Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

~ PREVIEW 14th Annual U.S. 250(( MX Grand Prix been in con sistent thi s year, as he struggles to overco me a n iro n def iciency in hi s blood that has left hi m weak. However, he did win hi s home G P, a nd if he's a t full strengt h he ca n be co ns idere d a threa t. That's no t th e case when it comes to Herring. Occasion all y he can be incred ibly fast, but he's more like ly to cras h. Ano the r rider to keep a n eye on is Holland's Dave Strijbos. The ' Du tch Suzu ki rid er is a di stant th reat to Puzar and Parker for th e Wor ld Cham p ionship, but he lacks consis tency. About th e on ly' o ther Euro pean who Southern Californian Mik e H eal ey will compete in his first U.S . GP aboard a factory KTM. Heal ey, who has spent the last several yea rs contestin g th e World Ch ampionshi p 125cc MX Seri es, won the San Marin o GP a nd was the winner of a GP mot o in France. T wo-time 125cc National Champ ion Micky Dymond ca me out o f reti rement to co ntest th e 250cc GPs for a n Italian Yamaha importer. A knee inj ury has kept him on th e sidelines for th e first half of th e season, but he's healthy now a nd after fin ishing th ird overa ll in France is ready to perfor m • for th e home cro wd. The m ost surprising Am eri can on th e GP circu it has been Bader Manneh . H e rare ly made th e top 15 ear ly in' the season bu t suddenly ca me on stro ng in France wh ere he stu n ned everyo ne by finishing seco nd o vera ll. Maybe he ca n pull off a no the r surprise performance a t Unadilla. There will be a number of Europeans who cro ss th e Atlantic tryin g LO score G P po ints and join Grea t Britain 's Neil Hudson a nd Holland's Kees Van der Ven as the Europea ns who have won the U.S . 250cc MX G P. T he most prominent, a nd most likely LO beat the Americans , is defending 250cc Wo rld Champion Alessandro Puz ar from Italy, e ~ o >- ..- ~ ~ is likely LO win at Unad ill a is Peter J oh ansson o f Swed en . J oha nsson has do ne qu ite well in th e U.S. G P in the past, bu t he always seems LO be battling hi s wa y up fro m poor starts. Former 125 a nd 250cc World Cha mpion J ohn Van den Berk is a lso entered, but a n injured wr is t has resu lted in sporadic finish es for th e Du tch ma n th is year. Although any o f th e LOp GP regula rs co u ld p ull o ff th e win, it's mo re th an li kely that it wi ll be o ne o f th e Ame rica n "visito rs" LO the seri es. The 1:i ... '" -e ~ .~ ... '" ~ ." .§ 1 i I. Alessandro Puzar 6 ~ ~ C ::: >- -< >-< :::: ~ :::: ~ :::: ~ . ..;; = 17/0 2. Trampas Parker 61'O ! 4. Mike Healey 5. Marnicq Bervoets i% 10/1 ~ 20/0 0117 13/1 U 2O /17 516 1 11/ 4' 15/10 • 5/1 5 • 0/0 , 0/0 .07,' 13 '1 0/ 5 11/8 1 13/ 0 1 1 5/~01 519 }O /O 13 /9 ~ % I 3/ 0 I f\Of Ii~ 5/8 ! 0/0 ' 11/8 1112. 710 • 7111; I% j 10/0 12. Teus Visser • 6/3 ". 0/ 13 I 4/6 1 0/ 8 , % 13. [ orgen Nilsson 14. Axel Ho lvoet 13/ 5 1 0/7 , 5/7 1 % 0/2 0/2 1. 4/ 0 1 20/ 31 % ., O/~ ' 7/7 0/ 15 15. Rob Herring' 16. Cert-ja n Van Doorn 17. Bader Manneh 18. Micky Dymond 19. Yannig Kervella 20 Yann Guedard . 20. Ismo Vehkonen Last year, Puzar absolu tely domi nated th e Wor ld Chamionship 250cc MX Series and nearly had the tit le clinch ed before he ca me LO America. But he never go t th e cha nce to try to mat ch th e Ameri can's speed in th e U.S. GP. Suffering from a cold, he rod e co nservatively in order LO wrap up th e titl e a t Unadi lla . But this year he doesn 't hold such a com ma nding lead a nd can' t afford to be co nservative. St anding below St anton on the podium last year was a pair of Europea ns, Finland's Pekka Vehk onen a nd England's Rob Herri ng . Vehk on en , wh o is a factory Yamaha rid er, has 16 Mik e H eal ey I 9/7 5/ 8 I 010 . 4/0 • 6/4 5/6 · ~ 0 f- 178 149 145 • When the first GP mot o leaves th e lin e at 1:30 p .m., Jeff Stanton (64) is lik ely to be out front once again th is year while Pu zar (71) tries to move in on th e title, 142 I I I • I " 1 f e 106 98 I I lOS , . I ' 8/7 ! 0/0 · I ~. 0/0 I I. John Van den Berk 1 17/ 61 1710 1 • '" I I 6/9 , 15/ 20 , 15/ 9 1710 9/11 1 151 3/ 0 .11/ ~ • I 0/20 I -e ~ I 0/13 ' 0/ 5 • 3/0 1/ 9 § -e >!i ~ 17/1 3 ' 0/ 13 , 11/ 13 ' 9111 7. Peter Johansson 10. Edwin Evensen = ' ;c .:: 20/ 11 13/ 15 1 10/ 7 ~ 210 " 8, Michele Fanton ,; 0/1 0 8/17 I 15/ 0 • 8/1 7 6. Pekka Vehkonen 9. Peter Dirkx ~ 13/ 11 17115 8/ 10 ' 9/ 17 20/1 311 7/ 20 ' 0/ 5 3. Dav Strijbos e = Z :;, ~ ~ ~ 20/10 N ·f :::: "¥ 0 -. -. z ~ ;.. ~ ." 0/ 15 20120 0/20 z ~ ~ ~ • · " t~ 1 91 84 67 55 58 American s have rela tively lilli e at risk in th e GP and th erefore ca n pull out all th e SLOpS in an effort to win . The regu lar co mpe tito rs, however, must th in k about scoring the most points possibl e towards th e cha m p ionship and will often avoid bat tling with the "one-timers." A GP mo to win is worth 20 po ints towards th e cha mp io nship , secondplace 17, third 15, fourth 13, fifth II with a on e-point differen ce paying down to 15th p lace. It 's comm on for man y riders to pull ou t aft er th e halfway point of the fir st moto if th ey're too far aw ay from a pointspay ing position. Rather th an risk a crash and injury , th ey tend to pull out and save energy for a beuer result in th e seco nd rn oto . U nlike last year 's U.S. GP where Puzar was virtuall y assur ed o f clinching th e championship, thi s year th e titl e race is much closer. With seven of th e 12 rounds in th e books, Puzar ha s accum u la ted the most points and leads Parker in th e point sta nd ings, 178-1 49. Strijbos is clos e behind Parker with 145 points, a nd Healey has 142. Puzar and Pa rker have been close in th e point standin g s all seaso n , alt ho ugh neither rider sta rted well. The open ing GP took place in th e Dutch sand , and it wasn't surprising that the Dutch a nd Belgian sa nd specia lists finished in th e top five positions. Belgi an Marniqc Bervoets jumped into th e earl y points lead with th e win , wh ile Parker was LOpSam on g th e non-sand masters at sixth. Puzar encou ntered brak e probl em s in th e open ing moto and left in a tie for seventh in th e standings. Puzar rebo u nded to win both motos at th e next GP in Czech oslovakia which lifted him to second in th e standings behind Bervoet s, wh o was seco nd overall. Parker mov ed into th ird in points with 7-2 rn oto finishes. Park er moved to the top when he won both rno io s a t th e next G P in Austria, th en stretched his lead with _ a 2-1 score at the followi ng Ita lian GP. Puzar failed to fin ish a mo to in Austria when he crashed and snapped his hand lebars as h e attemp ted to straigh ten th em. But in Ita ly, Puzar moved up LO seco nd in the point standings wh en Bervoets injured his ankle and was only able LO collect a few points. In round five of the series in Finla nd Parker gav e up th e points lead to Puzar when he dropped out the first moto wi th a brok en ge arbox and only finished II th in th e seco nd moto. Fortunately for Parker, P uza r also failed to finish a rnot o a nd only held a three-point advantage. Vehkone n scored the overall win, wh ile Strijbos mov ed into third in the standings. Heal ey sco red his first 250cc G P win in San Marino, wh ile Parker briefly lost seco nd in th e standings due to a DNF. The next GP in France saw Heal ey a nd Parker each win a rnoto, but they DNF th eir o ther motos. Puzar scored th e win a nd mov e away in the point sta nd ings. The last GP took p lace in Belgi u m two weeks before Unadi lla. Results of th at GP ca n be found in the Wi nd section . The cham pio nsh ip battle wi ll continue on July 14 at Unadi lla . Ca n Puzar kn ock off the Americans a nd extend his points lead ? Or will Park er pull off'the win and get help from his co m pa tr io ts to get ba ck a head o f Puzar? We won 't know unti l they 've completed approximately 90 minutes of racing on America's premier mo tocross course.

• Cover