Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127674
three-seco nd lead o ver Kie drowski, Team Noleen/ Sizzler Res ta ura n ts / Xtreme/Yamaha's Larry Brooks, LaRocco, Larry Ward and Stan ton. As the race progressed , laRocco se ttle d in to third right behind Kiedr owski, w hile Stanton soon gui ded his Honda into fourth. Meanwhile, Craig was still cha rging hard, but nearing the halfway point it wa s obviou s that he was beginning to run ou t of steam , as Kiedrowski and LaRocco were dosing the gap . "Oh ma n 1 felt great. ..at firs t," said Craig of his early lead . "I was riding as hard as 1 could, bu t 1 used up all of my energy ." Crai g wa s soo n passed by the tw o Ka w asaki riders, as well as Stanton, before settl ing into fourth where he would eventua lly finish . Both Kiedrowski and LaRocco had broken free of third-placed Stanton and were involved in another cl assic Kied rowski/laRocco duel for the lead. For Kiedrowski, winning the moto was crucial. A victory would all but guarantee that at the very worst he would leave Michigan with equal points to laRocco. And a s u bseq u en t w in in moto two would allow him to ga in at least six po ints. Simply put, Kiedrowski wanted the win . The two Kawa saki rid ers had many of the spectators running from one side of th e track to the other, their eyes peeled on the dramatic dogfight between the two teamrnates. Though never more th a n a bike length or tw o behind Kied rowski, LaRocco, who is still looking for hi s firs t National wi n on hi s "home" track, just couldn't seem to get the extra drive need ed to pass the leade r. Up until the last lap, the two battled cleanly, but on the last lap , things got ugly. LaRocco made a last-ditch pass attempt through a tight, right-hand turn. Diving to the inside to protect his line, Kiedrowski was drilled from behind by laRocco, and the two riders locked ha ndle ba rs. Kiedrowski lost control of his bike and went down, while LaRocco managed to stay u pright and con tin ue on to take t h e m o to win. A n a n g ry Kiedrowski quickly remounted to finish second. Moments after crossing the finish line, in a fit of rage, the normally mild and even-tempered Kiedrowski revved up his bike's engine, leapt off the back and launched his Kawasaki into the side of laRocco, w ho was slowly riding off the track. Sh o r tl y aft er that, La Rocco, Kied rowski and the rest of the Kawasaki team, including manager Roy Turner, headed back in to th e pi ts and d isappeared in to th e tea m 's trac tor-traile r, while AMA officials discussed what they had just seen in another comer. . The AMA's Roy Janson said : "Right now it (the crash) looks like it was just racing, but we 'll review the incid ent,on video, and if it looks as tho ug h it was more than th at, we'll take appro priate actions (fines). But Kiedrowski will definitely be fined for his retaliatory actions after the race." In the Kawasaki pits, Kiedrowski and LaRocco later reappea red , b ut neith er . would talk about either incident. "We decided not to talk abou t it," said Kiedrowski la ter. La Rocco echoed Kiedrow ski' s commen ts. After reviewing both incidents on video, the AMA fined laRocco $400 (the difference between first- and secondplace m o to fi nishes) for ra mming Kiedrowski, and fined Kiedrowski $1000 (plus probation) for ghost-riding his bike into laRocco. While the controversy at the front of (Left) Mike laRocco (7) and Mike Kiedrowski (1) continued their classic seaso nlong battle in the 250cc class at Red Bud. The Kawasaki teammates traded 1-2 moto finishes ยท again - with Kiedrowski winning the tiebreaking second moto. laRocco maintains his eight-point lead over the defending champ. (Below) Jeff Stanton (5). here leading Kiedrowski in the second 250cc mete , finished third overall with a pair of third-place finishes. Afterthe race. Stanton announced his retirement. the pack was going on, Stant on made a late-race pass on Craig to finish third, w hile Jeremy McGrath, who'd had a midpack start, worked his way up to finish a respectable fifth. Ward hung onto sixth, while Kyle Lewis, Matiasevich, Suzuki's Jimmy Button and Honda of Troy's Todd DeHoop rounded ou t the top 10. The crowd a n tici pa ted an other Kied rowski and laRocco duel in the second moto , and they were no t disappointed, though it did take a little while for th e bat tle to ta ke sh ape . Kiedrow sk i nailed the holeshot but crashed a few turns later, handing the lead to Suzuki's Brian Swink, while LaRocco settled into second. Kied ro wski remoun ted in fifth behind Stanton and Craig. . " I got a great start, but was pushed out of a rut by Swink and went down," said Kiedrowski. McGrath's problems continued, .as the Supercross champ went down in the first turn, but this time he couldn't catch back u p. He crashed again later in the race and eventually p ulled out of the moto. Me a n w hile up front, Swink, w h o failed to finish the first moto after crashing, led for a whole lap before ge tting passed by laRocco. Two laps later, both Stan ton and Kiedrowski scooted by the Su zuki rider, settling in to second and third, respectively. laRocco found himself with a rather large eight-second lead, while Kiedrowski spent the next few laps trying to get around Stan ton. By t he tim e Kied rows ki got by Stanton, La Rocco h ad built up a seemingly uncatchable nin e-second lead. Three laps later, that margin hadn't Changed, and it looked as though LaRocco wo uld win his second moto of the day. It wasn 't to be, however. Four laps from the finish, LaRocco emerged from the back side of the track wi th Kiedrowski within two seconds of his rear fend er. "I just fell over coming out of a ru t," said laRocco. Once again, the two Kawasaki riders were dicing for the lead . laRocco held Kiedrowski off for th e next three laps until he grabbed a little too muc h front brake and lost the front end of his bike and Kiedrowski simply rode around his downed teammate. Kiedrowski inherited a three-second lead , which he would h old onto during the remaining two laps. " It was one hell o f a race," sa id Kiedrowski. "To beat laRocco here is an accomplishment." Finishing a distant third was Stanton, who surprised his home-state crowd by officially announcing from the rostrum tha t he would retire at the end of the season (See In The Wind) . Matiasevich outlasted a race-long duel with Button to finish fourth, while Lewis crossed the finish line in sixth, just ahead of Sw ink and teammate Ward. C ra ig d ro p ped bac k to fi nish ninth, while John Dowd, who finished 11th in the first rnoto, compl eted the top 10, thus maintaining his third place in the series point standings. 12Scc NAnONAL Hughes, Emig and Henry spent the entire 125cc first moto dicing back and forth, while Lamson could do no more than watch from a distan t fourth. Emi g led th e way for the first lap u n til nearly flying ove r the handlebars afte r getting cross ed u p in a " ...h uge tractor rut, " said Em ig . " I mean th is thing was deep . 1 ju st hung on and pinned it." Despite "barely saving it," Hughes and then Henry passed the Ya m a ha rider. The three rid ers quick ly b roke awa y from the rest of the pack and played follow the leader for over half the race until, all of a sudden, Emig emerged leading the way over Henry and Hughes, who were fairly sp read out. "I caught my shift lever in a rut, and went down and Henry ra n into me ," said Hughes. "It was all my fault." By the 20-m in u te mark, Emig had opened up a sizeable lead , and he eventually took th e checkered flag approximately eigh t seconds ahead of Henry, while H ug hes finished approxima tely nine seconds behind Henry . Lamson spent the entire moto all alone in fourth, with Team Splitefire/Hot Wheel/ProCircuit/Kawasaki's James Dobb finishing fifth. Kawasaki's Robbie Reynard ended up sixth, while Su z uki's Lusk edged out Mike Brown for seven t h . Suzuki support rider Denny Stephenson and Suzuki's Damon Huffman rounded out the top 10. Suzuki-mounted GregRand, from Hillsboro, Ohio, grabbed the holeshot in ~ the second moto and hung with the lead- 0\ ers before crashing on the second lap ...... an d dropping out of conte ntion. Hughes once again took control, bu t had Henry breathing down his neck . Way back in the pack, 14 seconds behind the leaders , was first-mote winner Emig. "I just blew it," said Emig of his poor start. "I slipped the clutch too mu ch" 7