Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

~ M OTOCROSS GFI California Winter MX Series South: Finalround e Eddie Davis (17 ) battl ed wi th Chris Lance (20) a nd Larry Lawrence (5). Dean Van Riper (48), Charles Gonzales (141) and Jason Wood (205) argued for position. Chamberlain charges to Perris victory By Tony Alessi "I 20 PERRIS, CA, FEB. 2 feel pretty exci ted," said Mik e Chamberlain after he won th e 250cc P ro class at the final round of th e GFI California Winter MX Seri es Sou th at Perri s Ra cewa y. And Chamberl ain had p lenty to be exci ted about. His overall victory gav e him the 250cc Pro class series champi onship for the second year in a row . H e als o earned $3000 from Yamaha 's co ntingency program in addition to GFI p urse mon ey. " I' m happy that things work ed out the way jhev did," said JT I Pro Circu it backed Chamberlain. "The GFI seri es is im por ta nt to me, and winning it two years in a row was my goal. " Chamberl ain will have the opportunity to face the 250cc Pro cham pion from the northern portion of the GFI Winter Seri es when the two regions face orr for the North-South Showdown at Perris o n February 16. A strong contingent of riders were staged for the opening 250cc Pro rno to , including former champions from three co un tries such as Canadian Carl Vaillancourt , Japan 's Masaki Kudo and Australian Craig Dack, When the gate drop ped it was Dack who dashed to the first tum with the holeshot. Chamberlain moved into th e runner-up slot followed by Terr y Fowler, Vaillancourt and Mark Easley. They quickl y form ed a fi ve-m a n freight train and left the rest of the pack far behind. Chamberl ai n kept th e pressure on Dack and a ppeared to be in position to make a mov e. " I have raced aga inst h im in (Australian ) arenacross races, bu t th is is the first tim e I ha ve seen him o n a n o u tdoor tra ck," Ch am berlai n said. " In Australia, most of the tracks are indoors and I'm not entirel y co mfo rtable in an ou tdoor evvi ro n rnen t, ' Dack said. Dack seemed to ada p t well a nd pulled away late in the race to score th e mo to victory. Chamberlain suffered arm pump la te in the m oto and surrendered second to Fow ler at th e finish . Vaillancourt and Easley arg ued for fourth wi th Vaillancou rt securi ng the position at the checkered flag . Easley launched orr the ga te first in the second rnoto but became crossrutted in the second turn which allowed Chamberlain to squirt into the lead. Fowler , pack and J oe Waddington also passed Easley when he highsided in a fast section in the back of the tra ck. At the halfway po int of the moto Waddington had passed bo th Dack a nd Fowler a nd moved into second but was quite a distance beh ind Cham berlai n. Dack moved by Fowl er for third in the clo sing mo men ts of the race a nd took the checkered flag behind Waddin gton. a nd winner Ch am berl ain. The 125cc Pro race saw the return of Ka wasaki ' s Ryan Hughes, who spent much of last seaso n recovering from a wrist injury. Hughes a ppeared to be back in top form as he led the ope ning laps of mo to o ne with little opposi tio n. Craig Canoy and T eam Pea k An tifreeze rider Mike Brown battled intensel y for second with Bro wn eve n t u a lly pulling ah ead. Bro wn s pe nt th e rem aining laps reeling in the leader Hughes and at one point made an insid e pa ss to assu me th e lead. Brown on ly led for two feet before Hughes cut under him to reta ke first, th en stayed ahead to win th e moto followed by Brown a n d Ca noy. Brown, Eric Hilton and Scott Bristol raced three abreast down the front stra igh t at the start of the second moto. Brown didn't slow down for a large j ump an d flew over the top of Hilton a nd Bri stol and landed in the lead. Brown instantly pulled away from the field while Hughes was charging up from a midpack sta rt. Thousand Oaks Yama ha -sponsored Hilton made short wo rk of Bri stol and took co n trol of second. A lap later Hughes dropped Bristol back to fou rth and set after second-p lace Hilton. Hughes caught H ilton and the two battled for two laps before Hughes pulled a hea d, but Brown was long go ne in first. Brown ma in tained his lead for the moto and overa ll victory while Hughes fini shed seco nd in front of Hilton, Fowler and Cano y. Craig Decker scored a pair of champi onsh ips in the 125 and 250cc Intermedi ate classes, winning three of the four motos en tered en route to th e overa ll wins. Decker 's on ly challen ge of th e da y came during the first 250cc Intermediate moto when he started poorly. Kenny Allen grabbed the holeshot but Chris Lance moved into the point position by th e start of the second lap. Lance was quick to open a marginal lead and controlled the first half of the race. Bill Sauro and Larry Lawrence argued for second, but Decker sett led it by passing them both. Once into second, Decker chipped away at Lance's lead and caught him with two laps left. Decker tried a var iety of different lin es in a n effort to overtake Lance, but Lance foug ht orr Decker to win the rnoto. Sauro finished third Iollowed by L awre nce and R evell e Harrison. In th e second rnot o, Kawasak i Team Green /Pro Cir cu it / AXO/Maximal R e n t h a l / Sco tt / VP I CT ii D u n l o p backed Decker was set on victo ry in the second mot o and powered to a startto-finish romp of the class . While Decker opened a nearly 20-second lead, clo se racing was taking place between Lawren ce, Sauro and Lance for the runner-up position. The three riders rode practically single file in that order, and foll ow ed each other the whole race and finished as they sta rted. In the l2 5cc Inter med ia te class, Decker led each a nd every lap of bot h rnotos. Erik Anderson, Stephen Mitch ell and Ra nd y Da n ylo provided some exciting racing durin g the second moto with Mitchell finis hing as the runner-up. Bu t Anderson used consistency to finish second overall beh in d Decker and Mitchell rounded the top three overall finishers. Mission Yam aha /First Am ericasupported Lance topped the 25-29year-old Intermediate class over Eddie Davis and Lawren ce and earned enough points to propel himself to the series championship since Chris Radzinski, wh o led enteri n g th e final round had an orr-day with an eighthplace finish . Radzinski finished second overall in the se r ies and blamed su spen sion problem s for h is poor performan ce. " I didn' t even have to race today," said newly-crowned l25cc Beginner class ch ampion David Hughes. " I had enough points from all my wins that I co uld have sa t this o ne out, but all I co uld th ink of was th e chance at another $1000. Yoko/North County Yamahal Motul/Scou-sponsored Hughes dominated both mOlOS en route to the overall victory and earned $500 in Yamaha co n ti n ge n cy , which was do ubled to $1000 by virtue of North Co unty Yamaha 's double YZ Bucks program. Dea n Van Riper was the overall runner-up for the day followed by Gary Shoemaker, Charles Go nzalez and Brad Peters. Cl' Results 50 FIllST TtMEll. 0.1: I. Ryan Purd ue (Yam); 2. Ryan Millen (Yam); 3. Ricky Ol iver (Yam ); •. Matthew Clar k (Yam ); 5. james Baker (Yam ). 50 nRST TtMEll. 0.1 ; I. Garren Bulley (Yam); 2. Efren Cha vez (SUl); 3. Chad Key. (Yam); • . Jcny Sid (Yam); 5. Ri ck Perea {Ya m~

• Cover