Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

eREVIEW e 1990 AMA rofessional MX season Continued from page 9 Having recovered from hi s injuries, Bayle was in a position to help hi s teamma te in th e critica l last two races. But Kiedrowski and Bayle had had another run-in at an earlier National, and Bayle wasn 't about to give Kiedrows ki any assistance. Since Bayle was unable to forget the incidents, Hon da kep t hi m from rac ing. Kiedro wski didn 't need the help when he match ed Cooper for points at the penultimate round at Budds Creek in Maryl and, but some team assistance may ha ve been useful for the final e at Unadilla. Both contenders ran into problems in the Unadill a mud, and the tit le wasn 't decided until la te in the final rnoto of the season. Kiedrow ski had to win, an d he did , bu t Cooper recovered from a poor start and a crash to fini sh second and cl inch the cha m pions hip by a single point. " I' ve been working for this all my life," said an ela ted Cooper after it was all over. Despite mi ssin g the second half of the season, Bayle ended up fourth in fin al sta ndings beh ind Mati asevich. 250cc National MX Series T he 250cc Nat ional Ch ampion sh ip was all but decided after th e first roun d in Florida . R ick Johnson 's career was shattered when he injured his wrist at vania, the foot injury he suffered at the San Diego Su pe rcross had detuned him fortheenti re 250cc Nationa l Series and he finished fou rth in the fina l sta n d in gs behind Suzu ki's Mike La Rocco. 500cc National MX Series Lik e the 250cc series, the 500cc Na tiona l Ch ampion ship was practica lly decided by on e moto. The enti re series was practically a two-m an sho w, with defending 500cc National cha mp Ward or Stanton winning all but on e of the 12 motos in the six-round series. Often the best racing was taking pla ce far behind the leaders and it was turned in by the privateers who filled out most of the field. Even then they were usually fighting for fifth , as Johnson and O 'Mara almost always cont ro lled third and fourth. For the first three rounds Stanton and Ward battled ahead of the pa ck and swapped mota wi ns, with Stanton com ing ou t the overa ll wi nner at each race. At the halfw ay point Stanton had a two-po int advantage, the differen ce com ing as the resu lt of a third-p lace fin ish in Mill vill e by Ward . The Motocross des Nation s sp lit the 500cc series in two, a nd after Sta nton 's rema rkable perfor ma nce in Sweden it seemed likely that he would become the first rider to win three cha mpion- ~ ~ 8l1!Jl?sen (Above) Bayle, on the left, and Honda teammate Mike Kiedrowski became biller rivals after run-ins at the Charlotte Supercross and Red Bud National. (Left) Kiedrowski had several problems early in the 125cc Nationals, such as when he was forced to cha nge mot ors after practice at the Hangtown National. (Below) Damon Bradshaw (8) won the first two supercross races before he was injured. He won three more to tie Bayle (22) for the most supercross wins. 12 the Gain esvill e track a year earlier, but this time he fou gh t to two hard-earned moto wins over teammate Jeff Stanton . It would be J ohnson 's only 250cc National victory; he broke hi s hand a week later at the Dayton a Supercross. J ohnson was abl e to compete in th e final two 250cc Na tional rounds, but they were merely prepa ra tio n for an assault on the 500cc Nationals. Jeff Ward was forced to retire from the first moto when a competitor's cartwheeling motorcycle hit him and injured his hand. Ward returned for moto two and finished sixth, but the potential poin ts he lost in the first moto would prove costly at th e end of the series. Ward sto rmed back to win thr ee of the next four Nationals, fin ish in g ahead of Stanton in each moto to take the points lead away from the defending champ. But then Ward had prob lems with tendonitis in hi s wri st at Southwick , Massachussetts, whil e Stanton swept both motos to go back into th e lead. Stanton won the first moto at the final round in Ohio, then cruised to th ird in moto two to lock up his seco n d co n secu tive 250 cc National title. Although .Bradshaw won his first 250cc National in the mud of Penn syl- sh ip s in one seaso n. But it wouldn 't happen. After being beaten by Ward in the first mota in Pennsylvania, Stanton tried to get away too earl y at the start of moto two and crashed hard. Stanton kn ocked himself silly and retired from the rno to while Ward won and opened an insurmountable points lead. " I won more races in the 250cc National s yet he took the title," said Ward, "now he wins more races and I'm th e champ ion. You just can't make up points from on e DNF in a short series like this ." Stanton took anothe r overa ll victory at the penultimate round at Budds Creek in Maryland, but only after sharing mota win s with Ward. The defending champ mer ely cruised to the titl e with a pair of thirds at the final round at Unadi lla, while J ohnson becam e the on ly other rid er to win a 500cc moto wh en he wo n the fin al race for the overa ll victory . Pri or to that race J ohnson anno u nced that he was consideri ng retirement du e to his wrist injury. J ohnson fou g ht wi th J o hnn y O 'Mara for third for mu ch of th e series, but a DNF gave th e bronze medal to O'Mara, Former Yamaha factory rider Keith Bowen , wh o is now a Tu f Racing-backed privateer, filled out the top five in th e final standi ngs as he edged out privateer hots hot Gene Naumec. Naumec was the surprise of the series as he ran with the factory stars on several occasions. Looking ahead The veterans ma y have held back the you th movem ent thi s year, but after a year of compe tition with the "big boys" th e youngs ters will be back stronger than ever and a year wiser in '91. Cooper, Johnson , Stanton and Ward, you bett er watch out. O'i

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