Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Rounds 10: Washougal, Washington (Lett) A huge crowd lined the scenic Washougal track. (Bottom left) Ryan Hughes, of the SplltFlreIHot WheelslPro ClrculllKawasakl team, used 1-3 moto finishes to win his second 125cc NatIonal of the season. (Below) An Ignition problem In Donny SChmit's bike kept the Yamaha crew busy~ (Lett to right) Bob Oliver, Bob Hannah, Brian Lunnlss and Jon Rosenthlel managed to complete the job just minutes before SChmit was to compete In the las1-chance qualifier. 'B .. fI'.' ' rIe Y Tallon Vohland was' another ,GP nlgUIar who ' visited WashOugal. "I just love this track," Said " , ,', " .• Vohland, who Went 3-6 for fourth overalL "' , '. cou ld've stayed in Europe 'and just tralned. -Team Yamaha's Jeff Emlg decided to s~ 'out .but what ·better 'way is there to tra inthan ' the 125cc National at Washougal after riding ' : race? 'Actuall y,-,everything came together , four laps in the moming pract ice sesSion. "I ,' really well, or I probably wouldn't have done crashed real bad yesterday (Saturday) While : it. Honda of Troy helped me out a lot and , practic in'g on another track n earby ," said everything just went so easy.Trn a little tired, . Emig, "I landed off a ski jump with 'both' feet' , though . I fett a 'lillie flat out there: I just got off the too tpeqs: my hand came oftand 't -: back from Venezuela on Monday and I'm crashedat high speed. My back and right hip . leaving for Japan on Tuesday : I'm jlJst a little , 'are real sore; my,whole 'right side is one big , tired right now; but I had fun." Vohland said road rash." Later that night, Emig was rushed that he wouldn't mind racIng in the U.S . next' , to the hospi tal. "For .sorne reasonl started , ' year it something came together but will most shaking ' uncontroUably; I had the shakes . It likely go back to Europe. "I'm looking at a few ,' wasthescanest til ing that's ever happened ",things right now; Pepsi Honda wants me to me. I was hyper-ventilating and had to con- : back. Honestly , I think I'll go back to .Europe.' centrate ' on breath ing . At about 11:00 last There ,I can race 'factory bikes that' are.'as . night, Brian'Lunniss took me to the 'h ospital.-,:" good , as.wh~t Jeremy (McGrath) rides here. , and we left about 3:00 a.m-The doctors . " Plus, ,1 like , lt there , the people (and) the money." " , ; di dn't'know why I st ar ted shaking . It' was scary. I rode about four laps of , practice this :' morning , but my right hip and back were just , Yamaha pri vateer Jeff. Mallasevlch was too sore: I couldn't sit down (on the, bike) in '-- unable to start the 250cc National after sufthe comers." Emig says he should have no " , fering a possible broken fool during practice at Washouga l. ' Repo rtedly, M atiase vich , pro blems maki ng the next round at Binghampton , New York; in 'two weeks : . .' ,, ' caught his foot -under his bike and was immediately t aken to a Portland hospital for x-rays. , As mentioned in the story, GP regular Donny Schm it made a rare U.S . appearance , at' , An eucnorrwas h eld for 14-year-ol d Becky Washougal. ,' We had an off wee k before , ,Eakin; who was critically injured when a rider going to Japan fOr the next GP ,' said Schmit. lost control o f his. mot orcycl e wh ic h then "I like this track and 'thought it woUld be fun." ' ca reened into the crowd dur ing Saturday's SC hmit,decked out in 'his usual Chesterfie ld ,' . amateur program at Was hougal: Eak in, a Spectator, was air-lifted to Emanuel Hospital teamcolor s, rode the same bike that Jeff Emlg pil ot ed to 1-8' moto fini shes at the in PortJand, Oregon , where she is in a cOma. ' Budds Creek U.S. '25Occ GP on July 31: AS Approximately" $15,000 was raised towards . taras Schmit's future plans , he says that he'd : her medical expenses. Many of the ,riders just as soon start racing ,i n the U .S: again. . , donated riding equipment and odds and ends "I'm notsure yet, 'but 'it someth ing came up ' for the aucnon; one notable item was Jeremy McGrath's second-place trophy -' earned that here (in the u .s.) I'd like .to race here (next day ,- which Sold for $600. ' " ' .' y ear), preferably wilhYamaha. They've treated me real well and they do a good job. rm: just getting 'a littl e burned out on the .GPs Suzuki' s Phil Lawrence, who is still recover, right now. If nothing comes up here. I'll prot>.: ing from broken collaibone, was a spectator , ' , ". ' Washougal. ,"Aetually, I rode a little bit on ably quit" , . , " , press 'day,-Thursday," said Lawrence .- ~But . " ' . Speaking of Donny Schmit he came within a " I'm through with the Nationals this year . Right few minutes of not even making the program ' , ' now I'm concentrating on getting healthy at Washougal. in his first qualifier.ih lsYama-". again and thinking about next - it can't be any ha's ignition went out on the f irst lap.' With ': worse than ,this year.~ Lawrence says that his about 15 minutes before the start of his Last ", . days with Suzuki are mostlikely over. " Chance Qualifier; his motorcycle was corn- ' .' ' :' " " '. . ,' __ ' , -pletety torn down. With the help of Brian " ·, Clark Jones, 'inanager of Team Noleen,SaYs Lunniss, Keith McCarty, BobOlhier,-Jon ' that he doesn't expect any big charigeswitti , Rosenthlel and Bob Han,nah, Schmit's bike " his team' for ,1995. "We'U probably keep the . was, delivered to ,him ' ; by Hannah '. on the , same three rider's : LilrryBrooks, Lilrry Ward 'start fine with only a' f~w 'minutes 10 spare. "It . .and Kyle Lewis," said Jones . "There's been a was quite a feeling seeing 'these guys ,work-" 'lot of rumors ' of Ward changing teams,-but 'ing on my bike. That waspretty neal " A first- ,he's 99% ' confirrned (at Team Noleen) , We tum crash sidelined ,SChmit in the first Nation- ' are plann ing to keep it a three -man roster ; ' al moto; he finished ei\lhth in the.other. three riders fits well for us." ' ~. tured. Two laps fro m th e finish, the engine locked up. (Because of the incident) two riders were lost as well as the championship (for Lamson). But there's still four motos to go and anything can happen." Henry inheri ted the lead when Lamson crashed, bu t he still had Hugh es an d Hu ffman to contend with. Th ree laps later, Henry succumbed to Hughes' relentless attacks. And a few turns later, Huffman was also by the Honda rider. Then, Huffman went after Hughes and passed h im - then Hughes and He nr y bounced of each other with Hughes biting the dust. "We were going into a tum and his (Henry's) back wheel clipped my front wh eel," said Hughes. " 1 just got the bad end of that deal." Hughes w as qu ickly back up in four th but had ,lost contact with Henry an d Huffma n. Dobb had moved into third. Henry came back and repassed Huffman for the lead, and while Hu ffman stayed close, he could not mount a serious challenge to pass the new leade r. On the last lap, Dobb, a teammate of Hughes, was given the word from his mechanic to let Hughes by, thinking that Hughes had to finish ahead of Dobb to take the overall away from Huffman. Dobb reluctantly obliged, moved over and let Hughes by. As it turned out, the move had no bearing on the overall. Had Dobb stayed in third, Hughes still would have won the overall. "It was a team decision, and I'm a team player," said Dobb. "1 did what I had to do, b u t everyone knows 1 would've had third." "It really didn't matter," said Hug hes, "1 would've won anyway. A 1-4 (43 points) would 'v e beaten Damon's 3-2 (42 points). I'm glad it didn' t mat ter; I would not have liked to win that way." Officiall y, Henry scored th e mot o win ahead of Hu ffman, Hughes, Dobb and Pederson, w hile Ping ree, Decker, Tun Ferry, Mike Brownand Scott Sheak . rounded out the top 10. Huffman ended up second overall, and ahead of Henry and Dobb. Oi ,- ,at a

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