Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Yam aha pi lo t shot into the early lead, but on the second lap, Matiasevich forced hi s Kawasaki insi de of Brad shaw's Yamah a in a tight, left-hand turn and snatched the lead. Matiasevich qu ickl y pulled away from Bradshaw by a few bike lengt hs and loo ked as th ough he would run away wi th the race. But Bradsh aw had o ther ideas and reeled hi m back in . The two diced closely, as Ma tiasevic h co u nter-a ttac ked Bradsh a w 's every move. But Bradsh aw persevered, eventually pu lling off an inside block pas s through a 180-degr ee, left -ha nd turn, with two laps to go . Despite a last-lap desperation charge by Matiasevich , Bradshaw held o n , scori ng a ha lf bike length win over Matiasevich . Stanton fini shed th ird just a few second behind Mariasevich , while Suzuki's Larry Ward finished a distant fourth, a few bike lengths ah ead of teammate Cooper. The second heat saw Bayle score an easy wire -to-wire victory , but an intens e battle for second between LaRocco and Fish er grabbed the crowd's attention. Despite repeated attempts by Fisher to pass LaRocco , th e Suzuki rider rema ined undaunted and held Fisher at bay. Rounding out the top fou r was 1989 125cc National MX Ch ampion Mike Kiedrowski, wh o had recovered from a crash early in the race. Kiedr ow ski's team mate j eff Ward, ' winn er of the Oklah oma Cit y Su pe rcross, failed to transfer di rectl y to the main. Ward fell on th e first lap while running fourth a nd was unab le to catch ba ck up to the leade rs. Former factory Su zuki pilot Erik Keh oe, now a privateer H onda ri der, jammed into the early lead in the first of two , six-l ap, semis, wh ich transfer th e top five riders to th e featu re. Cooper qu ickly mo ved in to seco nd and the two racers soon engaged in a nailbiting dogfight for the lead. With th e white £lag in sig ht, Coo per ou t-ga ssed Keh oe in a section of wh oops and snatched the lead aw ay fro m him. Cooper went o n to score the win wi th Kehoe holding o n to second. Team Green Kawasaki's Larry Brooks fin ished a distant third after an eighthplace start, while Tuf Ra cing's Ronnie Tichenor settled into fourth. Privateer Suzuki rider Cliff Palmer landed fifth. The second semi was a Dubach sho w, as he led from th e drop of th e gate to the wave of the checkered £lag. Suzuki 's jimmy Gaddis, who also rode in th e I 25cc class, started and finished the race in seco nd beh ind winner Dubach, while j eff Ward landed th ird afte r di ci n g with Suzuki's Denn y Stephenson , wh o fin ished fo urth. Kawasaki Team G reen 's Shaun Kalos was fifth. Chris Young scor ed an unchallenged win in the La st Ch ance Qualifier, which transfers o nly the to p two riders to the feature. Wh ile Young cruised ou t in front, a three-way battle for second developed into a last-lap frenzy between pr ivateers Brian Manley, Phil Lawrence and Keith Bowen. Both Lawrence and Bowen passed Manley in a turn, as Lawrence held on and nipped Bowen at the checkered flag, 250 Main The start of the 20-lap main event saw both Bradshaw and LaRocco get left behind when they got stuck in the gate. "LaRocco was alongside of me and he jumped forward, I jumped forward, backed up, jumped again and hit the gate, " said Bradshaw. "They just held the gate a lot longer than the y did in the qualifiers." " H e (Bradshaw) shouldn't have been watching me, I guess," said LaRocco. "I jumped and he got a little antsy." Jeremy McGrath clinched the Western Regionall25cc Supercross Series title. Suzuki's LarryWard led the way for th e first two laps before gi vin g way to j eff Ward and event ua lly fadi ng back to the middle of th e pa ck. Shortly th ereafter , Matiasevich moved i nto seco nd with Cooper th ird , Dubach fo urth a nd Stanton fifth . Back in eig hth was Bayle. At o ne point , Ward stre tched h is lead to abo u t two seco nds over his team ma te Matias evich, bu t it evaporated to a few feet as they reached the halfway poi nt . Ma tiasevich saw his cha nce and dove to the inside of Ward in a turn and took over the lead . A lap later, Cooper shot by Ward for second in a sectio n of whoo p s, relegating Ward to th ird. From that po int on, Ward , who had won the previous round in Oklahoma, steadily faded back to sevent h. " I was feeling prett y good at first," Ward said, " but I just couldn 't go through the wh oo p s. The line I was using go t bad an d I was afra id to change (lines ). I jammed my wri st a little bit and it scared me . so I backed off a little bit. " With five laps to go, Mati asevich was sti ll leading but felt the heat of Coo per, whi le Dubach led a freight train of riders i n cl u di n g St anton, Fis her , Brad sh aw and La RoCGo. All eyes were focused on the Mariasevich/ Cooper duel , as well as Brad shaw, wh o had moved into fifth and was p ressu ring Stanton. Wi th the wh ite £lag waving, Cooper pulled out the stops and charged after Ma tiasevich . Cooper passed the Kawasaki rider twice d uri ng the lap, bu t both times Matia sevic h immedi at ely retaliated. Cooper, ho wever, didn't give up and never bac ked off the p ressure. The Suzu ki rider mad e a third attempt for the lead over a section of whoops , which led to a left -hand turn with a lar ge tab leto p jump a few feet o n the o th er side of the turn. Cooper pulled along side Ma tiasevich over the whoops and had a hal f bike lengt h lead go ing into the tu rn . j ust when everyone thought Cooper had made the pa ss successfu lly, Matiasevich cam e o n th e inside, and the two riders locked ba rs and crashed on the top of the j um p. " Cooper was rid ing real good and was p ressu ring me for most of the race," Matiasevich said. " We went over the tabl etop and I tried to jum p on th e inside o f him , bu t we locked handlebars and went down. La st week we did the Same thing; I guess we've got to stay away from each other." " If Chicken (Matiasevich 's nickname) had a brain we'd be first and second," said an ob vio usly di sappo inte d and very angry Cooper. "I put in a good hard ch arge and made a couple of good inside moves on him, but Chicken was protecting hi s lin es ' as much as he could. I made a clean pass , I was completel y ahead of him Jeff Stanton (I) spent most of the race trying without success to pass Dubach (15). - there was only one line - but he came sticking his n ose right in there . and put us bo th down. It was stup id o n hi s part. I just don 't kno w wh at to say, I'm reall y mad a t him ri ght now . He came over to me (afterwards) to talk to me, but I told him, ' Don 't talk to me now, I' m no t in the mood.' " "It was just a balls-out , last-lap , justsay -a-p raye r-a nd-hop e-yo u -st ay- u ptype-of-dea l," added Matiasevich. " It was j us t o ne of those things. The track was real sma ll and didn 't perm it a lo t of o pe n space for pa ssing. You had to get physical if you want ed to pass." " My fir st supercross wi n kee ps elu ding me," Cooper said. " Co ntrac t time is com ing up and I'd li ke to ride ano ther year with Suzu ki, and it wo u ld be nice to have a wi n under my belt ." Wh ile Cooper a n d Mat ia sev ich fought up front , Brad sh aw was busy p utting the move o n Stanton, stu ffing th e H onda rider under the tun nel sec tio n o f the co u rse . O n ce p ast Stanton, Bradsh aw set hi s sigh ts o n Du bach , who sudden ly found himself in th e lead after riding past the downed Cooper and Matiasevich . " When I saw th em o n .the ground I though t, 'Hang on - just one mo re lap !' " isaid Dubach. Dubach did just tha t, as he ou tdragged Bradshaw through the last section of wh oops just befor e th e checkered fla g and barely edged ou t Bradsha w for the wi n. " I act ually d idn' t know i t wa s Damo n behi nd me; I thought it was Stanton. I was so happy when I saw it was Damo n," said Dubach . " I knew if I hung to ugh tha t something wo u ld happen up there . I kn ew th ose guys (Ma tiase vich and Cooper) were getting close to each o ther. I th ought o ne might go down but not both. Wh en I saw both dow n , it sure put a smile o n my face." ' 'I' m rea lly happy Yamah a did so well tonight," said Bradshaw. " Bu t the main thing for me was to bea t Stanton and tha t's what I did." Stan ton finished a close th ird, whi le Fisher fin ished fourth and La Rocco fift h. Ro undin g o ut the top 10 were Matiasevich , j eff Ward, Cooper, Kiedro wski and Tichen or. Bayle, wh o has seven Camel Su percross wins this seaso n, fini sh ed 12th. Wh ile running seventh seven laps from the finish , the two -time MX World Ch ampion and newly cro wned Ca mel Supercross champ tried to pass Fisher through a corner but clipped h is foot peg and crashed. 125 Main Emig, wh o won th e first 125cc heat race, wasted no time jump ing to the fro nt of th e pa ck at th e start of the I 25cc feature, with the o ther heat race wi nner, Craig, in close pursuit. Beh ind Craig chased Gaddis, Suzuki' s Buddy Antunez and Lamso n . McGrath was seventh. Althoug h th e raci ng was close a nd inten se throughou t the 15-la p feature, there was very little passing among th e . leaders. Only Gaddis and Lamson . man aged to mak e any mo ves. Ga ddis slip ped by Craig for second o n the fifth lap, wh ile Lamson motored around Antu nez o n th e seco nd lap , th en Gaddis on th e l Oth lap. Wh en the ch eckered £lag came ou t, Emi g crossed the finish line abo ut two seconds ahea d of Lamson, who was closely follo wed by Gadd is. Craig held o n for th ird, wh ile Yamaha rider Kyle Lewis moved into fourt h after an eigh th-p lace start. Ant u nez dropped back to fifth , ro un ding out the to p five. " 1 got th e holesh ot , and I knew if I got out in fro nt that I wasn ' t going to worry about a nybo dy else and j ust ride my own race ," said Emig. Knowing all he had to do was fini sh 10th in order to clinch the Western Regional 125cc Seri es tit le, McG ra th rode conserva tively and spent most of th e race circu lati ng the track in n inth, where he eventuall y' finis hed. " 1 had my do ubts after practice," said McGrath. " My leg was prett y sore , but by race tim e it (the leg ) was feeling pretty good. T he brace worked really well , but I had to wear one size larger boot o n o ne foo t." eN Results 125 HEAT I: I. J ell Emig (Yam); 2. J; mmy Daddis (Suz ); ~. Budd y Antu nez (Sw ); 4. Jimmy Bu n on (Yam); 5. j eremy MeGralh (Ha n); 6. Ray Cru mb (Ka w ): 7. Tony Graves( Ho n ); 8. Ra nd y Mood y (Ha n) 9. Lance Small (Suz); 10. Chad P ederson (Ya m ); 11. Danny P al adino (Ya m); 12. Tim McCl intoc k (Hon ); 13. Bubba Erickson (Suz); 14. Jason Krempin (Han); 15. T . Nobl es (Han); 16. L Mournl (Ha n); 17. E. wicker (Ha n); 18. Scou Steffy (Suz); 19. T revor Meagher (Suz); 20. T on y MeGralh (Ha n); 21. P. P ian tanda ($ uz). . Time: 4:17.20 125 HEAT 2: I. Micha el Craig (Kaw); 2. Pbil Lawrence (Ka w); S. Kyle Lewis (Yam); 4. Steve Lamson (H o n ); 5. Dana W igg in s (Ya m) ; 6. Tom my Clowezs (Kaw); 7. Chris Young (Suz); 8. David Cas tillo (SUl); 9. Dua ne Ben ner (Yam); 10. Pal Gom m 9Hon ); 11. D. Bisceg lin (Su z); 12. Scan Bristol (Kaw); 13. S. Myer.; (Ho n ); 14. Darr tn H oeft (Suz); . 15. Pa t Ben nett (Suz); 16. L Arcidiaca n o (H a n ); 17. Fra nk Pace (Kaw); 18. Sron McElroy (SUl); 19. Dav-id Deman go s (H a n); 20. Ch ris Ridgeway (SUl). Time: 4:15.88 125 LCQ: I. Cha d Pederso n: 2. Dann y Paladin o : 3. . Darr in Hoeft.: 4. J ason !\-t mpi": 5. Bubb a e Erick so n; 6. D . Bisceg fin : 7. Tim McClllock; 8. Pa t Ben nett: 9. Scon Myers; 10. Scott Steffy; 1J. T revor Meagh er; 12. L Arcidiacano: 13. David Demangos: 14. Sco tt Bri stol; 15. Lance Mo u ral : 16. P. P iantanda; 17. Scou McElro y; 18. E. Wicker; 19. Fran k Pace; 20. T o n y McGrath; 21. T . Nob les; 22. Pa l Com m . Time: 2:54.02 125 MAIN: I. Jeff Emig (Yam); 2. Steve Lam son (Han ); 3. Michael Craig (Kaw); 4. Kyle Le wis (Yam); 5. Jimmy Ga ddis (Suz); 6. Phi l Lawrence (Ka w ); 7. Buddy Antunez (Suz ); 8. J immy Button (Yam): 9. jeremy McGrath (Ho n}; 10. Dana Wiggi ns (Yam); I I. Ch ad Pederson (Yam); 12. Ra y Crumb (Kaw); 13. T on y Graves (Han); "14. Damn Hoeft (Suz); 15. J ason Krempin (Ha n); 16. Lance Smai l (Suz); 17. Duan e Benner (Yam): 18. David Cati JJo (SUl) : 19. Chris Youn g (Suz); 20. Ran dy Mood y (Ha n ); 21. Danny Palad ino (Yam); 22. Tommy Clowe rs (Kaw). Time 10:24.02 AMA WESTERN REGIONAL 125 S UPERCROSS SERIES POINT STANDINGS: I. Jezemy MeG ralh (179)°; 2. Jell Emig (15 1); 3. Steve Lamson (149); 4. Micha el Cra ig (Kaw); 5. J im my Gaddis - - -- - - Continued on page 35 13

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