Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

;" P R RSUPercroSs thampionship>SerieS... Round 1: Pontiac Silverdome SU E C O S', ,.. . ... ... •' S ' ' AMAIFIMPail.Pacific (Left) Team Noleen's Lerry Brooks (31) and Denny Stephenson (27) had the dice of the weekend, perhaps the year. The two riders traded the lead back and forth many times In the 250cc AII-Ster Challenge. In the last tum, Brooks fell while Ieedlng and Stephenson scored the hard· fought win. (Below) The Sliverdome crowd, estimated at 25,000, gave winner Denny Stephenson a standing ovation. It was Stephenson's first podium finish In three years. (Far left) Privateer Mike Brown had a weekend at the Pontiac Silverdome he won't soon forget. On Saturday night he won his first-ever 125cc Supercross feature, and on Sunday he topped the field in the opening round of the Pan Pacific . Supercross Championship. By Davey Coombs AUBURN HILlS, MI.,APR. 10 e best weekend of privateer Mike Brown's career was capped off with a dominating win in the inaugural AMA/FIM Pan Pacific Supercross Challenge on Sunday afternoon. The event was held in the spacious Pontiac Silverdome approximately 20 miles north of Detroit, Michigan where, less than 24 hours earlier, Brown .won the first 125cc AMA Supercross main event of his five-year professional racing career. "1 know I can do it now," said Brown, who is backed by Jim's Motorcycle Sales, Pro-Circuit, Scott, Dunlop and Sinisalo . "Riding a good race last night probably helped out, too, because my confidence is pretty good right now. I know I can win these races ," Brown ran away with the IS-lap Pan Pacific feature event on Sunday afternoon. Brown, rid ing a Chris Rash-tuned Honda CRI25, put another $2500 in his bank account after leading every inch of the way. " American riders occupied the first seven positions against opposition from Australia, New Zealand, Japan, indonesia, Thailand and India . Honda Of Troy's rising star Craig Decker and Team Boyesen/Yamaha/Penske's John Dowd followed Tennessee's Brown · across the finish line at a distance. Team DGY's Chad Pederson and Honda Of Tro y's Davey Yezek rounded out the top five in the $15,000 main event. The top-placing international entry l-< was Australian Honda rider Cameron P.. Taylor, the eighth-place finisher in a field of 10 Americans and 22 riders overall. After Saturday night's 250cc main TI ..... -c 18 event - another Jeremy McGrath runaway - left much lacking for those seeking a close contest, Sunday's 250cc All Star Challenge nearly brought the roof off of the cloth-covered Silverdome. Suzuki pilot Denny Stephenson secured the 2Q-lap main event win after watching Team Noleen/Sizzler's Larry Brooks make a $1000 mistake by tipping over on the inside of the last corner. Stephenson, who battled past Honda Of Troy riders Erik Kehoe and Todd DeHoop to position himself for a shot at the win, seized the opportunity when Brooks fell just 40 feet from the finish line. "This is the first time I've even made a podium in three years, let alone won a supercross race," joked a h appy Stephenson. "It worked out real strange, too, because I wasn't expecting it at all. Larry and I were battling that w hole last lap, passing each other maybe two or three times, He just made a mistake and I was lucky to be right there." Stephenson collected $3000 for his efforts while the frustrated Brooks had to settle for the $2000 runner-up prize. Although teammate DeHoop faded from contention near the midway point, Kehoe retained a strong third at the finish. Feroce-backed Mik e Jones and DeHoop rounded ou t the top five in the 2Q-man main event. . For more than a decade the Silverdome hosted a supercross double-header , both rounds counting towards the AMA/Camel Supercross Championship. However, riders felt that the Pontiac weekend was too long and too costly for those who might be injured. So the organizers, with the help of the AMA and the F,I.M., decided to try a new format for this year 's visit to central Michigan. With the help of Kayo Corporations Keishi Wada and numerous local dealers, the opening round of the 1994 Pan Pacific Supercross Championship was assigned to the Silverdome. S.R.O. helped pay the cost of the international riders' travel and expenses, along with the general organization of the event. According to AMA director of racing Roy Janson, "Th is event is intended to develop alternative programs for regions of the world not traditionally addressed by the ELM. We are all hoping to establish more competitive racing outside o f Europe and the United States ," The Pan Pacific competition committee is chaired by AMA president Ed Youngblood. 125CC PAN PACIFIC SUPERCROSS Qualifying for the Pan Pacific 125cc Supercross was confusing, at best. Although every rider in the field rode qualifying heats of six laps, the 12 international riders on hand all transferred directly into the main event regardless of th eir heat-race finishes . In other words, only the top three American finishers in the heat races would get a transfer to the main event. A finish of fourth or worse meant placement in the Last Chance Qualifier. Davey Yezek grabbed the holeshot in the first 20-rider heat race followed by Chad Pederson, Brown, and Boyesen/ Penske /Yamaha's Scott Sheak. On the second lap, Brown took a high line past Yezek by triple-jumping a long set of ramps on the press-box side of the race track. Brown ended up pulling away for the win, while Yezek held off Pederson for runner-up honors. Among the nonqualifiers were fourth- and fifth-place finishers Jeff Curry and Jim Neese, and New York's Sheak, who crashed on the double jump that led the riders into the first of two triple-jump sets. California's Craig Decker snapped up the holeshot in the second 125cc heat race ahead of Team RRP /Kayo/Dunlop's Tim Ferry and Yamaha-mounted John Dowd. But just a few moments later, Decker droppedhis Honda and allowed Ferry into the lead position. Ferry, a top-five Eastern Regional rider in the current AMA/Camel Supercross standings, held off Western Regional favorite Decker and Dowd for the win . The top fore ign finisher in the heat racing segment of the event was Australia's Peter Melton, who finished eighth in the first group. Belgian transplant Axel Holvoet, while fourth in the second heat, was not a part of the Pacific Rim contingent that got direct transfers. Holvoet went into the Last Chance Qualifier, with 21 American riders, but did make the top four . The foreign contingent would have been a total of 13, not 12, had New Zealand visitor Damien King not broken his arm in practice. The 18-year-old King, who's older brothers Shayne and Darryl are presently competing in the 500cc World Championship MX Series in Europe, looked like the fastest of the international pilots until his practice accident ru ined his first competitive visit to America. "I was on a double and 1 got stuck in some ruts when 1 took off and the bike just bogged," said King, who was to compete aboard a Kawasaki supplied by Rossignol Motor Sports. "I landed right in the face of the next one and felt

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