Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

eSUPERCROSS e Asheville Sa ercross Brown started better in the main, but not as well as he'd hoped, roaring to the first turn in second behind jones, where he remained for the entire 12 laps in spite of his best efforts. Directly behind the pair, Bennick got out of shape coming over the doubles, bumping into McElroy, Templeton and Eickel, and bringing all four down in a heap. Humphrey avoided the tangle and grabbed third, in front of the WalkerChester-Shue juggernaut, maintaining the position until midpoint, when a fall dropped him to last. The results read Jones, Brown, Walker, Chester, Shue. "There was sure no time to relax in this one," Jones said. "The first two laps I had a pretty good lead, but then I looked back and it was Mike Brown coming up on me. I knew I had to stay smooth." Eventual-winner Mike Brown (54) headed Brian McElroy (53), Jim Chester (91), James Eickel (72) and the rest of the 12Scc A pack into the first turn on Friday night. Shane Templeton (929) was impressive on Saturday night, challenging Mike Jones (35) in the 250cc A competition. Jones finished in second place behind Mike Brown. By Barbara & Loren Williams ASHEVILLE, NC, DEC. 18-19 ictory Sports Racing teamed with Asheville's MR Honda-KawasakiYamaha and WKSF radio (KlSSFM 99.9) to bring supercross indoors for the winter. Riders and watchers alike approved the contest's location, the Western North Carolina Agricultural Center, a facility originally built for livestock shows and rodeos. Spectators could easily follow the North Carolina Indoor Motocross Shootout's action from any seat in the building. early 400 racers from 11 states loved the hookup afforded them by the track that was built on the arena's dirt floor (perfect barrel-racing and bull-riding consistency serves supercross as well), and covered pits to keep the rain away were a welcome bonus. Former World Supercross Champion Mike Jones duked it out with Mike Brown to give near-eapadty crowds an early Christmas present of on-the-edgeof-your-seat pro racing. Brown has a large following in the region, and presented his fans with wins in the 12Scc A class on Friday and in the 250cc A division on Saturday. Jones pleased the folks who love a good race by holding off Brown in Friday's 250cc A and Saturday's 12Scc A thrillers. V 28 Friday Jim's Motorcycle Sales-backed Brown was first off the line in the first 125cc A heat and remained in the catbird seat for the entire six laps. Barr's Comp./Bentley's Cycle-back~d Jones finished second and Shane Templeton was third. Brian McElroy had no trouble on his way to the win in the second heat, challenged only during the last few seconds by runnerup Todd Bennick. At the start of the main event, Brown rounded tum one first and was uneatchable for the rest of the 12-lap contest. Brown's efforts were aided by a firstturn pileup involving Bennick, jones and Adam Humphrey. All three remounted, but were never a threat for a top five finish. McElroy, Walker, jim Chester and Eickel stepped into the slots left by the crash victims; McElroy and Walker maintained second and third to the checkered flag. Brown agreed that his good start had everything to do with the win, and unhampered by false modesty, was not surprised that it looked so easy. "Just as long as I stayed up," declared Mike, "I knew I had it." jones got away first in the opening 250cc A heat race, but the surprise was that Brown not only didn't get his customary holeshot, he gated dead last. Templeton pressed Jones the entire six laps, but had to settle for bridesmaid position. Brown was able to slog to fifth, just good enough to make the main. McElroy won the second heat, leading Walker, Lough, Humphrey and Gerald Wood to the flag for the top five transfer positions. Saturday just as he had done Friday night, "Brown won the opening 125cc A class heat, leaving Mike Padgett, McElroy and Templeton to argue over second. McElroy bested Templeton for runnerup honors. Jones dominated the second heat, followed by the freight train of Chester, Walker, Bennick, Brett Salander arid Adam Humphrey. Only five would automatically advance to the main, and Humphrey just made the cut via a hairraising jump pass on Salander over the doubles preceding Lough's Friday-night exit-to-dozer tum. As the 125cc A main event blasted off, Padgett and Brown entered tum one side by side. Unfortunately for Padgett, he held the outside line, which got more and more outside as he was forced off the track and stalled. Intentional? Well...Padgett had time to make up his mind about that as the entire field blew by. Meanwhile, jones had moved up on Brown and mirrored his every move, looking for a weak point. Late in lap four, jones got his chance, though perhaps not in the way he'd expected. As the leaders lapped Padgett in a corner, Padgett and Brown tangled, resulting in both hitting the dirt and handing the lead to Jones. Intentional? Well... Brown remounted, salvaging second from the onrushing group including Walker, Humphrey, Templeton and Chester. Despite an 11th-hour challenge by Brown, Jones crossed the finish line the winner. Happy over the win, jones said, "I took advantage of his mistakes. (As for the first-turn crash) I'm sure it wasn't Mike's (Brown) fault...it happened, and I'm sorry for him. Sometimes going through a comer you bump up in a tight situation." Playing to a packed house for the first 250cc A heat race, Chester blasted to the first tum in the lead, while Brown ga ted an uncharacteristic sixth. By the end of lap one Brown had made up three places, and Chester sailed on, followed by Shue, then Brown, Salander and Bennick. On lap two, Brown pressured Shue, forcing him to cramp his machine too tightly in the dozer corner and stall, demoting Matt to sixth in a matter of seconds. Chester took the win, with Brown second and Bennick third. Jones dominated the second 250cc A . heat, leading Templeton and Walker across the finish line. Except for the absence of Padgett, the start of the 250cc A maitI event looked much like the 125cc A feature as Brown led Jones by less than a bike length for the entire 12-lap race. jones tried everything, but Brown allowed no opening and sailed over the finish-line tabletop in a jubilant double-hands-off move. Templeton, Chester and Lough finished 3-4-5 after Lough got around Shue midway through the race. 'TlI be in Orlando at the (Camel) Supercross in January, and hopefully I'll do good," Brown said.. On the subject of passing lapped riders and holding off jones: "I didn't have any trouble this time." Amateurs One of the many riders coming from multiple top-five finishes at Florida's Winter Olympics, Ohio's j.D. Collins won three of the four classes he competed in, losing only Friday's Schoolboy contest. In that race, Trelleborg Tires/Shoei/ AXO/Theil's Wheels/ProAction Suspension-sponsored Collins pulled his customary holeshot, leaving Karl Hall and local young gun Jimmy Briggs to wrangle over runner-up, and until midway through the main, appeared to have the win in the bag. Then, to Collins' horror, he took a bad hop over the whoops and his bike stalled. Although it finally kicked over, by that time Briggs had taken the lead and stretched out an insurmountable· advantage, relegating Collins to second. Collins, Briggs and Mark IV-backed Nathan Ramsey took off the gloves in the 125cc B class, and finished 1-2-3, respectively, both nights. Having to settle for third to Briggs, whom he has bested many times before, did not sit well with Ramsey, but he smiled ruefully, ''I'll just have to do better." True to his word, Ramsey did improve on his 125cc B performance, capturing wins in both outings of the 250cc B class by escaping from the clutches of hungry John Sharpe and jeff Mushala. "They made me work for it," Ramsey said. Ron jones teamed up in Friday's 25 Plus A round with brother Kerry and Gerald Wood for a wild exhibition of jump passes, brake checks and fmesses that had the crowd on its feet several times during the main. 'From Ron's holeshot at the start, the lead changed hands six times during the eight laps. The trio was never more than a second apart from first to third, until lap six when Ron's machine stalled as he was making a move to regain the lead from Wood. Wood stretched out a handsome advantage, and Kerry Jones into second, as his brother worked to refir~ his bike. At the finish, Ron closed up with Kerry to remind his brother that he was still there, but the best he could do on such short notice was third. Ron Jones completely dominated Friday's 30 Plus A round, with Kerry a close second, but Wood was conspicuously absent. Spotted later in the stands with his splinted left leg propped up, Gerald explained, ·'Yeah, I broke it during the 25 Plus A race. I've only had the Honda a short time and I'm not used to the peaky power yet - like, when you roll the throttle, all of a sudden it's on and you better be ready. Well, during the race I hit a jump wrong and put my left foot down, and that was it." Wood should heal well and be back in the hunt by the spring. Wood was consoled by the performance of young Marc Woods (no relation) of Kannapolis, NC on Friday, when Marc won the 250cc C class and finished a close second in 125cc C mounted on Gerald's 1992 Yamahas. The pair chanced to practice together during the year, then became friends. When Marc needed to move up to another bike, Gerald happened to be in the same position and "Marc ended up with my bikes. He looks like he'll do well with them. too," Gerald Wood said. Yet another young rider mounted on Yamahas for the coming year, Paul Justus likes the change. Justus waxed the Junior Mini field on Friday, keeping

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