Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

·,· U E C O S:, Round10: P n ;S P R R S o tiacSilverd e om AMA CamelSupercrossSeries . (Left) Damon Huffman's mechanic Tony Berlutl puts the finishing touches on his rider's works Suzu ki, which featured Showa- made "conventional" forks . Huffman finish ed eighth In the 250cc feature. (Right) Deep ruts formed In the . rain-saturated Michigan mud that was used to co nstruct the track . Apart from the ruts, the course was well-rec eived by the riders. (Below) McGrath called his pa rents back home In California from the press box s hortly after winning the 250cc final, prompting us to wonder what long-dIstan ce phone com pany he used - 1-aOO-COLLECT, perhaps ? .... l-< ~ 20 ground. Ernig would crash again later in the race. "Man, it seemed like I'd get on the bike; I'd get off; it was one of those n ights," said a frustrated Emig afterwards. By the sixth lap, and after plenty of passing, the pack finally settled into a spread-out freight train that was still headed by McGrath, followed by Henry, Ward, LaRocco, Stanton, Lamson and Craig. Emig had fallen back to eighth, while Kiedrowski had climbed up to 10th. Nothing changed until the 11th lap when Stanton crashed alone over a double jump, dropping to eighth behind Craig. It was also about this time that LaRocco began noticeably gaining ground on third-placed Ward, and he eventually closed the gap until he was breathing down Ward's back late in the race. On the 16th lap , LaRocco made his move and jumped past Ward for third and, in the process, had closed in on Henry, who was still running second. Two laps later, LaRocco made a pass on the Honda rider and, at this point, it looked as though laRocco had a lock on second place - but Henry and Ward had different ideas. On the last lap, Ward dove to the inside of Henry in a tum and ran him out into the hay bales. Suddenly, Ward found himself right behind LaRocco and saw a chance to pass the Kawasaki rider on the inside through the last turn . laRocco, too, had his sights on the inside line, but was slammed into from behind by Henry, the same rider who LaRocco had "taken out" at the last round in Charlotte. LaRocco and Henry went down in a heap, while Ward rounded the tum unscathed. "1 let up on the last lap," said laRocco. "A few laps earlier, 1got roosted by Ward and my finger got hit by a rock; it was hurting pretty good . W hen 1 pass ed Henry, 1 could tell he was getting pretty tired, 50 1 thought I'd baby my finger on the last lap. Instead, he put on a last charge. I did the best 1could." As for getting taken out by Henry, laRocco said, "It's the same thing as last time (Charlotte); it's all a part of racing. 1 just should've raced to the checkered flag and it wouldn't have had happened." Henry climbed back on his bike just ahead of Kiedrowski for fourth, while Craig held on to sixth. Stanton cro ssed the finish line in seventh, ahead of Huffman, Lamson and Ernig. Swink sal vaged 11th ahead of Brooks, Stephenson, Lewis and Matiasevich. Rounding out the field were Kehoe, Dubach, Hughes and Antunez. 125cc It appeared that the 125 feature was ee all but over after the second tum when series points leader and five-time main event winner Ezra Lusk nailed the holeshot. Earlier that night, Lu sk had breezed to victory in his heat race, 50 it appeared that he would run away with the feature as well- but it wasn't to be. Just like the last round in Charlotte, Lusk lost control of his bike in a section of whoops and dropped to thi rd . Lusk quickly gathered his composu re, however, and was still close enough to the leaders to win his sixth race of th e yea r, but a se cond crash two la ps lat er wou ld end an y chance of that. The beneficiary of Lus k's misfortune was Mike Brown, who inh erited the lead jus t ah ead of Button. Brown an d Butt qp soon engaged in a close do gfight as they pulled clear of th e p ack. Brown's main advantage over Button on the tra ck was that he was jumping all of the tripl es; Button choosing to double/sin gle them. 'The ground was 50 tack y, and since I'm kind of hea vy for a 125, 1 just didn't feel comfortable doing the triples," said the tall and lanky rider. Despite not doing the triples, Button still hung close to Brown and seemed to be looking for daylight around the Honda pilot. Bu t before he had the chance to · pass, Bu tton overshot a turn and went sailing over a large berm, handing Brown an uncatchable lead. "Over the last set of doubles before the tum, there were deep ruts," said Button. ····fl·.".' .., .'. .".. .' ·Ie·'Ii' ".'::.'.,,':-. . . 8r y.•• ' . .. :. . " . . ·1 ~. . : ... .. ," . ~' "One of the ru ts grabbed my foot - my br ak e foo t - and pulled it off the peg. I couldn't slow down in time and ran off the track. I think if 1 hadn't done that, I coul d've wo n pretty eas ily." Button gained some ground on Brown during the remaining eight laps, but it was obvious that Button wouldn't catch Brown unless he ma de a big mistake. "I didn't want to make any mistakes," said Brown. " I was leading in A tlanta once an d 1 tensed up and ma de mistakes, 50 here I preten ded I was jus t out practicing and not worrying about it." Despite one bobble on th e last lap , Brown held on to w in, a safe d istance ahead of Button. "I almos t lost it on the last lap ," sa id Brown . "I hit th e face of a triple; I shouldn't have tried jumping that on the last lap . My foot almost got caught in the rear wheel. I just thanked God I didn't crash." Michigan rider Jeff Curry came out on top of a race-long battle with Tun Ferry to finish fourth, while Kawasaki Team Green's Robbie Reynard finished sixth after nearly running off the side of the track on the first lap . Rounding out the top 10 were Davey Yezek, Chad Pederson, Barry Carsten and Jim Neese. 01 supercrosseS? rea'ni Hondal1 .800-COl~ , ,.": LEc r s·.Do ug Hen;y spent most of his time "moving back fromAlverside, Califomia:to hfs " . " , ," ._~ .·· ~.rea l":. h~ me· in OXford, "Co"nnecticu.t. "Henry . · PriVateer Jeff MlltlaSevichshowed up witha . . spends. the winter rnonthsmSouthern Oall- . 'newtuner .at Pontiac:'.ForTner 'ream Suzuki ' lomia where .necan practice and trainwhile · mechanic' Marshal Plumb.'lurned w·rencties · '· hl~ .practice track in Connectic~ is buried In ' for MatlaseviCh saturday night'and Will most: .snow.H enry's teammate Jeremy. McGrath: likely stay' with' Maliasevlch for.the remainder, ' . Jeff Err)ig and manyother riders' headed to '01 ttie year:·F.'luinb,w!'to used .to be. Guy . tl)e 'Coto~do .River.near Lak Havasu ; Ari.e .cooPer's tuner, is .filling In fo'r Ron Heben, '.. zona ,'.Em.g .had the story 01 th~' week after . wliostaited the seasori witli Matiasevicll' but ' :: nearly sinkinghis boat: . ' . ' " . : . ,: . · nastakenonenew job'at K8wasaki. Heben, '-.:" ". ":' " ' ' ', " . . ' the former S'uzuklteam manager 'arid tuner ." : Afterwirininghis semi,l:eamSplitfire!Pro-Gir· fo'r three-time Supercross Champ.ion ~ick ' . · cUitlKa~asaki 's.Ryan Huffmaii finiShe? a Johnson , I~ nOW woi:king ,lor Kawasaki.Team . , .urprislng l 9th in the '250cc feature, Hughes ' s · Green's amateur MX program. ·· . ~'. . .'said he ran into:'-1ike. Kiedrowsl . ' . ' ·ends 'off betWeen the . Charlotte and Pontiac:'·· Cown wortli $3000. " . ." ." . . . ' ."

• Cover