Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

eSUPERCROSS. AMA Camel Supercross Series: Round 4 ~ Washington 's Larry Ward (10) grabbed the hol esh ot in the main even t ah ead of Guy Cooper (5) and j ea n.;\l ichei Bayle (8). Bayle passed both rid ers and scored the win. Moments after this p ho to was taken. j eremy McGrath (125) passed leader jeff Em ig (18) to win the l 25cc main e,'ent., Bayle rains on Larry Ward's Seattle parade By Kit Palmer Photos by Brian Barnes 6 SEA TILE, \VA, FEB, 2 he spotlig ht sho ne brightl y o n local hero Larry Ward before th e sta rt ing ga te dropped for th e 20lap Coors Ligh t Ch a llen ge feature race T a t the Sea tt le Kin gdorn e. Ward. as you may recall , won hi s first (a nd o n ly) supercross in front o f hi s hom eto wn crowd at th e Kingdome o ne yea r ago, cli nching th e victory after a spec tacu la r la te race pass o n lead er J eff Mat iasevich. This year, Ward was ou t for a rep ea t perfo rm an ce. And it look ed very likely wh en th e factory Suzuk i pil ot had th e 40,23 1 spec ta to rs on th eir feet as he blast ed into the lead a t th e sta rt o f th e main even t. Ward soo n engaged in a dogfig h t for th e lead wit h teamma te G uy Coope r, but when the du st had settled it was neith er Wa rd nor Cooper perched o n to p o f the ros tru m. Ins tead , it was the wily Fren chma n J ean Mi chel Ba yle, who p reva i led after stalking the two Su zuki rid ers for the first half o f the race befo re bl asti ng int o the lead for good, co llect ing his second win o f th e four-ra ce-old series . Fill in g the o ther two spo ts on th e ros tru m were Yamaha 's Damon Brad shaw and defending Su pe rcross Cham pi on J eff Stanton. Ward. who was passed by Stanto n in th e very last turn o f the ra ce, finished fou rth. Bayle's win also moved him back into th e series' points lead by four points over th e pr evio us leader, Stanton , 88-84. Sta nton went into the Seattle round savoring a one-point adva ntage ov er hi s facto ry H onda tea m ma te Bayle. For his efforts, Bayle wa lked away wi th $ 10,000 o f the 60,000 purse, thou gh he failed to co llect th e Coors Si lver Bullet Sho wdown $1000 chec k for th e rid er who .wins his heat wit h th e fastest time a nd a lso w i ns th e m a in eve n t. Ba yle fin ish ed fifth in hi s heat race , forcing hi m to qua lify for th e ma in event throug h a semi . O ne o f th e h ighlights a t this year's Sea ttle Su pe rcross was th e lar ge specta tor turnout, up near ly 3000 from last year's event . Sea tt le became th e first supercross o f th e year to show an increase in spectator turnout, a nd race p u blicist ' Da n McConnell sa id th e lar ge tu rnou t co uld be a tt ribu ted in part to last year's wi n , by Ward, a resid ent o f Snoho mis h, Washington. " Las t year (here) was the h ighl ig h t o f my career and 1 hope to p ull off another highlight to night, especially for th e fans ," said Ward befo re th e nigh t's ac tivities. The crowd got exa ct ly what it wa nt ed wh en Ward p o wer ed hi s Suzu ki into the lead a t the start of th e main event with Cooper and Bayle in close formation, sett ing the stage for a dr am ati c first-half, three-way d ice for the lead. Cooper cha lle nged War d ha rd for th e fir st five laps and fina lly push ed the crowd favori te o u t of his wa y to stea l the lead. "I didn 't mind tha t it was Coope r behi nd me," War d sai d. " I d idn ' t kn ow who it was a t first , because 1 don 't lik e to loo k back - beca use if it 's so meo ne like Ba yle 1 get even more nervou s. 1 rea d o n m y pit board th at it was Cooper, so 1 started riding goo d, but he was riding real fast. 1 kn ew, though, th at 'he wasn't in very good sha pe so 1 let h im by and followed him." As th e halfwa y poi nt approached, Bayle decid ed he 'd had enough o f th ird place and he passed bo th the Suzuki pi lots wi thin two la ps. Once in fro nt, it was sm oo th sailing for Bayle as he stretched out a 15-seco nd lead a nd too k

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