Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

~ · SUPERCROSS AMA Camel Su ercross Series: Round 4 ~ Mike LaRocco started slowly but worked his way through the pack LaRocco edged Bradshaw on the final lap for third place. 8 pass bringing moans from the crowd. Ward held on to second, but only for the moment. He would eventually fade to fourth place, still good enough for a direct transfer to the final. The pace was heating up at the front as Stanton was quickly joined by LaRocco and Bradshaw in what would provide some of the best racing of the night. On the sixth lap, LaRocco flew past Stanton to take over the lead, with Bradshaw also getting the better of the defending champion a lap later. Bradshaw wasn't content with that either, and he suddently pounced on LaRocco, taking the lead on the seventh lap. laRocco then ran the Kawasaki in under the Yamaha three turns from the finish line, ramming Bradshaw and sending them both off-line. laRocco went down while Bradshaw managed to save it after slamming into the hay bales on the outside of the comer. Stanton was close enough to capitalize on laRocco's blunder, moving in behind Bradshaw. They crossed the finish line in formation - Bradshaw, Stanton, LaRocco - with Bradshaw waiting for laRocco to give him the customary point-to-the-helmet, use-your-head gesture that usually follows such an exchange. Bradshaw's teammate Emig had started well, but he too was feeling the effects of the flu and he faded to finish fifth, one spot behind Ward. Despite the last-lap altercation, the second heat race was the fastest of the night at seven-minutes, 58.78 seconds, giving Bradshaw the opportunity to take home the Coors cash if he could duplicate his efforts in the main event. "It's hard to describe what happened," Bradshaw said. "I saw his front wheel and then I was off the track. That's alright, I'll get my chance." LaRocco later defended his move: "It was just a last-ditch pass. I tried to do what I could, but it didn't work out to my benefit." 250cc Semis McGrath was back in the first of two six-lap semis, and he wasn't to be denied. Starting gate? No problem. McGrath was off and running, leading the way into tum one and never being heard from again. "I'm kind of glad I got to ride the semi," McGrath said after the six-lap race. "It'll keep me warm, it's a little cold in here." A typically positive attitude from a semi winner, who really would have rather transferred directly from his heat race. Second place off the start was held by Eric Kehoe on his Honda of Troy-backed CR25O, but he was quickly displaced on the first lap by Kiedrowski, Button, and Suzuki support rider Denny Stephenson. By the third lap, McGrath was way out front and untouchable, even for a rider the caliber of current 500cc National MX Champion Kiedrowski. Behind those two, however, Button and Stephenson continued to do battle, with Button gaining the advantage at the finish. Kehoe held on to finish fifth, transferring directly to the main event. Sixth through 16th would get another shot in the last chance qualifier. Emig led the way in the second semi, fortunately missing the six-bike pileup that transpired behind him. KTM factory rider Cliff Palmer also made it through without incident to hold down second at the end of the first lap; Enzo Racing's Michael Craig was third, Todd DeHoop fourth and Ray Sommo fifth. Emig had things all his way as he was able to pull away from the struggle behind him. That battle for second place was between Palmer and Craig, with Craig getting the better of Palmer and his European motorcycle. Yamaha-mounted Jeromy Buehl finished fourth with DeHoop taking the final direct transfer to the main. "In my heat race I kind of went back- wards," Emig said. "That's not the way to do it. I think I'm getting through the whoop section a little better now. I've been sick with the flu, and I'm still not 100 percent." 250cc Last Chance Qualifier The top two would go to the main, the rest could get an early start on traffic as the six-lap LCQ got underway. It was Steven Andrew who jumped to an early, yet short-lived lead at the start of the race. Andrew was quickly passed by Buddy Antunez's privateer Honda, but held on to second for two more laps before succumbing to pressure from Sommo's Yamaha. After four of the six laps, Antunez led Sommo and Andrew, and things up front wouldn't change. Antunez and Sommo became the final two riders to transfer to the 250cc main event after 20 laps of trying, earning the right to go 20 more laps in the National. 250ccMain The third time was the charm for McGrath as he nailed the start perfectly to lead the pack down the straightaway and into tum one. With a clear race track in front of him, McGrath quickly opened up a small gap over the field as the 2D-lap feature race settled in for the first lap. Stanton had exited the first tum right behind McGrath, but he was passed by Craig in the triple-jump section on the opening lap. After one full lap, the order read: McGrath, Craig, Stanton, Swink, Lamson, Emig, Ward, Bradshaw, Stephenson, Cooper and Kiedrowski. Cooper's night unraveled quickly. The Stillwater, Oklahoma, rider stalled immediately after the start/finish line jump and was joined there by Kiedrowski, who found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. "1 got a real bad start," Kiedrowski explained later. "I think I was third from last. Cooper's leg was out there and it got stuck between my fender and front wheel. I just couldn't go anywhere. Four more guys went by me and after that I just went about picking them off, trying to pass as many as I could." Kiedrowski would eventually battle his way through to an eighth-place finish, his worst result of the season. Cooper's problems were just getting started. After getting free from his tangle with Kiedrowski, the Suzuki rider found himself dead last. Not one to quit, he carried on, kicking the shifter straight as he followed the by now distant pack. Cooper would crash at least two more times before the night was over, the £ina! one landing him a ride in the ambulance with a suspected broken collarbone. Meanwhile, at the front of the pack, McGrath seemed to be having little or no problems. By the second go-around he'd established himself as the man to beat and it appeared that any hope for a battle at the front would have to come from Bradshaw, who had started eighth, but was on the move. Craig was still second after two laps, but Swink had moved by Stanton to take over third. On the fourth lap, things tightened up in the ba ttle for second as both Swink and Stanton closed in on the fast-starting Craig. Bradshaw had moved around his teammate Emig and was hounding Lamson for fifth place. Swink made his move on Craig at roughly the same time Bradshaw zapped Lamson, and the question now was if Swink could make a dent in McGrath's lead. The answer initially was no. "My plan was to run the first 10 laps as fast as I could in case I got tired," McGrath said after the race. And that he did. On the sixth lap, Stanton moved around Craig, with Bradshaw following suit. On the seventh lap, the order read: McGrath, Swink, Stanton, Bradshaw, Craig and laRocco, who appeared headstrong about recovering from yet another bad start. For McGrath the important thing seemed to be this - he had eight seconds on the charging Bradshaw after seven laps. On lap nine, Bradshaw flew byStanton in the air as the pair negotiated the triple jump section of the race track. That accomplished, it seemed as though Bradshaw would be McGrath's biggest threat. Now he trailed by 6.5 seconds he'd made up a second and a half in two laps, and there were 11 to go. With the first 10 laps in the books, Swink suddenly came to life. He trailed McGrath by two seconds and seemed to be inching in on the race-long leader. Bradshaw still had Stanton and now laRocco in his shadows as the top five pulled well clear of the rest a t the halfway mark. By the 14th of 20 laps, the gap between McGrath and Bradshaw had swelled to 7.5 seconds, but his attention at this point was taken fully by the closing Swink. By the 17th lap, Swink was even, pulling alongside McGrath as the two flew over the triples. But Bradshaw wasn't finished yet. After 18 laps he had closed the gap to 4.5 seconds, bringing LaRocco with him. Stanton had fallen off the pace, but held a comfortable lead over Craig. The moment of truth came at the start of the 19th and final lap. With McGrath in his sights, Swink's run was suddenly blocked by Palmer, who was being lapped from his 12th-place finishing position, yet showing little or no regard for the blue flags that were being waved in front of him. That allowed McGrath the breathing room he needed to hold Swink off to the finish line. "I almost passed him (Ml:'Grath), then I did pass him," Swink said. "I had two laps to try. Then the lapper got in the-

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