Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

:· A.MA 1251250Cc R S ' MotcicrosS.Series . Round 4'• Hl'gh POI'nt Raceway M T CNational S'·. .'. '. .. O O O Championship - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - (Above) Scott Sheak crashes In fr ont of James Dobb (30) and the rest of the pac k In th e seco nd ' 125cc moto. Craig Decker (141) and Kevin Windham (510) narrowly avo id hitting the fallen rider. (Far left) Henry' s win at the High Point Nat ional was his fi rst of th e season. (Left) In his second pro race ever , louisiana's Kev in Windham led the fi rst 125cc moto until getting passed by Doug Henry on the last lap. ferent brands of mot orcycles. Not far behind Emig, Huffman pursu ed. On the fifth lap , Lusk passed Henry, as d id Hu gh es and Emig sho rtly thereafter, relegating the Honda rid er to ' fo urth . Lusk held th e point another two laps befo re Hughes decided he wanted to take o ver th e reins, and p as se d th e factory -ba cked Su zu ki rider. At this point, however, Emig had had enough of third, an d wanted a sho t at Hughes. Emig qu ickly blasted by Lusk an d set his sights on the new lead er, Hughes. Th e two rid er s so on eng aged in a tigh t, one-on -on e d uel for the lead that lasted thr ou gh ou t the remaining seven laps . Hughes and Emig immedia tely d etached th em selves fro m Lusk, who now had his hands full w ith Huffman breathing down his back . Henry, meanw hile, had dropped back to fifth. An epic ba ttle between Hughes and Emig had the near stand ing-roam-only crowd in a frenzy. "I couldn't believe it; they (the spectators) were going crazy," said Emig . "It really was amazing; they were so loud." Emig was relentless in his attacks on Hughes, b ut th e Kawa saki ride r wo uld n' t bud ge or give an inch. In some sections of the track, Hughes obviously had quicker lines, whil e in others , Emig had the edge. It wa s n' t u ntil two laps from the finish that Ernig got the better d rive corn in g ou t of a wi de swee ping left-hand tum and barely won the drag race to the next tum. Hughes never let u p, keeping th e p ressure on during the last two lap s, but he couldn't mount a seri ous chal lenge, and Emig went on to win over Hug hes. "Man, that was tou gh - real tough," said Emig. "I got a shitty start and had to work my way back up. I wanted to save my en ergy, b u t I coul dn't let up . Ryan was rid ing great; he was keeping me honest and wasn 't giving up . It was a great race - no, an aw esome race." Emig attributed his mo ta win to the crowd . "They were cheering so loud, I thou ght to myself, ' I gots to w in this one!'" po sit ion, fini shin g fifth, w hile Brooks charged hard th e w hole race to take sixth. After finishi ng fi fth in th e fi r st mota, Bu tton crashed w hil e r unn ing second ea rly in mot a two and d ropped back a couple of notches to seven th . La wrence, Dowd and Dubach , an early front-ru nner, rounded ou t the top 10. 125cc NATIONAL 12 "I r eall y di d n't want i t to come d own to the las t coup le of laps, so I tri ed to ge t aw ay from Mik e (LaRoc co)," said Kiedrowski. "He stuck with me, b ut I pulled away fro m h im jus t eno ugh." As he had done in the fir s t mo ta, McGrath finished all alone in third, wit h Craig, aga in, a distan t fourth. Craig had actually grabbed the hol esh ot, bu t fell before the first lap was complete. Swink imp roved on his first-mote sixth by one The first 125cc mota was highlighted by a brillian t ride turned in by ro o kie Ke vin Windha m, fro m Baton Ro u ge, Loui siana. Co m pe ti ng in only hi s second professio nal mo tocro ss (the firs t was at the Gainesville Nationa l in Ma rch), Wind ha m g rabbed the holesho t and led nearly the en tire race until gett in g pa ssed by defe nding champion Doug Henry on the very last lap. Des pite m issing the first Na tional mo ta w in of his yo ung car eer by less than half a lap, the Kawasaki Team Green -backed Windham was all smiles after the race. "It would 've been grea t to have won it (the mota )," said Wind ham, "bu t at this stage (of his career) winning really isn' t tha t important; proving I can han g w ith these guys is. I tried not letting the pressure get to me, bu t it's hard not to when you come up to the starting ga te and line up ne xt to Henry, Emig and those guys. I'm just happy I kept my head and didn' t let them influence me on the track." . Henry pu shed Windham for most of th e r ace u n til the 16- year-old ju s t couldn't hold off the veteran on his Pete Steinbrecher-tun ed CR125 an y longer. " I s ta rted to g e t fa ti gued," said Wi nd ham . " O nce I s ta r te d to tire, I began ma king m istakes, so I d ecided that second was better than taking a soil sample. I g uess I kind of surprised myself." While Wind ha m was bu s y with Henry, Ezra Lusk, Steve Lamson, Ryan Hughes, Kawasa ki's Robb ie Reyn ard and Damon Huffman were mixing it up amongst themselves not far behind the lead d uo. These riders swa pped places thr oughout the mota wi th Lamson getting the upper hand over Hughes, Reynard, Lusk an d Em ig, who spent th e en tire mota trying to mak e up fo r a 15th-place start. He nry led the way ea rly in the second mo ta, leaving scattered behind him on the track many riders who had gone down thro ug h th e openi ng seri es of turns, including Lamson, Reynard, Scott Sheak, Brian Deegan, Joel Dengler and Chad Lough. The stage was again set, with Henry leading the cha se followed clos ely by Lusk, Hu ghes and Ernig, all aboard dif- "I really wanted it bad ," said Hughes . "I tried ha rd . I've come so close to winning many times ...I guess I'm a little bummed. Bu t I tu rn e d in tw o good rides, so I'm hap py about that. After all, he (Ernig) is a (former) champion and I stayed with him." Lusk s urvived his own battle with Huffman to fin ish third , while Henry finished a somewhat surp rising fifth. "I tried to stay out in front," said a so mewhat dejected H enry. " I wanted to win that one, but I had some trouble with the carburetor. It was bog gin g slightly and I couldn't ju mp just righ t, I don't know, I was a little down coming here bu t felt grea t after the (first mota) win; now I'm a little bummed aga in. I wis h it wa s the o th er wa y 'round." Henry lef t the High Point Na tional sitti ng in fifth place in the series point sta nd ings, some 23 points behind leader Lamso n. Tim Ferry, o n the RRP- backed Honda , finished a respectable sixth after ro u n di ng th e firs t la p in 11th, wh ile James Dob b, of t he Sp litefir e / H o t Wh eel s / Pro-Ci rcuit /Kawasa ki team , placed seve nth, betteri ng his first-mota performance by five positions. Rounding ou t th e top 10 wer e Mike Brown , La ms on and Honda of Troy Racing' s Craig Decker. Foll ow ing his s pectacu la r perfor m a n ce in the firs t m ota, Windham ended up 11th after starting the mota in seventh. He was sixth overall: Di

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