Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

wh o spent th e majori ty of the race battling with Todd DeH oop. Privateer Dean Matso n , of Morga n H ill s, Californ ia, and Su zuki factory rider Denny Stephenson, of Omah a , Nebraska, rounded out the top five, finishing about 15 seconds beh in d the lead ers. Sixth-place fin isher Carl Vaillancourt, along with the seventh through 16th pl aced finishers, would have to ride the Last Chance Qual ifier , hoping to secure one of two fina l transfer spots intothe main. Suzuki teammates Guy Cooper and Mike LaRocco gained entry into the final after placing 1-2 in the second semi, finishing six seconds apart. Cooper took the lead away fro m San Jose, California's Rick Ryan on the third lap after the in itial lead er, Ray Sommo, began to fade. Ryan finished third ahead of Texan Dennis Hawthorne a n d Californian Mik e Chamberlain. The Last Chance Qualifier saw last year's l25cc Western Regional Supercross Champion Ty Davis lead the race from start to finish. Chris Young, a rider competing in both the 125 and 250cc classes, charged the entire moto, but was eventually aced out of the second and final transfer spot by Canadian Vaillancourt. Sherwood, Michigan's Stanton got things rolling in the 2O-lap 250cc main event by leading Ward, Matiasevich, Fisher, Kiedrowski, Cooper, Bayle and Brooks at the start. Matiasev ich encoutered some diffi cu lti es and dropped back a few slots. " I was third when Ward cased it on some wh oops," sa id Matiasevich. " Wh en that happened it kn ocked me off balance and 1dropped to some th ing like eighth. 1 was pretty bummed because 1 felt the speed and endurance were there to run up fron t all night long. " Bayle also ran into problems on the opening lap that dropped him back to 11th. " I crashed near th e start lin e," said Bayle. "I just made a little mi stake and lost the front end." The earl y stages of the race saw the top three riders - Stanton, Ward and Fisher - stret ch out a two-second lead over the field , maintaining approxi mately two bike length s between each other. Fisher was looking for his bestever su percross finish and hoping to put KTM in the winner's circle for the first time. 'Meanwhile, Cooper was on the move during the first few laps until he an d Kiedrowski began battling. The two adversaries swappi ng fou rth spot back and forth several times , each taking advantage of problems encountered by the other. " I was fourth on the start and cased ir on the small triple (ju mp) and opped to sixth," Kiedrowski said. "A lap later 1 was behind Cooper and we ere going at it. " "Kiedrowski came up on me and we tangled," said Cooper. " Finall y he ran me off the track and 1 got passed by three guys ." Most of the attention, however, was focused on Bayle's charge through the pack. The Frenchman was undoubty the fastest rider on the course, but time was his biggest opponent. Lap times hovered around the 45second mark on the tight course, times amatically shorter than the usual ne-minute times at the majority of the upercross tracks . On lap six Bayle pulled in behind atiasevich and Kiedrow ski who were atrling for fourth . Bayle p la yed ollow the leader for two laps before aking his move rather quickly. BayIe then set h is sigh ts on Fisher Bayle (8) fell on the first lap and charged from 11th to first. Here he passes Damon Bradshaw (11) and Rick Ryan (917). and made short wor k of th e KTM rid er on lap 10. ' " My mechanic was givin g me signals that Bayle was catch ing me," said Fisher. " One lap he was seven seconds behind me, th e next lap he was onl y four. I knew he was charging and 1 started to ten se up. So when he go t close to me I didn 't want to risk cras hi ng or ho ld him up , so 1 let him Jeff Ward trailed Stanton throughout the main and finished third. b y. " While Bayle tri mmed dow n the two- . second ga p that separated him fro m Sta nton and Ward, Bradshaw contin ued to wor k his way up from an 11th pl ace start . The Mooresville, North Carolina, teenager battled with Brooks for eigh th place as Coo per began reeling them in . Bradshaw eventually ope ned up a ' sm a ll cus h io n and set out a fte r La Rocco, wh o was in seventh, as Coo per moved aro und Brook s to take over ninth. Up front the battle conti n ued to rage as th e top thr ee riders were less than on e second apart. Stanton sti ll main tained a lead over Ward, bu t Bayle was applying lots of pressure to Ward. Fish er was back abo u t two seconds. On the 14th . Iap Bayle found the drive he needed and shot pa st Ward. " I made a few mistakes and fell off the bike before the fin ish line and that allowed him to gai n (ground)," said Ward. " I almost fell there earlier, but I managed to save i t, " Two laps later, Bayle did the same thing to Sta nton in a wh oop sectio n and moved in to th e lead for the first time. There was no thing Stanton could do but watch his teammate pull awa y. Ba yle collected the checkers two seconds ahead of Stanton, who fin ished three seconds ahead of Ward. " Everyth ing went good," said Bayle. " I just had a few problems with Kiedrowski and Matiasevich for two laps, but it was no big deal. It was close - almost too close." " I got a good start and knew that Ward was chasing me," said Stanton. "I didn't really have any good lines, and 1 didn 't want to change - 1 was too worried about prot ecting my lead. JMB (Bayle) was just going faster. "It (th e cham pions hip ) wi ll go down to the two of us. Ri gh t now there isn' t anyone on our level. And those are three valuable points 1 lost. 1would like to say that it 's still early in th e season, but it isn 't , and stuff like tha t could cost the cha mp ionshi p," Sta nton said. ''I' m happy," said Ward. " Las t week 1 finished second in Daytona and I th ink I'm finally all healed up (fro m my wrist injuries). Now 1 have th e con fidence to go ou t there and win." " I felt real good that they (Sta n ton and Ward ) weren 't pulling me during th e first half of the race," . said a jubilant Fisher, who posted his bestever supercross finish. "I th ink I ma y have been able to get by Ward becaus e he made a few mi sta kes. But everytim e he wou ld mak e a mistake, so would I. Men tall y 1 do n ' t th ink I could have do ne that (passed them ) - right no w tha t is my biggest problem." 125cc Main After getting underway behind Mike Craig in the l 5-lap l25cc main event, Jeff Emig moved into first on the opening lap and q uickly stretched ou t a small lead over th e field o f 22 compet itors. Current p oint leader J er em y McGrath, wh o won the first of two l25cc heat races, was caug h t in a first lap pileup and got up just ahea d of Team Green 's Phil Lawrence wh o was running in last pl ace. McGrath, who was th e on ly l25cc rider in the heat races to clear th e tri pi e jump in a single lea p, began a n excit ing charge that wou ld carry him up to third at th e finish. Hi s Peak Antifreeze/Pro Circu it Honda team ma te Steve Lamson also crashed on th e opening lap and recovered only to find hi mself in 16th place. His cha rge wasn 't as successful as tha t of h is teammate's and Lamson ended the race in eighth pl ace. It soon became ap parent that bar- 7

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