Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127652
(Lett) Jeff Emlg (6) led early In the main; Jeremy McGrath (1), Larry Ward (11) and Jeff Stanton (5) pursue. (Below lett) Damon Huffman dominated the 125cc class, winning hIs heat race and the main by large margins. (Below) Mike Kiedrowski advanced from a poor start to finish fourth, his best result of the season. McGrath's wi n extend ed his points to ta l to a fla w le ss 75, while Stanton m o ved u p to sec on d with 58, 17 in arre ars of th e cha mp. Emig sits third with SO, while Craig, laRocco and lamson all sha re 45 point totals. In ro und two of the 125cc Western Regional Cha mp ionsh ip Supercross Series, Su zu ki' s Dam on Hu ff m an extended his points lead w ith an easy victory over Tea m Sp litFire /Ho t Wheels/Kawasaki's Pe d ro Gonza lez . Honda of Troy's Craig Decker finish ed third, his best-ever finish in a su percross. 250cc I've been training pr etty hard all along . I think it' s more a matter of getting used to running near the front. It's more menta lly tiring than phys ically, rea ll y, because there' s so much going on . Every week I get a little be tter, so I'm pretty happy." Mike Kie drow ski wa s ye t another rider to count Anaheim as his best ride of the season, moving up from a 10thplace start to fin ish in fou rth. The Kawasaki factory pilot appears to have shaken whatever it was that affected him for the first two rounds, though for the third -straight week he had to advance to the main via a semi. " I felt a little better - more confident," said Kiedrowski. "I got a bad start and sta rted working my way up. The track w a s pre tt y easy, a nd everyone wa s jumping everything, so it was kind of hard to pass." After lea d ing th e fi rst fo ur la p s, Team Yamaha's Jeff Emig slipped to a fifth-place finish, while Yamah a p rivateer Jeff "Chicken" Matiasevich turned in an inspired performance for sixth . Rounding out the top 10 were Honda / l SOO-COLLECT's Steve Lamson, Suzuki 's Brian Swink, Yamaha's Michael Cr aig and Honda /I-800-COLLECTs Doug Henry. . While bo th the 250 and 125cc main events we re runaway affa irs , a fair amount of close racing was p rovided in the heat races and semis. The first 250cc h eat sa w Lamson p ull the h ol esh ot ahead of Stanton, and th e tw o teammates held their pos itions from sta rt to finis h, unaware of the crowd-pleasin g battle behind them. Dou g Dubach held d own third on lap three, but Kiedrowski, Henry, Matiasevich and LaRocco were invo lved in a d ice that carried th em past th e form er factory Yamaha ri de r. Henry eventually secured third place at the fini sh, while Matiasev ich took fourth, and the others moved on to the semi . Crai g led the early going of heat number two, b ut McGrath soon moved by and p ulled away to an easy win , perfo r ming his p at ente d "nac-nac" maneuver over the triples on the final lap . Emig passed his teammate for second , w ith Cra ig thi rd a nd Sw in k fourth. Kiedrowski easily won the first semi ahead of Yamaha priva teer Jeromy Buehl, with laRocco working up from yet another poor start to fin ish third . Kawasaki privateer Mike Chamberlain took over fourth when Dubach ran into a lapper and crashed, and Hond a privateer Grayson Goodman was fifth. A co uple of La rrys - Ward a n d Brooks - led the firs t few laps of semi two, an d it appeared that it would be a Sizzler 1-2 finish un til Brooks came up sho rt over a triple and wen t down hard. Brooks was knoc ked unconscious, laying moti onless in the following tum for o ver a minute, while tr ack w orkers directed traffic around him. " I saw the th ird ju mp coming, and knew I was going to be s ho r t, " said Brooks afte rwards. "I grabbed a handful to try and make it over, and after that I don 't remember anything. I got back to the pits and O ark (...Iones , Noleen team manager) goes, 'Okay, we're going to ha ve to ride the last cha nce: I thought for a second and said, 'Whi ch way does the first turn go, again?' My shoulde r's sore, but 111 be okay for San Diego (February 5)." KTM's Oiff Palmer took over second, ahead of Noleen/SizzIer/Yamaha's Kyle Lewis, privateer Shaun Kalos an d Suzuki suppo rt ride r Denn y Stephenson. Kawa saki-mounted Buddy Antunez, competing in his first supercross of the year, w on the Last Chance Qualifier, while the popu lar Dubach grabbed the final transfer to the main with a secondplace finish. Ward pulled wha t is quickly bec om- 0\ ing a familiar holesho t in the 20-lap main ...... eve nt, with Emi g and McG ra th in his wake. Stant on was fourth and Matiasevich sixth. Swink, laRocco, Kied rows ki and Lamson were all mired in the pack. "Right before the gate fell, I kind of revved it and lurched a littl e bit, and I got a lot of gu ys to hit the ga te," sa id Emig. " I went too early, a nd my front -g, 7