Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

eMOTOCROSS ~ AMA125/500cc National Championship_MX _'es :R _d_l_l/3 _S_en _ _o_un ~~ _ Kawa saki KX500 w h ile St anton a n d Kied ro w s ki t ra ile d a t a d istan ce . Kiedrow ski ' s 1-3 fi n ishes m ade it a gree n b ik e on e- tw o in th e overa ll res ults. With only one round re ma ining in the brief four-round series, LaRocco boasts 142 points. Stanton has 133. "1 felt real comfortab le toda y. [ knew that [ had the speed to win and [ jus t mad e s u re that [ d idn't d o any th in g dumb," said Lakocco, who earned $1600 of the $15,000 class p urse. "Poi nts lead ? [ d on ' t even care about that, last yea r [ learned that those don't mea n a thing. I jus t have to go out and try to w in the finale." (Last yea r, La Rocco enjoyed a sizab le point lead in the 125cc seri es, bu t saw his championship hopes fade away due to a string of bad luck that plagued performances in the la tter pa rt of the series.) In th e 125cc class, Team Honda's Hen ry w as go lden - literally . Sporting eye-catch ing black, w hite and gold riding gear, Henry spanked h is competition , screaming his brig h t- red, Pete Stei nbrecker-tuned Honda CR125 ' to a pair of convi ncing mo to wins. Finishing second in both legs and completing the pair of team class sweeps was Henr y's fell o w " Red Rider," newly-crowned Ca mel Supercross Champion j ere my McG rath . Th ird o n the day was Kawasaki's Ryan Hughes, enjoying his best finish of the season wi th a 3-4 moto ta lly . De fe nd ing 125cc National Champ ion jeff Emig struggled all day lon g aboard hi s fac to ry Yama ha and s a w h is five- point se ries poi n t lead entering the race flip -flop in to a n 11p oin t defici t by the day's end. Whil e a visibly upset Emig had little to say, Henry was jub ilant. " I did exac tly what [ came here to do," sai d Hen ry, the obvious favo rite of the es tima ted 10,000-strong crowd. "Before tod ay, [ fig u red tha t [ need ed to wi n the next three mot os and finish at least second in the las t moto of the series to be able to win the title. Two down and one to go, a n d [ really like th e tra ck a t the last round." Entering the Sep tember 5 series finale at Delmont, Pennsylva nia, Henry possesses 458 po ints, w hi le Emig and McGra th h ave ac qu ired 447 a nd 418, re sp ec tiv el y . For his do ub le- mo to sweep, Henry ea rned $20 00 of th e $12,500 125cc class purse. Doug Henry came to Broome-Tioga with a five-point deficit, but after winning both 12Scc class motos, left with an ll-point lead. LaRocco, Henry dust 'em at Broome-Tioga By Donn Maeda BINGHAMTON, NY, AUG. 29 hey say that nice guys fini sh last, but Mike laRocco and Doug Henry let the hot air out of that ciiche by s to r m ing home the winners at the penultimate rounds of the 500 and 125cc Nationa l Championship Series, and in ch in g eve r-close r to secur ing their first-ever National Championship titles. While both riders are soft spoken and reserved off the track and in the pits, they became forceful and made their ontrack in ten tion s very cle ar once th ey T 12 \ donned their helmets and took to the rough and rocky Broome-Tioga Sports Center course. For Lakocco, a set of 2-1 moto finishes yielded th e second 500cc N ational w in of the young series and ex tended his series point lead to 11 over Honda's Jeff Stanton, third on the d ay w ith 3-2 moto finishes. Who topped Lalcocco in the first moto, you ask? Why, none other than his Kawasaki fact ory team tea mmate and defend ing 500cc N ational Ch ampion, Mike Kiedrowski, in a moto in which LaRocco p olitely settled for second, not willing to attempt a pass and risk a senseless cra sh. But the second moto w as a different s to ry . Th is ti me, LaR occo found himself behind ti tl e- riva l Stanton and put h is good manners aside. After stalking the sixtim e N ational and Supercross Champion for most of the race, laRocco muscled his way into the lead and on to vic tory aboard h is Tom Morgan-tuned 500cc Befo re th e s ta rt o f the fir s t m ot o, Ki edrow ski d ecla r ed that th e b ack injury that has slow ed him thus far in the series was healed, and that he would be competing a t 100%. "The br eak in the series did me a lot of good ," sa id Kiedrowski. "I took an entire week off - no training, no riding. just rest and therapy." ' At the drop of the gate, Team Honda's Steve Lamson rocketed off the line and led Lakocco, Kiedrowski, Surf Detergent's Jeff Glass, Stanton and The Brothers' Honda-backed Mike Healey through t he righ t-hand hairpin fir st tum. Lamson jumped out to an immediate lead when he shocked his pursuers by double-jumping a downhill obstacle fittingly-named the "Ski jump." ' "I hadn't tried it during practice, but 1 was leading and 1 thought, ' Wh y not?'" said Lamson. Throughout the race, Lamson would be the only rider to clear the jump as doing so made it difficult to slow down for the following comer. Not impressed by Lamson's high-flying antics, laRocco and Kiedrowski both motored p ast the early leader when he bobbled in an uphill section on the fa r s ide of the course on lap three. "I always seem to ride tight when [ lead a race," said Lamson. "You can't

• Cover