Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Round 12: Texas Stadium (Lett) DGY Racing's Chad Pederson (51) nailed the holeshot In the 125cc featu re ahead of Ezra Lusk (17), J immy Button (34), Craig Decker (141) and M ike Brown (92). Pederson was later taken out by Button and ended up finishing 11tho (Below- left to right) McGrath, laRocco and Kiedrowski share the spoUlght on the podium. Meanwhile, laRocco was putting in the ride of his life and had taken control of third place after having passed Emig at the halfway point. Shortly thereafter he had both Kiedrowski and McGrath in his sights, but was still too far behind to strike. The crowd was on its feet as McGrath and Kiedrowski swapped places back and forth during the last two laps, and they were just two turns from the checkered flag when they collided. NI shouldn't have gone that wide in the turn after the whoops," said Kiedrowski, whose bike's exhaust pipe ' sported a deep gash where McGrath's bike had hit it. "I wasn't protecting my lines like I should have. He (McGrath) had to hit me in order to get b y. He came on the inside of me and his bike hit my front wheel and flipped up . I kept going and ca reen ed in to the mechanics' area; I tried getting back onto the track as soon as I could, but I had to wheelie over a hay bale and got hung up on it. Tha t' s when Mike (laRocco) passed me. If I hadn't hit that hay bale I would've won ." "I hit a berm and shot out (into Kiedrowski)," said McGrath. "I sort of rammed him, but it wasn't on purpose. I looped out when I hit him." Despite crashing hard, McGrath was basically uninjured in the fall. "My knee hurts a little," said McGrath. "1 figured 1 had a good pace going; I just screwed up," he added. "I simply beat myself." Emig hung on to finish fourth, just a few inches behind McGrath, while Ward completed the top five. Stanton, who started the race in fourth, dropped back two places to finish sixth while Matiasevich climbed one place to land seventh. Lamson and Swink finished eighth and ninth, respectively, while Kehoe finished a season-high 10th. Craig, who was bothered by a sore back, finished 19th, after running up front early in the race. 125cc Mike Brown, who won his first-ever 12See main event two weeks ago at the Pontiac Supercross, was the early leader in the IS-la p 125cc feature, but Button, in fourth,was the rider to watch. The tall and lanky ride r bullied his way around Lusk and into third during the first lap, then bumped DGY Racing's Chad Pederson off the track for second on the second lap. Two la ps la ter, Button sent Brown sprawling. NI had to get into the lead as quick as possible," sa id Bu tton of his questionable passing technique. "Yeah, I made a few rough passes, but the championship was at hand . I was just really determined to do whatever it took to get into the lead." Once in front, Button was never challenged and went on to w in his third 125cc main event of the series . But while Button cruised, a se rious dogfight developed among Suzuki's Lusk, Da m o n Huffman, Team Splitfire/Pro-Circuit/Kawa sak i' s James Dobb arid Ryan Hughes. Keeping an eye on them all was Honda of Troy's Craig Decker. Huffman actually s ta rted the race near the back of the pack, but had joined the fight for second after only a few laps. Positions changed lap after lap in an e xciting, crowd -pl ea s in g battle. Hughes, however, crashed on the 11th lap while trying to pass Lusk for third. The Kawasaki rider clipped Lusk's rear tire and high-sided in a fast, sweeping left tum. He quickly remo unted - losing one position to Huffman - only to crash again when he landed short over a triple jump. The Kawasaki rid er end ed up 18th. When it was all ov er a nd the dust had settled, it was Lusk preva iling to finis h second, just ah ead of Huffman, Dobb and Decker. His sec o nd -place fin ish was more than enough for Lusk to take the cham- pionship and he was awarded the number-one plate on the podium by the AMA 's Roy [anson; N a big relief it's to get this off my shoulders," said Lusk, "With about three races ago, at Charlotte, it (lead ing the championship) began affecting me. I kept thinking about it; I pumped up and started riding too conservatively. Tonight, there was a lot of ramming going on and I kept looking around; I was scared someone was going to ram me. I'm looking forward to the 250s no w ." "It was a dogfight," said Huffman. "You had to watch your back or somebody would pass you while you Y(ere trying to pass someone." COl Texas Stadium Irving, Texas Resuhs: April 23, 1994 125 HEAT 1: 1. Robbie Reyna rd (Kaw): 2. Joh n Dowd (Yam); 3. Donald Upton (Yam); 4. Jeff Pestana (lion); 5. Pedro Gonzalez (Kaw) ; 6. Davey Yezek (Hon); 7. Craig Decker (Hon); 8. Damon Hufhnan (502); 9. Jeff Curry (Kaw); 10. Axel Holvoet (Ya m); 1 J. Hm Neese (Kaw): 12. Clint Lat ha m (Hon); 13. Lowell Mo ural (Hon); 14. Ryan Hughes (Kaw); 15. Jim Chester (yam); 16. Ty Birdwell (Hon ); 17. Grayson Goodman (Hon ); 18. Jeff Hedden (Hon); 19. Scott Sheak (Yam ); 20. Yuichiro Kawashima (Hon). Time: 6 min.,25.40 St.' C 125 HEAT 2: 1. Ezra Lus k (So2); 2. Hmmy Bulton '8.: ' ·.rlefl ' "'. :.:..'. . . :': .'· ... .:. , lIin m Ga d d ls ;·. ' ~t' t.h·a s~.Ii:tjire(Pr . ' , ' _Kawasaki's· RC!bble Reynar. l CraS . . ·Y:: ,, , ·o'· I .hed hard Circuitll

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