Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

s (Left) Mike laRocco suffered his usual poor sta rt, but worked through the fi eld to finish a distant third. (Below) Ezra Lusk (17) crashed at the start of the 125cc Eastern Regional final and reeled in leader Jimmy Button (34), but was forced to settle for second when he crashed again with two laps to go. is a big event, and it's really important to Honda. As far as I'm conce rned, I d id good. I didn't lose too many points and I cam e awa y healthy. I just can ' t wait to get back to the stad iums; then I can beat up on those guys aga in." McGrath maintains his commanding series p oint lead w it h 159, while Kied rowski's win vaulted him into second with 121. Stanton is third with 118, six points ahea d of laRocco. In 125ee Western Regional Sup ercross Series action, Team Suzuki riders Jimmy Button and Ezra Lusk had the crowd on its feet. Button controlled th e race from . the get-go, while Lusk fou nd himself picking his motorcycle up out of the dirt in tum one. Lusk put forth an incredible charge, and than ks to a freak crash by the lo ng-gone Bu tton, managed to dose within striking d istance. Button remounted just in time to stay ahead of his teammate, and a ha ir-raising battle ensu ed . The battle climaxed when the two collided in a left-ha nd turn and Lusk wen t d own. Button raced home the w inner, but Lusk finished an extremely popular second. Team RRP rider Tim Ferry was a distant third. Desp ite losing his first supercross of the series, Lusk enjoys a comfortable point lead over Button, 122-107. Ferry is third with 97. 250cc Team No leen/Sizzler /Yamaha rider Larry Ward grabbed his usual ho leshot at the start of the first of three l O-lapheat races and opened up an immediate lead, but Kiedrowski made his intentions dear by taking control of the lead on lap two, Honda's Doug Henry latched on to the rear of Kiedrowsk i's machine and the two riders swapped the lead several times. It would be Kiedrows ki, however, who prevailed at the checkered flag. Stanton and Suzuki's Damon Huffman also worked past Ward, and followed dose behind Kiedrowski and Henry at the finish. Ward held on to the fifth and final transfer position. "It feels good to run with these guys," said 12Scc class regular Huffman, who was competing in his first-ever 2S0cc supercross. '1 was right there with Stan- ton , and if I had hung it out 1 think I could've passed him." Team Yamaha 's Mike Craig and Team Sp lit fir e / H o t Wh ee ls / Kawasaki rid er Ryan Hughes duked it out at the front of th e pack in heat two, and after sev era l lead changes Craig rod e home the victor. Hughes was second, while Yamaha 's Jeff Emig, Shaun Kalos and early leader Jeff Ma tiasevich round ed out the top fiv e. Team Honda /l -800 -CO LLECT rider Steve Lamson started strong, but fell victim to a bobbling rid er in the second tum. Lamso n d ropped to nearly 15th, but had worked back to seven th at the finish. "I was having trouble wi th a section on the far side of the track," said Craig, "bu t after Ryno passed me 1 saw his line and 1used it to pass him back." McGrath sped away with his customary holeshot in the third and final heat r ace ahea d of Hon da of Troy's Erik Kehoe and a surprisingly fast-starting laRocco. McGrath opened up an immed iate lead, b ut once LaRocco wo rked past Kehoe, he began to quickly reel in McGrath. LaRocco stormed into the lead on lap five and on to an easy win. Happy to qualify, McGra th backed off the pace and finis hed a d istant second. Suzuki's Brian Sw in k, KTM's Cliff Palmer and Kehoe rounded out the top five. "I was really nervous and my arms pumped up bad," said McGrath. "I knew it w as La Rocco behind me. Afte r he passed me, I figured tha t there was no reason to waste my energy ." With 15 of the 30 main-event starting pos itions filled, tw o eight-lap semis and one six-lap last chance q ualifier were used to round out the fie ld. La m so n ra ced hom e with a resounding w in in semi on e, w hile Su zuki support rider Denny Stephenson took the hon ors in semi two . Mike Jones topped the LCQ. Henry led th e charge in to tum one when the gate dropped for the start of the 25-lap main, and had Craig, Stanton, Hughes, Kiedrowski and McGrath hot on his heels. laRocco was 13th. Craig raced into the lead briefly, but Stanton was the . man on the move and swooped into the lead early in lap two . "I wanted to get out front and get away from the pack," said Stanton. "I knew that Kiedrowski would be coming." And Kiedrowski was, indeed, coming. Within the first three laps, the "MX Kied" displaced Hughes and Craig a nd was breathing down the jerseys of Stanton and Henry. Kiedrowski made his move past Henry on lap four in one of the many rough sets of whoops - and with that , the chase was on. Stanton and Kiedrowski immediately began to p ull away fro m th ird -placed Henry and the rest of the pack, circulating the punishing track only a few inches apart. It took Kiedrows ki just one lap to study Stan ton's line and form a pla n of attack, then he raced past in the whoop section that followed the finish line jump. "We did a lot of sus pension testing all wee k long," sai d Kiedrowski. "We set the bike up specifically for Daytona. This track gets so rou gh . Suspension is definitey a f actor for the first half of the race - from then on it's endurance." Stanton latched on to Kied rowsk i's tail, but as the race wore on, was not able to maintain the leader's pace. "I tried to put some heat on him, but 1 made a few costly mistakes," said Stanton. "I couldn ' t jum p a few of the obstad es out there becau se of lapped riders, but that's all a part of racing. " Kiedrowski added to his lead w ith . each p assing lap, and at the fin ish enjoyed a 15-second margin over Stanton. After losing touch with Stanton and Kiedrowski, Henry began to feel the effects of the rough course. Tha t, combined with a mysterious stomach virus tha t has plagued the 125cc Na tiona l Champion through out the year, saw the Honda rider steadily drop off the pace, succumbing first to McGrath, then to a hard-charging laRocco. N fel t comfortab le for ab out seven I laps, then I started to get tired," said Henry, who was also slowed by a haybale cover in his rear sprocke t. "I felt really fast, I just had no energy." "Doug was pretty cool, he let me by when I caught him," said McGrath, who ran third from lap eight to lap 10 after pa ssing Henry. McGrath 's chances of a podium finish looked slim, tho ugh, as laRocco rapidly dosed in and began to stalk him. laRocco motored past in the whoops after the finish jump on lap 11, and wi th that, the top five finishing positions were set. '1 was hoping to get a better start, but 1 lined up next to Chicken and he got a be tter jump off the line than me," sai d McGrath. "I had to back off a bit and that's why 1 started so bad. After laRocco passed me for third, 1 backed off. 1 knew that 1 had a big lead over the next guy." That next guy was Henry, who held on to fifth, just ahead of a ha rd-charging Lamson. A fte r starting stro ng, Lamson crashed hard on the thi rd la p and dropped to the middle of the pack. As th e r ace wore on, La mson looked stronger and stron ger, passing five riders d uring the final three laps. "I was coming out of a tum and I lost the front wheel," said Lamson. "I stabbed m ys elf on th e handleba rs when 1 crashed, and it took me a few laps to get going again. That hurt!" H ugh es, H uffman, Emig an d Ward rounded out the top 10. 125cc Button set the tone for the da y with an easy win in the first eight-lap heat race, while Ferry and Team Penske/Boyesen rid er Scott Sheak filled the second and third positions. Lusk looked like a sure winner in heat two, but a swap on a high-speed straightaway sent the Georgian plowing through a haybale and over the handlebars.

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