Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

~ M OTOCROSS AMA National Championship 125/5OOa: MX Series: Final [minds e G uy Coop er (I) leads Mike Kiedrowski do wn Gr~vity Cavity d uring their first 125cc moto duel. Cooper won the batt le. bu t Kiedrowski won the championship. Five-time MX World Champion Roger DeCoster shakes J ean-Michel Ba yle's hand , moments after the Fren chman clinch ed the 500cc National Championship title. Bayle, Kiedrowski crowned at Unadilla By Kit P a lmer P h o tos by Kinney J o nes NEWBERLIN, NY, ocr. 1 . 3 esp ite the fact that neither Je anMichel Bayle nor Mike Kied row ski won a moto at the final round of th e 125/500cc National MX Series a t the Unadilla Vall ey Sports Center , both riders went home th e kings of their respecti ve classes. A 2-5 moto score was more than eno ugh for T eam Honda 's Bayle to clinch th e 500cc National Cha m pion . ship . By doing so, the two-tim e MX World Champion beca me th e first rid er to win three AMA MX Cham p ion sh ip cro wns in one seaso n. Bayle had already claimed th e Cam el Supercross a nd 250cc National titles. Desp it e hi s record-sett in g perform ance, the ,22-yea r -o ld fr om Manosque, France, wh o now resid es in Redondo Beach, California, was less t ha n e nt h us ias tic about hi s acco mp lish me nts. " It feels go od to win all three cha mpio nships, but my main goal was the Supercross (Cha m p io nship) ," said Ba yle after the second 500cc rnoto, "To me, it's (the 500cc title) just one more champ io nshi p. If I didn't win th e 500cc Championship tod ay, no bi g deal." On his wa y to the 500cc title, Bayle scored three overall win s o n hi s Cliff White-tuned Honda. H e won the 250cc titl e without scoring an overall win , and dominated the 18-round Camel D 10 Super cr o ss Series, ' wi n n i n g eigh t events. Defending 500cc Nationa l Ch ampion J eff Ward di d everyt hi ng poss ible to pr event BayIe from clinc hing th e titl e. The Kawasak i rider won both motos for his th ird 500cc overa ll victory o f the series. War d was the only rid er wh o had a chance, abeit a slim one , to derail th e Bayle freight train, but came up nine points sho rt. 273-264. " I guess I won th e battle but lost the war ," said 30-year-o ld Ward, wh o ha s wo n two Supercross titles, o ne 125cc crown, two 250cc and two 500cc titl es. " It's too bad I didn't wi n the .cham pionship, but I can ' t co m p lain . Ba yle's a great rider and my ha t goes o ff to him. He deserves it. ' 'I'll be back nex t yea r," Ward added. " It will defini tely be my last year , but I want to win one more championsh ip to br ea k th e record. Rick J o h nson a nd I are tied with seven champio nsh ips , but I'm happy to be tied with him because he's a grea t cham pion and competitor. " Despite cras hi ng th ree times on th e day, Yam ah a ' s Da mon Br adshaw finished th ird overa ll via a 6-3 tally , while KTM 's Mike Fisher (4-6) a nd pri vateer Ka wasaki rider Shaun Kalos (3-8) ro u nded o u t the top five. ' In th e I25cc class, Team Kawasak i' s Mik e Kiedrowski a nd mech anic Shane Nalley ac h ieved their goal of beating Suzu ki' s defending champ Gu y Cooper for th e 125cc crown. Although Co oper sco red the overall win at U na di lla with 1-4 finishes, Kiedrowski won hi s second 125cc title - the first co m ing in 1989 as a member of Team H onda - with a 2-12 score. Kiedrowski closed out th e series with 499 poin ts while runner-up Cooper totaled 483. " I re mem be r ' last year . . . that Cooper beat me for th e titl e by one point, " said Kiedrowski. " I told myself rig h t th en that no way , no way was I going to let h im beat me again." " I co ngra tu la te Kiedrow ski, " sai d Cooper afterwa rds. " He rod e hard all year, he's a good rid er, a nd th at 's what it tak es to win cha mpionship s." Cooper's win was th e 15th o f hi s care er , which puts him in so le poss ession of second p lace on th e all-time wi n list in th e 125cc clas s. Only threeti me 125cc National Champion Mark Barnett has more .wins a t 25. Suzu ki's Mike LaRocco was th e ' 125cc class runner-up at Unadilla despite crashing twice in th e first moto. LaRocco finish ed fifth in mot o one • and came back to win th e second race. Team P eak/Pro -Circuit/H ond a ' s Steve La mso n (4-2) was third overall , Suzuki's Tallon Vohland (3-3) fourth a nd Kiedrowski fifth . Co ld temperatures and light rain greeted 203 riders wh o ca me o u t to do ba ttl e o n one of th e nation 's toughest MX trac ks, wh ich is laid o u t over rolli ng, grassy. hills. By th e tim e th e first Na tio na l mot o got underw a y around I :30 p.m., the rain had stopped, but th e clo ud s didn 't giv e wa y to su nshine until half way th rough the last moto , m ak ing for id eal tra ck co nd itions . The esti ma ted 5000 specta tors a nd rid ers al ike were bundled u p all day. O f the 203 rid ers, o n ly 40 in eac h class wo u ld quali fy for th e two mot os in eac h class, th ose not in th e top 10 in the poin t sta nd ings having to do so, via six hea t races held earlier in the day. 125 National The fir st 30-minute plus two-lap 125cc Na tional m oto featured a twoman di ce for th e lead betwe en th e two cham p ions hip contenders, Cooper and Kiedrowski. All Kiedrowski needed to clinch th e titl e was to pick 'u p three points on Cooper, which was possible if he won a nd Cooper finished second, but Kiedrowski wasn 't abou t to cruise and take it easy at Unadilla. Cooper moved into the lead after passing early-leader Lamson on the third lap . whi le Kiedrowski charged into second a lap la ter, sett ing the stage for a terrific dogfight between th e two longtime rivals. Cooper a nd Kiedrowski quickly left th e rest of th e pack behind as th ey diced fender to fender . Both rid ers wer e ridin g o n th e edge, a nd it didn't surprise many when, on th e seventh lap, th ey slammed together a nd both hit th e ground. "I tri ed to go underneath him (Coope r) in th e first turn of the switchbacks," Kiedrowski explained. " I thought I had a good enough drive . to get to th e inside, but I didn't, so I went to th e outside and passed him. Then go ing into th e next turn, I was just braking when all of a sudden , bam! He hit me from behind and I just nipped right over." . "He (Kiedro wski) got me on th e outside. a good cl ean pass," said Cooper. " I didn 't want to just give in, so I ra ced him into th e next turn. He went to hit th e brakes, but I was goi ng too fast and slid into the back o f him. His back tire just caught my bike and flipped u s both." The ra ce to remount a nd get aw a y first was won by Cooper, and by the tim e Kiedrowski got go ing Cooper had ab out four seconds o n the Kawasaki rider, hi s biggest lead of th e moto. But a few laps lat er, Cooper went down aga in wh en cresting a small rise. " My front wh eel ca me out of a rut, but m y back wheel stayed in and slid out," Co oper said. Cooper pi cked up hi s Suzuki just as Kied rowsk i got a lo ngside of him , making it a dr ag race to th e next turn. Cooper had the better inside lin e an d edged in front of Kiedrowski. The dice continued for th e next two laps, then Kiedrowski crashed when he highsided o ff th e top of a steep downhill. " I gr abbed a handful of throttle and the back end slid out and hit a sq uareedged bump," Kiedro wski said . "The

• Cover