Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

GM OTOCROSS GFI California Winter MX Series South:Round2 e r-----~ Jamie Mit ch ell (47), Da vid Sm ith (40) and Baline Towe (37) figh t for position in front of th e 250cc Nov ice field. William Nash (Il l) was the overall winner. Darren Ellio t (178), Eddie Davis (17), Loren Poch irowsk i (8) and Eri c Bein gesser (51) battled in Perris Raceway's back section duri ng +25 Intermedia te class action. Roger Oreb (224) and Chris Gendusa diced in the 500cc Beginner class. emerged fro m th e second turn, Rad zins ki sho t to second and began to challenge Denton for the lead. " I started about fifth , then everyone went single file into th e next turn so I went outside through a muddy line wide open, and wh en I looked up o n ly Denton was in front o f me," Radzinski explained. Series point lead er Chris Lance and Todd Broussard crashe d into each other during th e start. Lance charged bac k to sixth by th e second lap behind Larry Lawrence and George Wall ace, who were enga ged in a close battle for fourth . Bu t sud den ly Lance and hi s ma chine went cartw heeIing off the tra ck , " I came in to the sweeper real high in th e tu rn wh en I hi t a rock and went flying into a rain rut," La nce said. Mom ents lat er Wall ace was slamm ed off th e tr ack b y a ver y determined Lawren ce. " Larry was riding rea l aggressi ve. Af ter we land ed off a jump, we sla mmed hard a nd I went sa il ing off the tra ck," Wallace exp lained. Lawrence stayed up and set aft er third-place Davis. Lawrence caught Davis on the fift h lap a nd u n leash ed a fury of aggressiveness that propelled him to third a nd left Davis on the gro u nd. Denton con tinued to lead with Radzin ski re lentless ly p ursui ng in seco nd . " I was struck beh ind Denton, I was faster in the high speed areas , he was better in the tigh t stuff," Radzin ski exp lained . " I have raced desert for the last year, it defin itely hel ped in the faster areas." During the remaining laps Lawren ce reeled in and passed Ra dzinski for seco nd, the n closed to within a few feet of Denton, who too k the moto wi n. Radzinski fin ished third while J oh n Griffin moved up to fourth followed by Kevin Fri nger in fifth . At th e start of the second moto, Radzinski was first to drop into the deep groove in the first tu rn followed by Denton, La wrence a nd .Wa llace. Radzinski opened a five-seco nd lead during the ope ni ng lap wh ile Denton and Lawrence battled for seco nd before they both cras hed to the ground. " I saw the whole thing fro m fourth place ," Wallace said. " Denton fell over in a deep, grooved turn and Lawren ce crashed into him and blocked the track. " Lawrence quickl y rem ou nted and held second after forci ng Wall ace u p th e side of a roc k ledge. While Wallace was re-entering the track, La nce a nd Fringer moved into th ird and fo urth, Radzinski reigns at Perris Raceway By Ton y Alessi PERRIS, CA, JAN. 4 h ris Radzinski didn't win a moto, bu t he used consistent finishes to score the 25-29-year-old Interm ediate class overall victory during round two of th e GFI Californ ia Winter Series a t Perris Raceway. T he Perr is motocross facility, as was all of sout hern California, was struck by numerous rainstorms during the days preceding the event , which left the trad itional course saturated. In an effort to accommoda te the riders, GFI race promotor Goat Breker designed an all-new track on higher grou nd in another region o f th e property. T he new track featured numerous hairp in and off-ca mber tu rn s combi ned with many hi g h-sp eed areas. Co nditions were dry throughout the day with C 16 average lap times just under th e th ree minute mark. . Near ly two inch es o f ra in fe ll Saturday night and nearly flooded the facility for Sunday 's Intermed ia te, Pro , Vet and O ldTimers cla sses. An emergen cy rid ers meeting was held and the 200 racers that assembled were offered the option of racing two motos or resched uli ng the event. T he ri ders decided unanimousl y to resch edule the event in hopes o f p reservi ng th eir $4000 machines for a better day lat er in th e series. Quad champ Gary Denton dashed into turn one fir st in the o pe ning 2529 Intermediate class m oto while Eddie Davis, J eff Scott and Radzins ki fun neled in beh ind. Wh en the pack j ust ahead of Wa llace. Dento n picked hi mse lf u p in sixth and set after the lea d riders . Rad zi n ski bui lt up a co m fo rtable lea d and was cruising while Lawrence and Lance charged rapidly towards the front. Lawren ce was first to ca tch Radzinski and almost crashed when he crossed lines with the leader. "I was sweeping th e outsid e o f a turn wh en Lawren ce cut under me, and I cl ip ped hi s front wh eel when we came out of the turn," Radzinski explained. Lawrence co nt in ued to keep the pressure on a nd too k th e lead a few turns later wh en Radzinski swa p ped exi ting a ro cky tu rn . Lawrence quickly opened a four-second advan tage while Lance swe p t arou nd Radzinski for second. On th e fin al lap, Lawren ce's chain broke and ca used him to DNF th e moto , which in tu rn gave th e mo to win to Lance. Radzinski finished seco nd which was good enough for the overall win sin ce Lance fin ished 18th in the first mo to and Denton fini sh ed fifth behind Wa lla ce a nd Fringer. Ken n y Madd ux led the start of the firs t 250cc Novice rno to follo wed by Lawrence Lewi s and Scott Mumford. Da vi d Sm it h an d Will i am Na sh charged hard and toge the r worked to second and th ird by the third lap as Lewis moved into th e lead . Maddux had dropped back to fou rth a n d Mumford dropped to 10th after cras h ing on the fro nt straig h t. " It 's the Perris pl ague, my front end was hed out and I was ea ting dirt," Mumford said. Lewis held the lead until th e fin al la p when 'he was passed by a very de termined Sm ith. When th e checkered n ag waved the wi n went to Sm ith , who was followed across the lin e b y Lewis, Nas h, Maddux and Ron Sharp. In m oto two, Maddux ·fired out of the starting gate for his second hol eshot o f the day whi le Mumford , Smith a nd Jamie Mitchell scram bled for second. Mu m ford emerged fro m .the woo ded area glued to th e back fender o f Maddux a nd began a dogfight for the lead . By the third lap Mumford had p us hed ahead o f Maddux to ta ke over th e lead w hile Smi t h a n d N a s h dro pped Maddu x back to fourth d uring th e next two laps. Du ring the remaining laps Mumford bega n to slo w while Nash and Smith moved in to challenge. " I ha ve the n u and I was getting ' weak and tired ," Mumford sa id. " I really didn 't want to cras h so I let them by. " Nash mo tored away to victory while

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