Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Davis (2 6) is chased by Anaheim 125cc Supercross w inner M ic hael Craig (4 3) in t he Hou ston ma in. place from cha llenges by Ward a nd j oh nson. Stan to n eventua lly lost th e -ba u le to j ohnson, who ended up second beh ind Bradsh aw. Sta nton sett led for third, Ward was fourth and H onda rid er j ason Ups ha w fifth. Semis In the fir st of two six-la p semi s (with th e top two qualifyin g for th e ma in ), it was a n easy romp for Matiasevich, H e eas ily wo n th e race over T uf Racing's Kei th Bow en , who passed Su zuki rid er Fred Andrews o n the last lap, thus send ing Andrews to th e Las t Ch an ce Quali fier. Yamaha pri vateer rider Derr ick Roe o f Ind ian a led from sta rt to finish in the second semi. Ca nadia n R o ss P ed er son ha d jus t passed KT M's Keit h j oh nson for seco nd wh en he crashed , d ro p p ing 10 thi rd . T he two tran sfer posit ions went to Roe and joh nson. Last Chance Q uali f ier The six-lap LC Q, th a t advances on ly th e win ner to the main, produ ced a lig h t race between Andrews and Suzu ki rider Bria n McElro y of Florida. Andrews led from the drop o f th e gate, wh ile McElroy threatened every la p. BU l in the end it was Andrews clai mi ng the fin al qua lifying spot o f the ni gh t. Johnny O'Mara, one of Kawasaki's newest team members. ran second early in the 250cc main but finished third behind Larry Ward. 8 free by a couple of inches for the win. Ka lo s took second, a head of .LaRocco, Kawasaki's Mike Fisher and Suzuki rider Dean Matson. Stanton took the holeshot in the third and final heat over johnson, Larry Ward and Bradshaw. All eyes focus ed on Bradsh aw , who began pi cking off riders as he mad e hi s wa y to the front. By th e third lap, Bradshaw was in th e lead , while Stanton was now defending second Main Larry Ward powered hi s factory Suzuki into th e lead as the 20 riders fu n ne led th eir wa y through the fir st turn a t th e start o f th e 20-lap main. LaRocco eme rged in ' seco nd Iollowed by O 'Mara, Bradshaw , Stan to n and Tich en or. Whi le Ward cru ised out in front, Brad shaw began driving for th e front and found seco nd p lace by the fourth lap. Two laps la ter, the Yamaha pi lot was breathi ng down Ward 's back and quickly shot past him in a turn. " I made a couple of mistakes," said Ward. " But it was still early in the race, so I let him by. I wanted to see wh ere he was making up tim e by watching his lines." . Brad shaw said, " After I go t by Larry I wanted to get out to a pretty good lead and just maintain it at the same pa ce." " I fo llowed Damon for awhile until I made a nother mistake and he got ou t th ere about four or five seco nds," said Ward. Bradshaw opened up about a fiveseco nd lead o n Ward and maintained that margin for the rest of th e race. "Larry (Ward) was a lwa ys wi thin striking distance of me a nd I didn ' t want to make a ny mista kes," said Bradsha w. " I was a lso watch in g other ride rs to make su re they weren 't sneaking u p on me." j eff Ward was one of those riders snea king up. After a midpack start , Ward ha d moved up to fifth and th en passed Dubach . But after that everything went downhill for th e facto ry Kaw asaki rider. " I had him (Du bach ) passed," sa id Ward, " bu t then he made the stupidest pass back. If I would've kept my line, he would've broken m y back. There was a tabl etop - I came up and I ska ted over it and he jumped down in my line! It was the stupidest pa ss I'v e ever seen ." A stra ightaway later, Dubach got o u t o f sha pe over a jump a nd Ward unavo idably landed on top o f him. " I' m not sure wh o it was ," sa id Dubach , ." bu t I was banging . back a nd forth with someone. Then I made a mistak e in th e whoops and bobbled. Someone landed on the back of me." That someone was Ward and both riders went down. " It kn ock ed the wind o u t of me, because I got his rear wh eel in my stomach," said Ward. " It sucked me in there." " It was m y fault, my mistake, but th at 's all pan o f racing," said Dubach . Dubach recovered to finish eig h th ; Ward 12th. johnson , m eanwhile, crashed twi ce. "It was th e third lap; I was sitt ing in a good position - about six th - I came around and my back end hopped, kicked and high-sided me stra igh t over th e bars, and th e bike landed on top of me," said j ohnson. " I go t up a nd got behind Fred Andrews. We were runn ing in to each o ther and I fell down, agai n. I used up lOO much energy screwing around with Andrews a fter that." Ma tiasevich was o n th e move but he, too, went down. " I had worked my wa y up to fou rt h aft er a midpa ck sta rt , whc n a lap ped rider cut across the trac k as I wen t o ff a jump ," sai d Mat iasevich . "I landed on h im a nd went do wn. I thi nk I bruised m y a nk le." In the la te stages o f the race Bradsha w, Larry Ward a nd O 'Mara were fairl y sp rea d ou t but still with in st r i k ing d is ta nce of each o t he r. LaRocco was hard o n the gas a nd was running fourth after a midpack sta rt. Stanton dropped back to a d istan t fifth, whil e Tichenor hung o n to sixth. Kiedrowski was running sevent h followed by Dubach. Positions stayed the same for the rest of th e race, as Bradshaw took his second win of th e year . "I'm really happy - just the thought of making the p ress and bei ng able to win the firs t two supercrosses of the year, " said Bradsha w. " But I ca n't let a ll this get to my head . I' m sti ll Damon Bradshaw a nd I'm not going to cha nge. I feel if you let it get to you r head, tha t's your first mistake." jeff Ward said, " I thi n k I cou ld 've won, to night. I felt so good; I had some good lines and I was passin g all those guys. I know I cou ld 've caught them. "

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