Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

sto pped and I had nowhere to go . H e shou ld have been co ncen tra tin g on go ing forward." . Afte r r em ountin g , Br ad shaw q u ickly passed T iche nor bu t. traffic slowed his charge and he had to settle for third at th e finish behind win ner Ma tias evich and runner-up Lakocco , who was having trouble ada p ting to the deteriora ting track. " I ro de p re tty sloppy a nd conservative," LaRocco said. "Between practice and th e heat th e track changes a lot. Damon and 'Chicken ' got going a t th e start a nd th ere was nowh ere for me to do a ny th ing." Tich enor was well a lo ne in fourth wi th Vaillancourt finishing fifth . Yam aha's Emig, wh o 'd just mi ssed ou t on a direct transfer from his heat , made su re it d idn't happen in th e semi . U nc halle nged from th e drop of th e ga te, he beat Suzuki's Larry Ward acr oss th e finish lin e by more than 10 seconds. KTM 's Keith J ohnson was third, Yam aha SUpp OTt. rider Kip Sandell fourth, and Su zuki-mounted • Mik e Jones got th e last transfer to th e main with a last-lap pass. " T h e tra ck ' s s tarti ng to break down," Emig said before ad ding th at he'd share any new lines he'd learned wi th team mate Bradsh aw . " H o pefu ll y it wi ll heIp o u t in the main even t." On th e L ine Racing's Eri k Keh oe go t the jump in th e second semi, bu t b y the end o f the first la p Suzuki 's G uy Cooper was out front an d never would be headed to the che ckered flag. Keh oe was a n unch all en ged seco nd with Ya maha's Dou g Du bach up from a bad sta rt to ta ke th ird on th e fin al lap. Rad & Bad 's Fred Andrews fell to fourth, j ust in front of Va illancourt. T he to p two fin ishers fro m the last chance qualifier wo u ld get th e final spots in the ma in a nd ' by th e end o f the second lap it was apparen t who th ey would go to. Tuf Ra cing 's T odd DeHoop led th e first-la p, but tea m mate Kurt McMillen flew past over a long set of jumps go ing up the th ird base line a nd th e order d id n' t change to the finish. Ra y Sommo hung on to th ird, befor e dropping back and cedi ng th e spot to J a mes Eickel. Though th ere are plenty o f races left , everyo ne kn ew that they cou ldn 't let Bradsh aw get too fa r in fro nt, espe cia ll y Stanton . " If I have to ride o ver m y head a little bit to keep pace, I gues s I' ll have to do that," Sta nton sa id before the start of the main . " Da mon 's go t a points lead and I wa nt to cu t into it." Mu ch to the dismay of the disapproving cro wd, Ba yle go t th e holesh o t wh en th e ga te dr opped for th e ma in wit h Bradsha w a close seco nd, Ma tiasevich thi rd, J eff Ward fourth a nd LaRocco fifth . T he field sta rted to string out ear ly with riders ch ecking out eac h o thers' lines and trying to make their way through the ruts. T he clay was wearing away a nd by th e end o f the race there was plywood, wh ich is used to p rotect th e stadium floo r, visib le after so me of the ju m ps. Bradshaw made hi s m ove o n th e sixth lap by taki ng a n ins ide line in a left-hander two tu rns before the finish jump. Bay le, ho wever, was n 't fini sh ed and hung clos e. " I knew he would try to stay behind me a nd look a t my lin es," Bradshaw sa id. " I think he may have bee n tryin g ' to run a way until I caught him." ~ They were soon into lapped traff ic which Bradsh aw sa id he h and led "pretty good," th ough Bayle stuc k with him as they pulled away. Mat iasevich was leading th e fight for third with J eff Ward, LaRocco and Kiedrowski just behind him, while Stanton was off th e pace. Chad Pederson (53) led the start of the I25cc main, but Brian Swink (1) eventually made his way to the front to score the win . Bothered by a' sore sho u lder, J eff Ward slowed on th e eig h th la p a nd eventually dr opped out o f the race. At th e halfwa y point, th e order of the top six was set, though Bayle was n 't givi ng up and Mat iasevich was slid ing to th e tail end of that or der. The French m an made a late charge a nd closed th e gap to a bo u t two seco nds, but got no fu rt her. In th e end, the win went to Bradshaw. " I feel good abo u t win n in g aga in in Atla nta," Bradsh a w sai d. "The tra ck was slick, b ut not real fast and I was able to stay on two wheels. I feel really good consideri ng wha t we had to dea l wi th ." One of the biggest obstacles was a set of triple jumps .going down wh at is the fir st bas e line wh en th e Atla nta Braves pl ay baseball in th e stadi um . " We were go ing so fast when we hit it , it was somewhat of a wall ," said Brad shaw. " It took a lo t of energy eac h time." Asked abo ut m at ching the record of six wins in a row, Bradsha w said, "T ha t's a nother week. " LaRocco said he'd tried to catch run ne r-up Bayle, b u t " made a few m istakes." La Rocco adde d , " Rather th an fall down an d lose points, I backed off. Wh en you're rid ing harder, it 's easy to make" mi stakes. T he trac k was p re tty ru tted a nd I didn' t wa nt to do th at. " " I go t off about sixth or seventh," said fou rt h -place finisher Kiedrowski. "I was fai rly smooth and th en I made a few mi sta kes and los t La Rocco. Sta nton was abo ut four seco nd s back. Through the wh oops, I was slower than I should 've been. " Sta nton was o fferi ng no exc uses. H e said he just ro de poorly and said it was his fault and not the machine's. ''I' m no t going to blame anything o n th e bike. I just di dn 't ride good," he said after finis h ing fifth. Six th went to Ma tiasevich , who was preven ted ' fro m challe nging furt he r when hi s arms pum ped u p. " I go t o ff to a good start a nd then my arms p umped u p ," he said. " All year long I' ve been ha ving p robl ems. It gets to a point wh ere it's h ard to hang o n. Wh en yo u r a rms p u mp u p, your race is pretty much over." , Following his heat, Ma tiasevich had sa i d, " I' ve b een workin g o n m y sta m i n a a n d I th ink it 's co m in g arou nd." Seventh went to Larry Ward, wh o said , "I rode the best I could under th e circu ms tances." Emig finished eigh th, T iche n or was ninth, a nd Dubach ro u nded o u t the Bayle (I) holeshot the start of the 250cc main event and was passed only by Bradshaw. Mike LaRocco (7) passed teammate Jeff Matiasevich (9) on his way to a third-place finish. Matiasevich faded back to sixth at the finish after his arms pumped up. to p 10. Coo per, who fell while runnin g . in th e top lO on th e seco nd lap , resta rted well back befor e recovering to a n II th- place finish . 125cc O n ly two of th e riders in th e fir st 125cc heat co nsisten tly cleared th e triple jump, and it was no surprise th ey were th e first two across th e line at th e end of th e six-lap race. Brian Swin k was th e winner by abo u t 25 yards over Chad Pederson. Early challenger Barry Ca rsten , who coul dn 't clea r th e triples, fell back to third. Peak Antifreeze/Pro Circu it Honda rider Jeromy Buehl was a first-hea t cas ualty wh en he crashed and broke hi s wrist. Buehl is expected to be sideline d for a t least six weeks. T he second h eat beg an w i t h a flo u ris h by lo cal favorite Ezra Lusk, who led th e pack a nd cleared th e tri p les. Bu t th e T eam Su zuki rider just 7

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