Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

250cc Hea ts , By the time the 250 heats were staged a t 7:50 p.rn., the mercury had plunged into the 30s. The 55 entrants in the 250cc class tried everything they knew to keep warm with most bundled up . in win ter jackets a nd many doing vigorou s exercises in th e pit area. Kurt McMillen jumped a head o f j ohnson a nd Sta ntonto lead th e first of three eight-lap heats wh ich tra nsferred th e top five fin ishe rs directl y to the main, but j ohnson was out in front on th e third la p. By the halfway mark it was clearly a two-rider race with j ohnson fending off teammate Sta nt on.Iast year's wi nner here, an d the two of them steadi ly p ulled away from the 17-rider pack. Su zuk i' s Mike LaRocco a nd Yam aha's Do ug Du bach were bo th ma kin g - u p for bad starts wi th LaRocco movin g into th e top five o n the fifth lap a nd Dubach jo ini ng th e lead qui nt et a la p ,later. Wh en th e chec kered flag fell it was joh nso n by two seco nds o ver Sta nt o n wi th Larocco o ver eigh t seco nds back in third wi th Dubach a distant fourth. The final rider to transfer d irect ly in to th e m a in wa s Kawasa ki-mounted Den nis H aw th orne. ''I'm getting back to th e o ld R] ;" j ohnson to ld th e crowd after th e ra ce. " No w I'm finally go ing to get a bonus from H onda." The fir st of th ree leaders in th e second heat was Suzuki 's Ro n n ie Ticheno r; b u t he was knocked down on the first lap . Larry Ward took over first ahead o f Bayle, Tuf Racing 's Keith Bowen, a nd Kiedro wski. Larry Ward and Kiedro wski co ll ided on the seco nd la p a llowing Bayle to take the lead w i t h Kied ro wsk i remou n ting for seco nd and back into the lead by the end of th e third la p. " He just got inside of me and cli p ped my fro nt wh eel with h is front tire a nd kocked me down," Larry Ward sai d. " T he track changed fro m practice. Some o f the lines th at worked in practice didn 't work in the race. " On ce o u t front , Kiedrow sk i lwouldn 't be beat desp ite th e best efforts of Ba yle lat e in th e race. Larry Ward too k third abo ut 30 yards back. Beh ind th e top three th e posi tio ns constan tly evolved. G u y Cooper was .as h igh as fo urth before getting stuffed by j eff Ward d ropping h im to 10th . By the fifth lap he was up to sevent h and a lap later he a nd teammate Tiche nor were up o n p rivat eer j ohn Dowd. After dispatch in g h im th ey ma de a das h for th e line wit h Cooper just nipping his tea mmate for fifth behi nd Bowen and sendi ng T iche no r to the semis. The Kawasa ki trio of jeff Wa rd, johnny O 'M ara and j eff Matiasevich led the 19-rider pack at the end of the first la p o f the th ird heat wi th Matiasevic h taking over second o n the second lap a nd Bradsh aw breaki ng u p the gree n tea m lat er on the sa me la p by moving into th ird. Ap proaching the halfway point of the race, j eff Ward and Mati asevich were pu lli ng away fro m Bradsha w, who was doin g th e same to O 'Mara. Th e ba ili e fo r fifth was between Kaw asak i 's Mike Fish er and Aloe Up l FMF-backed Ra y So m mo wi th Fis her usin g the tra ffic to p ull aw ay. Ma tiasevich flew past Ward at the fi nish jump to end the fifth lap wi th Bradshaw br iefl y joinin g th e fray . j eff Ward repassed before Ma tiasevi ch asserted himself agai n. It was th e mos t 'in tense ra cing of th e night with neither rider conceding an inch. Gradually, as th e race wore down, Matiasevich began to pull away and at the flag his margin was 30 yards with jeff Ward about 50 yards in front of Bra dshaw and O 'Mara about eight seconds adri ft. Fisher would get the last di rect tra ns fer. " We wer e both trying to keep it clean," Matiasevich said. " There were a couple of times I could ha ve ru n into him and a cou ple of tim es he could have run into me. A couple o f. times I had my feet o ff the pegs. I'd ra the r run as hard as I ca n in q ualifying. It rea lly wa rms me u p a nd gives me th e pick o n th e starti ng lin e." In fact , Mat iasevich 's winning lime o f 6:37.4 1 was o ver five seconds faster tha n j ohnson 's first hea t win . Semis With only the top two rid ers fro m th e two sem is go ing di rectly into th e main , T ich enor was taking no cha nces a nd immediately ra n aw a y from the pack, never to be challenged for the win. The seco nd spot wasn 'l as clear cut, however. A ra ce- lo ng th ree-rid er ba t tl e betw een Fred An dr ews, Ku rt McM ill en a nd j ohn D'o wd began on the first la p a nd went down to th e flag. McMillen was seco nd for the first tw o la ps before Andrews dropped him to th ird o n the thi rd lap and Dowd moved him back ano ther spo t, Andrews was a d ista nt \ second wh en Dowd made a las t-lap surge, but Dowd got crossed up and lost a ny chance he had of a semi transfer. Soo ner Suzu ki's Cliff Palmer look over th e lead in the second semi on the third lap with Boyesen Engineering's Bria n McElroy second and West German Ro land Diepold third. McElroy . crashed o u t on th e second lap , moving Diepold up a spot and into th e main alo ng with semi-winner Palmer. Last Chance Q u a lifier Only the win ner o f the six -lap LCQ would get into th e main and McElro y wasn ' t tak ing a ny chances . Although he was pressu red by So m mo , he led the di stance to get th e ch ance to race o ne more time. 250cc Main When the ga te dropped for th e ma in ' even t close to 10 p.rn., O 'M ara led th e 20-rider pack with Bradsh aw , j ohn so n, j eff Ward, Ma tiasevich , Stanton and Cooper in close p ursu it. Bra dsh aw quickly mo ved in to th e lead wit h a m id ai r p a ss o n O 'M a r a. St anton m oved into third a head o f j ohnson with Ma ti asev ich fifth a hea d of Cooper, j eff Ward, Kiedro wski and Mike La Rocco. By th e fifth lap Stanton was into seco nd with O' Mara fading to an eventual seven th -p lace finish. Cooper conti nued his mo ve forwa rd when he flew past Sta nton for seco nd and the order on the eigh th lap was Bradsh a w, Cooper, johnson, Kiedr owski, Matiasevich, Stanton and jeff Ward. As the race neared the halfway point, Cooper went under Bra dshaw in one of the ma n y horseshoe ben ds with johnson sti ll th ird. Bradshaw , however, was n't co ncerned. " When Cooper got by me , I di dn 't want to get it back too soon ," he said. " After tha t mistake I was waiting to tak e the lead, rid ing co m fortabl y." Bra dsh a w got his cha nce wi th nine laps to go whe n Coo pe r sta lled jus t past the fin ish line a nd the tra iling trio o f Bradshaw, Kiedr owski a nd j oh nson sped p as t. Coo per reco vered soon eno ugh to main ta in fourt h a hea d of Matiasevich and jeff Ward, who was mak ing u p for a bad start. " The first half of th e race , the fir st 10 ri ders were half a wheel apar t;" j eff Ward sai d. " I kn ew there ma y be a doo r th ey co uld leave open but I co uldn't open it, " After letting the three past, Cooper Damo~ Bradshaw and Mike Kiedrowski (11) diced for the lead in the main until they collided and were knocked back to ninth and 10th, respect ively, at the finish. jeff Matiasevich (20) ran near th e front of the pack. but was slow ed with a sideache . Cooper (4) logged his best fin ish of th e yea r wit h a runner-up performance.

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