Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Ov erall 125cc winner Guy Cooper gain ed two points on 125cc Natio na l Championship points leader Mik e Kiedrowski , who holds a 28-point advantage. and FMF/ Al oe-U p 's R a y So m mo aro un d the first la p of the high-speed, h ard -pa cked Po to ma c Speedway course. Shortly into the race , Fisher's KTM cam e to an abrupt halt in the middle of the course, fo rcin g him to drag hi s bik e to the side of the track. " A rock jammed into th e chain guide and locked up the bike .. . it almost sent me over the bars," said Fisher. " I was lucky th at it happened wh ere it did because two seconds earli er I cleared a gnarl y uphill double. If it would have happened there, it wouldn 't have been good." Meanwhile, Ward go t by Bayle for second, but o n ly temporarily. Bayle set up Ward in a tight, left-hand turn preceding a 6O-foOl double jumpand madea clean pass, mu ch to the delight . of th e crowd. Two laps later the Fr enchman executed the same ident ical move on Stanton to tak e the lead . Bradshaw sat back in fourth watching the baule for the top three spots wh ile simu ltaneously o pen ing up a IO -second cushion o ver Sh au n Kal o s, So mm o , Fred And rews, Ge ne Na u m ec , T o dd DeH oo p , Ku rt McM ill en and Ro n Lechien , all of who m were separated by a few seconds . At the halfway point, Ward caugh t a second wi nd and began pressuring runner-u p Sta nto n , who was two seco nds behind leader Bayle. Ward sn uck by in a left tu rn , on ly to have Stant o n retake the posi tio n o n the foll owing stra igh ta wa y. A la p later, Ward da rted past Sta nton bu t sent the battling du o to th e ground in the next turn. " I had just passed Sta nton when I slid out," said Ward, who got up befor e Stanton to ma inta in second. " He ran in to me and we both lost about 10 seconds to Bayle." . " I actua lly felt good starting the first rnoto until Bayle got by," said Stanton , wh o held o n to th ird place. " T hen Ward pas sed me and we both fell. He was the first to get up and by that time JMB was lon g gon e." Though Ward ga ined ground on Bayle in th e fin al stages of the race, he was still mor e tha n five seconds behind at the finish . Stanton cruised in 10 seconds behind Ward with Brad shaw finishing a distant fourth. While much of the attent io n was bein g focused o n th e leaders, Naumec made his cha rge to fifth , getting pas t both Ka los and Sommo before th e fin ish to earn top pr ivatee r hono rs. Kalos and Sommo crossed the finish line sixth and seventh , respecti vely, wh ile DeH oo p eventually was able to shake off McMill en , who ho unded h im fo r severa l laps, to fi n ish eigh th o Andrews passed McMillen to fin ish ninth, and McMillen co mp leted the top 10. After Bayle holes hot mo to two, Bradshaw came back with th e n ash that has made him a cro wd favorite . Bradshaw stuffed his way pa st the Fren chman wh ile Naumec maintained third ahead of Ward , KTM 's Keith Johnson and DeHoop. Ward soon displaced Naumec to third , but Naumec, of Brooksville, Florida, didn 't back off. The Team Green/ AXO /Pro Ci rcuit/Dunlop/ Sho ei /Rentha IlScott/CTi-b a ck ed Naumec sta yed with Ward for two laps until he co uldn ' t ma intain the pa ce any longer. Stant on sat back and watched Nau rnec's valia n t effort before passing the 18-year -old on lap four. That made the top fiv e: Brad sh aw , Bayl e, Ward , Stanto n and Nau mec. As has been the case throughout the six-ro unds of series, th e best battles occu rred among the privateers. In this case, Tuf Raci ng-backed DeHoop, Sommo and J ohnso n were fighting it o ut for sixth . Noleeri/Oakley/ C'I' isupporte d Ka los joined in on the action as So mmo fell back to 10th place behind T uf Racing's Lechien. But just when Kale s settled into a com forta ble sixth a head of DeHoop, J o h n son and Lechien , th e acti on started to heat up for the lead . Bayle h ad reeled in Bradshaw and wa s ma king every effort to break into th e poin t position. While Bradshaw defended his lead , Ward also caught the leaders to mak e it a three-way battle up front. Stan ton was six second s behi nd, riding alo ne. Bayle soo n fo u nd wh a t he was loo king for as Bradsh aw bob bled, a llo wi ng h im to get a better driv e at an uphi ll do ub le jump to take the lead . Bra dsh aw fought back , b u t Ba yle stayed ahead to record th e win. " It feels good to win bo th mote s." said Bayle. who didn 't compete at last year 's eveIII at Budds Creek beca use Defending 500cc National Champion Jeff Ward (1) rode hard in both motos, but couldn't keep pace with Bayle; he finished with a 3-2 tally and second overall. Honda team manager Dave Arnold felt Bayle may hav e ruined Honda's ch ances of win n ing the 1990 125cc title because Bayle was feuding with th en teammate Mike Kiedrowski. "Now 1 hav e it easie r going into next week 's race." For his efforts, Bayle pocketed $2000 of the $15,000 500cc purse. " I rode hard and felt 1 was go ing pretty good," sa id sec o n d-overall Ward. " I wish I could have won, but that' s how things go ." 125(( National Peak Ant ifreeze/Pro Cir cuit H onda rider Brian Swi n k sto le the show at the start of mo to one after gating per fectly ahea d of Kiedrow ski , Em ig, Cooper and DGY 's Do ug He nry. On th e first lap, Kiedrow ski passed Swink and Coo per made a valiant charge past Swi nk as well th at put him second and on th e rear fender of Keidro wski's Kawasak i KX125. Tha t q uickl y changed as Cooper charged over a lo ng u phill jump and too k the inside line away fro m the 1989 125cc Na tio nal Cham pi on. In th e process, Coo per hit a nasty braking bump tha t almost sent his Marsha ll Plu mb-tuned Suzuki RMI 25 end-overend. Cooper, ho wever, quickl y reco - . . vered and took charge of the moto. Kiedrowski and Swink then went at it for seco nd place as Emig, AXO / Pro Ci rcuit-back Erik Kehoe , Su zuki 's T allo n Vohland and H enry rode in close forma tio n close behind. Kiedrow ski and Swi nk jockeyed pos it ions un til Kiedrow ski finally ga ined the upper ha nd and set after Cooper. The bar-banging battle allowed Em ig to cat ch the pair and become a serious threat for second. Then Kiedrowski crashed. knocking himself back to sixth. " I came into a comer too fast and the front end washed ," said Kiedrowski. " I kept the bike running, but lost several positions." Emig went into second as Swink fell back to seventh behind third-placed Vohland , Kehoe, Kiedrowsk i an d Jeremy McGrath. Kiedrowski and McGrath eventually got past Kehoe before the checkers flew, making the final order Cooper, Emig, Vohland, Kiedrowski , McGra th a n d Kehoe. Steve Lamson finished seventh ahead of-Henry, Swink and Su zuk i's Larry Ward. . In moto two , Emig got the perfect drop of the gate to lead Cooper, H enry, Kiedrowski and Lamso n up the start h ill and arou nd the tigh t left-ha nd first tum. His lead was cu t sho rt by Cooper, wh o q uickly established a rapid pace, distan cin g h im self from Em ig by 10 bike leng ths. Suzuki's Mike La Rocco soo n jo ined in the action after dropping Steve Lamson 10 fifth. La Rocco , who fell o n the openi ng lap of th e first moto, was no t going 10 be a factor for th e top 10 overall. On th e six th lap , Henry, th e privateer win ner of the Han gtown 125cc Nationa l, slip ped to si xth. T h a t allo wed the bat tling du o of Kiedrowski and La Rocco to set their sig hts o n Cooper and Emig, who had close d the gap o n the leader, at the head of the pa ck. It took them two laps before th ey caugh t the top two and Kiedro wski made an inside move o n a long, powerro bbi n g uphill o n th e wid e-open European-style circu it. T hen Kiedro wski mad e short wor k of Cooper, wh ose luck turned fro m bad to worse when he cras hed and su rre ndered second place to Emig. Wh ile Cooper pi cked himself off the ground in th ird p lace, La Rocco was 9

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