Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

~ / MOTOCROSS AMA 125/250(( National Championship_M_X_Se_ri_es:_R_ou_n_d3_3 m _ Ward,Bayle topple Lake Sugar Tree By Ken Fa ug ht AXTON, VA, MAY 6 u lti-time National and Supercross Ch ampion J eff Ward and tw o-tim e World Champion J ean-Michel Bayle proved to be th e dominant riders at David Bailey's Lake Sugar Tree MX Park, winning the 125 and 250cc classes, respectively. Bot h riders fought off stiff competi tion and managed 10 find the righ t combination, after sp litting mota wins with other riders, to cap ture their class honors. Ward had hi s work cut out for him in th e 250cc National motos as Yamaha 's Dam on Brad shaw a nd Honda 's J eff Stanton mad e the l2-year T eam Kawasak i veteran earn his money and Nat ion al Championship points. In the first rnoto, Ward trailed the du o of Stanton and Brad shaw, who trad ed positi ons back and forth durin g most of the, race, but took the lead in the very late stages and went o n 10 win. The second moto was a different story as Bradshaw pulled h is second consecutive holesh ot and forced h is peers to look a t th e back of his jersey for the ent ire 30-m inu te plus two lap mo to. For most of the rnoto Stanton, last year's La ke Suga r Tree winner, held second as Ward fluttered aro und in th ird. Ward y, however. managed to ga ther a second wind and reeled in the cu rre nt 250cc National Champion on th e seco nd- to -la st lap 10 tak e the runner-up spo t behind Bradshaw . Ward 's second in the final mota earne d him the overall victory ahea d o f Bradsh aw a n d Stan ton , whil e Suzuki teammates Ronnie Tichen or and Mike LaRocco rou nd ed ou t the top five. " Rig h t now I am behind in points," Ward said, "a nd 1 need all the mot o wins that 1 can gel. 1 have to mak e up fo r C ainsville (whe re 1 DNF a M Jeff Ward (3) saw the backs of J eff Sta nton (I) and Dam on Bradshaw (8) at th e start of both 250cc motos, but used 1-2 moto fin ishes to cla im the overall victory. . Ronnie T ich en or (6) battled with Suzuk i teammat e Larry Ward (17) for 'a short ti me in the 250cc class. Tichenor p u t together two so lid motos for fourth overall. rno to )." 14 Ward's second Nat ional win in a ro w allowed him to gai n five points o n series poi nt lead er Stanton, wh o has 130 poin ts. Ward 's ll2-p oint total moved him int o second in the standings ahea d of LaRocco, who fell to thi rd wit h 105 points after fini shing fifth beh ind T ichen or. Ward 's sha re of the $ 15,000 purse was 1600, Bradshaw took hom e $1500 and Stanton 's sha re was $ 1100. Lik e Ward , Fren chman Bayle earne d the overa ll win in the 125cc class late in th e second moto wh en the 250cc World cha m p chased down Cu y Cooper, wh o fini shed second. Ba yl e rode in th e numb er tw o positi on throughout mos t of the first mota as Cooper walk ed awa y with th e win. Defending I25cc National Champion Mik e Kiedrowski tangled with current Camel Supercros s series point leader J eff Mati asevich and had to work his way through the pa ck to get fourth behind Rodney Smith, Mati asevich led early in the second mota but threw away his sho t a t victorywhe n he cras hed o n an uphill triple jump. That erro r allo wed Cooper to take control on lap two. Kiedrowski briefly moved into the number o ne spo t befor e he fell down and su rre ndered first back to Cooper. All that stood in the Fren chman 's way was Cooper, whom he had 10 beat for the overall. Bayle tracked down .the American Suzuki-backed rider and made a pass on the secon d-to- last lap. T ha t was all she wrote as Bayle cruised to h is first National win of the year, a week after a Supercross wi n in Tampa, Florida. T he win for Bayle, however, did nothing for his points lead. Since points ar e paid per moto and he and Cooper traded fini shing positions, the Frenchman went hom e with the same II point lead he had ent ering the National. . Weather for the fifth annual event was in the mid-70s for th e esti mated 6000 spectators who witnessed the event in overca st conditions. The 1.3-m ile Lake Su gar Tree course is o ne of man y hi gh- speed National tracks. Un like the courses where the first two ro unds of th e Na tional series were run, Cainsvill e and Han gtown , Lake Su gar Tree's course consists of red cla y that abso rbs water and keeps dust 10 a min imum . Th e co u rse featured several doubl e and triple jumps to keep speed down , as well as a few sets of wh oops that made for good passing. 125c( N atio n a l Suzuki's Denny Stephenson started the Nationals by gating perfectly and leading cu rr ent 125cc Western Regiona l Super cross Seri es ' point leader Ty Davis, Buddy Antunez and Matiasevich . Kawa saki 's Jeff Emig went down in th e first turn and was run o ver by Rodney Smith. " I came around the first turn on the in side," Emi g sai d. " It was slippery from wh ere they had j ust graded the track - there were some g rooves that took me o ut. T hen wh en 1 was lying o n th e gr ound, Sm ith rode over my head . .. and whe n h e did th at 1 thought 1 bit my tongue off." While Emi g began his charge from the rear of the pa ck , Matiasevich and Kiedrowski coll ided o n a set of uphill triple jumps while battling for fourth and the pair d ropped to mid-pack. Their misfortune opened th e door for T eam C reen Kawasaki 's Tallon Voh land who moved into fourth behind Antunez and ahea d of Cooper. But aga in things cha nged o n the th ird lap as Antunez went down, rem ountin g a n d co nt i n u i n g in seventh. "There was an uphill left-hander and 1 drifted wid e," Antunez said. " When 1 did that 1 swap ped into a ledge and then swap ped back again whi ch highsided me. 1 had to jump off (the bike ). Wh en 1 did that 1 had to start backwards on th e track." As Antunez was ge ll ing restarted, Cooper made his bid for the lead. Cooper held tight to Stephens on's rear fender, but Stephenson was doing a good job of ho lding him back. While they were banging bars up front, Bayle, who had started around

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