Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127260
o 0') 0') ....... Jeff Matiasevich (20) led Erik Kehoe (19) and Guy Cooper (4) at the sta rt of the second l25cc mo to. Matiasevich later felI an d surrendered the lead to Cooper. 10th, bega n reeli ng in the d uo an d event ua lly mad e it a three-way ba il ie. That soo n ended when Cooper go t aro u nd Stephenson and Bayle went dow n afte r he too displaced the Suzuki pilot. " I was too close to Cooper, " Bayle said. " I couldn 't see because it was du sty and I hit a big rock a nd went over the bar s." The mish ap didn't cost Bayle any positions sinc e he had built up a lead over Stephenson, which was trimmed to a few bike lengths. Smith was fourth in front of Vohland, Antunez and Kiedrowski , who was really putting o n a charge. Steve Lamson was eighth in front of Matiasevich , Erik Kehoe , Billy Whi tley and J eromy Buehl. As the race began to wind down Cooper put seven secorids on Bayle, who appeared to riding real conservatively but very fast. "I kn ew I had to get seco nd in the first moto if I wanted to win the overalI ," Bayle said . " When I fell , I broke my (fro n t) brak e lever . and lost my front visor. " . Bayle had almost the same distance on Smith, wh o had a three 10 four second cu shi on on Kiedrow ski. Matiasevich nailed th e second rnoto start with Cooper, Kehoe, Step henson, Kiedrowski, Antunez, Bayle, Vohland, Smith and Davis in close pursuit, Cooper soo n zapped Mati asevich , wh o once again fell on the same set of uphill tri p les. That move d ropped him o u t of the to p 10 and handed second to Kiedrowski . As Kiedrowski cha rged after Cooper, Bayle was giv ing Stephenson a run for the money that resulted in a broken clu tch adjuster o n the handlebars. "Stephenson and I tangled and this broke," said Bayle as he pointed to th e adjuster. "My clutch didn't work too good at the beginning but later it worked real good." Back o n top Kiedro wski reeled in 1988 Axton 125cc winner Cooper and took charge for his first tim e. Cooper, who's wo n four opening motos in the 125cc class at Axton in its five year history, was showing the speed that helped him win the previous National, but knew that he didn't have to contend with Kiedrowsk i for th e overa ll win. As long as Cooper could stay ahead of Bayle he would be all but guaranteed the overa ll victory. But jean-Michel Bayle (22) edged out Guy Cooper for the 125cc overall win, Damon Bradsh aw (8) rode a conservative first moto that may have cost him the overall victory in the 250cc class. He easily dominated the second moto, though. Cooper got an unexpected surprise when he came over a jump and found Kiedr o wski lying on the ground. "My front end washed o ut, " Kiedrowski said, " and Cooper jumped right over the top of me." "I didn 't see any yelIow flags ," Cooper said. "I saw someone run across the track a nd it spooked me. Then 1saw Kiedrowski's bike lying on the track as I hit the face of the jump, so I moved over. Wh en 1 did that, I jumped over both of them and just about clipped them ." Kiedrow ski remounted in third, but his hopes of winning were over. The top two were long gone and Cooper appeared to have it in the bag with just a handful of laps remaining. Bayle had other things on his m ind, though, and caught Cooper: Cooper tri ed to regain his lost adva ntage, bu t time ra n out and Bayle score d the win after Cooper bobbled and lost precious time. Kiedrowski rod e across the finish line in third ahead of Vohland, Matiasevich, Antunez, Emig, Stephenson and Buehl. 250cc National Brad shaw,' Stanton and Jeff Ward sho wed that th e first moto of the 250cc class was going to be an exciting o ne as the three factory rid ers led the way at the start of mo to one. Larry Ward was fourth in front of John Dowd, Tichenor, Brian McElroy, Mike Fisher and La Rocco as the pack ro unded the first turn. Yamaha 's Doug Dubach was taken o ut in a first turn, three-rider pileup and was sidelined for the day with what hi s mechanic Steven Butler said was a sprained lower-back, Dubach tried to stand up moments later, but fell to the ground in pain. Up front th e lead trio set a blistering pace with Stanton tak ing awa y th e lead 15