Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

a hay bale cover wra pped in his rear wh eel, a nd Denn y Step henson, Mike Fisher an d La Rocco quickly passed him. Lamson wou ld end up back in 11th. Kiedrowski scored the easy win with Stephenson taking secon d ' and Fisher and Lakocco gra bbing the last two advancement spo ts by finishing th ird and fourth, respectively. Ohio's Fred Andrews fin ished fifth a nd headed the remaining riders who would be seeded into one of two semi fina ls. The second heat featured a good battle for the lead between Matiasevich and Bradshaw. Mati asevich closely tailed the Yamaha p ilot until the beginning of the sixth lap when he went lowin the first turn and forced Bradshaw off the track. Matiasevich then scooted away to the fast est heat win , which made h im eligible for the Coors Light Showdown. Bayle worked his way into second by passing Suzuki teammates Guy Coo per and Larry Ward, who was in his first race since injuring his ankle at the Atlanta Supercross. Bayle then kept his distance from the lead battl e to clai m second. Cooper fin ished third ahead of Ward . Bradshaw was fifth and headed for the semis, bu t not before he had some words -with Matiasevich and Kawasaki teammate Jeff Ward in the pi ts. "He had me passed a nd took it to the lim it," said Bradshaw. " I wanted him to know he can' t do that when we're practicing, so I sa id so me th i ng to Chi cken and everybody had to get their two cents in. H " I just came on the inside and pushed him up high," said Ma tiasevich. " We both stayed on the gas." " Bradshaw got all over Matiasevich when he was just tryin g to calm things down," said Ward , who reportedly had cocked hi s fist and was restrained by Fisher. "Las t week Bradshaw stuffed me pretty good. He can dish it out but he can 't take it." Ward was back in the first six-lap semi that would advance the top five fini shers to the main, but it was Tuf Racing/ Scot t/Bell-sponsored Todd DeHoop, from Hudsonville, Michigan, who led the entire distance whil e Lamson and Ward fought for second. Ward passed Lamson on the last lap, but the Peak / Pro Circuit team rider storm ed through the last whoop section and nipped Ward for second at the finish line. Andrews, KTM's Keith Johnson and Tuf Racin g's Keith Bowen fought for the final transfer position. Andrew s held off J ohnson to take fourth while Bowen fell back to finish 14th. After passing Yamaha teammate J eff Ern ig , who mad e the program by winning one of the preliminary heat races, early in the second sem i, Bradshaw cruised to an easy win. Em ig pulled well clear of third-placed Ron T ichenor to take seco n d, whil e T u f Racin g 's T ichenor fini shed in third, well ahead of fourth place finisher California n Dean Matson. The closest race was for the fina l transfer of the semi between New Yorkers Kurt McMill en a nd Ch ris Col eman. O 'NeallAra i/ Scot t/Factory Connection -backed McMill en held MS/ Hi Point/Power Mist/Sco tt-sponsored Coleman off until the la te in the last lap before Col eman made the pass for the ticket to the mai n. McMillen still got to the ma in a nd he did that by winning the six-lap Last Chance Qualifier which he led from star t to finish. Bowen , who lives just a few miles from the stadium in Auburn Hills, passed New Jersey's Brian Carroll halfway through the race and closed on McMillen, but had to settle for second and the final slot in the main. Bradshaw shot to the front at the star t of the 2O-lap main event with Matiasevich, Bayle, LaRocco, Tichenor ' and McMillen trailing. There would be no Mike Brown (483 ) grabs the hol~hot in Sunday's 125cc main as Saturday night winner Brian Swink hits the dirt. fireworks as there were in the heat, thou gh , since Bradshaw fell in the tight tum at the top of the stands. " T he front en d sl id o u t," sa id Bradshaw. T he re were some sparks between Bayle and Mat iasevich as McMillen began to slide back to an eventua l 18thplace finish . Bayle hounded the new leader and passed him at the end of a whoop section on the third lap. Mat iasevich, ho wever, shut him off in the followin g banked comer to regain the lead. The same thing happened on the next two laps, with the two rid ers slowi ng down and looking a t o ne another in the comer. " He was faster through the whoo ps but went wide in the comer," said Mati asevich. " It was fun ." " I didn't care what he was do ing," said Bayle. "I don 't care to play his ga me; he can't pla y with me." The games ended on the seventh lap when Matiasevich crashed over a double jump. "I took a different line , hi t a hole when I took off and it kicked the rear end up," said Matiasevich. With Matiasevich out of the .way it was clear sail ing for Bayle and he went, on to 'score the II ih su percross victory of his career. LaRocco was already well behind the two-time World Champion, the result of what he said were a few mistakes. The Suzu ki rider wasn 't even expec ted to ride the event after he sprained an ankle last week in St. Petersburg, but he fought off that and the effects of the flu to stay ahead of Kiedrowski. " I couldn't walk for two days, but then it loosened up, " said La Rocco of his ankle. "I was ha nging behind Mati asevich and Bayle, bu t Bayle rode a smooth race." Mistakes also pr evented Kiedrowski from closing in on La Rocco and he settled into thi rd. Suzu ki's G uy Cooper nearly landed on Ma tiasevich 's fallen Kawasaki, but evaded the downed bike and made a ru n a t Kiedrowski in hopes of taking over third. " I tried to pass him and he took me wide, so I tried to cut back under but couldn't make the move," said Cooper, who hung on to fourth and his best finish of tile season . Tichenor mai ntained his fifth -place start through o ut the race to fini sh ahead of Je ff Ward. Wa rd had to fight his way past Fisher and Larry Ward after getting off to a bad start. Bradshaw was slow to get going after his fall as he stru ggled to realign his clutch lever. Out of the top 10 a t the halfway point, Bradshaw came on strong near the end, passin g Fisher on the 18th lap and then getting Larry Ward before the checkered flag to finish seventh : Mike LaRocco (6) and Jeff Emig tangled during Sunday's heat races and had a quick wrestling match as they scrambled to rejoin the race. Emi g, who ran as high as seventh in the ear ly go ing, completed the top 10. 125« main Tallon Vohland led at the star t, but the l5-lap race was red-flagged on lap two when Jeff Pestana crashed in the triples and was serio usly injured. Medics quickly removed the downed rider, who was taken to the hospital. Northern Californ ian Pestana was listed in stable condi tion the following Monday after suffering a concuss ion, collapsed lu ng and contusio ns to the abdo men. Swink followed leader Doug Henry and O klahoman Cliff Palm er at the restart of the l25cc main, but after a lap he was in second and ho unding Henry. On the thi rd circuit Swi nk slipped pas t Henry and, like he had do ne in the first heat race, ran awa y to the win. " I was comfortable," said 18-year-old Swink. "I could slow down -to their pace so I wasn 't riding on the edge. It feels real good to be the first Mich igan rider to win here." Henry seemed comfortable in running in second , well ah ead of Vohl and, who had displaced Pa lmer on -Ia p five. J eromy Buehl, who finished second in heat two behind Mike Brown, also passed Palmer a nd finis hed fo urt h. Pa lmer dropped to sixth, giving up fifth to Ryan Hughes, who had battled with Swink in the first heat, before the finish. Sunda y Tempers flared once again in the first 250cc heat race, on ly this time it was between Emig an d LaRocco . Emig led half of the heat before Kiedrowski passed him and ran off with the win. LaRocco also moved in and Emig iook him high in the same comer Bayle and Ma tiasevich had "p layed" in the night before. Emig slowed too mu ch , though, and fell over, bringing LaRocco down on top of him . There was a brief wrestling match as the two scrambled for their bikes, and in that tim e Fisher, DeH oop and Colem an go t pas t. " I blocked hi m and should've been quicker out of the tum," said Ernig, who fell to the back of the pa ck. LaRocco, wh o wasn't happy wi th the move, go t back on the gas and was abl e to reel in Coleman to finish fourth beh ind win ner Kiedrowski, runner-up Fisher and third place finisher DeHoop to earn a transfer to the main. Bradshaw ow ned heat two as he grabbed the hol eshot and set a blis tering pace to the finish wh ich was 10 seconds faster than Kiedrowski's winning time. Cooper ma intained second the enti re distance, just out of Bayle's reach. Bayle battled with Larry Ward until T ichenor, who was running th ird , fell in a ru t an d took the closely following Ward down wi th him. Bayle fin ished third and Tichenor jus t missed earning a tra nsfer position when Je ff Ward repelled his late-race charge to salvage fourth . Emi g led Lamson the en tire distance in the first semi , whil e Suzuki's Denny Stephenson claimed third. Last year's 125cc Western Regi onal Supercross Champion , Spl itfire Spa rk Plu gsponsored T y Davis, put Brian Carroll on the bubble o n the last lap, but Millvill e Suzuki-sponsored Carroll finished fifth with plenty of room on Idaho's Rich Taylor. Larry War d easily wo n semi two while Tichenor passed Missouri 's Mike Stah lma n near the end to claim second. Stahlma n held o n to th ird to the finish, wh ile Bowen, McMill en and Andrews finished in a tight clu ster some distance behind, with Andrews,.in sixth, getting bumped into the LCQ, wh ich he won. Dean Matson, who was running th ird 7

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