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/127283
G reen rider Brian Swink that went down to the last turn. Stephenson charged by Childress as they en tered the corner, but hi s momentum caused him to blow the corner. Both Childress an d Swink went by as Stephenso n struggled to make it up the short hill that p receeded th e finish line. , Kiedrowski was down four points at the start of rnoto two and if he wo n Cooper wo u ld have to finis h second to clinc h the cha mpionship-.Whe n th e gate fell , Kiedrowski was go ne with the lead wh ile Cooper blew the start and nearly th rew th e title away in th e openi ng laps. Coo per was riding ragged, an d a fall on the first lap on ly made him ride worse. "I got criss-crossed in a rut leaving the gate," said Cooper. "Then I loo ked up , saw Kiedrow ski going away and knew he had the moto won . Looking up was a mistake. " O n the first lap everybo dy was bunched up and I tried to cro ss lines to pass th em ," he con tinued. " Bu t the ru ts were deep and I almo st crash ed severa l time s before I did. I go t up and was riding tight. Everything bothered me." . Coo pe r was right abo ut Kiedrowski as th e defending champ go t away on the first lap and it was no contes t for the rema in ing 13 circu its. " I kn ew I needed to win," Kiedrows ki said. " I saw Cooper 'was way back and kn ew th ere was no way for him to win th e cha mp io ns h i p if nobod y p ulled over." Nobody had to since Cooper settled dow n after a cou ple of laps and began his charge fro m IOth. T ichenor was hi s firs t victim, th en he easily got by Chi ldress and Step henson on th e sam e lap. Buehl , wh o was as hi gh as second on lap one, was next on the list and he looked over his shoulder and ga ve Cooper pl enty of room to pass down th e main straight. Henry was the next rider Cooper came to and he made short work of the privateer. Mati asevich and Swink were busy battling a short distance ahead, but by the time Cooper got Swink, Matiasevich had broken away . It took Cooper another lap to catch and pass Matiasevich, but the Kawasaki rider put up a gallant fight. Matiasevich stu ck to Cooper's rear fender and looked for places to pass until he crashed on lap 10. "I was going to make him work for it ," said Matiasevich, "but I was riding terribly. I think I fell about six times. I tried to get him back, then I crashed pretty hard , wh ich broke my (helmet) visor off." All that stood between Cooper and th e cha mpio nsh ip was LaRocco. After getting to second by lap two, LaRocco tried to close in on Kiedrowski but could n' t make a den t in the leader's six-second ad vantage. LaRocco fell at the halfway po int, th en steadily slowed with a flat rear tire. " I think it went flat aro und the fourth lap," said LaRocco. " When I crashed it was sliding and hit someth ing that just stopped me a nd I went over th e high side. I go t up and was feelin g pretty sq uirre ly." Coo per passed LaRocco wi th a littl e o,yer two laps remaining, and a t th e one -lap sign was pumping h is fist in the air. A lap later he cruised across the finish line more th an a minute behind Kiedrowski but with the cha m pionship in hand. "T hose last two laps the ruts and rocks look ed about twice as big as they normally do ," said Cooper. "That's the way' it goes, the way racing is, " said Kiedrowski as he reflected on hi s loss. "I had fun the whole series. He deserved it (the title)." LaRocco hung on to finish third ahead of Matiasevich, who lost his drive after his crash. In fact, H enry closed in on Matiasevich with about two laps to go, but nearl y went do wn and had to be cont ent with fifth . Mat iasevich ro unded out th e top three in the point standi ngs, 135 points behind Kiedrow ski. T ichenor was sixta in the second rnoto, whi le Todd DeH uop broke out of a battle with Buehl an d Antunez to pass Swink for seventh on the final lap. Swin k stayed ahea d of the Suzuki teammates to cla im eig hth. 500cc National Stanton ente red the event 26 points behi nd Ward and had to win rnoto one "to keep h imself ma thematica lly alive for the 500cc crow n, and that' s exactly what he did. After teammate J ohnson go t by Dean Matson on the first lap , he was the on ly rider to keep Sta nton in sight. J oh nson stayed wit h the lead er for 20 minutes, then made hi s move a nd briefly took first. Stanton retali at ed quickl y and pulled out a slight adva ntage that becam e a hu ge lead when J ohnson cra shed. Stanton only backed off sligh tly and had lapped all but four riders at the finish. Ward, who had sta rted seven th, assu med third by the end of lap two and sa fe ly cruised th ere fo r th e remainder of the race. He wasn 't even close eno ugh to get a gli mpse o f J oh nson after the Honda rider's fall, yet he was well ahead of team mate . J ohnny O 'Mara , who was quite possibly competing in his last race. O ' Ma ra ba ttl ed with p rivateers Matson , Kur t McMillen and Ge ne Naumec early in th e race before tak in g con tro l of fourth around the halfway point. McMillen fell behind th e battle while J ohn Dowd was on his way up. Despite a flat rear tire, Dowd kept charging and pas sed Matson in th e second half of the moto, only to fall back to 19th near the end. Mat son claimed fifth at the fini sh over Naurnec, with Ty Davis taking sevent h after passing Fred Andrews late in th e race. Mickey Dymond finished ninth and McMillen completed the top 10. Johnson got the holeshot at the start of moto two while Stanton quickl y moved by Naumec and Matson to con tro l second. Ward started fifth . As]ohnson and Stanton quickly left the pack behind, O'Mara made his way to third earl y in the race with Ward not far behind. Dowd also entered the top five when Naumec began to drop back. Just when it looked like the race would be nothing more than a parade to the finish , J ohnson went down on lap five. Stanton too k th e lead , but less than a lap lat er he nearl y went down as well and J ohnson was back in front. Stan ton pulled in beh ind for ano ther lap before he went down on the main stra ight. " I j ust slid ou t, it was real slippery," said Sta nton. Sta nton sti ll held on to second, but . the fall all owed O 'Ma ra to get close. Ward was right beh ind his team mat e and quickly passed O 'Mara. H e th en made a cha rge a t Stanton before he decided to play it safe and back off. "T he roost was really bad," sai d Ward. " I got roo sted by O'Mar a (earlier in the moto), couldn't see and went down. There were holes everywhere, a lot of guy s were going down." Johnson stayed out of trouble to easily win with Stanton a lonel y sec on d. It was Johnson 's second National victory of the season (he won the opening 250cc National in Florida in March). . Ward was a distant third, and hi s A pair of third-place mota finishes in the 500cc class gave Jeff Ward the Second consecutive 500cc National title and seventh National Championship of his career. Privateer Doug Henry (69) beat Suzuki's Ron Tichenor across the finish line in both I25cc motos for 6-5 moto scores that earned him fifth overall. Jeff Matiasevich (20) gave both Mike Kiedrowski (1) and Cooper a battle in both I25cc motos. Kiedrowski bauled nobody when he ran away with mota two. cha rge after Stanton had tak en him away from O 'Mara. " I ju st rode to a pair of fourths," said O'Mara . " I just wasn't with it. It's the last race of the season and I don 't kn ow if I have a ride for next year. That's not motivating." Dowd passed Naumec and put a lock on fifth pla ce ea r ly in th e race. Dymond began the race from out of the top 10 but steadily worked his way up and pa ssed Naumec in the closing moments to finish sixth. Ray Sommo - -- - - - Continued on page 9 ยท7