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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127557
Matiasevich. "1 wasn't shifting enough, I
was over-revving the bike. Plus, I've
never done good here. I'm looking forward to next week at Houston where
the dirt is more to my liking. I'm happy
with the bike, it's just me right now."
125cc
Heat race winners Jimmy Button and
Ezra Lusk were the favorites going into
the IS-lap Eastern Regional 12Scc
Supercross feature, and it was Team
Suzuki's Lusk pulling off the holeshot
ahead of DGY Racing's Jeff Dement and
Chad Pederson, Team Honda's Doug
Henry and Suzuki's Button.
Pederson quickly relegat~d Dement
to third, only to find that Lusk had
already developed a slight lead.
Positions remained the same for two
laps until Henry twisted the throttle a
little more and passed both Dement and
Pederson in one move. Henry's work
was still cut out for him if he was going
to catch Lusk, who had stretched his
lead to almost the length of ~ longest
straightaway.
Henry began pulling away from
Pederson but couldn't gain any ground
on the leader, Lusk. In the meantime,
Button, who was running fifth behind
Dement, came up short over a double
jump and took a hard header. He
remounted about eighth and would
eventually climb back up to sixth before
taking the checkered flag.
Up front, Lusk continued to enjoy a
seemingly safe lead until late in the race
when lapped riders played a major role.
With three laps to go, Lusk came up on
a group of three slower riders, and that
enabled Henry to dose to within a few
seconds. But once past the stragglers,
Lusk pulled away, while Henry stuggled to get by the same riders who had
slowed Lusk. However, Henry had it a
lot worse, as the Team Honda rider
could only manage to pass two of the
three backmarkers as one continually
bloc1sed Henry to the checkered flag.
"Everything was going good until
the lappers:' said Lusk. "Then I started
getting a Ii ttle nervous. I had to single
some of the double jumps and that really slowed me down. It wasn't until the
fourth or fifth lap when I realized it was
Henry behind me. I knew I had to ride
my own race and not make any mistakes."
Despite getting the worst of the traffic, Henry wasn't too upsel.
"They (the riders he was lapping)
sure got in the way, but they were racing and didn't pay attention to the blue
(move over) flag," said Henry. "Because
of the rain, the track got a little onelined and was a little hard to pass on, so
I didn't want to get too crazy out there,
being the first race and all."
Pederson, who finished a distant
third, said, "I had a good start, made
some mistakes, got back on the gas and
made some more mistakes. But it's a
long series and I'm just trying to keep it
on two wheels."
Dement held down fourth for most
of the race and finished there just ahead
of KawasaJd Team Green's Davey
Yezek. Button finished sixth, ahead of
Kawasaki Team Green's Scott Sheak,
privateer Honda rider Mike Brown,
Kawasaki Team Green's Joel Dengler
and KMB Racing's Junior Jackson.
c:N
Results
250 HEAT 1: 1. Mike LaRocco (Kaw); 2. Steve
Lamson (Hon); 3. Damon Bradshaw (Yam); 4. Brian
Swink (Suz); 5. Jerr Emig (Yam); 6. Larry Brooks (Yam);
7. Larry Ward (Suz); 8. Derek Youngblood (Hon); 9.
I