Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

IwnEW~~~~_~_~_sS_~_~:_~_oo_d_l ~ e Larry Ward (10) and Matiasevich battled in the first 250cc heat race. Ward got the best of the fight and went on to finish seventh in the "feature. . Doug Dubach (12) spent most of the 2O-lapfeature dicing back and fourth with Bayle, while Mike Fisher (14) watched from behind. Dubach finished fifth; Bayle sixth. Indiana's Mike LaRocco gives the Citrus Bowl crowd thumbs up on the victory podium. The Orlando Supercross was LaRocco 's first race on a Kawasaki. 8 The first semi saw Bradshaw and Stanton back out on th e track, and, as expected, th e two factory team rivals diced for the lead. Suzuki's Steve Lamson, who was riding with a sore kne e, watched from a disant third. Although Bradshaw stayed out front throughout the race, he was challenged by Stanton the entire distance. The pair were only inches apart lap after lap, and Bradshaw held on for a narrow win over . the two-time champ. Lamson finished third, followed by Cooper and KTM 's ' Keith Johnson. Finishing sixth, one spot out of the transfer positions, was Italian Mich ele Monte, a privateer Honda rider who's living in nearby Ocala while he's in the U.S. Former factory Suzuki pilot Erik Kehoe led from start to finish in the second semi, while LaRocco finished second aft er a mediocre start. Fisher held back a hard-charging Emig to finish third, wh ile Jeff Ward settled into fifth p la ce, the last transfer position, just ahead of Dymond and Lechien. Another Florida rider, Brian McElroy, from Ridge Manor, rode a flawl ess race in the Last Chance Qualifier. McElroy led from start to finish after detaching himself from a heated three-way battle for second - the last transfer position of the night - involving RRP/AloeUp 's Ray Sommo, Rad & Bad 's Fred Andrews and Dymond. Sommo, Andrews a nd Dymond traded positions throughout the race, with Andrews prevail ing over Sommo and Dymond. The spectators were on their feet as the 30-second sign went up for the first Coors Light Challenge main event of the 1992 season. Wh en the sign was turned sideways and th e gate dropped, it was Yamaha's Emig who led th e pa ck into th e first turn, ahead of Matiasevich , Larry Ward, Lamson, LaRocco, Kiedrow ski, Jeff Ward and Bradshaw. Jeff Ward, who went into the first turn alongside Emig, said, "I had a great start but 1 got pinched off by Emig and dropped.back." Running in the middle of the pack were Stanton and Bayle. Emig set the pace for the first half of the race with Matiasevich wa tching the lead er 's every mov e lap after lap. La Rocco even tually settled into third, whi le pl enty of positi on cha nging was goi ng on beh ind him. "The hol eshot reall y pumped me up ," said Emig. " I thought. 'You can do this , you can win this thing.' " Bradshaw went down on th e fifth lap after passin g J eff Ward for fifth. " I was coming into a corner and the back end swung around, " Bradshaw said. " I was lyin g there and I saw Ward y (Jeff Ward) coming . I know he did all he cou ld do to avoi d me, but he ran over my leg. All I could think of was (for mer NFL q uarterback) Joe Thiesman, I thought for sure it wou ld break ." Bradshaw reentered the race near the back of the pack and spe nt the rest of the race working his way back u p , whe re he wou ld even tua lly fini sh fourth. Near the halfway point Emig was sti ll in co mmand, and it looked as th ough Mat iasevich wou ld mak e a serious bid for th e lead. Instead, Matiasevich sudden ly began dropping back. . " I go t a good start then I just stiffened up; sort of freaked out," Matiasevich said. "I didn't want to fall and started thinking, 'I don 't want to fall , I don't want to fall. ' "M y leg is about 70% right now," added Matiasevich, ': It's, no t so much my leg that bothers me, it's just kn owing that I'm not 100% when I'm sitting there o n the starting line. That's what's tough." Near the halfway point it was Emig still leading the way, followed by LaRocco, Kiedrowski, Stanton, Jeff Ward, Matiasevich, Larry Ward, Dubach , Bradshaw and Bayle. Once into second, LaRocco began pressuring Emig. LaRocco made his move on the 10th lap when he dove to the inside of Emig in a turn and o u t-drove him down the next straight. " I had a decent start, I saw who was ahea d of me, and I just took my time," said LaRocco . " I did things as smooth and consisten tly as I could." Less than a lap later, Emig was feeling even more heat from thirdplace Kiedrowski and fourth-place Stanton. While battling for postions down a section of whoops, Emig and Kiedrow ski collided and went down in a h eap, whil e Stanton snuck b y unscathed and into second. " We go t into the whoops and Kiedrowski ran into the back of me ," Emig said. " The last whoop is kind of like a drop-off; I was going off of it kind of sideways and he ran into me. "T hat gu y alw ays seems to hit me from behind," lau gh ed Em ig. "All last year in the 125cc Nation als , he'd hit me from behi nd ." Kiedro wski said of the incident, " I was rig ht beh in d Emig; goi ng into th e whoops I jumped four and he j umped two . I ha d some speed and Stanton was right next to me on my righ t - we were battl ing - and Em ig sta rted swa pping. He go t side ways and I hit his bac k wh eel. T here wasn 't much I could do." Both Emi g an d Kiedrowski reentered th e race, but ou t of conte ntion . Em ig eve n t ua lly fin ish ed ei g h th ; Kiedrow ski ninth. Meanwhile, the race was on for the lead between LaRocco and secondpl ace Stanton. J eff Ward moved into third after Emig and Kiedrowski went down , and Mati asevich was a distant · .fou rth. Bradshaw was fifth . Stanton slowly reeled in LaRocco until he was within in ches of the leader's rear whee l with about seven laps remaining. At that point, it loo ked as though Stanton was sizing up LaRocco for the kill , but every time Stanton made a charge for the lead, LaRocco would successfully counter his advances. With three laps remaining, Stanton made his most aggressive move on LaRocco by trying to outbrake the Kawasaki rider going into a left-hand turn. Stanton got his front wheel underneath La Rocco, but die Indiana rider simply pinched him off into the hay bales. Stanton nearly went down and ultimately lost some ground on the leader. Trying to mak e up lost ground, Stanton mad e one last attempt to pass LaRocco on the last lap, but crashed in the whoops. LaRocco crossed the finish line the winner with Jeff Ward trailing him l home in second. Stanton remounted and finished third. "I didn't want to do anything dumb; when I got into the lead, I was a little - - - - -- Con tinued on page 50

• Cover