Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

,,. e ~ c-r O"l O"l ~ e-r >- l-< C\l ;:j l-< ..0 CU ~ Co:oper Guy ~5) l~ds Jeff Emig (8) and J ean-Michel Bayle through a section of whoops. . As IS evident m this photo, many riders complained the track was too one-lined. Brian Swink - th e leader of the East Coast 125cc Supercross Series - lead from start to finish , but a war for the remaining three transfer p ositions am on g Yamaha's J eff Emig, 125cc MX World Champion Stefan Everts , local favorite and 1990 Seattle Su percross winner Larry Ward, H onda -moun ted Mick y Dymond , Ka wa saki 's Mike LaRocco and Brad shaw kept the crowd highly ent er tained. When it was all over, the Belgian Everts led the six-rider freight train across the line in second, inches ahead of Larry Ward. Only a few feet behind Ward was Emig, wh o held off LaRocco a n d Bradshaw. Sev enth went to Dymond, while slow-starting favorites J eff Matiasevich and J eff Ward were l O and 14th, respectively. th The first of two six-lap semis - that wou ld transfer the top five riders from each to th e main event - was a somewhat uneventful race , as Enzo Racing's Gene Naumec powered his Kaw a saki into th e lead ahead of Yamaha's Doug Dubach, On The Line Racing's Erik Kehoe , Rad & Bad 's Fred Andrews and Kiedrowski. Naumec quickly established a cornforta ble lead , which he managed to maintain throughout the race. There was very little passing in th e race, most of it ' provided by Kiedrowski and Par ker. Kiedrowski eventually moved into fourth , whi le Parker climbed one position to fifth. At the finish it was Naumec, Dubach , Kehoe, Kiedrowski and Parker. Jeff Ward grabbed the holeshot in the second semi but was passed two laps la ter by Bradshaw up the stairstep jump. Once into the lead, Brad- sha w set the pace wh ile Ward and Mat iasevich settled in beh ind th e new lead er. Behind Mati asevich , a th reeway dogfi ght between Dymond, T u f Racing 's Ron Tichen or and LaRocco ensued. Wh en i t was all over, La Rocco had moved into fifth, but he cou ldn ' t _fin d a lin e around Dymo nd, maki ng the top five finisher s Bradshaw, Ward, Matiasevich, Dymon d and LaRocco. Finishing o ne spot ou t of the transfer was T ichenor. Suzu ki -mounted Ti ch en o r, however, came back in the LCQ and scor ed an easy start-to-finis h win over Honda ri der J ero my Buehl, who took the final tra nsfer spot of the nigh t. Third was Suzuki-mounted Ray Sommo. "There' re too many Europeans here , I wish th ey would go hom e," joked Som mo. Wh en the ga te dro pped for the start of th e feature, Bradshaw shot o ut of the gate and headed the pack around the first corner. He was closel y pursued by Emig, Stanton and Cooper. By the end of the first lap, Bradshaw had alread y manufactured a threesecond lead over Emi g, who was bus ily trying to hold back a charging Sta n to n. It took Stanton, wh o ha d a lread y disposed of Cooper to tak e over third, another three laps to get around Emig. By the time Stanton moved into second, Bradshaw was already five secon ds ahead of the form er champ . Bradshaw would soon increase that margin to six seconds. For the remaining 15 laps. the ga p between Bradshaw and Stanton stayed between fou r and six seconds, bu t most of the time it was around six. Bradshaw eventually lapped nearly Emig gets a front-wheel on the pack at the start of the 250cc feature. ~ odd chamR Evertsgetting his feetwet ne of the many new faces in this year 's Camel Supercr?ss Series is 1991 125cc.MX World Champio n Stefan Everts of Belgium. Everts , th e son of form er 125 and 250cc World Champion H arry Everts: said he's basically here to tune up for the ope ning ro und of the World Championsh ip 250cc MX Series which tak es place in Holland, April 4. In the first four Camel Supercross Series rounds, J9-year-oldEverts has qual ified for three main even ts, at Houston, Anaheim and Seattle. His best fini sh es were n inth at both Houston and Anaheim. . " Racing sup«:rcross in the United States is quite different than m Europe , that's for sure," said Everts wh ile unwinding in a rented motorhome t foll ow ing the 250cc feature at Seattle. " I expec ted . th e tracks to be much better than in Europe. They are bigger, but what I've ridden here so far, they ju st aren't technical enough and too one-lined. I don't think th ey (the tracks) are so good. I'm disappointed because I expected nice tracks and good passing." Everts h~s no inte n tions of going for a Camel Supercross Championship. At least not this year. " I' m here to prepare myself for the GPs, " said Everts . " I wanted to come here condi~ion, get s~ronger and build co nfidence. The competition here is very hard: The first race (in Orlando) I was very tired, but I've been getting better every week. My results aren't so good, but that's not so important for me right now." Everts' long-term plans are pending. "It de~nds o n the 250cc G Ps," said Everts. " I want that title. If I get it this year , I might be back next year to compete in the entire Camel Supercross Series. It also depends on what kind of backing I get, Right now I have a two -year contract to ride Suzukis." .His short terms plans include going bac k. to Euro pe after the February 8 San Diego Supercross to test his Team Bieffe Suzuki GP bikes. Then he'll return for the Daytona and Charlotte Supercrosses in March. . ".The bikes I'm riding now are straight from Japan, but American Suzuki is glvtng me a lot of help, too . I didn't expect that. They've been very good to me." ~verts is travelling with his mother Francine, mechanic H arry Nolte and trainer Willy Lendon. O 7

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