Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

G oroeRass AMA National Championship 125/500(( MX Series: Rounds 1012 M ~ Steve Lamson (21) led Mike Kiedrowski (1), overall wi nner]eff Sta nton (2), Mike laRocco (5) and the rest of the 500cc class over the first jump in moto two. • rn Creek win Stanton, Emi sto By C h ri s Jonnum Photos by Steve Berkner a n d Jonnum "F 6 MILLVILLE, MN, AUG. 15 in a IIy!" sai d a reliev ed Jeff Stanton after pos tin g 2-1 mot o sco res to ea rn hi s first National MX overall win of the year. "This feels grea t. Any time you w in, it helps yo ur confidence, and I needed this one." Need it , indeed . Thou gh it was Stanton's second win in a row at Spring Creek MX Park, the Team Honda ride r's current situatio n is mu ch d ifferen t than it was a yea r ago . Even before last yea r's wi n, Stan ton was on top of the w orld, fresh from the success of his third Camel Su pe rcr os s cro wn a nd third 250cc National MX title. This season, however, Stan ton has struggled. He won jus t one supercross rou nd and finished seven th in the recen tly co n cl u de d N a tio na l Ch ampionship 250cc MX Series after m issing severa l races due to a ba ck injury. Wi th the fu ture of his factory Ho nda ride s till in q ues tio n, Stanton would like nothing better than to finish the season with a championship in the 500cc class. Tho ug h he has earn ed six m ajo r champi onships, Stanton has ye t to win the 500cc National Championship, and this w ill be his final chance, as the AMA will discontinue the class next season. Standing in Stanton's way is series po in ts leader Mike LaRocc o, w ho th is seas on is compet ing in the "big-bore" cla ss fo r the firs t time. LaR occ o won both mo tos over Stanton at the opening round as we ll as the first moto at Sprin g Creek, bu t suffered a poor start in moto two and crashed three times before working up to third place by mote's end. The Team Kawasaki ride r ea rned second overall ahead of Ho nda 's Steve Lamson, w ho wen t 3-2 on th e da y. Kawasaki's d efending champion MikeKiedrowski tallied 5-4 moto scores for four th overall, d espite s tr uggling w ith a sore back. KTM ' s Cliff Palmer and Honda R&D rider Rich Tay lor both had impressive rides to fill ou t the top six overall. For his win, Stan ton pocketed a $1600 sha re of the $15,000 500cc class p u rse. laRocco took home $1500. laRocco still leads the brief four-race series w ith 95 points, but Stanton's w in broug h t h is total to 91, a nd mo ved him to within four points of catching laRocco. Lamson is third, with 82 points. In the-12 5cc class, factory Yama h a rider Jeff Emig sco red the overa ll win, also wit h a 2-1 moto tally. The defending cha mp crossed the finish line behind rival Doug Henry in moto one after leading early on, bu t led every lap of the second moto to earn the overall. Henry's 1-2 punch was good for the runner-up spot, while h is H onda teamm ate Jer e m y McGrath finished third with 3-3 finishes. "The track was really toug h, and me and Doug went at it," said Emig, who last year finished fifth overa ll at the facility. "Even though 1 ha d som e bad luck here last year, I didn't trea t it any different. 1 should have won both rnotos, but that's the way it goes ." Team Suz u ki's Ezra Lusk finished fourth overall with 6-4 scores, while Tuf Racing's John Dowd completed the top five. Emig an d Henry each earned $1600 from the $12,500 125cc class prize. The tw o tied on po int s, so Emig still lea ds Henry by five points, 413-408. McGra th is th ird w i th a 374- p oi n t to ta l. Two rounds remain in the 12-race series. Rain drenched southea stern Minnesota the day before and morning of the race, leaving the course a muddy quagmire, and causing track owner John Martin to delay practice and qua lifying motos for an hour while he and his crew worked to imp rove the track cond itions. A former top off-road racer, the d iminutive Martin is no stra nger to the ways of sa tu ra ted soil, and w ith the aid of the br ight sun and a slig h t breeze, he had the track in nearl y perfect sha pe before moto one. Ironically, severa l ride rs circulated the track with minimal problems during the quali fying motes, only to get their bikes hop elessly stuck on the way back to th e pits. Th e so le co mplaint among the majority of the top riders centered on a lack of passing lines. After the sky cleared, weather conditions were warm and muggy for the remainder of the d ay. Despite the pre-even t precipita tion, an es timated 12,000 spectato rs showed up to wa tch the racing action, a strong turnout in any weath er conditions . 500cc National Kno w n for his slo w s ta rts, LaRocco ha s been ga tin g much bet ter on ope n "bikes, and he continued to do so with a holeshot in the first 3D-minute, plus twolap moto. Kiedrowski was close behind, w ith Lamson and Stan ton in third and fourth . The Brothers-s ponsor ed Lance Smail, Tuf Racing's Mike Healey, Taylor and Kawasaki tes t ri der Mike Fis her were also running near the front. O n lap three of th e IS -lap rno to, Stan ton m otored by Lam son in a challenging section of sand w hoops, taking over third place and quickly opening up a cushion on his teammate. "1 fel t really shaky ou t ther e," said Lamson. "Jeff go t me early on and 1 fell way off the pace." As is normally the case in th e 500cc class, the top few riders set a mu ch faster pace than the rest of the pack . laRocco,

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