Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

M ike Healey rode three Pro classes. won the 500cc division and f in ished seco nd overall in the 125 and 250cc classes. "' Steve Lamson (10 ) won both 125cc Pro motos and Tony Graves (106) f inished third overall behind Healey. Butch Smith (710), Jeremy McGrath (20) and Lamson (10) lead the 250cc Pro pack int o the f irst tu rn . CMC/Dodge Truck Golden'State Nationals: Round 2 Lamson, Fisher, Healey slosh to Glen Helen wins By Donn Maeda SAN BER NARDI NO, CA, J A .13-14 Steve Lam son , Mike Fisher and Mike Healey came ou t on top of th e Pro class at the second round of the CMC/ Dodge T ru ck Golden State Nationals at Don Brown 's Glen H elen Park. Storm clouds gathered over . . . th e area Just m tI~e t? turn th e weekend's racmg mto a 8 veri table mud bog. Saturday's races were cut short to a single mota wh en the rain becam e too heav y to compete in. H eavy drizzle greeted th e racers o n Sunda y m orning but let up eno ug h to all ow for ~ full chedu le, I While many rid ers moan ed with d.isgu st ,. KTM 's H~al ey , wh o has ndden III th e mud In the Europea n l25cc GPs, seemed to look forward to the fami liar condit ions th at lie ahead. Healey co mpe ted in all th ree classes; a n d wh ile L am son a nd Fish er scored th e victories in the 125 a nd 250cc Pro classes, resp ectively, Heal ey scored two seconds as well as,a victo ry in ~e 500cc Pro ,class. Tony . Graves ho leshot th e first 125cc Pro class moto with La mso n a nd H eal ey in tow , but it took o nly a lap and a half for Lamson to rail past a nd into th e lead. H eal ey also worked past Graves, but co uldn 't ca tch La mson, wh o had o pened up a co m manding lead . Mike Young and Bu tch Sm ith emerged fro m the pa ck af ter mediocre starts to mo tor into third a nd fo urth p lace by the rnoto 's end. Ear ly race lead er Graves held on to fifth . Graves pu lled a nother holesh o t in mot a two, but just as in the first mo to, La mso n sp lashed past a nd ope ned u p a su bstantial lead. Graves was det ermi ned and held off th e advances of Sm ith throug ho u t the mo to. H ealey su ffered a poor start but sliced his way throug h the pack and into fo urth pl ace by midmot o. Behi nd Lamson, Gra ves. Smi th and Hea ley brawled over the ru nner-u p position. but wh en th e checkered flag fell , the o rder rem ained th e sa me. La mso n was un contested for the overa ll victory while H eal ey's 24 tall y beat Graves' 5-2 for second overa ll. . Smith beat everyone through. the first turn in the first 250cc Pro class moto, but right on his tail were Fisher. J erem y McGrath a nd Willie Surra tt. Fisher followed Smith until the halfway point when he swooped past and took th e lead . Smith held off th e cha rges of Surratt, wh o was trying everyth ing in the book to get around the Yamaha rielt;r. , Fjsher cross ed th e fin ish line with a com fortable lead over Smith, Surratt, • McGrath a nd H eal ey. "T he mud wasn't that bad ," said Fish er, " bu t it mad e it a one-lin track a nd it was hard to pass. " 1 Fisher roosted everyone off th e line. in moto two. Su rratt, Heal ey and McGrath chased the lead er onto th e mudd y track. Su rra tt pressured Fish er early in th e mo to, but was surprised by Heal ey, who ra iled past in a slippery tum . Heal ey th en began 10 push Fish er a nd work ed his wa y past o n th e fourth lap. A' steady ra in . began to fall o n the last few laps of the mot o, but it did nothing to cha nge th e runn ing order, as H ealey took th e mo to win over Fi sh er. Surra tt a nd McGrath. Fish er took th e overa ll win with hi s 1-2 scores. while Healey's 5-1 bea t o u t Surratt's 3-3 for th e runner-up spo t. " I kn ew th at 1 had the overa ll, so 1just settled into second," exp lained Fisher. " I tri ed to hold Healey off, but he had so me bett er lines." H eal ey blasted out of the gate in th e opening 500cc Pro class mota with Craig Davi s, Derek Brown and J on Nelson close behind. H eal ey pushed for a few laps a nd opened up a large ga p between himself and th e pack, the n p ut it o n cruise co n tro l in order 10 save him self for hi s mo tos to co me . Mean wh il e. Da vis was struggli ng to hold back Greg Zitterko pf, who had stormed through the pack after a terribl e start. Zitterk opf tri ed count less times to take over secon d, but the fac tory AT K rider ran o u t of ti me. Heal ey cruis ed to the rnoto win a hea d of Davis, Ziuerk opf and Nelson. I H ealey sto le th e hol esh ot in moto two a hea d of Davis and Zitterkopf, and dup licated his first moto ' ru naway. Zitterk opf tractored past Davis and tried h is best 10 catch H ealey, but th e lead er looked qu ite co rn fortable in th e mud a nd cont in ued to pull away. Davis held on to third ah ead of Brown. Healey's perfect sco re nett ed him th e overall win. Zitterkopf was seco nd with his 3-2 score and Davi s third wi th a 2-3 tally. "The years I've sp ent in Europe hav e made me used to the mud," said Healey. " so 1 think the rain worked 10 my adva n tage. It may have hurt me in the l25 s though, because I'm bigger than most of th e o ther gu ys. 1 think 1 could've won th e 250s, but . 1 got a bad pi ck on the gate in the first moto and had 10 work up from a next-to-last placestart,"

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