Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

dropped hi s Honda and wa lked off th e track holding his right arm. As Cooper went by, he nearly cras hed too and didn 't have tim e to think abo ut Bayle. " I was mor e wo rried abo ut myself; I a lmost went do wn ," Cooper said. " T he track is tricky. If you wander off your lines you can fin d yourself on the ground ." Another rider wh o h it the ground wa s Matiasevich , wh o went do wn wh en the front axle on h is Kawasak i broke. Ward inherited the lead but hi s sma ll leading margin was being ea ten by LaRocco. Cooper had assumed third, but was still a good di stance behind and well ahead of Vohland. " Coo per went by me and I knew he was going fast. He just moved away," said Vohland. Quite a distance back, Stephenson and Antunez battled over fifth , while Kawasaki 's Jeff Emig charged up from behind. " Do ug Dubach got in my way," said Emig. "I thought he was a lap down. After two laps he waved me by. " Dubach wa s act uall y several laps down after he stopped for a new exhaust pipe to replace one that had been ripped from th e cylinder. " I jumped in between Antunez a n d Emig,' said Dubach . " When I saw I wa sn 't gettin g awa y from Em ig I moved over; I didn 't want to ruin anybody's race." Up front , L aRocco kept Ward within striking distan ce, but the man on the move was Cooper. LaRocco began to slow slig h tly near th e end, and Coo per po ured it on and passed him with just over a lap to go. " Ear lier in the race I jumped hard and the bars began dropping," said LaRocco. ," Every time I landed hard the y would drop more, and finally they were on the tank. Once Cooper got by I could see there was nobody behind so I backed off." Cooper co n ti n u ed charging, though , and passed Ward on th e final lap. "I didn 't get tired, I just slowed a little bit," sai d Ward. " He was still pinning it," Cooper said. LaRocco hu ng o n for third, while Vohland was a distant fourt h yet well ahead of Emi g, wh o had broken o ut of a battle with Antunez, Stephenson an d Kied row ski. Texa n La nce Sma il' attled by severa l riders to claim ninth t the fin ish , a nd Brad sh aw worked th ro ugh the pack and co m p leted th e top 10. Stephenson grabbed th e holeshot nee aga in at the sta rt of moto two ith Ant unez , Ward , Chad Pederson, aRocco , Vohland, Matiasevi ch , rnith and Cooper strung out behind s they climbed the main h ill. Near the end of lap one Ward crashed near the same spot where Bayle went down. " I just got in a hurry ," War d said. 'I knew if I cou ld get in front, nobody ould cat ch me." Stephenson fell in a sweeping corner s well, giving An tunez the lead o n ap two. LaRocco had moved to second nd was p ressing hi s team mat e with oh lan d, Mat ias evich and Cooper ight beh ind. Ward had remounted rom hi s cras h and wa s sixth ahea d of radshaw, while Kiedrowski was at th e ack of the pack. " I crashed in th e first turn ," sai d iedrowski. "Cooper got sideways ext to me, whipped around and hit y fro nt wh eel. Then there was a a tered section and I fell again in th e ud " . " I thought my fron t end was gone," .d Cooper of his sta rt. " I did all I ould to stay o n two wh eels." The top four stayed close together, Mike Larson (190) leads Jeff Ward (I), Dean Matson (99) and overall winner Jeff Stanton (2) at the start of the first 500cc moto, with Antunez and LaRocco pulling a slight margin on the Vohland/Matiasevich du el. On lap four, LaRocco charge d by Antunez and Vohland cr as hed , a ll o w i n g Mariasevi ch . Cooper, Ward and Bradshaw to pass. " I tried to get by Antunez in th e same place LaRocco passed him ," sa id Voh lan d. " I gave it a little extra gas . and went sideways, th en flipped over the bars." Befor e the end of the la p , Antunez went down and LaRocco was beginning to p ull away. " I tried to repass La Rocco," said Antunez. " I went into a corner a nd the berm blew o ut. I had to adj ust the throttle, and wh en I got go in g I jus t started p icking my way back up." For severa l laps th e top th ree LaRocco, Matiasevich and Cooper were spread out, then Cooper began closing in on the Kawasaki pilot. After a lap in Matiasevich 's roost, Cooper made hi s mo ve. LaRocco was just out of view ahead, and Cooper began hi s charge, leaving Matiasevich beh ind. Cooper was closing slighly every lap, but in the closing moments it a p p ea red that LaRocco wou ld be unbea tabl e. But on th e la st lap, LaRocco slo wed, claiming he had rear brake problems, and Cooper shot by to .take the win. " H e wasn 't slacki ng off the pace until abo u t two laps to go," sa id Cooper. " On the last lap he slowed co nsiderably in the back sectio n." . Matiasevich finished a dis tant third wit h Ward and Bradshaw stru ng o ut be h ind. Ant u nez battled back and passe d Voh land on lap 10 of the 15lap moto, wh ile Kiedrowski battled back fro m his early-race problems, firs t figh ting pas t Smith and then getting Voh land with two laps to go. Voh land hung on to eighth wi th Smith a good distance behi nd . Dubach , who was also in volved i n th e first-turn cras h, cha rged up from near last to complete the top 10. Jean.Michel Bayle watches Mike LaRocco (left), Larry Ward and any hopes of the I25cc National Championship vanish after crashing in the first moto. o 500cc National J eff Ward grabbe d the holeshot wh en the first rnoto charged off the line while Stanton ha d to pass local rider Mike La rso n and former factory rider Rex Staten to ass ume second o n the fir st lap, J ohnson was way bac k in the pack. Ward and Stanton quickly p u lled away, while Staten rapidly fell back in the pack. Larson held on to th ird, bu t dro pped back in to a battle with New York' s Kurt McMillen, Mi ke Fish er, Ty Davis, ATK's Greg Zitterkopf and O 'Mara. Fish er' moved to third and broke away from the battle by lap five, while Larson slid ba ck behi nd Davis. La rson continued to slide until he was 15th at th e fin ish . Up front, Ward con tro lled tile race and kept Stanion a few seconds beh in d. Fish er wa s way beh ind but a safe distance ahead of Davis. At the halfway point, Johnson began to move, pulling O 'Mara alo ng beh ind him. O 'Mara briefly lost touch when he had trouble passing Zitterko pf, bu t once clear of th e four-stroke ATK O 'Mara was back on Johnson 's tai l a s th ey bo th moved in o n McMillen. J o hnson go t by first and quickl y closed in on Davis, who put , up a good fight for hi s position. J ohnson finally stuffed hi m in a turn 'an d mo to red away. O ' Ma ra soo n foll owed, then moved in and passed J o hnso n nea r the end. "I felt co mfo rtable until near the en d when my hand felt kind of numb," said J o hnso n. " I was going as fast as I co u ld, but I was losing tim e in the stadi u m j um p section. " Ward crossed the finish line abo ut five seconds ahead of Stanton, wh ile Fisher was a lonely third well ahead of O'Mara. ." I went mad the first few laps, then sett led into a good rhythm," said Fisher. " I kep t going as hard as I could because I kn ew J ohnson was back th ere , plus St a nto n co u ld've had pro blems." Da vis he ld on to sixth over McMillen , whi le there were severa l ba tt les fu rt her behind. Californian P h il Lawrence, Arizona 's Jimmy Button and Keith Bowen foug h t for a while u ntil La wrence gained the advantage to cla im eigh th . Southern Ca lifornian Scott Brow n fought pa st severa l riders and nipped Bowen for ninth at th e end , while Button held off Dean Ma tso n for l lth. 'Stant on and Ward led the pack at the start of moto two , while O 'Mara go t off to a better start and was soon th i rd after p assing Bu tto n , R ich Taylor an d Matson. Johnson go t off to ano ther poor start. " I have n 't been p racticing sta rts on a 500, and the y were pitiful," said J ohnson. "The roost was so bad I was ridi ng blind the first co up le of laps a nd had trouble p icking my way throug h the pa ck. " Stanto n appeared to keep Ward behind at will in th e early go ing, but on lap four Ward p icked u p h is pace. Two laps lat er he move d in for th e kill and took the lead . For several laps Ward appeared to be in control, but on th e 10th lap his lead disappeared. A lap later, Stanton was out front for good. "Ward's good at follow in g you and setting you up," said Stanton. "So I followed and p ushed him for a wh ile and saw he was making mi stak es. H e di dn't co me back with much of a ch ar ge afte r I passed hi m." "I had passed Stanton and pulled away," said Ward. "Then I did a big 13

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