Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

eMOTOCROSS e Eastern Continental MX Championship J eff Burchfell (iX) leads Kevin Austin (14), Harv ey Wiggins (~S9) and the rest of the 25+ class onto the Mudd y Creek course. Steve Childress (49) passed l\lik e Brown on the last lap of the second 250cc A mota to earn the overall win with a two-mota sweep. Brown topped the 125« A class. Brown recovered from th is pileup in th e first 250cc A mota to finish fourth. Childress chills Brown at Muddy Creek By Barbara and Loren Williams · F B LO U~TVI LLE, TN, MAY 15 24 o r two weeks the Weather Cha nnel had been for ecasting rain for the weekend of the 6th Annual Suzuki/ Pizza Plus Eastern Co nti nental MX Championship a t Mudd y Creek Raceway. But except for a brief shower, the moisture stayed away and it was Steve Ch ildress who rained o n local favori te Mike Brown's parade in the 250cc A class. Bro wn , ho wever, was in usual form as he topped the I25cc A class. Fo r two weeks it had been rain in g in Eastern T ennessee. Those who have raced MCR in the rai n know exactly how fitting its nam e is, and uncertai nt y abou t track conditio ns was a facto r in keeping th is year's tu rnou t of 400 entrants sligh tly below 1990's. It o nly rai ned once, lastin g for exactly one mo to o n Sunday. As the class im mediately before the Pro hot laps ended , so did the rain , and the 125cc A riders sp lashed o nto the track to check o ut the changes. Promoter Sam Gammo n added some cha nges to the track, and Team Gree n ma na ger J ose Gon zalez, mann ing the Kawasaki support van , approved of them. "A few more techn ical places in th e track like that, and maybe so me flatter pa rking for the factor y teams, and Muddy Creek would be a prime cand ida te for a National race ," said Gonza lez. "The re's plenty of room here to work with." j ust after th e on ly rain sh ower all weekend, th e I 25cc A riders, head ed by Shoei/ Dun lo p /S ilkolene/ Alumilite/ Tsu ba ki/ Acerb is/ An swer/Smith/Pro Circui t/ ji m's MC Sal es -b acked _ Brown, slithered through the first tum and up th e hill to tippytoe down the sta ircase and th rough the chicane for the first ti me at race speed . Surf-backed j eff Glass and Mike Padgett sq ueezed Childress back into fourth , just in front of Georgia's T ommy Martin. For the first half of th e rnoto , everyone was pretty carefu l to stay upright, and no rad ical moves were made. Martin had slipped around Childress by the end of th e first circuit and kept th e future p hysician behi nd him for the rest of the race. O ther th an that, the slick track and the £lying mud kept the race order at the fini sh the same as o n the start as Brown led Gl ass, Padgett , Martin and Childress acros s the fin ish line. T he seco nd ' 125cc A mo to saw ano ther Bro wn wi re-to -wire sweep for the overall victory and an easy $600. Glass finished second again , while Neese and Padgett traded plac es with Neese coming home in thi rd th is time. Chi ldress a nd Marti n a lso traded places, with Chi ldr ess all alo ne in fo urt h at the £lag, to collect fourt h overall mon ey. Two races af ter th e first I25cc A race the first 250cc A rnoto got underway. Tum o ne was still slick, and holeshot man G lass slid out in front of everybody, taking Bro wn and severa l others do wn with h im and earn ing a perfect im print of Martin 's kn obbies across his back. T he tan gle left Grant Wood of Geor gia in front foll owed by Billy Cox , Mike j ohnson, Brent Ramsey and Chi ldress. j ohnson midjudged the whoops and crashed 10 the back of the pa ck. Ramsey was slowed tryi ng to avoid J oh nson wh ich allowed Ch ildress, Martin and Padgett around him. Ra ce leade r Wood had Ch ildress and Cox bu llying him in every comer until he fell. Ch ildr ess sq ui rted into the lead , and by that ti me Brown had recovered to th ird , bracketed by second-place Co x and Mar tin . A la p later a t the halfway po int , Brown was up to second and within stri king distance of Childress. H e lost time wh en his rear tire slid out. Brown didn't lose a position, but later in th e lap he slid out again, taking Ma rtin and Neese along with him for com pany. Martin jumped into the saddle first, but hi s advantage was short-lived, as he fell again in the woods on the last lap and was relegated to sixth at the £lag. Childress and Cox cruised to easy 1-2 finishes , with Neese rolling in third aft er passin g Brown. Mike Garrett rounded out the top five. Gl ass got the holesh ot in moto two and th is tim e stayed upright. Glass led for a lap and a half befor e a banzai jump pass p ut Brown in front. 'Halfway into lap three, Childress put the same move o n Glass, bu t Glass wasn 't abo u t to let a second insult go unnoticed, and regained the runnerup spo t co m i ng down the stairs. Un fort una tely, Glass had to grab mor e than a handful of brake in order to make th e ch ic a ne , and Ch ildress scoo ted past to set off in pursui t of Brown, An altera tion to the face of a tabletop jump, which made the takeoffs more verti cal , slowed Brown on lap five. Brown's jump was short and he landed in a hol e and was pitched hard onto his handlebars. " I'rn glad I wa s wear ing a chest protector," he comment ed later. " 1£ I hadn 't been wearing it, I'd have had to stop. It really hurt when I landed, and later I co uld n 't breathe." By the last lap it was obvious that Brown was slowing. Childress got a wheel on Brown and for the last half of the last lap , Childress tried every trick to get ' around Brown, who blocked each mov e except for the last one. Childress ducked inside on the last

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