Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

is seeking his first win of the seaso n. " I tried as hard as I could." Brad shaw now enjoys a 13-point lead in the series o ver Stanton, 93-80. The Seattl e win wa s th e II th of Bradshaw 's career. T h ird overall was defending Camel Supe rcro ss Champion J ean -Michel Bayle. The Frenchman started the feature in II th place and spent the en ti re race working his way up through the pack. By the time he had worked his way to third on the 14th lap, both Bradshaw and Stanton were too far ahead to catch. Bayle took the ch eckered flag approximately 16 seconds behind Stanton. " It was very hard to pass on this track ," said Bayle. "I tried my best and I'm happy with third." Bayle is also third in points with 77, just three points behind his Honda teammate, Stanton. . Suzuki's Guy Cooper, who at one tim e ran as high as third, ended up fourth after getting passed by BayIe on the 14th lap. "I got a decent start, but it was just too hard to pass out there - too onelined," said Cooper. "Every time I tried to pass, I would get passed." Rounding out the top five was Yamaha's Jeff Emig, who he ld second place for the first three laps of the race before dropping back. "I just didn't · ride hard enough," admitted Emig. "I came off the track and I wasn't out of brea th or any thing. I didn 't put in a full charge." In the West Coast 125cc feature, Team Peak Anti-freeze/Pro-Circui tl Honda rider Jeremy McGrath also ·turn ed in a stellar performance, leading the race wire-to-wire. It was McGrath 's second West Coast Series win of the year. For scoring the 125cc main victory, McGrath coll ected $2000 from the $10,000 125cc purse. " I was fortunate to get a good start," said McGrath. " T hat made the big difference on this track ." McGrath 's teammate Buddy Antunez held down second throughout the 15-lap feature, but just couldn't match McGra th's pace . He finished approximately seven seconds behind his teammate.' "I tried so hard to beat him (McGrath) that I ended up beating myself ," said Antunez. No leen -Yamaha rider Kyle Lewis, and Suzuki support riders Phil Lawren ce and Damon Huffman rounded out the top five. _By scoring his third overall victory of the season, Damon Bradshaw extended his series points lead to 13 over Jeff Stanton. Bradshaw runsaway atSeattle By Kit Palmer . Photos by Brian Barnes and Kinney Jones "T 6 SEATTLE, WA, FEB. I his is probably the best time of my career. I'm racing every race like I'm coming from behind and that's the way it's going to continue until this thing is over, " said Team Yamaha's Damon Bradshaw after the 19-year-old rider from Mooresville, North Carolina, scored ' his third straight Coors Super Challenge main event win of the year. This win came in front of a record crowd of 44,716 spectators at th e SeattleKingdome. Last year's even t drew 40,231. In similar fashion to hi s two previous wins of the young season at Anaheim and Houston, Bradshaw's victory at Seattle was an other runaway, earning him $5000 of th e $30,000 250cc main event purse ($5000 is paid out in the last chance qualifier ). Bradshaw powered his Brian Lunniss-runed Yamaha YZ250 off the starting gat e and into the lead . He didn' t waste any time in developing a si x-se co n d cushion by the third lap over two-time Came l Supercross Champ ion J eff Stanton and the rest of the 20-rider pa ck. Bradshaw more or less maintained that margin and was never seriously challenged throughout the 20-lap feature, which took 18 minutes, 30.12 seco nds to complete. Near the halfw ay point, Stanton got within four seconds of Bradshaw as they worked th eir way through lapped traffi c, but th at margin lasted for only a single lap. " I tried and tried my hardest to reel him (Bradshaw) in, but he was just as smooth and consistent as I was," said Stanton , the former series cham p who 250cc Noleen-Kawasaki rider Shaun Kalos grabbed the early lead in the first of two 250cc eigh t-lap heat ra ces, in whi ch the first four riders transferred to the main. Kalos held on to the front spot for on e lap before getting passed by Stanton. He then found himself stuck between leader Stanton and third-place Bayle, while Cooper trailed close behind in fourth. For the next four laps, Stanton, Kalos and Bayle fought closely . The defending champ finally got around Kalos when . the Kawasaki rider lost control over a jump exiting a turn. Kalos bai led off the back of the bike, as Bayle and Cooper shot by. Kalos managed to remount in fourth just ahead of 125cc National MX Champion Mike Kiedrowski. While Stanton, Bayle and Cooper cruised up front, Kalos and Kiedrowski diced for the last transfer position of the heat. Kalos came out on top of that dispute, making the final finishing order Stanton, Bayle, Cooper, Kalos and Kiedrowski. Finishing sixth was 250cc MX World Champion Trampas Parker. The second heat race saw Suzuki's

• Cover