Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Defending champ Jeff Stanton (1) was far off the pace. After finishing second in his heat race, Stanton ended up a distant fifth in the feature and was nearly lapped by LaRocco. room to spare, and earned $2000 from the $5000 125cc class purse. Filling the last spot on the rostrum was third-place finisher Chad Pederson, on a DGY Racing-backed Yamaha. 250 Heats The racing format for the 1993 Camel Supercross Series is the same as before; two eight-lap heat races, with the top four transferring directly to the 20-lap feature; two six-lap semjs, transferring the top five to the feature, and one sixlap last chance qualifier, with the top two finishers filling out the last two positions on the 2D-rider starting grid. The first 250cc heat race kicked off the new season, and it was Bradshaw on his Brian Lunniss-tuned Yamaha YZ250 pulling off the holeshot just inches ahead of Team Noleen Yamaha's Larry Brooks. LaRocco and Team Honda's Steve Lamson quickly moved into second and third, respectively, relegating Brooks to fourth. Brooks would eventually finjsh sixth. Up front, Bradshaw, LaRocco and Lamson stayed in close proximity of each other, as the trio pulled away from the rest of the pack. Bradshaw matched laRocco's every attempt to pass, turn after turn, while Lamson kept a close eye on the duel in third. At times, Bradshaw and LaRocco charged through the whoops side by side, but Bradshaw always managed to stay ahead, that is until the second-to-Iast lap. Bradshaw swapped in the whoops and ran off the track, giving both laRocco and Lamson a clear line around the Yamaha rider. Bradshaw re-entered the race in third, still a safe distance ahead of fourth-place Swink. LaRocco scored the win. ahead of Lamson; Bradshaw and Swink. Finishing one position out of the transfers was 125cc National MX Champion Jeff Emig. "1 don't know why I do so well here," laRocco said. "I guess I like the dirt and knowing I won here last year helps a little, too. 1 wasn't really working that hard out there and I feel really good." The second heat race wasn't nearly as exciting as the first, as new Honda team member McGrath, competing in rus first full seaS9n in the 250cc class, led teammate Stanton around the track for all eight laps. McGrath, on his Skip Norfolk-tuned Honda CR250, never really pulled away from Stanton but Stanton never made any serious attempts to pass. The two Honda riders set the pace, wrule Kiedrowski seemed content to watch a few b;ke lengths back in third. Following the first three finishers across the line a few seconds back in fourth was Team Noleen Yamaha's Shaun Kalos. ''I'm usually really nervous at the first race of the season and 1 usually don't do well," said McGrath. "So I'm pretty happy winning the heat race. I knew Stanton was right behind me, but 1 tried not to think about it." Finjsrung one spot out of the transfers was former 125cc National MX Champion Guy Cooper, who has raced only a few times since breaking rus leg last August at a 125cc National. Cooper was handicapped by a back-of-the-pack start. 250cc Semis· Team Yamaha's Ernig and Larry Ward, a privateer Suzukj rider, were no match for the rest of the pack in the fir6t semi. The two riders quickly jumped out to a huge advantage over privateers Vince DeVane, from Plant City, Florida, and Bill Wallin, from Canada. Although Emig and Ward were never more than a few bike lengths apart, there was very little action between the two front-runners as they circled the track. Despite suffering the effects of a bad cold, Emig flew his Steve Butler-tuned Yamaha YZ250 across the finish line jump first, closely followed by Ward. DeVane finished a distant third, followed by qualifiers Wallin and Kohji O~awara of Japan. The second semi saw Kawasaki's Mike Craig score a runaway victory. Suzuki's Denny Stephenson was the early leader before tangling with another rider and crasrung on the first lap. Craig found himself leading the way ahead of homes tate favorite Brian McElroy. McElroy, on the Kawasaki/ Yamaha of Shelby-sponsored Yamaha YZ250, ran in second until the last lap, when he was passed by Cooper, who, again, was hampered by a bad start. Finjshing fourth and fifth, respectively, were KTM teammates Keith Johnson and Cliff Palmer. After gating poorly, Matiasevich could climb no rugher than sixth, one spot out of the tr~fers. 250ccLCQ Matiasevich, however, redeemed mmself in the last chance qualifier after dicing with teammate Stephenson. Stephenson was the early leader before Maliasevich dove underneath for the point position. Looking somewhat comfortable on the Suzuki for the first time all night, Matiasevich eventually pulled away from Stephenson for the win. "I like the b;ke," said Maliasevich, "but 1 have to get better starts. I'm totally healthy and have better physical conditioning." 250cc Main A good start in the feature was of utmost importance, as rain throughout the week prior to the race left the track soft and fairly wet, resulting in some one-line sections. Passing would be difficult to say the least. Armed with this knowledge, Bradshaw blew out of the starting gate and into the lead, leaving in his wake a big pile-up in the first turn. "I trunk Mike Craig was the first to go down," said Em;g, who was one of about seven riders who went down. "Then we just all piled in; 1 ran over Craig's head." Within a few seconds, all of the riders were up and away, except Craig, who had to push his damaged Kawasaki back to the pits. During the hectic first lap, riders settled into positions with Bradshaw still leading the way, followed closely by McGrath, laRocco, Kiedrowski, Swink, Stanton and Cooper and the rest of the field. 5

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