Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

McG ra th to get by and he finished th ird beh ind runner-up Kiedrowski. Mat iasevich fini sh ed fourth wi th local favorite Ron T ichenor close behind. Two six-lap semis transferred the top five finishers to the main, and in the first one J eff Ward and Kawasaki Team Green's Michael Craig passed KTM 's Keith Johnson on th e first lap ' to assum e th e top two posi tions. " Suzuki-su pported Larry Ward crashed in the first tum and joined the race last. Craig hounded lead er J eff Ward until he found a way into th e lead on lap five. Craig stayed out front to take the win with Jeff Ward second. Johnson. remained in third until he fell near the en d of the race , moving Canadian Carl Vaillancourt a nd Team Green 's Gene Naumec to the ir respective th ird an d fo urth -pl ace finis hi ng posi tions. Most of the ac tio n cent ered around Larry War d, who charged back fro m hi s firs t-turn mis ha p to grab the fifth 'a nd fina l transfer posi tion. ''1" ha te riding th e la st chance qualifier," said Larry Ward. " It 's too nerve-wracking.', Yamaha 's Doug Dubach, who went do wn o n the first lap of heat two while running th ird, grabbed the ho leshot at the start of the second semi and left the pack beh ind. Noleen-backed Larry Brooks held second and within two laps had Tuf Ra cing's Tichenor and Kawasaki's Mik e La Rocco, who also went down in hea t two, on hi s ta il. On lap four T ichen or got by Brooks for second, bu t that's as far as he'd advance as Dubach too k the wi n by a few seconds two laps la ter. La Rocco stuffed Brooks just over a lap befor e the end and fin ished th ird, Brooks hu ng on to fourt h while KTM 's Mik e Fisher com pleted the top five. Floridian Ryan Dean led th e ' sta rt of th e six -lap last cha nce qualifier but Oklah oman Cliff Palmer charged from a fourth-place start to take the point on the first lap. On ly the top two riders transferred to th e ma in and for half th e race Dean rode o n the bubble with Surf Det ergent -b acked J eff Glas s looking to get by. Glass found an open ing on lap th ree, but he couldn't move in on Palmer and settled for second an d a spot in th e main. Dag Boyesen also passed Dean to fin ish Brian Swink (I) go t the jump in the first l25cc start but the race was red-nagged du e to a pileup involving Doug Henry (l 9), Mike Brown (54) and two other riders. No one was seriously injured and both Bro wn an d Henry made the restart. th ird and earned $900 of the $5000 spread among those wh o failed to make it to the main. . As the pa ck roared down the length of the Tampa Bay Buccan eers' foo tba ll field and fu nneled into a gO-degree left hand first turn to start th e main, Bradshaw went wide and Matiasevich crested the stepped jump im mediately following the tu rn with the lead . Tich enor, from nearby Palm H arbor , raised a roar out of the hometown crowd wh en he pass ed Kiedr owski for second o n the first lap . Ti chen or go t an even b igge r response from th e crowd when he too k th e lead o n lap two with Coope r ma king his way by Matiasevich as well. McG rath was running fourth followed by Bradshaw , Stanto n, Kiedrowski, Bayle and Larry Ward. L ead in g th e race proved to be Tich enor's undo ing as Cooper passed him after a lap. " O n the fir st lap I had someone to chase, but when I got in th e lead I thought about the peo ple beh ind me and mad e mistakes," sai d Tichenor. Tichenor chased Cooper for a couple of laps but soon found himself under a ttack from St an ton. Cooper wa s hoping that T ichenor could ho ld him off. " I.was hop ing T ichenor could hang on to second and I could get some tim e," sai d Cooper. He didn 't get much as Stanton Jean-Michel Bayle (l) passed Jeff Stanton (2) for the lead on lap 14 and then pulled awa y to h is secon d supercross victory of the season. Stanton fin ished second. Guy Cooper (5), Sta nton (2) and Damon Bradshaw (4) battled for the lead earl y in the main. Cooper and Bradshaw later fought for third with Cooper prevailing. Swink receives warning from AMA am pa 125cc Eastern Regional main event winner Brian Swink (righ t) was issued a written warning by AMA Referee Manny Haynes for his involvement in a start-straight pileup at the start of the main. Swink had approximately one-half bike length on the field in the charge to the first tu rn when he apparently moved right to set up for the 90degree , left-hand first tum. Doug H en ry clipped his rear tire and crashed, taking severa l riders with him. "We reviewed the sta rt on video "and there was a clear indication that a sit uation occurred that led to a chain reaction of endangerment to fellow riders," said H aynes. " I had a conversa tion wi th Swi nk o n that particular in cident and he was given a written no tice of th e same." Swink ackno wledged he'd been warned. " I go t the jump and drifted a little bit to th e ri ght to set up for the corn er." said a somber Swink. " I felt someone hit the back wh eel," he added, pointing to a tir e mark on the back portion of hi s number plate. " Swin k came from the inside and moved to the middle, " said Henry . " He had a half bike length on me but didn't have enough room to co me over." Henry suffered a cut near his left eye, but made the restart and finished 15th despite blurred vision arid one slow fall : Haynes also had a Conversatio n with Henry on the starting line before the main regarding a heat-race in cident in whi ch Henry got out of control and slammed into Swink. Jimmy Button, Henry's DGY Racing teammate said, "It looked like Swin k moved over on everybody, he went right first ." "Swink got out first and cut over , but I don't think he tried to intentionall y take anyone out," said Mike Brown, another rider collected in the crash. T / ~l moved to second on lap six and left Tichenor to deal with Bradshaw and Bayle. Kiedro wski held sixth but was losing sig ht of the champ and had McGrath on his tail , whi le Matiasevich fell and dro pped back to an eventual lSth-place finish. Within two laps of taking second, Stanton had moved in to challenge Cooper for the lead. He took it near the halfway point, and by tha t time Bradshaw and Ba yle had dropped Tichenor back a n d moved in o n Cooper, setti ng up a four-way du el for first. T hey all ran nose to tail, altho ugh a t one point Bayle dropped back slightly. " I was waiting a little bit for a 7

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