohnson a nd Stanton. In the seco n d mo to, however, ~t was Lech ien w ho stole the spotligh t, bea ting Ward, Stanton a nd Yama ha's Doug Du bach in a stan -to -fin ish romp. Lech ien , wh o cra sh ed twice in th e fir st moto a nd had to settle for ni nth , finished 20 seconds ahead of Ward in th e seco nd moto. Ward held a 40-seco nd cush io n o ver third pl ace finis her Sta nton. Ward ex tended h is series points lead after two eve nts to 16 over Lechien , 97-8 1, w hi le Stanton is third wi th 80. J ohnson si ts in founh with 69 po ints, two points a head of Dubach. Ward 's 1-2 performance earned the Kawasaki rider $ 1600 o u t o f th e S15,000 500cc class purse. In th e I25cc National motos, Mi ke Kiedrowski h ad th e clas s h andcuffed a ll day lon g and co llec ted $1200 ou t o f the $10,000 purse. T he factory H onda r ider ea rned hi s seco n d overall win of th e series af ter to p ping both m ot os ra ther easily, although Yamaha's Da m on Bradsh a w kept him honest. The current 125ccpoints . lead er, Br ads h aw , went 3-2 for seco n d overa ll, wh il e local favori te La rry Wa rd , ri di ng a factory Honda, ca p tured third via a 6-4 ta lly. By winning both m ot os, Kiedrowski m oved into second p lace in the poi nts sta nding, passing teammate G uy Cooper, who h ad a to ugh day at Washougal wh ich incl u ded three hard get-offs. . Bra dsha w now h as 34 1 points in the series, followed by Kiedrowski 's 330. Cooper fa lls bac k to th ird with 3 14 points, fo llow ed b y H olland with 299. An estimated 30,000 spec ta tors lin ed the well -prepared and ra the r long Washougal track . The avera ge lap ti me fo r the top riders was around two m in utes, 18 seco nds. Cool but su n ny temperatures kept the track's soil moist a nd loam y for a ll fo ur of th e 30-mi nute-plus two- lap Na tio nal m ot os, 500cc T he open ing mot o of th e 500cc class got off to a roc ky sta rt. As th e 40-plus rid ers fu nneled into th e first, sweeping right-ha nd turn, Lec he in ha d the hol esh ot an d right inside hi m was Ward . But whe n Wa rd gra b be d for the brakes, h e lo st co ntro l of hi s Kaw asa ki an d went down, ta king ou t Lechien a nd many othe r riders. " Ro n n ie (Lechien) got th e h ol eshot an d I was seco nd, " said Ward. " He got on th e brakes real hard and I wasn 't ready. I go t on th e brakes harder and h arder; m y front end tucked a nd my back end slid o u t a n d ran into Ronnie; m y back en d hit hi s back fender. I was actually go ing down before I h it him. I la nded with m y feet up in th e air a n d en ded up push in g b ik es o ff with m y feet . Ronnie an d I were a roadbl ock. " J ohnson, who was righ t behind Ward, sai d, "T he re was nowhere for m e to go. I never fell down ; I just go t stuck wi th every body , but I was o ne o f the last people to get o ut o f th ere. Ijust wedged in th ere. My fron t r