Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Yamaha 's Damon Bradshaw leads Donny Schmit (9) and the rest of the 125cc class at the start of the first mota. Bradshaw went 3-2. . wh eel was stuck in Dubach's back wh eel a n d h is bike was on th e ground. Someon e else was laying on th e back of my bik e, so I couldn 't pull back or go forward. I just had to sit and wat ch those guys get up and get going. Stanton was the first of us (Ward, Lechien, Stanton and johnson) to get going." Within about 10 seconds, all the downed riders were back on their bikes and racing again. Leading the field on a n overbored 360cc Yamaha YZ250was factory rid er Shaun Kalos . He was being pursued by Kawas aki riders Dennis Hawthorne and Keith jo hnson, Hond a-mount ed Fr ed Andrews and j eff Hicks. On th e second la p, Ward was moving up in 14th , and Stanton was in 16th , just inches ahead of defending cham pio n J ohnson. Lechien was still trailing th e pack after cras hing, aga in, just a few turns a fter th e fir st-turn pileup. All eyes we re focused o n th e Stanton/Ward/johnson dogfight as they charged through th e pack. By the third lap, both Ward a nd j ohnson had slipped by Sta nton, and all three of the m were ra pi d ly moving up through th e pack. Up front, Kal os was enjoying a co mforta ble lead as he was pu ll ing away fro m Hawthorne and Andrews, wh o had moved into th ird. Bu t cha rg ing up qu ickl y were Ward , j ohnson a nd Stanton. By the six th lap, th e tri o was pressuring Andrews for second. A few turns la ter Ward passed Andrews, as did j ohnson a nd Stanton. Now , on ly one rider stood in Ward's way - Kalos. With th e halfway sign out, Kalos held a 10-second advantage over Ward. During th e next three laps, tho ugh, Ward reeled in th en passed Kal os over a jump wh en the Yamaha pilot mi ssed a shift. Ward roosted past Kalo s and co ntro lled th e rest of the moto. johnson was now sta lki ng Kal os. But a lap later, Kalos lost control of h is Yamaha in th e wh oops and flew over the handlebars. "The section I was going through was a left-rig h t ch ica ne, and the wh ol e ra ce I was going a little slow through th ere; Ward was gaining on me there," said Kalos. "So I had to cha nge my line a little bit and I tried cu tting in too far and my front wheel went high on a ledge and my back wheel was still on th e fla t ground, and the back end came around and p itched back the other way . It just th rew me off the bike and I slam med my head real hard on th e ground. I couldn't see for the next three or four laps." His eyesight still a li ttle fuzzy from th e spill, Kalos crashed again a few turns later when he fell over in a sh a rp right- hander. Kalos wo uld event uall y finish the moto in ni nth. With just four laps remai ning, Ward was six seconds ah ead of j ohnson and was slightly in creasing th at margin with each lap. johnson fin ished second, a p proxima tely five seconds a hea d of Stanton, who was foll ow ed by Andrews a nd Dubach. Fin ish in g si x th was Kawasa ki ride r Brian Manley, wh o began the motoarou nd 10th. Next was Yamaha rider Steve La mso n, Washingt on 's Sco tt T yl er a board a Ya m aha , Lechien, Ka wasaki-mounted T yson Vohland. a nd Honda p ilot J eff Hi cks a nd Kalos. T he second mot o saw Ward and hi s Tom Morgan-tuned Ka wasak i roost 10 th e fro nt of the pack just a head of Lech ien , but before the first lap was completed, the former 125cc Nati onal Champion, Lechi en , was all alone and out in front. Ward, a four-time Nati onal Ch ampion, was second followed by Johnson, Stanton, Hi cks, T yler, Dubach , Vohland, Manl e y, Lamson, Andrew s a n d Kalos . Durin!? th e second lap, Stanton m ov ed mt o th ird a fte r passing johnson. From this point on, J ohn son 's lowly began to fad e back with sore ribs suffered in a cras h a t last week 's National in Minnesota, as well as slight pain from hi s still bothersome wrist, wh ich he injured last Mar ch. johnson would even tu all y fini sh eighth in the moto. As th e race progressed , Lechi en extended his lead over Ward with Bradshaw (4 5) and Guy Cooper (10) pursue Mike Kiedrowski in the first 125cc mota. Kiedrowski went 1-1 for his second win of the season , In the second 500cc National mota. Ron Lechien (4) roosted away from Jeff Ward (5 ) for the win . A 9 -1 score gave Lech ien third overall . every lap, as did Ward over Stanton. Lechien stor med to the second-rno to win , fini shing approximately 20 seconds a head of Ward, who fini sh ed 40 seconds ahead of Stanton. Dubach, riding a 360cc Yamaha, came back from a seven th-p lace sta rt 10 fini sh fourth, a nd was foll owed by Vohland, Manley, Kal os, johnson, Lamson a nd Andrews. :'1 rea lly needed the win to ge t the points," said Lechien. " Since I didn 't have a good first moto, I was a ble 10 save my ene rgy for th e seco nd moto, when everybody else was usin g up th eir ene rgy." Ward, who man y thoug h t was con tent in second place and just let Lechi en go in th e moto , sa id, " No ' way. I was tryin g my hardest to ca tch Ronnie, but he was just ridi ng 100 well. I tri ed to stick with him, but I lost sigh t of him a nd th at was it. I didn't want to rid e over my head a nd try 10 ca tch h im. There's no tim e (in the series) to sit back; I have 10 go a ll ou t ' if I want to win th e championshi p. " 7

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