Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Jeff Stanton (I ), Bradshaw (8) and J eff Ward made th e first heat one of th e best races of the night as th ey exc~ anged po si tions several times. ,Bradshaw won the heat. that there wo uld be o n ly two . eig h tla p heats with the top four qualifying for the main event But that d id n' t mean that the racing would be diminish ed a nd th e first heat race was a classic. Stanton was first through the 90-degree left-hand first tum after the stadium-long sta rt ch ute .followed by Bradshaw, the Wards, Larry and Jeff, a nd Tuf Racing's Keith Bowen . Brad shaw was o ut fro nt when the seco nd lap started with Larry Ward second a nd Sta nton dropping to th ird ahead of Jeff Ward. Bo wen was fifth a head of Ya maha 's Do ug Dub ach . On the next la p Dubach tri ed to ma ke up a few spots, but landed on Larry Wa rd' s head after a double jump. Ward re-m ounted to fini sh eig h th wi t h Dub ach a n event ua l 15th. T he top th ree spo ts sh uffled constantly in the middle laps. Bradshaw led Stanton a nd Ward, then it was Stanton out fro nt of Ward and Bradshaw , then Bradshaw made his move back in front on the six th lap. A lap la ter Je ff Ward was into second a nd that 's how they finished; Bradshaw, War d and Stanton. Bowen was fourth a nd Fred Andrews fifth on the Andrews Suzuki. As Brad shaw and J eff Ward rode to the winner's sta nd where interviews were bein g conducted, Ward go t in front of Bradshaw a nd roo sted him, so mething Bradshaw noted in his remarks. "T h is track is real hard to pass on, " the 17-yea r-ol d North Carolinian sai d. " You ha ve to be aggressive. T hos e gu ys do n 't lik e it , bu t. vhey, I want to wi n this race." " It 's tough if you make mi stak es:' Jeff Ward said. "There are a lot of o pen co rn ers. If you want to go fast yo u have to protect yo ur line." , T he second heat gated with Matiasevich o ut fro nt a head of Suzuki 's Mike La Rocco, Bayle a nd Kied ro wski. Fa rthe r bac k Ka wa sak i ' s Joh n n y O' Mara chased Mike Fisher. La Roc co took over the to p spot o n the second la p as the lead trio, w ho had pu lled away fro m Kiedrowsk i, exi ted the tun nel under the fin ish line jump. A few la ps la ter Mat iasevich was back in fro nt, bu t o n ly bri efl y becau se LaRocco was on the move a nd took over on the fifth la p o ut of a slo w, loo ping left-hander at the west end of the stad iu m. Wi th two laps to go LaRocco bega n to pull a way leavin g Ma tiasevich to hold off Bayle for second a nd Kiedro wski a solitary fourth. O' Mara was simi larly fifth a head of Fis her. For LaRocco, it was his first supercross heat race win and it earned him the Coors Extra Effort Award a nd the $1000 that goes with it. " I wanted to be u p front fro m the sta rt: ' the 19-yea r-ol d LaRocco said. "Th is is a good track for hard raci ng. It's not a high speed tra ck." 250 Semis . The question in th e first semi, wh ich would put th e top five finish ers into th e main, would be wh ether or not Larry Ward would be ready to go. After hi s heat race he was treat ed by medi cal p er sonn el , although h e sti ll h ad trouble seeing out of hi s right eye. Though there was a lingering visio n , problem , you wouldn ' t know it from how he rod e. Off th e start h e fo llow ed Fred Andrews a nd hometown favor ite Ronnie T ichenor of Suzuki for a la p befor e taking over the lead w hen the second la p started. Once in front, he had a clear track a nd a spot in th e ma in. Ti ch enor also had littl e troubl e advanci ng with Dub ach movi ng in to th ird la te in th e si x- lap race a nd droppi ng Fred An d rews to fourth. Gene Naumec earn ed the fin al transfer fro m the semi. Suzuk i's Guy Cooper was running away with the second semi when his chain jumped off exi ting the tunnel. He push ed his bike' off the track a nd had to wait for the Las t Chance Qual ifier. His mi sfortune left O 'Mara all al on e in fir st and no one ca me clo se. Kawa sa ki's J eff Em ig was a n un chall en ged second a hea d of FMF's Rod ney Smith with Ra y Somm a fourth on th e Aloe Up/ FMF/ Bel-Ray Suzuk i over Jason U ps ha w o n the Fox /Jeff Long Graphics/Vital Honda. 250 Last Chance Qualifier Cooper wasn 't lea ving a nything to cha nce thi s tim e. Once agai n h e sprinted into the lead a nd by th e ha lfway po int had a 20-yard lead over Mike Fisher. The pair pulled away from the rest of the field, led by McElroy , and bega n a fierce battl e of their own. Just wh en it a ppeared tha t Cooper would have smooth saili ng, Fisher mounted a charge and came up only a length short a t the finis h line. Still, Fisher made the main since the top two transferre d d ue to the sma ll n umber of entra nts and revised for mat . 250 Main By the tim e the main was bro ug h t to the ga te a t 10:00 p.m. the tem perature, which had h it a high in the low 80s, had fall en som ewh at, but the humidity was relentless a nd whoever was the mos t fit was most likel y to benefit. Matiasevi ch led the cha rge th rough turn one with Bayle, Bradshaw , Stanton a nd Kied row ski h ard o n his ta il. LaRocco was sixth ahead of Larry Ward with Fisher eig h th ahead of Som ma. J eff Ward ha d gotten a good start, bu t got knocked around in the first turn and was 10th behi nd Tichenor . Mari asevich was still in the lead on th e fifth lap, but Brad shaw was clos ing .in as were Bayle and Stanton. Kiedrows ki, Larry Ward , a nd LaRocco were ru nni ng as a trio ah ead of 7

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