Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127395
GM OSS 16th Annual MX Grand National Cham~ionshi~ OTOCR _ e Shawn Morga (156) was the only rider to best Damon H uffman (30) in a 250ct In ter m ediate class moto. record at Ponca than Reynard and Lusk was II- year-ol d Ri ck y Carmichael. The redhead, wh o stands four-feet, six-inches tall, led every lap of every race he rode. That included both th e 80cc Stock and Mod ified (9-11) classes and the I05cc (~ I I ) class. ..It feels pretty good," said Carm ichael, wh o da zzled the crowd by cleari ng a 50-foot double jump lap after lap. " My worst start was second beh ind J acob Mar tin - I passed hi m in the first comer." Robbi e Horton 's 3-2 moto tally ea rned him secon d beh in d Tea m Green /Fox Raci ng/ Barrs Competiti on/PJ IICT iiSh oe ilSco tt U .S.A.! , All Sports Dyn amics/Dunlo p / T su bak ilRentha llFMF-backed Ca rmichael in the Stock class with J essy Williams' 2-3, Aust ra lia n Troy Carro ll 's 4-6 an d J erry Aleman's 6-5 scores all owing them to com plete, in order, the top five overall. In the Modified class, Williams moved up th e ladder one spo t LO second, thanks to a pair of seconds with Martin claiming third via two fourths. Jimm y Va ris and Keith J ohnson co mp leted the top five. Horton, however, retured to th e runner-up spo t in th e 105cc class, aga in with 3-2 rnoto finishes after Carmichael ran away from the field. That gave Williams th ird overa ll while Martin wa s fou rth a nd Ca rter Schneider fifth. A close -knit group of 125 and 250cc Stock and Modified Intermediates kept everyone's attention. Un like the classes in which Reynard , Lusk and Carmi- cha el quickly established th eir dominance, th ese fOUT classes were fairl y evenly sp lit, with severa l riders leading alo ng the way. J eff Dement, the Grand National Champion in the Minicycle divi sion last year, picked up where he left off. The Sp ri ng, T exas, resid ent walked away fro m Sh awn Morga, Damon Huffman, Sp ud Walter and Rust y Holl an d during th e first moto of th e I~5cc Stock class to score a co nvinci ng wi n . Dem en t, however, suffered a maj or setback in the second mot o wh en he fell down sho rt ly after the sta rt. That allo wed Rand, wh o finish ed ninth in the first rn oto after an early crash, to cap ture th e win and move up substantia lly in the overa ll finish ing or der. T he overall wi n wen t to Huffman wit h his ru n ner-up finis h inrno to two. Morga 's 2-4 score allo wed h im to tak e seco n d o vera ll w i t h Walter 's 4-3 earn ing third ahead of Rand 's 9-1 and Holland's 5ยท8. The 125cc Modified In termediate class was o ne of th e three events that required run-offs. After winning each of their respective qualifying moLOS, both Huffman and Dement came in as eq ua ls and the,stage was set. Dem ent, th ough, grabbed the early lead and fended off attacks by Joey ' Prall and Morga. The three riders even tua ll y met th e checkers in the same o rde r after nearl y 20 minutes of com pe ti tio n. Huffman, wh o had problems working through traff ic, finished sixth in the final, hi s wor st finish at Ponca. Like many rid ers throughout the snonsored by---=-=lu: . : :=.(~ k welve-yea r -o ld Charley Bogard of Dallas, T exas, was declared the winner of a 1991 Chevrolet CI500 pi ckup truck after his name was drawn at the awards ceremony following the race. The drawing was held among all race ent~ants regardless of age, and it's obvious tha t the Texan won't be driving it for some time. Bogard's best finish came in th e 80cc Stock (12- 13) class where he was sixth overall. His presence at future Ponca City events is "guara nteed." At the presentation ceremo ny, his father said, " This guarantees we'll be at Ponca City the next five years. " T he Chevrolet Truck division of General MOLOrs was a new event sponsor at the Ponca City NMA Grand National Championship meet. T 12 Decker's (75) collision with David Pingree (23) and Mike Metzger (15) at the start of the second 80cc (1416) Modified moto may h ave cost him the G rand National Champio nship . _ week, Huffman had problems working his way through the pa ck in the first 250cc Stock Intermediate moto, After claiming second behind Morga in the first go- around, th e Team Greenl Cycle Engin eering/Enzo Racingl Answer/Oakley/VP Fuels/N Sty lel Shoe ilD u n 10p/Si Ikol en e /Ton y Stumpf-backed Huffman sho t into the early lead with Morga this tim e in tow . Morga mad e severa l attempts to pass the lead er but nothing worked. The duo fini shed 1-2 with Jimmy Mechem, Brandon Sm ith and Brandon Lacey foll ow ing th em across the fini sh line. Although Morga and Brian Deegan kept him in sig ht, Huffman had a much easie r tim e winning j he 250cc Modified Inte rmediate class. With a pe rfect I-I score , he topped Deegan, Mo rga, Bill y J oe Mercier and Mechem for th e overa ll win. Like Huffman, Zephyr Hills, Flo rida's Anthony Pocorobba also won th ree motor cycle classes in the Novice divisions. Po corobba 's weekend, however, didn 't start off that well. In the 125cc Stock Novice class , the kill switch on Pocorabba 's Honda grounded out while he was leading the second rnoto of his qualifier di vision. Matt Day, wh o shared low qualifier points with Ray Mitchell, claimed the hard-earned final victory after fighting off John Schultz. Vylam Nguyen, Mall Goleman and Scott Ghidiu finished close behind. , Although ' Pocorobba transferred into the 125cc Modified Novice final after finishing second in the qualifier behind Da y, the 14-year-old still managed to come out on top in the ov erall a s th e SNRIScott U.S .AI Honda West/Barrs CompetitionlTri City Hondal AXO- supported rider ran away from Fred WinsLOn , Jeb Stuart, Mitchell and Matt Goleman for the run-off win. Pocorobba won both the 250cc Stock and Modified classes in ' co nvinci ng fashion - he won all four motos! ....I'm glad it turned out the way it did ," sa id Poco robb a. " I wish I cou ld' ve won all four cla sses, but there was nothing I co uld do. I had no idea it (the p ro blem tha t led to a DNF) was th e kill swi tch unti l la ter." Ontario, California's Ray McIntosh easily walked away with a pair o r 500cc Non-Pro mot o wins. McIntosh quickly out distanced Ray Boruff, Alex McElyea, Perr y Reeder and Kell y Pitchel in the first moto, the n repeated the feat in moto two . Boruff finished second, with Pitchell third, McElyea fourth and Reeder fifth .