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/127546
P ri va teer Mik e Jones (38) chased Jeff Stanton (2) early in Saturday's ma in. Stanton fin ish ed second, th en th e next day had trouble in the first turn and finishe d seven th . Ezra Lusk (1l 7) and Swink (I ) lapped Steven H erman (87}'and J osh ua Steel as th ey ba ttl ed for the lead lat e in Sunday 's I25cc Eastern R egional main event. Guy Cooper (5) passed Larry Brooks (30) on his way to finishing third on Saturday. Brooks led early in the main and dropped back to fifth, his best-ever supercross finish . recovered in pl enty o f time to finis h ninth in fron t o f Matia sevich. J ones finis hed 11th . " After the halfwa y point th e shock faded an d th a t wor e me o ut," sa id J on es, the 26 -year -o ld Bentley' s Suzu k i -b a ck ed rider from Pennsylvania. In I25cc ac tion, Brian Swi n k pl ayed it safe in th e first six-la p heat and slowly wo rked h is way up from a n eigh th-place start to fin ish seco nd behi nd Mike Bro wn in the fir st heat. Jimmy Button led th e seco nd heat from start to fin ish wh ile J osh ua Stee l passed Todd Bennick on th e last la p to take seco nd . Sco tt Sheak passed J eff Dement lat e in. the last chance q ualifier to score th e WIn . 6 la p la ter and foun d himself abou t seven seco n ds behind the leader. Sta nton spe nt a cou ple o f laps reaching third as Bro oks and J ones fell off the pace. " I've never hol esh ot a ma in before," said 25-year -old Broo ks. " Whe n Bradshaw passed me I tried to stay wi th him and it tired me o u t." O nce Sta nton reached th ird , h e quickl y reeled Cooper in and passed him a t the halfway point. " W hen Sta nton cam e u p , I wa s fad in g. I was n 't go ing stro ng, " said Cooper. " H e caught me really fast a nd I th ought he wo uld catch Bradsh a w." But there was no way that was going to happen. Bradsh aw was about 15 secon ds a head a nd i ncreased that mar gin to th e fin ish . "Once I go t to seco nd , Bradsh a w was so far a hea d th ere wasn' t a hell of a lot I cou ld do," sai d Stanton. " At least I wasn 't on th e ground." Coo per pi cked u p hi s pace la te in th e race and had Stanton in sight un til he fell. " I had a chance to wat ch Stanton's lin es, a nd I fell in th e sa nd taki ng h is ins ide line," said Cooper. T hat fall let LaRocco, wh o steadi ly worked u p fro m a nin th- pl ace sta rt and passed Brooks for fou rt h at the h alfway point, cloe in. But Cooper sai d he was n ' t worried about La Rocco a nd stayed about o ne seco nd clea r of him to th e finish line. Bro ok s was havin g th e race o f his life as he came u nder pressure from McGrath, Ward a nd Bayle a t the end o f the ra ce. T he EI Caj on, Ca liforn ia, na tive di dn 't cra ck, however and stayed in fifth for his best-ever su pe rcross fin ish . " I d id n ' t wo rry a bo u t th e g uys beh ind me, I just thought about riding smooth, " said Broo ks. Ward a nd Ba yle, who cha rged back fro m a noth er cras h , go t by McG ra th on lap 19 wi th Ward hol ding off Bayle to finish sixth. Kiedro wski also moved in to pr essu re McG ra th on th e las t lap, but he fell in th e horsesh oe at th e to p of the sectio n th at ran into the sta nds a nd McGrath 'was a n uncontest ed . eigh th at th e finish li ne. Kiedrow ski At the start of the IS-lap mai n , Texan Grayson Goodman grabbe d the h o l es h ot bu t Brown an d Sw i nk dropped him to third by la p th ree. Brown had gotten by Goodma n firs t, and opened up a two-second lead o n Swink . Bu t Swink slow ly closed the gap, a nd at th e beginning o f lap six he sho t u nder Brown a nd then kept him a sh ort distance behi nd to score th e win. " I wa s p laying i t smart, I just watched Brown and fo~nd a good spot to ma ke a clea n pass ," said Swi n k. " I pu lled a safe d istance, so if I made a mi stak e it would be no p ro blem , but I didn ' t p ush too hard. " As Swink led Brown to th e finish line, Bu tto n made his way to th ird but co uld n' t advance a ny further. " If yo u want to bea t Swin k, yo u have to start out eq ual with h im ," Bu tton said. "They got ou t to a lead a nd I got stu ck behind some riders at firs t." Butto n 's DG Y teammate Dou g H enry was on his tai l a t the fini sh, while Suzuki -support riders Goodman a nd Demen t battled for fifth to th e finis h with Goodman getting th e position. Sunday Brads haw grabbed (he hol esh ot in Su nda y's first hea t and had Ward and Bayle clos e behind him for the en tire eigh t laps. Nobody cou ld mak e a move, ho wever, and Bradshaw cros sed th e finis h lin e two seconds ahead of Ward wi th Ba yl e cl o se behind in third. Kied rowsk i h eld fourth th e entire distance and crossed the finish line several seconds behind Bayle. H eat two featured an o ther th reerid er battle a nd th is time it was Cooper wh o led th e way. McGrath challe nged him all the way to th e end, but Cooper held th e you ngster off to win. Stanton fini sh ed cl ose behind McGrath in third, while Dubach was a dist ant fourth at th e fini sh. T he first sem i saw Em ig get th e hol esh ot a nd b ui ld up a few seconds on Stephens on , wh o had cras hed ha rd in th e first heat. Brooks trailed in third whi le the mai n ba ttle was over fourth . J a mes Eickel, fro m Grove City, Ohio, held th e posi tio n until Lewis passed him la te in th e race, th en on the last la p Eickel bob bled in th e whoops. T ha t h e ld u p Joh nson, allow ing Fis her and Ray Sommo past. At the checkered flag it was Emig with th e win over Step he nson, Brook s, Lewi s a nd Fisher. In th e second sem i, Crai g p ut ' the p ressure on lead er Matiasevich a nd th e two rid ers p ull ed aw ay from th e pa ck. Gl ass held third u ntil LaRocco forced his way past near the halfway point o f th e six -lap race, then T iche nor passed h im as well lat er in th e race. Ma tiasevich kept Craig behind him to score th e win, and LaRocco fini sh ed a d istant thi rd wi th T ichenor o n his tail a t the finish line. G lass he ld o ff a last-lap challenge fro m DeH oop and J o nes to finish fifth. Eickel, J on es and So mmo were left o n the ground a t the sta rt of the last chance quali fier as Mu sselman too k th e lead. J oh nson ca ught u p to him o n the th ird lap , made the pass and p u lled away to the win . Mu sselman fin ish ed second just ahead of a cha rging DeHoop. Kiedrow ski took a cha nce a t the start ofthe ma in and it paid off as he exited t h e fi rs t corn er seco nd beh in d Tiche no r. " I could 've either lined up on th e in side a nd come ou t safer, or go ne for the middle and th e win, " sai d Kiedro wski, who chose th e m iddle. The middle didn' t work for Coo pe r as he went down after cl ipping the rear wh eel o f Brad sh aw, wh o trailed Keid ro wski a nd Tich en or o u t of turn one. Step henso n a lso went down, while Stanton got hung up and started near last. Bayle a lso started poorly.