Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

BmnERO~~A~I~_m_~_~_~_:R_OO_~_14 e Indiana's Mik e LaRocco sailed across the finish line in style. scoring his first-ever Camel Supercross Series win. LRc a oco'sshow in Las Vegas By Kit Palmer Photos by Kinney Jones us VEGAS, NV, MAY 4 ike La Rocco a lways said tha t if he ever got a good sta rt that he wou ld win a Camel Su percross . main event. H e was finally tru e to h is words Sat urday n ight at the Sam Bo yd Si lver Bo wl, as th e factory-backed Suzuki rider, a n o tori o u sl y slow starter, pulled off that elusi ve holesho t and scored his firs t-ever supercross victory. "I don't kn ow what ha ppened," joked La Rocco of hi s fast ga te. " That was pro bably the first holesh ot of my career. I want ed i t (the win ) tonig ht rea l bad, mor e than I ever did, an d I g uess that's wha t it took." Despite strong oppositio n by mu lt itime supercross cha mp ions Jeff Sta n ton and J eff Ward, La Rocco, 20, from La Po rte, Indiana. scored a start-to' M 6 fini sh victory 10 front o f 16,577 spectators. " It (th e win ) feels great," said La Rocco, who is now o nly th e fourth different rider to win a 250cc Came l Su percross main even t thi s season (Bayle, Stanton and Bradshaw are th e o ther three). " I've been tryi ng so lo ng to get o ne of these under my belt and I finall y did itl It takes a lot of pressure off of me now and I hope I can do a few mor e like tha t. " I've always known that I could win," said La Ro cco. "I just had to prove it to myself. Once I go t o ut in front and was running with those guys I kn ew I could do it." The wi n, ho wever, did n ' t co me easily as both Stanton and Wa rd pressured La Rocco throughout the 20- lap Coors Light Cha lle nge feat ure. The race was still very much in th e air 'unt il five lap s from th e end wh en Stanton sudden ly d ropped his factorybacked Honda in a tum and slipped back to fifth. That gave LaRocco all the breathing room he needed to score the win , as he crossed the finish line aproximately five seconds ahead of ru nner-up Ward. Filling o u t th e last spot on the ros tru m was the series points leader, Frenchman J ean -Mich el Bayle. The two-t ime MX World Champion who now resides in Red ondo Beach , Cal ifornia . ro de a brilliant race after getting cros sed up off th e start line and being nearl y dead last going into the first tum. Finishing just a few seconds behind H onda's Bayle was Yamaha's Da mon Brad sh aw , who a lso h ad problems off the start and was mired in the middle of th e pa ck. Rounding . out the top five was Stanton. Despite fin ishing third , Bayle extended hi s already comfor table series po ints lead to 77 over Bradshaw, 311234. Brad shaw moved into seco n d place in the po int sta ndings after the Las Vegas round, displacing the sixth- ~ pl ace finisher, Kawasaki 's Mike Kiedrowski. to third. Only one point separates the two factory riders. If Bayle scor es at least two more points th an Bradshaw at the Meadowlands u percross in New J ersey o n May 18, wh ich is the next ro und of the series, Bayle will wrap up th e Camel Supercross Championship. For winn in g. the main even t, LaRocco pocketed $5000 ou t of the $30,000 250cc class purse, There was no winner of th e Coors Light Silver Bullet Sh owdown for winning the fastest heat race and the main event. (Bradshaw scored the win in the fastest heat race but finished fou rth in th e main ). Th ere were no surprises in the Western Regional 125cc Supercross Series main event, as Team Peak AntiFreeze/Pro-Circuit Honda's Jeremy McGrath scored his fifth and perhaps easiest win of the series. After passing Suzuki's Buddy Antunez during the second lap , McGrath motored away from the pack and took th e win without being seriously challenged. Downers Grove Yamaha Raci ng 's Jimmy Button put in a strong ride to finish second, within eyesight of winn er McGrath. Team Green 's Michael Craig performed a spectacular late-race pass on Antunez that put the Suzuki rider into the ha y bal es. Craig fi n ishe d th ird, whi le Antunez regrouped and fin ished a lap down in 15th . Kawa saki 's Tyson Vohl and crossed th e finish line in fourth, while McGrath 's Team Peak teammate Steve Lamson filled ou t th e top five. The I25cc class win earned McGrath $2000 out of the $8200 purse. The first of two six-lap 250cc hea t races, which seat the first five finishers directly in the main event, saw Kawasaki's Jeff Matiasevich nab the ho leshot, but Bradshaw dove underneath the Kawasaki pilot in the first tum, pushed Matiasevich out wide and stole th e lead from him. Even though Matiasevich remained within striking· distance of the leader throughout the race, Bradshaw was in command and scored the victory, while Mat iasevich settled for second. Tuf Racing's Ron T iche nor enjoyed an un eventful race in third, finis h ing in the same position. Behind him , th ough, a battle for fo urth raged betw een T eam Green 's Larry Brooks, Kiedrow ski , Suzuki's Gu y Co oper a n d Jimm y G addis, Yamaha 's Dou g Dubach and Noleen Kawasaki-backed Shaun Kalos. Brooks event ually crashed over a tabl etop jump, taking Cooper out with h im , and Gadd is als o bailed in the wh oops in a separate crash. Kiedrow ski survived the brutal fight for fourth , whil e Dubach and Kalos finished fifth and sixth. respectively. Suzuki rider Chris Young grabbed the earl y lead in the second heat race and held on to it for three laps until Stanton roosted by, Once out in front, Stanton was untouchable and easily scored the win. Young, however, had more problems to deal with as Bayle began dogging the Suzuki rider. Fortunately for Young, though , Bayle crashed when his front wheel washed out in a tum. dropping the Frenchman back to sixth and to the semis. Still, Young wasn 't out of hot water yet, as Jeff Ward started to breathe down' his neck. Two laps later, Ward powered by the privateer, as did KTM's Mike Fisher and LaRocco one lap later. The fin al fin ishing ord er was Stanton, Ward, Fisher , La Rocco and You ng . The first of two six-lap semis , whi ch transfer the first five riders to the main, saw Team Green's Mike Stahlman lead the pack for the first three la ps u ntil

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