Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

(Above) Alex Puzar (right) ran into Micky Dymond and retired early in the second mo to. (Below) Puzar then watched his comfortabl e lead in the point standings evaporate. Trampas Parker picked up severa l championship points with 2-9 moto finish es. 250cc GP Stanton was out in front from the dro p o f the ga te in th e first m ot o, as tw o-time 125cc Nationa l Champion Dymond , 1989 I 25cc World Champion P ark er, Holland' s Teus Visser, Frenchman Yan n Guedard a nd New York's o wn Kurt McMillen ra n in sing le file behind him. The da y nearly ended in the first turn for Ca lifornia n Bad er Manneh , as he went down a nd wa s run o ver by Belgian Pete r Dirkx. After Manneh made su re a leg injury wasn 't serious, he contin ued on and would even tua lly fin ish 17th . Dirkx retired after five laps. After a hectic firs t lap, Parker m oved into seco nd but was a lready three seconds behind Sta nton. Visser a lso passed Dym ond for third a n d McMillen held fifth. LaRocco was 10th and Puzar 21st in th e field o f 40 riders. " I picked a bad spot on th e start ing gate, then spun in th e wet grass, " said LaRocco. A fall early in the ra ce prevented him from m ov ing up q uickly. . "Dave Strijbos stopped on the inside line of a tight turn," exp lained Puzar. "I had to wait." After 10 minutes of th e 40-minute p lu s two-lap m o to, Stanton was more than IO seconds ahead of Par ker and h is lead continued to grow. At 30 m in u tes Stanton was abo u t 15 seconds a h ead , and h e added a no t h e r 10 seconds befo re the finish o f th e ra ce 18 minutes later. "I know I have to charge in the Nationals, so there was no sen se in slowing down and los ing m omentum," said Stanton. " It wasn 't very easy , though. I kn ew Pa rker was back there the whole wa y. I just felt sm oo th and rode cons istently. " P arker was co nten t to ha ng back in seco nd. " I never tried to catch Stanton," said Park er. " At one time I picked up the pace, but I saw I wasn't ga ining. Since I was in th e first three and Puzar was behind me, I was happy." H e was even happier when he saw that Pu zar had pulled out at the 30minute mark and never even noticed th e string of banners he had wrapped up in his bik e' s rea r wheel. " I would've lik ed Healey 10 finish well , too, " Parker said. " I th ink I ca n co u nt o n him 10 help me win th e titl e. " But H ealey had pulled o u t after 10 m inutes. H e was never higher than I I th and dropped back even further wh en he nearl y cras hed. J ust befo re retiring, he stopped to straighten hi s front end aft er it stuck in a rutted co rne r. " It was all in m y head ," said Heal ey, admitting th at he was still spooked by hi s practi ce cra sh . " I went back into th e ruts a nd it scared m e; I panicked wh en I saw them. Every tim e I got near th em I almost crashed." R u n n i n g some distance behind seco nd- p lace P a r ke r , Vi sser and Dymond played a game of ca t a nd mou se ov er th ird. At o ne p o int Dymo nd was ch all enging th ird-place Visser , then dropped ba ck bef ore closing in again. " Every time I got close I'd get too much mud in m y face," said Dymond. " I tried 10 stuff my way by Visser and stu ffed myself. " Dym ond fell while pr essurin g Visser a t th e half-hour mark, and LaRocco was there to pounce. After hi s fall , LaRocco h ad a close battl e with McMillen , wh o wou ld dro p ba ck to 13th at th e finish , a nd J ohansson over six t h bef ore h e broke through . LaRocco inherited fifth when Guedard fell, and Dym ond was an easy target for La Rocco after he fell. After zap pi ng Dym o nd , LaRocco quickl y pas sed Visser , and Dymond was soon to follow La Rocco by th e Fren chman into fourth. Tha t set th e top five finishers as Stanton wo n bv a huge margin o ver Parker, who had nearly 30 seco nds o n La Rocco, Dymond a nd Visser. Guedard ret ired wi th o ne lap remaining. J ohansson was well behind Visser wh en he crossed th e lin e six th. The du el for seventh place was a dogfigh t to th e end with Holland's Gert·Jan Van Doorn barel y holding off Fren ch man Yannig Kervella a nd Belgian Marnicq Bervoets for the position. Axel Holv oet gr abbed the holeshot at the start of mota two , ahead of Manneh and LaRocco. But La Rocco quickl y went to the front as Manneh fell back , even tua lly fini shi ng 17th again. Sta nton started ninth , but he was up to fifth by lap two behind Dut chman Edwin Evert sen , J oh ansson, H olvoet and leader LaRocco. Heal ey was clo se behind Sta nton in six th . Dymond ha d go tte n o ff to a poor start and ina dvertently he lped Park er whe n he went down o n the climb out of Gravity Cavity, a section of th e track. feat uring a steep dr op, a short flat spot a t the bo ttom and then a steep climb. "I was tryi ng to pass Kervel la ," sai d Dymond. " H e got cros s-rutted and hit me. I tri ed to stay u p and swerved acro ss the track, fell a nd Puzar T· boned me." Both ri ders spe nt co nsidera ble time ge tti ng un tangled, a nd when Puzar finally go t go in g he fell again a short di stance later. Frustrated and way out o f th e top 15 point-paying positions, he pulled o u t. Dym ond str ugg led with the ruts for a co u p le m ore laps but decided to retire as well rather than risk reinjuring th e kn ee he damaged at the beginning of th e season. U p front, LaRocco was pulling away while Stanton worked his way past Johansson and th en Visser. When Stanton reached seco nd on lap four, La Ro cco was nine seconds ahead. Stanton th en meth od icall y clos ed the gap, but before he co uld get too clo se, LaRocco fell near th e halfway poin t and Sta nton sudde n ly had a foursecond lead . " I wasn 't rid in g lik e I should' ve been ," said La Rocco. " I go t anxious, got crossed up in th e ru ts and fell. That actuall y hel ped, beca u se I sta rted riding more aggressively and smooth." A lap later LaRocco was bac k in fir st when Stanton fell , and the two had left third-place Johansson far behind. 7

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