Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

"1 wa s a little worried with Button behind m e," said Brown. "1 ju s t ke p t thinking, 'hold 'im off, hold 'im off and don't make any mistakes.' But he (Butto n) made a mistake and I got away ." This year's track at Pontiac featured the traditional and unique uphill-downhill section th a t runs into the grandstands, a la the Peristyle at the L.A. Coliseum. The Rich Winkler-built track featured a tough and genera lly well-liked layo ut, bu t d eep , footpeg-dragging grooves developed all aro und the course d ue to the rain-saturated Michigan mud. 250cc Ward racked up an oth er ho leshot in the first h ea t race, bu t it was Team Ho nda/1-8OO-COLLECT's Steve Lamson lead ing the way after the completion of the first lap. Lamson was undeniably the fastest rider on the track as he pulled out a sizeable lead over Ward, Yamaha rider Jeff Matiasevich, and Honda of Troy's Erik Kehoe. La mson m ad e it look easy as he strolled to victory, but there was plenty of action behind him to keep the large and enthus ias tic crowd happy. Kawasaki teammates Kiedrowski and LaRocco we nt at it for many laps until LaRocco broke free and set ou t after seco nd placed Matiasevich. Two laps from the finish, Lakocco dove underneath Mariasevich and grabbed second, making the final finishing order Lamson , LaRocco, Matiasevich, Kied row s ki an d Team Yamaha 's Mike Craig, who missed a' direct transfer by one position. Suzuki's Da mo n Huffman finis hed sixth. Ward ended up seventh after experiencing bike problems, and Kehoe was eighth. Team Yamaha's Jeff Emig blasted into the lead at the start of the second heat race bu t gave way to Team Honda/l-800COLLECT' s Henry a few turns la te r. He nry led the field for two laps before home-state hero Brian Swink, on a factory-ba cked Suzuki, ca me u ndernea th Henry in a tum, forcing the Honda rider to chop the throttle. Swink swept by and led th e rem aining fou r laps to victory. Henry held on for second, while KTM's Cliff Palmer, and Team Noleen / Sizzler Restaurants/Xtreme's Kyle Lewis roun ded out the top four. Forced to rid e in th e se mis were Honda teammates McGrath and Stanton. The two riders had taken themselves out , on the firs t lap of their hea t race when Stanton fell on top of McGrath in a tum. "Swink was on the outside and Stanton was on th e ins ide," sa id McGra th. "We touched a little bit and Stanton basically fell over on top of me." McGrath worked his way as high as fifth and was cha llenging fou rth place Lewis before losing the front end in the last tum, letting Stanto n and Team Splitfire/ Pro-Circuit/ Kawasaki's Ryan Hughes by. Emig ended up eighth, after overshootin g a berm and gettin g hi s bike trapped between two sections of the track on the fourth la p . Su z uki 's De n n y Stephenson was also an early front-runner before crashing and finishing 12th. Ward, once again, put his Yamaha into the front of the pack at the start of the first 250cc semi, and took full ad vantage of his qu ick geta way to score a close win over Craig, who p ressured the leader for most of the race. Finishing third after getting off to a seventh-place start was Suzuki's Huffman, one spot a head of Ya maha rider Doug Dubach, who failed to finish his earlier heat race after crashing hard over a table-top jump. Kehoe landed fifth and a ticket to the feature. Ryan Hughes led from start to finish in the second semi race, avoiding a tough battle for the second through fifth place po sitions, involving Emig, Suzu ki rider (Above) Mike laRocco (7) passed Team Noleen's Larry Ward (11) and Hond a's Doug Henry for second place late the race. In the last tum, Henry and laRocco tangled and crashed, while Ward scooted by on th e ins ide to fi nish second. laRocco ended up third; Henry fou rth. (Right) McGrath crashed in his heat race and had to ride a sem i, where mud and a rock jammed hi s rear brake pedal. Here, McGrath rests up while Honda mech anics prepare his bike for the Lea, which he won. Mike Jones, Team Noleen /Sizzler Restaurants/Xtreme 's La rr y Broo ks and Stephenson. At one point, Brooks nearl y landed his Yamaha atop Jones' Su zuki over a long t riple jump. Positions changed drastically every lap, and asthey crossed the finish-line jump for the last time in the semi, it was Emig taking second ahead of Stanton, Stephenson and Brooks. Finishing one spot out of a transfer was McGrath, who was running second after the first lap before getting a rock jammed in his rear brake lever assembly. McGrath had to sto p and dislodge the rock and was passed by nearly the whole pack while doing so. McGrath re-entered the race an d ma de a valiant but unsuccessful attemp t to transfer, working his w ay up and finishing a wheel length behind Brooks. There were no surprises in the Las t Ch anc e Qualifier, although it d id seem strange seeing McGrath competing in the final qualifier of the evening. The defending champ easily wo n the LCQ, leaving everyone else to fight over the last transfer position. But it wasn't much of a bat, tie, as Kawasaki rider Buddy Antunez made quick work of Travis Hodges and went on to finish Second . At the start of the feature, Kehoe had the quickest reactions out of the gate and out-accelerated the rest of the pack to the first tu rn , b u t ,by the time th e packed reac hed the second tum, McGrath was alread y out in front and pulling away. "1 had the worst pick on the (starting) line - the far outside," said McGrath. "1 just had to make the best of it; I put my mind totally in ne utral and didn't think about it. Actually, the outside isn't all that bad, you just have to hold it open a little bit longer." Trailing the entire pack after the first lap were a pair of factory-backed riders Kiedrowski and crowd favorite Brian Swink, who grew up in Michigan before moving to Florida. "1had a decent start but then my front wheel got kind of crossed up in the ruts and Kiedrowski hit me from behind and we went down," said Swink. "1 was pretty much to blame for that one." "1 la nd ed rig h t on him " said K;.iedrowski. Meanwhile, up front, McGrath had already jumped out to a comfortable lead and the race to the checkered was - for all inten ts and purposes - over. Henry was , all alone in second after the first lap, then came Emig, Ward , Craig, Stanton, Matia- sevich, Stephenson, LaRocco, Kehoe, Lamson and Palmer. Ward soon passed Emig for third, then Emig crashed while jamming on the brakes in a tight right-ha nd tu m in an effort to prevent Stanton from diving un derneath him. Stanton rear-ended the Yamaha rider, putting Emig on the ..... - I-< ~ 19

• Cover