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/127212
Jeff Stanton (7 ) reached the tum one first in the opening 500cc moto, but Jean-Michel Bayle (1 1 1 ) swept around the outside to take the lead. day . A lap earlier another top rider had retired as Bradshaw pulled off. " A rock hit me on the kneecap, my leg went numb and I couldn't use it ," said Bradshaw. Cooper inherited th e lead when Holland went down and h e didn 't feel any pressure until Kiedrowski finally worked his wa y to second on lap seven. Even th en Cooper kept him 10 seco nds behind to th e finish. " Whe n Holland fell I backed it orr a bit, but still ma intained a fast pa ce on th e fast track a nd tri ed not to make any b ig m ist akes," sa id Cooper. "When Mik e got seco nd I got a little nervous and tri ed to fini sh with a co m fortab le lea d so he do esn 't kn ow th e p ace (for mota two) ."· " I kind o f set into a pace then got bad cram ps in m y side abo u t three laps from the en d," Kiedrowsk i sai d. " He was going good a nd I wo u ld' ve really had to push th e wh ol e time to catch him." Matiasevich spent th e ea rly part o f th e rnoto fighting LaRocco before LaRocco go t by near th e halfway point. Ma tiasevich , however , stayed with th e Yamaha pil ot to th e fini sh • wh ile being hounded from behind by jeff Emig. Donny Schmit ca me from back in the pack , but hi s e ffo rts were thwarted wh en he encou ntered Larry Brooks. Schmit, ho wever, was ab le to clai m sixth a t the fin ish when Brooks was forced o ut of the moto with a broken ch ai n. The battling Suzuki tri o o f Jimm y Gaddi s, Tichen or a n d Bowen followed Schmit across th e lin e. Mat iasevich go t a rare hol esh ot in the seco nd rnot o , but a few turns later T ich enor took th e lead for good. Matiasevich fought back for ha lf th e rnoto before T ic he nor go t a way, ta~ing his fir st-ever National m oto Will. Except during th e early la ps whe n Cooper and G addis pressed, Matiasevich was never cha lle nged for seco nd. Cooper fell early in th e race while " try ing to ca tch Tiche nor and.Matiasevich , really pushing it hard," h e sa id. " I swap ped a n d it threw m e down real quick ." Another Honda rider who went down was Kiedrowski. " I fell in the top turn at the start," Kiedrowski said. "Larry Ward fell on top of me and it took a while to get apart. I got to I7th a nd that's it" H e a lso cra sh ed another time while moving forward. " I could've made up a lot of points. " Instead , Bradshaw returned to ride the seco nd moto and found that his knee didn't bother him a bit. After starting around seventh, Bradshaw took it easy a t first. " Fo r a while I was scared because I d idn 't kn ow what it would do ," said Bradsh aw . "After I got going it . felt o ka y." Bradshaw go t locked into a battle wi th Yamaha teammate La Rocco an d Cooper. He moved by Cooper wi th a n aggressive p ass that put th e H onda rid er on the gr ound an d o u t o f th e overa ll win. Bradshaw th en .got th e bett er of hi s teammate for fourth. " Bra ds haw ta gged m e prett y hard ," sa id Cooper , who wa s upset over th e move. " I took the inside of a corner , wa s ca u tio us and p rotecting m y line. Damon angled th e co rner and took m y front end out If he's go in g to play that wa y th ere's two more races left; h e'll ha ve to be lookin g over his sh o u lder." " I was behind him for a wh il e, it was hard to pass on th e tra ck ," sa id Bradshaw. " I had nowhere else to pas s a n d h ad to get by some whe re; I didn 't have a ny ch oice, I had to ge t by. I expect h im to repa y me." After passin g LaRocco , Bradshaw co u ld get no higher th an fourth behind a di stant Schmit, wh o h ad -spen t a lmos t th e enti re race in third. Schmit m oved in o n Matiasevich near th e en d, but was never close en ou gh to strike a n d Matiasevich brought th e J erry Campbell-tuned KX I25 home behind T ich en or. , " T ha t feel s grea t," T ich en or sa id o f hi s first Nat ional mot o win. " I got a good start a nd lu ck is go in g m y way. I ro de smooth an d relaxed th e whole race. " Matiasevich was also very happy to ea rn his fir st overall victory. Damon Bradshaw pulled out of the first moto after a rock struck his kneecap (above). He was fit for round two and made contact with Guy Cooper (10) which knocked Cooper out of position for the overall win .