Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127537
BmnEW~w~~_~ _'~_:R_OO_~_6 _~_~ _ ~ the 125cc class by winning hi s third Eastern Regio nal feature in a row. The "Swinkster" took over the lead on the fourth of 15 laps after earl y leader Jimmy Button, of th e Downers Grove Yamaha Team , cras he d between jumps and broke the right side of his handlebars com p letely of f. From that point on, Swink, 19, of Fenton, Michigan, was mostly un ch all enged, consistently able .to clear a set of triple jumps o n the stadiu m's first base line while his pursuers would back off. Swink pocketed $2000, the winner's share of th e $10,000 125cc main event purse. Bu tto n 's teammate Doug Henry fin ished second with Suzuki-mounted Barry Carsten making his first podium appearance of the year in third. Three races into the lO-race Eastern Regio nal series, Swink lead s Henry in the point standings, 75ยท60, with Chad Pederso n , fou rt h tonight , third with 48 po ints. All six Camel Supercross rounds run this season have been attended by larger crowds than last year 's even ts, and th e 44 ,868 wh o ca me to the SupezSports-promoted event was just over 2500 more than the 1991 attendance figure. The event marked the last supercross to be held in Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. Next year , the event will be held in the new Georgia Dom e. e 250cc Damon Bradsha w (4) passed J ean-Mich el Bayle on lap six and stayed out front to record his fifth -straight supercross win. Bradshaw marches on in Atlanta By Henny Ray Abrams ATL\.NTA, GA. FEB .22 amaha 's Dam on Bradshaw con tinued h is ru n toward the record books when he won the 20-lap Coors Li ght Challenge o n a coo l and b reezy ni ght at Atl anta 's Fulton County Stadium before 44,868 hi ghlypartisan fan s. It was th e fifth Camel Su percross win in a ro w for the 19-year-old North Carolinian, moving him within one of tyin g the- record of six in a row, jointly held by Bob Hannah an d Rick J ohnson. T he win , Brad shaw's second in a ro w in Atlanta, was the 13th of hi s young career and moved him into a tie for fifth place on the all- time win list with H onda's Jeff Stanton and J ean -Michel Bayle. J ohnson tops that Y 6 list at 28 supercross victories wi th Hannah o ne behind. " Winning five in a row wasn't even on my mind when the nig ht started," Bradshaw said. "I'm thinking about giving 110%and being on the podium." Brad shaw shared the podiu m with defending champ j ean -Mi ch el Bayle of Team Honda, who fin ished second, a few seconds back after hav in g led early, and Kawasaki's Mik e La Rocco, who fin ished well behind Bayle in th ird. After six of 16 races, Bradshaw lead s . Bayle 143 to 119 with the nigh t's fifthp lace fin isher Stanton th ird at 11 4. Tonight's win may have been the hardest yet for Bradshaw fo r two reasons. One was that he got tang led up with Kawasa ki's J eff Ma tiasevich in his heat , fell and finis hed th ird. The second was tha t Bayle had used the offweek to sort ou t th e suspens io n and frame-flex p robl ems that have been tro ub lin g the H ondas this year. Bayle led th e main for five laps before Brad shaw easily passed him, th ough he was unable to pull o u t an appreciabl e lead. " Once I caug ht him, he acted like he (Bayle) didn' t want to be in front ," said Bradshaw, who collected $5000 of the 45,000 purse, 30,000 of wh ich is paid ou t in the 250cc ma in event. Team Suzuki's reigning 125cc Eastern Regional Supercross Champion Brian Swi nk kept his record perfect in H onda used th e two-w eek break since the last supercross to try to sort o ut the handling problem s they'd been hav ing. After stre n g the n i ng th e frames, the y th ought they might have cured some of the fram e flex trouble they'd experienced this year and it certain ly loo ked that way in the first of two eight-lap heats that sent the top four finishers directl y to the main. Stanton shot to the front with Bayle in close pursuit and Kawasaki teammates Jeff Ward and Mik e Kiedrowski just behind. Bayle pulled even with his teammat e aft er th e finish jump, but couldn't get a wh eel in front , though the leading pair were ab le to pull away from the Kawasaki riders. Further back, Yamaha 's Jeff Emig moved up from a bad start to challenge fifth placed Mike Jones on the sixth lap. Bayle made a last-lap charge, but was fouled by backmarkers in the run to the fla g and form er Supercross Champion Stanton flew across the finish line about two bike lengths in front of th e defending cha mp. Ward fin ished third despi te running off the track and filli ng his rear wh eel with the track-lin ing ba nners, with Kiedrowski fourth after a slo w cras h into some hay bales. Emig passed J ones on the final lap to take fifth , wh ich .was o nly good for the first pic k o n the line for a semi. . Mat iasevich blasted off the sta rt of the second heat ahead of La Rocco and Bradsha w, with Bradshaw taking over second befor e th e end of the fir st lap. The leading trio q uickly separated from the figh t for fourth waged am on g Ronnie T iche nor, Ca rl Vaillan court and J oshua Steel. By th e end o f th e seco n d lap, Matiasevich and Bradshaw had put some gr ound o n LaRocco and began a battle of their own . At the end of th e third lap, th e two came together with Bradshaw faltering and LaRocco and Tich en or speedi n g past. Not surprisingly, there were different views of the spill. " It was prett y clear," Mat iasevich said. " Damo n hit my rear tir e. He tried to sq uare me off a nd went too soo n." " When I went down I wasn 't so mad, " Bradshaw said. " He did it three o r four tim es, lookin g over his shou lder. H e mis calcul ated. H e