Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

~ M orGeRGSS AMA NationalChampionshipI25/25Oa: MXSeries: Rounds7/Final ~ J eff Sta nton (1) and J eff Ward (3) jump ahead of the pack at th e start of the second 250cc moto, Stanton wo n bo th races and Ward ended up third overall. Stanton, Kiedrowski score wins, Bayle wraps up title at Southwick By Henny Ray Abrams SOUTHWICK. MA, AUG.4 eff Stanton and Mike Kiedrowski had a perfect New England day, and J ean-Michel Bayle's was even better. Both Stanton, the defending 250cc N a tion a l Ch ampion , and 125c c Natio na l Championship points lead er Kiedro wski were untouchabl e, their mastery of the ro ugh and rutted MX338 sand track was com plete. Both scored perfect I-I tall ies after leading nearly every lap of their 30-minu te plus two lap races before a cro wd estima ted at 8500 on a mostly brilliant sunlit day. But as Tea m H onda 's Sta n to n pointed ou t in the victory ceremo ny , the big winner on th e day was teammate Bayle. Even th ou gh he finished seco n d o vera ll, the tra ns p lant ed Frenchman , wh o earlier th is year won the Camel Supercross tit le, added the AMA 250cc Na tio na l Cha m pio ns hi p crown 10 h is co llectio n by riding co nservatively in the first rnoto and fini sh in g fourth. " I just needed to fin ish in the top six," said Bayle. " I had a bad start and just cra shed one time. I didn 't want ' to mak e a mistak e, so I too k it -easy." H e finished second in the second mo to to earn $950 of the $15,000 250cc p urse, but he earned several tho usand mor e than that in bon us money from America n H onda for winning th e cha mpio nship. And th ou gh Bayle prevented hi s teammate Stanton from winning hi s third consecutive 250cc titl e, th e J 18 deposed champion was graci ous In 'defeat. "You can' t take )-1 Nati onal wins one week and fall off the next week and expec t 10 win a championship," said Sta nto n , who took home $2000 in p urse money. "This is my third win in a row here, but it's nothing like winning a champ io nship." Ironically, Bayle wra p ped up the titl e wit hout scoring an overa ll win in the seven -ro und 250cc series, and he won only three of the 14 mo tes in the' series. Bayle was the most cons istent, however, as he fini shed no lo wer than fifth in every rnoto. Stanton DNF two motos in the seri es. The final po int standings have Bayle o n top with 277, Stanton second with 251 and Yam aha 's Dam on Bradshaw third with 210. ' Bradshaw finish ed fourth overall today , sand wiched between Kawasaki 's J eff Ward in th ird and J eff Mariasevich in fifth. Both of the Kawa sak i rid ers were troubled by so re bac ks which were grea tly aggravated by the sandy trac k. Second to Kawasak i's Kiedrowski in the 125cc class was Peak/Pro Cir cui t Honda 's Steve La mson . T he northern Californian started badl y in the first moto befor e working his way up 1'0 fini sh fou rt h. In the second race he ga ted better and fin ished second, a few secon d s behind Kied row ski. H e'd trailed Kiedrowski for a few seconds for most of the rnoto, bu t was unable 10 close the gap. . For Kiedrowski, who pocketed $1200 of th e $10,000 125cc purse, ridi ng on his own was "kind of boring," he said. " I kn ew Lam son was in second place and I just kept a good pace goi ng ." Third overa ll went to Suzu ki 's defending 125cc Nationa l Ch am pion Guy Cooper in a valia nt ride. On the Frid ay p rior 10 the race , Cooper fell during a test a t Sou thwick and was ru n over by ano ther ri der, breaki ng a. rib and injuring his buttocks. The decisio n 10 ride was mad e o n race mo rn ing and was done in an attempt 10 salvage points. As it turn ed out he did bett er th an an tici pa ted. Cooper's Suzuki teammate Buddy Atunez was fourth overall wit h 5-3 moto fin ish es with J erem y McGrath fifth o n the Peak / Pro Circuit Honda with a mo to tally of 6-4. With six races left in the 13-race l25cc series, Kiedrowski leads Cooper 280 to 252. Peak / Pro Circuit Honda's Brian Swink, sevent h overa ll today, is third with 186 points. T ho ug h th ere were a few notable charges today - Suzuki's Mike La Ro cco's in both 250cc motos stand out there wasn ' t a great deal of passing near the front and Stanton attr ibuted it 10 the abuse the track took. "T h is is the ro ug hest 1 ever rode it," he said . "T he ruts get so deep you 're always o n the same lin e," he added, " making it diffi cult to pass in the co rners.', And tho ugh workers kept it con- stan tly wa tered , and had a bu lldozer make some cha nges after the first 125cc mo to, the re was a du st problem for riders behind the leaders, not surprising since the tem perature reached the mid-80s. What caused most of the damage to the track, though, was simp ly volume. A record rider turnout of 78 riders in the l25cc class and 89 for the 250cc division meant the two -q ua lifiers and consolation races for each class woul d be crowded and compe titive, and they were. It also threatened to delay the start of th e Nat io na l program, but th e q ualifiers went off witho ut a hi tch and the Nationa l started almos t right on time. 125cc National Yamaha's Jeff Em ig spun his tire on the pa ved macadam starting pad and sho t into the lead at the start of the first moto. T he riders made a Uvturn at the end of the start chute and headed into woods , and coming out of those woods Emig was second 10 Suzu ki/ Acerbis/ Pro-Circu it-backed Ji mmy Gaddis with Kiedro wski pressing in th ird. Starting the third lap, both Emig and Kiedro wski sped past Gaddis , a nd Kiedrow ski immediately began pushing Emig, though they were using comp letely different lin es in the corners. Emig was hugging the inside on most bends with Kiedrowski taking wide, sweeping lines and using the berms 10 effect.

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