Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Jeff Emig (1) and Doug Henry (16) finished 1·2 overall in the 125cc National. Runner-up Mike LaRocco (5) chased down Steve Lamson in both 250ccmotes. Jeff Mati asevich's parents try to cool him off after a first mota third-place performance. dIe of the pac k, while Kied row ski had taken conunand. The race quickly developed into a two-man show between the two Kaw asaki tea mm ates, Kiedrow ski and Lakocco, By the second lap, they had deve loped a sizab le cus hion over Suzuki's Jeff Matiasevich, Hond a's Steve Lamson and Suzuki's Guy Cooper, the crowd favorite. "M y goa l tod ay w as to ge t the ho leshot in both rno tos," sa id Kiedrowski. " It's ha rd to come from behind here, becau se of all the jumps . Slower riders can get in your way, so you can' t jum p the doubles and triples and tha t really slows yo u d o wn. It 's rea l impor tant to get away here." By the 10-minute mark, Kiedrowski had a four-second lead over LaRocco. Matiasevich, meanwhile, had dropped off the pace to a 13-second d efici t. But despite falling off the pace, Matiasevich, sp orting a new "b uzz" hairc ut, had pulled clear of fourth-place Lamson, who had challenged Matia sevich during the first few laps but was now feeling heat from Cooper. Fortunatel y for Lamson, the heat cooled down when Cooper bailed over a section of doubles and lost two positions to Dowd and Suzuki 'teamma te Lawrence. Whil e Kiedrowski, LaRocco, Matiasevich, Lamson and Lawrence circulated the track with sizeab le gaps between them, Cooper kept the crowd's attention by moving up on Dowd and eventually div ing to the inside passing him for sixth . He then set his sights on Lawrence, and reeled in and then passed him by the 25-minute mark. But it was all for naught as Cooper crashed again over a double, letting Lawrence ba ck by. Cooper .remounted just ahead of Dowd, bu t could only hold him off for a couple of turns before Dowd slipped by to retake sixth place. In the last few minutes, the race wa s all bu t over as the top 10 riders we re spread ou t. Kiedrowski ended up scoring the win with approxima tely five seconds to spare over laRocco. Almost a minu te back in third followed Matiasevich, who h ad plen ty of breathing roo m ove r Lamson. Lawrence finished a distant fifth and was followed across the finish line by Dowd, Cooper , KTM's Cliff Palmer, Tea m Yamah a/ Noleen's Larry Brooks and FMF/Fox Racing's Ray Sommo. A little over an hour later, the 250cc . class field lined up for the second moto, and when the gate dropped it was, once again, Ryan nailing the holeshot. But just as he had done in the first moto, Ryan dropped back during the first lap, while Kiedrowski roosted into the lead. . "Whoever that was got grea t starts, but he would go into the tum too fast and all I had to do was go underneath him," said Kiedrowski. After the first lap, it w as again Kiedrowski leading the way ahead of Cooper, Lamson, Brooks, Matia sevich, privateer Yamaha rider Jeromy Buehl, laRocco and Sommo. During the second lap Mat iasevich crashed. "My back end got caught up in arut and it slid out coming out of a tum," said Matiasevich. "And my glove came off!I don 't know how that happened." Pu tting the glove back on cost Matiasevich a lot of time, and when he reentered the race, the Suzuki rider was nearly dead last . He would eventually work his way back up and fi nish a respectable 10th. Meanwhile, Kiedrowski continued to lead the way, opening up a small cushion on Cooper, who a lap later dropped back to third after getting passed by Lamson. On the move, however, was LaRocco, and by the 1S-minute mark he had taken control of second place. But once there, LaRoccojust couldn't gain any ground on his teammate. The two riders - while always within a few seconds of each other - steadily pulled away from the rest of the pack. Despite having already clinched the title, Kiedrowski had no intentions of giving an inch to LaRocco, and for the last 20 minutes, Kiedrowski and LaRocco maintained the same distance from each other right down to the finish. Lamson had sole con trol of third throughout most of the moto, while Cooper trailed in a distant fourth. Buehl kept Cooper in sight while cruising in fifth place , but would eventually give way to- Dowd four laps from the finish. Finishing a distant sixth was Palmer, who was followed by Sommo, Kawasaki rider Mike Fisher and Matiasevich. Once again the heat took its toll. "I blacked out at about the midway point," said Lawrence. "I really wasn't feeling that bad, but all of a sudden I blacked out and ran straight through a tum and into a hay bale. That was it for me." "At about the 2O-minute point, I start- 7

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