Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Six -time Seattle Supercross w inner Rick Johnson led the start of t he ma in , but he dropped back and finished fourth for his best f inish of the year. in g press as the Coors Extra Effort $1000 award winner. This caught more than one reporter by su rpri se, as well as J eff Ward, conside rin g that Larry Ward came from behind and won his heat, while Jeff Ward went fro m first to th ird in his heat. J eff Ward sa id, " I'm not exac tly sure why I won it, but . . ." According to ra ce publicist Dan McConnell , "We retallied th e ballots a nd Jeff Ward did win." Semis There were only nine rider s participating in the first six-lap sem i, in which the first three riders transferred to the main. Honda rider jason Upshaw nailed the ho leshot but was passed by Canadian Allen Dyck on th e first lap. Upshaw, however , crashed in the wh oops and dropped out of co nten tion. Kawasaki 's Mik e Fisher moved into second place a nd began pr essuring Dyck. Fish er soon passed th e Canadian in th e whoops for th e lead. The Kaw asaki rider held on for th e win ahead of Dyck an d Suzuki rider Fred Andrews. The seco nd sem i saw n o su rp rises as Bradsh aw easi ly led th e race fro m start to finish . Suzuki ri der Dean Matson , h o weve r , was rea dy to pounce if Bradsha w mad e a mi stake. Matson fini shed seco nd , w hile Yamaha rider Kerry Mulligan of Las Vegas , Neva da, took third. last Cha nce Qual ifier T he fina l two pos itions for the main event wer e up for grabs in the six -lap LCQ. Kawasak i rider J oh n Dowd of Ch icopee, Ma ssachusetts, led Su zu ki-mou nted Chris Youn g an d U ps haw for th e first five la ps before cras h ing and gi vin g Young a comfortable lead. Dowd, however, got back in th e rac e just as Upshaw tried to pass. Do wd magaged to hold on to the number two position for the remainder of th e race to take the final transfer position of the night. Main 8 After a short ceremony where the main event qualifiers wa lked singIefile down the start chute, introducing themselves to the crowd over the public address system, Johnson powered hi s works H onda into the lead at th e start o f th e 20-lap ma in event ahead of Matiasevich , Ba yle and Larry Wind. Just a fter the first turn Bradshaw, who was running fourth , clipped th e ba ck wh eel of an o the r ride r in midair over a double jump and went down hard. Bradshaw was bruised in th e fall and hi s Yamaha was too bent to co ntin ue. The former series points lead er , Bradshaw, is now in a three-w ay tie for sixth . According to Yamaha 's race tea m manager Keith McCarty, Bradsh aw was bruised in th e cras h but had no serious injuries. Meanwhile, trailing th e pack was J eff Ward. " Righ t off th e gate I got m y sleeve caught o n La Rocco 's handlebar a nd I almost went down ; th en I a lmos t cras hed aga in in th e first turn ," sa id Ward. " After that, I was dead last a nd I made a lo t o f mi stak es - I just co u ldn' t get goi ng." U p front , Mati a sevich passed J ohnson on th e first la p a nd settled into th e lead. On th e move was Larry Ward, who qu ickl y passed both Bayle an d J ohnson for seco nd. By the th ird lap, Mati as ev ich enjoyed about a three-second lead on Ward , w ho lo oked lik e h e was p u rposely hanging back and wa tch in g Mat iasevich 's lin es. " O nce I got into second, I knew I could pass h im because I passed h im in the hea t race," said Larry Ward. By th e fift h lap it was o bvio us it was goi ng to be a Matiasevich /Ward duel down to the fini sh. And it was. At th e halfwa y poi nt, Ward bega n to ree l in Matia sevich an d was soon breathing down hi s neck. " By abo u t th e seventh or eigh th lap of th e race, I just h it a (me ntal) wall," said Ma tiasevich. " For a bo u t two laps I got really tired - I just don 't know what happened. " Five laps from th e fini sh, Ward saw that Matiasevich wa s beginning to fad e and wanted to m ake a pass. Ward moved a longside Matia sevich on a straight and tried to sweep to the outside of the Kawasaki rider in a tight, left-hand turn, b u t Matiasevich retaliated by drifting out wide and into Ward's line, while looking bac k over h is sh oulder. Then , Matiasev ich sla m med on the brak es an d tri ed to push Ward into th e ha y bal es. Both riders almost went down. " It was just a bl ock pass - I came to a co m p lete stop, a nd we banged bars a little bit," said Ma tiasevich . " T ha t's abo u t it. If I didn 't do it, th en h e was go ing to do th e sa me thing to me th at he did to me in th e qualifiers - keep pushing me o u t, pushing me o ut." Ward said, " In m y heat race I wa s blocking him a littl e bit; I was just . protecting my line. So in th e main, it was sort o f th e same pass th at I did to him in th e h eat race - I cu t o n th e in sid e o f h im. But this time h e h it th e brakes rea l h ard an d ca me back in side of me. Wh en he came in side of me, he just went stra igh t a nd ra n rig h t into th e side of m e. L uckily, I didn 't crash." T he two leaders managed to stay up right a nd th en dr ag-raced down the n ext stra ig h t. Ward forced hi s way into th e lead th rough th e next corner. O nce into the lead , Ward took com ma n d despite a slig ht, la terace charge by Mat iasevich , a nd went o n to wi n j us t a few bi ke len gths ahead o f the Kawasak i rider. T h e crowd, h o wever , did n o t forge t th e bloc k pass Mat iasevich made o n Larry Wa rd , a nd booed h im heavil y whi le he was explai ni ng what had ha p pe n ed over th e public address system "In one corner duri ng the heat race, h e (La rr y Ward ) was loo kin g over a t me and was tryin g to knock me down," said Matiasevich , "I just trie d to do th e same thing to him in the ma in - to give h im so me of hi s own med ici ne. I do n't like to ride that way." Matiasevic h lat er added, " I j us t did the same th ing that he was going to do to me, but since he's the hometown boy, th e cro wd didn 't agree with m y riding styl e in that co rn er, which I ca n understand." " We' ve raced aga inst eac h other for a lo ng time and we're both racing a nd o u t here to win ," said Larry Ward. "We'r e both gettin g paid to win, so we've both got to do what we've got to do. I have no hard feelings. " After a tough battle with Bayle, Tich enor cross ed th e finish line in third. " I' ve had so me bad lu ck so far this yea r a nd I finall y got a decent sta rt ," said Tich en or. " I rode really aggressive th e fir st part o f th e race. I ca u gh t up to third a nd kept cha rgi n g a nd cha rging. But m y a rms pumped up a little a nd I faded tow ards th e end. Ba yle ca ugh t up to me a nd passed m e, but I passed him back. We wer e d o in g so me pretty h ea vy di cin g the re." , Desp ite getting th e holesh ot an d dropping back to fourth, Johnson was h ap p y with hi s performance. " T h in gs ar e , getting better a n d better," sa id J ohnson. ' 'I' m n ot comple tely sausfied with tonight, but I did feel strong at th e end of th e ra ce. Now, I kn ow for next week at Atlanta that I won 't have to be ten se a t th e beginning of th e ra ce, because I kn ow I'll be stro ng enough a t th e en d. These gu ys are going te have to reckon with me more a nd more, a nd th e way th in gs are going, I'll be stronger th an I was whe n I was healthy last year. T he wrist isn 't hurt in g me th at bad right n ow ; I' m ta king an ti -inflama tories (me d icine ) tha t hel ps keep the swe lling down . That 's th e p roblem , th e join ts swell u p and I ca n't hol d o n a nd I don t have good ra nge of moti on. " Cooper, w ho had a bac k-o f-th epa ck start, event ua lly worked up to fifth , just ah ead of Sta nton. Stanton said, " I h ad a terr ibl e start; I got pinched off and tried to work m y way up th e bes t I could, but I just didn 't do as good as I wanted to. " Beh ind Sta nton finish ed the l25cc Nat ional MX Cham pi on Mike Kiedro wski, wh o had a m idpack sta rt. LaRocco was next . while Jeff Ward . ro u nded o u t the top 10. "I 'm just getting knocked around because I'm not ou t in front," said Ward. "Everybody is gett in g good starts excep t me. It 's a problem I'm going to hav e to work with, and until I get that dialed I'm not going to _ be up th ere." , Finishing ba ck in 14th wa-s O'Mara. " I didn 't hav e a ~ood start and Coope r took me out 10 a turn ," said O 'Mara . "It was a bad race."

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