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/127527
GM OSS GFI California Winter MX Series South: RoimdI orDeR ~ Damon Bradshaw (4) and Jeff Matiasevich ba ttled during the earl y laps of the 250cc Pro Invitational Supercro ss. Erik Kehoe (20) swept all four motos in the regular Pro classes , bu t he co uldn 't hold off Jeremy McGrath (17) in the l25cc Invitational Supercross even t. Quick money for Bradshaw at Perris Raceway By Tony Alessi and Nate R a u ba Photos by Alessi and Ken Faught "T 14 PERRIS, CA, DEC. 28ยท29 ha t's got to be the quickest money I ever made!" said Yamaha 's Damon Bradshaw as he waited to be interviewed over P e rris R ace wa y' s publi c a dd ress system . T he North Car olina teenager had just earned $5000 for winning th e GFI Racing/Goat Gere 250cc Invitational Supercross, the fea tured race of the open ing round of GFI Racing's Californ ia Winter MX' Series: A $10,000 purse furnish ed by GFI promoter a nd former factory motocrosser , G oat Breker, attracted a nu mber of to p-na me stars such as Kawasaki 's Jeff Matiasevich, who finished second, and j eff War d, Suzuki 's Steve La mson, twotime 125cc Nat ional Cha mp io n Micky Dym ond, Ul tra cr o ss Ch ampi on Mi chael Craig and Bradshaw 's Yam aha team ma te J eff Em ig. Yamaha was out in full force with its entire team . a nd even Dou g Dubach , wh o was recovering from an an kle injury and didn't compete, was present alo ng with the entourage. " We' ve been doin g a lo t of testing, a nd with o n ly two week s to th e beginning of the Cam el Su percross Seri es. th is event provides an ideal situation to evaluate d ifferent th ings," said Yamaha MX T eam Manager Keith McCarty. " We on ly ha ve 10 be here for a few hours." The Invitational Su per cro ss too k up about an hour of Saturday's program. The riders arrived just in tim e to take part in a br ief practice session, then th eir mechan ics ha d about 15 minutes to pr epar e the bi kes for the race, which was 18 laps and lasted for just over 20 minutes. A similar event was held o n Su nday for the 125cc class , wh ere Peak Antifreeze/ Pro Circuit H on da rider J erem y McGrath beat P ro Circu it-ba cked pri vateer Erik Kehoe and too k home $800 of the 2000 purse. Kehoe do mina ted the 125 and 250cc Pro classes held on the regu lar Perr is MX course. Wh ile th e supercross events were th e highligh t of th e weekend, a total of 593 amateur en tra nts com peted for points and man u factu rer contingency money in th e five-round so u thern portion of the seri es. Riders in northern Californ ia will co mpete in a sixround series, and th e two regi ons will have a showdown ro und at Perris in February. When the 250cc Pro Supercross race left the starting li ne, Brad sha w and Matiasevich ba ttled for the lead as they circu lated the regular Perri s MX track befor e ente r ing the supercross course. J eff Ward. who wo n the event last year . had lilli e cha nce 10 repeat the feat as he fell in the second tum. " I hit somebod y," said Ward. " We only had one la p of practice o n that part of the trac k, so nobody knew it. Everybody would go fast a nd sudde n ly slo w down when they saw a turn ." Ward never got higher tha n 10th place in the 17-rider field and fell o nce more while tryin g to ca tch up. When the ride rs reached the su percross cours e, Bradshaw had a slim lead o n Mati asevich wit h Craig hot on thei r heels. After two la ps around the loa m y co urse, which was saturated by rain the pre vio us night. the trio had distanced themselves from the pack and Matiasevich found hi s way 10 the front. Bradsha w stayed close, and after followi ng Matiasevich for four laps he moved back into the lead . For th e next several la ps Brad shaw increased his advantage by one second per lap until he was five seconds a head, which he maintain ed over Mat iasevich to the finis h line. " I p ut in a co u p le of good laps to ge t away, but he was always right there," said Bradshaw. " I rod e as fast as I ha d to in order to maintain the d istance, but I wasn't on the edg e." " My bike got hot a nd started to slow down," said Ma tiasevich , wh o ea rned $1525 and a set of Dunlop tru ck tires for bein g chosen as the Dunlop Extra Effort Award winner by Dun lop 's Frank Stacey. " Brads ha w made a good move and pulled a lillie o n me." Cra ig lost touch with the to p two ea rl ier in the race but fini shed third, well behind Matiasevich. " My goggles stea med up a nd I co uldn 't hang wi th them, " said Craig. After fa ll i ng a t the sta rt , Emig worked hi s way through the field 10 finis h fourt h , far behind Craig. La mson recovered from a fall early in the race LO cla im fifth over Dymond, wh ile Suzuki-supported Phil Lawrence finished seventh after running as high as fourth a t th e beginning of the race. Larry Brooks and Dam on Huffman .ball ied over eighth for much of the time until Brooks broke away late in the race to claim the pos itio n. The 125cc Supercross event featured a showdown bet ween Erik Kehoe a nd J erem y McGrath. Kehoe led the opening lap while McGrath ran second in fro nt of Connecticu t's Doug Henry , Tyso n Vohl and and L awrence. McGra th pus he d Keh oe hard a n d carved a deep insi de groove to take over the lead. " I go t a lillie lazy by going to th e o utside of a fast berm and j erem y cu t under me," Kehoe said. While McGrat h and Kehoe d iced for the lead, Hen ry beca me involved in a battle for th ir d wi th Voh land a nd La wrence. By the fifth of a 15-lap event, both Vohla nd and La wrence passed H en ry o n the steep descent of a step-up j um p. Vohland and Lawrence left H en ry behind and engaged in a mot e-l ong battle for third. In th e late sta ge s o f th e moto , McG ra th opened a modes t lead over Keh oe, wh i le L a wr en ce o vertoo k Vohla nd with a close midair pass to secure thi rd. McG ra th went o n for the win followed by Kehoe, Lawrence , Tommy Clowers a nd Bria n Ma nl ey. Vohland cra shed during the final laps and finished 14th . Kehoe shined in the outdoor P ro clas ses with a four-moto sweep of both 125 and 250cc divisions. Kehoe was never challenged by any r ider during the four motos, and h is o nly rea l test ca me in the for m of a massive delu ge of rai n during th e final 125cc Pro mot o. Keh oe pu lled the hol eshot in that race and never look ed back while slipping and sliding around a track th at was a lmos t unridable. Keh oe prevai led to score the wi n. Cra ig Ca noy rod e an aggressive race, first pushing Voh la nd off the trac k then .fending off Mike -Cha mberlain a nd lat er Dana Wiggins for second pl ace. Ch a mberlain spray ed Wiggins with a wa ll of m ud whi ch forced Wiggins to stop a nd ta ke h is gogg les o ff. Wiggins regrouped and pa ssed Chamberlain on th e fin al lap for third, then pressed Ca noy for second but came up sho rt. Craig Decker returned to actio n after recovering fro m a brok en wrist a nd dominated the I25cc Interm edi ate class with a pair of ru naway victories. While Decker smoked away in the opening mo to, a close race developed for second betw een Erik Anderson and Steve n Mitchell. Mit chell unsea ted Anderson in a tech n ical section of the course and char ged away to finish second. Anderson held off a la te-race charge fro m Mike At kinson 10 secure third wh ile Larry Linkogl e rounded out the top five. The second rno to was a repeat performance for ' Decker as he pulle d a way to a 41-second wi n over Brian T eets . Dave Casada charged all rnoto b ut Teets held h im at ba y th e remainder of th e moto for th e runneru p spo t. j oe y Prall came all the way from T exas and ra n inside the top five during th e second rnoto but, crashes dropped him back to an eventual 15-