Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

~ 00 .... V ..0 a V ;> o More than 500 racers competed in the two-day event. with the Amateur classes running two qua lifying motos plus a final. . by Col eman. Bowen , Vaill en court and Lawrence. "The su n goi ng down made it rea l hard to see, th e ru ts were so deep," Cooper said. " You co uld see the darkness when loo kin g down int o th em , so you knew they were deep ! Co lema n a nd Bo wen were really smo king at the beginning of the moto, I was kinda conten t in third. Then Bowen fell , I said, 'alr igh t, second p lace.' I could see Co leman. H e fad ed and said lat er that he swa pped out a few times. If he didn 't, it wou ld have been rea l hard to pass him, especially with the su n how it was." After maki ng history as the on ly rider to take all four major AMA ti tles by winn ing th e 500cc National Championsh ip, Je ff Ward didn 't seem overly confident befo re the race. " I' ve been o ut testing the 250 all week, so I feel a bit awk ward on the 500cc," he said. " Th is is a pr ett y ro ugh track. The local g uys probabl y know more about it than I do sin ce I' ve o n ly been here three times. Some of them go pretty well o ut there." Ward's reserve was well deserved. English town 's first turn hasn't been very good to him, as he's been taken out in it every o ther tim e he has charged into it. The fifth tim e would be no charm as it was Kessl er who ' eme rge d unscathed from the first turn wh ile Ward pi cked up hi s bik e once th e pack had go ne by. Kurt McMillen , Lan ce Eubank a n d northea st ern raci ng legend J oJ o Keller fill ed th e top spots. By th e th ird lap, Ward had worked hi s wa y up 10 fourth , but when he tri ed 10 go around thirdp lace Kawasaki rider Keith J ohnson o n the outside he went do wn har d. Fro m there, the National cha mp cruised around the track 10 th e end to take 10th . Kessler landed the top spot when th e flag fell , goi ng it alone most of the way. McMillen stayed in second all the way whi le Co leman wor ked h is way up from a midpack start 10 th ird , followed by J ohnson and Keller. Afterward s, all Ward co uld say was, "I go t into th e first tu rn ... a nd tha t's all she wrot e. I probabl y wou ld have won, but I went off in .the.mud to pass someo ne. I j us t bailed up a nd went over the bars. I had a bunch of mud o n m y gr ips . In th e past three years, I haven 't m ade it ou t of that turn cleanly yet!" For the second rnoto, Ward was prepared. H e showed up 10 the line with bull 's-eye targets pasted on hi s chest and back, just a little joke th at . hi s mech anic made up for hi m. All the other riders go t the joke and decided 10 have some respect wh en th e Nati on al cham p put hi s Kawasaki at th e front of the pack in th e first turn of th e final rnoto and safel distance hi mself from the rest of the pac k soon after. Coleman , Kessler a nd McMillen we.re once again th e fast sta rters. By m id race, Kessler made som e mistakes tha t co st him seve n p o sit ion s. McM illen too k over third w i t h Vaillanco urt and La nce Euba nk 10 dea l with in th e next two spots. As the race came to a close, Ward was nowhere 10 be seen by hi s cornpetito rs, Col ema n was safely in seco nd follo wed by McMill en , Vaillancourt a nd J ohnson . Kessler worked hi s way back to eig h th. In th e full y Kawasaki-mo unted 60cc Junior 10-11 year-olds field , R yan Kaichen to tal ly demoralized the pack by winni ng o n Saturday and ru n ni ng away with every la p infrom of th e cro wds in th e fin al. Karl SCOll was the runner-up in th is grou p on bo th days. J osh Dem uth reversed his fou n h p lace o n th e first day with a third in the final to ga rner thi rd overall. Wayne Scott took hi s Honda to th e top of th e 80cc 12-13 year-o ld pack going into the fin al race. When th e ga te dropped forthe four-l ap main event , it was Caner Cumee out front. SCOll was hot o n his heels in second followed by Paul Tranhan, Eri c Reill y and Keith Troccol. On th e third lap, SCOll put hi s mov e o n Cumee and ma de it stick. Reilly dropped out on th is lap, mo vin g T rocco li up to th e fourth spot. At the checkered flag, it was Scott ou t front, wi th Gurnee in second fol lowed by Aa ron Irahan in third. T roccoli and Ch ad Kresge ro unded out th e top five. Brian G undry led the l 25cc Amateur A class standings goi ng into th e final moto. When the race left the lin e, it was Jeff Cu rry , who fin ished 29th in his q ualifier, taki ng th e lead. Yezak stuck h im self in the run nerup spot but Kevin Sweeney stole it awa y o n the seco n d ·go -' ro u n d . Midway through th e mo to , Yezak shoe horned his way by Gundry and into second, where he finished the race. At the end of the six-lap rno to, Curry had th e race in th e bag , followed by Yezak, Gundry, Sweeney an d Gr eg Lynk. With h is 2-2 fin ishes, Yezak was cro wned the victor in this mat ch . Drew Fabiano was th e man 10 beat wh en the fin al 250cc Novice B rn oto ro lled arou nd. Frank Crislogo shot o ut into th e lead o n the first lap with Kevin Nel son . Ste p h en Ferreira , Thom as Fox and Fab ian o rounding ou t the top five. Nelson shoved hi s way in to th e lead o n the next la p as Crislogo bobbled hi s way back to thi rd. Fabi an o passed the reelin g Cri slogo o n th e next lap , bu t Cr islogo return ed the favor the next time around. When th e checkered flag fell in the five-la moto, Ferr eira too k Z Joseph Lurch (64) leads Frank Uttieri on his way to the Adult Senior class final win. Uttieri finished sixth overall. o ver th e top spot followed by Nelson , Crislogo, J osep h Mangravi n o and Fabia no. Nelson took the o vera ll wit h 3-2 fin ishes with Fab ian o and Ferr eira taking second and th ird. Ray Egloff aced the first da y's Open Amateur action , mak in g him th"e point ma n going into the final. He held up th e honor by flyin g o ut of the gate and leadi ng th e who le mo to, never to be ch a ll en ged . Gab y J im in ez, who was Satur day's runnerup , held do wn the seco nd spot. Bill H o pe ra n third fo r th e first lap befor e drop ping back dr asticall y as the ra ce wore o n. Rich R ike moved up to th ird and stayed th ere until th e end. Greg Mu rphy made a meteori c rise to fourth by the halfway point of this five-lap bailie. On the next lap , Bryan Krysa challe nged and overtook Murphy, who dropped ou t of th e action soon afterwards. When th e end finall y cam e, Egl off pr eceded Jimin ez, Rike, Kr ysa and J eff Davisin at the fini sh line. Top Adult Senior class qualifier ,Joseph Lurch launched o ut of th e first turn with th e lead in th e final , never looking back during hi s wir elO-wire win . G len n Miller, Doug Power s, Marvin Su yd en a n d A. Ch icarielli filled o u t th e four mos t popular posit ions. In o ne fell swoop, Paul H anna mad e hi s way up into second, bu t not for long. By th e th ird lap, he was back in fo ur th. As th e five-lap race ca me to a close, Suyda n ma de his way up to the leading pack. H e rode around in fou rt h until ·the flag fell. At th e finis h , it was Lurch stea li ng the g lo ry wi th H an n a , Hurley, Su yda n and Chicierelli in tow . In the first Wom en 's class mot o, the reigning queen . o f mot ocross, Mercedes Gonzalez quickly established her do m inance and proceeded to run away with the race. Carla Nelson held second and was chased by Kimmy Bozik , T . Huckab on e and Julie Lem on. Lappers soo n pl ayed a pan in th e race, but Nel son held o n. By th e fourth of fi ve laps, Cynthia Cole mov ed her wa y up from a bad start to third and th en set o ut after Nelson. Time ra n o u t q uickly. Gonzalez rod e a smooth race 10 tak e the win followed by Col e, Nelso n, Huckab on e and Lem on. Gonzalez did a repeat of her firstmo to blitz wh en the d ust cleared from th e stan straigh t. This time it was Cole in the runner-u s t with Le mo n , Nel son ' a nd Hu ck abone playin g follo w-the-leader. Lem on dropped a co up le p laces o n the next go-'rou nd. Sh elly O il soo n moved up 10 fifth from a bad stan as Huckabo ne slipped back fro m th e th ird lap. Once again, when the checkers flew, Gon zalez was way out fron t. Co le held th e run ner-up position followed by Nelson, H uckabone and O tt. After ru nning away with the whole show, Gonzalez was quite enth usiastic a bout th e fu t ure o f wo men 's racin g o n the East Coast. " Maybe my ru nn ing away wi th the wi n will enco urage more girls in th is area 10 come ou t and race when I'm gone," sa id G on zal ez. " I would rather have had a big battle o u t o n the track, have someo ne give me a ru n for it. I had a grea t tim e here.". Results 60 JR (10-11): 1. Ryan Kalchen (Kaw): 2. Kar l Scan (Kaw) ; 3 . Josh Demuth (kaw) ; 4. Casey Higgins (Kaw); 5 . David Oipietro (Kaw) . BO JR (10-11): 1. T. Ryan Karichen (Kaw); 2. Newton Swartz (Suz); 3 . Joshua Woe iner (Kaw); 4 . Neil Woerner (Suz); 5. Zogin Braum (Kaw). 80 SR (12-13): 1. Wayne Scott (Han); 2.Keith Troccoli (Kaw) ; 3 . Aaron Iraban (SU1); 4. Eric Reilly (SU1) 5. Chad Kresg e (Kaw). ; . BO SR (14 -15): 1. Lee Rostein (Han); 2. Jason Buzzee (Kaw); 3 . Brian Ging ias (Kaw); 4 . Zy Braun (Kaw ); 5. Bill Delanzo (Han ). . 125 AM A : 1. Dave veze k (Kaw); 2. Brian Gundry (Han ); 3 . Kevin Sweeney (Kaw); 4 . Gr eg Lynk (Kaw ); 5. Dam ien Pions (Yam). 12 5 NOV B; 1. Dan Burnett (Kaw); 2. Kar lin M iller ( H on~ 3 . J im W ise (Kaw); 4 . B.J . O'Connor (SU1); 5 . Danny Pokeeff (Han ). 125 NOV C: 1. Dan Shea (SUl ); 2. Michael Lewis (Han); 3. J ust in Berg (Kaw); 4. Dan Singer ISUlI; 5..Jason Gorzine (Kaw). 125 NOV A : 1. B. Tra sk (Han); 2. Billy Dugay (SU1); 3 . Danny Mo rano (Han); 4 . Geo

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