Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

place 'finish in moto one before riding to his first-ever moto wi n in the second ou ting - and collecting the first National victory of his career. "I can' t be lie ve it; th e littl e squid w o n," sai d Huffman ' s father, Da ve . "That was the longest race of my life. I'm glad I quit smoking, or I'd have had a heart attack!" "I didn't know I had the overall until I came off the track," added a beaming Huffman, who is also well on his wa y to the 125cc Western Regional Supercross titl e. "I used my head and rode good lin es," A popular second overall went the wa y of Team Honda/1-8OO-COLLECf's Steve Lamson, who was raised in nearby Pollack Pines. Lamson won Hangtown's tiddler division two years ago, and was second in the 250cc class last season. His 3-2 moto finishes moved him into a narrow lead in the points chase, 82-81 over Team Suzuki rider Ezra Lusk, who is the newly crowned 125cc Eastern Regional Supercross Champion. Lusk dominated moto one before suffering a poor getaway in the second outing and working up to fifth by mote's end. He was third overall ahe ad of defending champion Doug Henry, of the Honda / 1-8OO-COLLECT team . Te a m Sp litFire / Hot Wheels/ Kawasaki rid er Ryan Hughes was fifth overall, followed by teammate Ja mes D obb , Honda of Troy's Erik Kehoe, DGY Racing 's Chad Pederson, FM F / Answer / Race Tech/Motul/ WO R/Dunlop/Smith/Tsubaki/Works Con nection-spon sored local p rivateer (Above) Kyle lewis (53) fi ni shed an Impress ive th ird overa ll In the 250cc division, hi s best-ever resuh In an outdoor Nati onal. Here, he Is pursued by Jeff Matlasevlch (21) and Mike Kiedrowski (1). (Left) The 250cc class charges off the lin e In mota two, with Brian Swink (10) lead ing the way. Moments later, Swink was pinched off by Michael Craig. Swink crashed hard later In the moto and was knocked out, but fortu nately suffered no ser io us Inj uries. Back In the pack, John Dowd (16) begins a hlghslde... Michael Brandes , and 12Scc We s tern . Region al Supercross Ch ampion Jimmy Gaddis. Noticeably absent from the top-10 results was former champion Jeff Emig, the winner at round one. The Yamaha rid e r was forced to sit out moto one when his YZl25 developed an igni tion problem on the way to the start line, and his subsequent poor gate pick in moto two left him ninth in the moto and 13th overall. Normally held in late June, the Hangtown National was moved forward to early May for '94, and fans and riders alike were rewarded with muchimproved weather and track conditions. The day was approximately 20 degrees cooler than last year's 100 degree-plus scorcher, and while dust was aga in prevalent in the second motes, it was not nearly as big a problem as in '93. Sand was added to several spots of the ultra-high-speed track - known for its hard-packed surface. Still, conditions were far from loamy. Approximately 8000 spectators were on hand to watch the action. 250Cc NATIONAL Mike Craig ju mped out front off the start of moto one, with Kyle Lewis and Larry Ward ma king it a Yamaha 1-2-3 in th e earl y going. Kawasaki 's tw o Mikes LaRocco and Kiedrowski - wer e sixth and seventh, respectively, and qu ickly set about improving their positions. Stanton ad vanced from fourth to second in the space of one and a half laps, but his charge was short-lived . The sixtime supercross and motocross champion swapped over a high-speed downhill double, going down hard at the bottom of the hill. "He got a little sideways out of the tum at the top of the hill," said Stanton's mechanic Wyatt Seals. "Normally it would have been no problem, but he swapped a little off the next jump, then he swapped more over the one after that. By the time he got to the bottom, he was out of shape." Stanton's crew members ru sh ed to his aid, but despite having been momentaril knocked unconscious, Stanton s ruggled to h is feet and attempted to rejoin the race. His CR' s carb was flooded , however, and he finally handed the bike to Sea ls a nd walked back to the pits. Sta nton later tried to contest moto two but, suffering from a sore back, he pulled off the track midway through the race. . By lap three of the 14-lap m oto , laRocco and Kiedrowski we re second and third and closing on the leading Craig. Under the p ressure, Cra ig bega n to crack and the tw o Kawasaki ri d ers moved by in unison, in a ho rseshoe at the top of a hilL • "I felt fine, bu t I made a mistake, and then I sta rted making more mistakes," said Craig. "I have to get over tha t." La Rocco and Kiedrowsk i pu lled away from the pack and held their positions for the remainder of the race, with Kiedrowski n e ver ab le to seriously threaten his teammate. "I g o t a d ecent start, ahead of Kied row ski - and he never reall y put a w heel in on me," LaRocco said. "We had our own race going," sai d Kied rowski . "Wh en he'd make a pass, I'd ma ke a pass. We were pretty much equal I wanted to pass him, but I never really got the drive I needed to try it." Craig held on to fi nish a d is tant third, followed by Le wi s and Ward . Swink was sixth ahea d of Honda privateer Mike Healey, who was also contesting the Sound of Thunder four-stroke exhib ition race. Craig again holeshot moto two, with Lewis again giving chase in second. Jeff Matiasevich held down third ahead of Stanton and Kiedrowski, while laRocco was back in eighth. "About 20 minutes before the second m o to, I s tarted having chills," sai d laRocco. "We didn't know what was wrong. The medics came over, but they couldn't rea lly do anythi ng, so I we n t out and rode. I felt a little better after that , but I was still nervous, because I didn't know what was happenin g to me. It kind of freaked me out." Though the orig in of laRocco's ailment was still u nclear after the race, some Kawasaki crew members were of the opinion that he was suffering from food poisoning. Kiedrowski had worked his way up to second by lap four of the 3O-minute plus two-lap race, and Craig again started making mistakes. The pass was executed in the back section, just before the hal fwa y point, then Kied rowski be gan extending a lead that he held to the finish. Sec ond place was battled over between Craig, Lewis, Matiasevich and LaRocco, with Craig departing the battle when he crashed over the hangman's tree jump on lap 10. Before the crash, he had been passed by both Lewis and Matiasevich. "My front wheel locked up; I think I accidentally hit my brake in the air," said Craig. "After that my throttle was hang ing off, so I had to pound it back on ." Craig finished 28th in the rnoto , A shaky laRocco also dropped back from the battle, leaving Lewis and Matiasevich to argue over the second position. Lew is appeared to have it, until Matiasevich forced his way by two laps from the finish . Lewis held on to finish third ahead of laRocco and Brooks. " I go t about the same s tart (as in moto one), and then moved in to third really quick," said overall winner Kiedrowski, who took home $1600 from the $27,500 250cc class purse. "After tha t I just se t a good pace. Moto two was a lot easier." "I'm not too surprised," said Lewis of his third-overall finish - the best of his career. "My bike's really powerful and I've been training a lot. Jeff got me at the end when my arms started pumping up . I thought it would be better to ge t passed than to risk crashing." 125cc NATIONAL As the riders began their parade lap before th e first 125cc rnoto, Jeff Emig's bike bega n to cut out a nd Ya ma ha mechanics immediately took it back to the team semi. There, they fran tica lly attempted to fix the electrical prob lem during the Nati onal An th em, but ran sh ort on time and watched th e pack leave the line without Emig. "Just as I was taking the bike to the line, it w oul d n't rev out," sai d Emig's tuner Steve Butler. "1 changed the plug, but then it happ ened aga in on the parade lap : We tried to fix it, bu t there wasn't enough time." Jimmy Gaddis led off the sta rt , but Ezra Lusk moved by at the bottom of a hill and began pulling away. Steve lamson soon moved up to second, but Lusk had already built a comfortable advantage. Doug Henry moved up on his teammate Lamson, and after trying for several laps, passed in the back section at the halfway point of the 14-lap race. "It 's kind of hard to pass your teammate," said Henry. "I wanted to get by, bu t I didn't want to hit him. The track was good for passing, but there were a ~ 9

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