Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Kawasak i riders J ohnny O 'Mara and Mike Fisher, and Suzuki teammates Ron T ichenor and Guy Cooper, wh o ran as high as fou rth befo re a crash kn ocked him back. Kawasak i Tea m Green 's J erem y McG rat h kept the St. Patri ck's Day th eme alive by leadin g the 15-lap I25cc Western Regional Su percross main event from start to finish . Mich ael Craig put another Kawasaki in the winner's circle when he passed series point leader T y Davis early in the race and chased McGra th to the end. Davis remai ned in third to hold on to a 25point lead in the Western Regional Supe rcross Series sta ndi ngs. McG rath 's share of the $5000 125cc class purse was $1000. Cra ig took hom e $400 for second a nd Davis had $280 to take to the casi nos. The event was the first tim e supercross ha s ever visited " the city that never sleeps," and it drew 18,197 fans wh o filled the Silver Bowl to approxim atel y tw o-th ird s ca pac i ty . Th e Mi ck ey T ho m pso n Ent erta in ment Group, prom o ter of the even t. vadded to the sho w with pre-race fireworks. Un fortu na tely two supercross stars were missi ng fro m the show: Honda 's R ick Joh nso n stayed at home wi th a broken fin ger suffered the p revio us week in the Dayton a Su percross, whil e Yam ah a 's Da m on Br ad sh a w was forced to sit out the event so that th e foot he injured at the th ird ro u nd in San Diego can heal pro perly. 250cc Heats Kawasaki 's J eff Ward gra bbed the hol eshot at th e sta rt of the first of three eig h t-la p heats that would transfer the top five fin ish ers directly to the main. Stanton, Bayle, Suzuki rider Chris Youn g a n d H ond a ri de r J a son Upsha w filed in behind. Ward was on the gas and quickly esta blished a three second cushion he wo uld main tain to th e checkered flag. Bayle go t clo se 10 Stanton but cou ld never get by and settled for third. Young , who ju st a few minutes before the first 250cc heat had .transferred to the 125cc main from the second 125cc heat , quickl y dropped back as Dub ach , wh o normally is a t th e front at th e start, moved up into fourth afte r start ing poorly. Suzu ki privateers Fred Andr ews and Keith Bowen battled for six th throughout the mota , and at the end they were p us hi ng U pshaw for the final transfer. Upshaw p ushed a littl e harder and stayed ahea d of the battle to claim fifth. Kiedrow ski ro unde d th e firs t turn wi th th e lead in the seco nd heat , foll owed by a cha rging Guy Cooper. However Cooper 's Suzuki teamma te Larry Ward quickl y attacked an d p assed Cooper , then was all over Kiedrowski. Ward clung 10 Kiedrow ski's rear fender for six laps, on ly dropping bac k wh en he go t o ut of shape in .a tough wh oop sectio n. On lap six Ward found a way 10 th e front, but a lap la ter he was on the ground in th e very same wh oop section, " I was trying to go too fast," sai d Ward . " I go t in a hurry and threw it away." Kiedrowski scooted by and rode to the win . Ward got going in tim e 10 save fourth beh ind th e du el betw een runner-up Cooper and Mike Fisher, while Suzuki's Denny Stephenson, 125cc Eastern Regional Supercross Series points 'leader, held off a .late char ge from AXO /Pro Circuit-backed Erik Kehoe 10 fini sh fifth. Larry Ward's cha rge on Kiedrowski wa s good for th e media 's vote which earned him th e Coo rs Extra Effort Award and a $1000 bonus fro m Coors. Doug Dubach (7 ), who led earl y in the main, and Mike Kiedrowski (11) fought over fourth until Kiedrowski went down. O' Mara pa ssed Dean Mat son fo r the lead o n lap o ne of th e third heat , wh ile HT Racing/MS Racing-backed Gor do n Ward quickly lost his th ird-place starting posi tio n 10 Suzuki 's Mike La Rocco, Mati asevich and Suzuki's Ron Tichenor. By lap two Matiasevich was up 10 second, and it o nly took an other lap before he was past teamma te O 'Mara and gone with the win. O 'Mara kept cont ro l of second to the fini sh, while LaRocco and Tich enor swa p p ed th ird a few tim es with LaRocco edging Tichenor at the end. Mat son took th e final transfer, well ahea d of Wa rd. Guy Cooper (4) ran near the front early in the main until he crashed. Here Cooper passes first-tum pileup victim Jeff Ward on his way hack to lOth place. 250cc Semis Only the top two finishers would tra nsfer o ut of th e two six -lap semis, and Keh oe mad e sure he wou ld make it to the mai n by leading the first go from sta rt ·to fin ish . Young passed Jason Bu ul e for second o n lap two then stayed ahea d of a closing Andrews, who o nce again had a fierce battle with Bowen until Bowen fell , to q ua lify for his second main event of the evening. Gordo n Ward go t the holesh ot in the second semi, but KTM 's Keith J ohnson closed in a t th e halfway point and took the lead a short time later. Wa rd stayed close for a lap, the n d ropped ba ck i n to Cliff Palmer's sights . After break ing away from a battle with Mik e Pas carell a wh en Pascarella fell , Pa lm er moved in o n Ward in th e final whoop sect ion approach ing the finish line. In a last . desperate move, Palmer lost con trol and crashed into the back 'of Ward's Honda. Ward stayed in control to get the ticket to the main as Palmer went down. 250cc Last Chance Qualifier Andrews controlled the point position throughout th e six-lap LCQ while Bow en worked to get around Palmer-. By the tim e Bowen reached second on lap four, Andrewswas five seconds ahead and cruised to the finish 10 ~om p lete th e 20-rider field for th e mam. 250cc Main Matiasevich grabbed the holeshot a t the start of the main, followed by Dubach, Stanton, Larry Ward, Cooper and O 'Mara. Jeff Ward, Andrews and LaRocco went down in a first-tum pileup, wh ile O 'Mara fell in th e seco nd turn. " I go t hit from behind and it pushed me into th e guys on my right," said Ward, who bumped a sore elbow and his head in the crash. "You can't co n tro l the firs t turn. " . " I was hit from the inside, h it Ward and highsided," said LaRocco, who came away from the incident with some very sore ribs. On the first lap Dubach, who is th e' rider who most often gets the holeshot, shot by Matiasevich and a close battle ensued for the next lap and a half. "I like having a rider or two in front of me," said Dubach. "That way you don't have to set the pace and can learn from watching the riders ahead of you ." After several close scrapes, Matiasevich squeaked into th e lead near the end of lap two. " He passed me and we were bump- ing . a few times through a whoop section," said Matiasevich. " I t was pretty scary and I didn 't want to go down. I decided to stay behind him for a while, but I said to myself, 'i f I'm going to win this thing I've got to get by.' " A lap after Matiasevich took the lead , Dubach made a mistake that allowed Stanton, Larry Ward and a charging Bayle to get by. Bayle passed Ward a short time later, then blew by Stanton for second. Ward fell on lap five wh ile Cooper came up to challenge Dubach. . Up front Matiasevich had pulled four seconds clear of Bayle, while Stanton was beginning to fall behind in third. Cooper passed Dubach but crashed a couple of laps later. "There were two ways to do some stutter bumps, and I felt slow through there all night," explained Cooper. "I tried going faster, landed on a knob on the side of a rocker and it pitched the bike sideways. They sometimes say you Can go faster by going slower, and I should've backed off; (if I had) I may have been in the winner's circle." 9

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