Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

.MOTOCROSS ·.:', ., ... ... '" . :A ANational C M hampionshipM·olocro~s·series.: ~ound 11 :B roome-Tioga Sports Center By Davey Coombs -' BINGHAMTON, NY, AUG. 28 4 " Winn ing this race is so cool!" shouted John Dowd in the w inner's circle. The ecstatic Dowd won both 250cc motos aboard a Brian Berry-tuned fact ory bike on lo an from Team Yamaha, and took a step closer to sewing up viee-champion honors in the series. "Th is is like a hometown race for me," continued Dowd, a New England nativ e. "To come here and win in front of all myoid friends and fans is really a great feeling.! really wasn't expectin g this." Earlier in the day, fellow New Englander Doug Henry, rid ing for the Honda/ l 800-COLLECT factory team, made a move of his own by winning the 125cc class and closing in on his second-straight crown. "I wanted to come here and concentrate on my own race and not the points or anything else," said Henry. "The track is great and the fans are great, and I'm just glad everything wo rked out the wa y it did." Dowd and Henry were the popular winners of what could only be described as a brilliant day of racing on the spectacular Broome-Tioga track. Numerous close bat. tles, sev eral spectacular jumps and a few startling crashes made for an exciting and action-packed da y of racing for the 8000plus enthusiastic fans who witnessed the 16th annual event. Dowd won the first 250cc moto outright from Team Suzuki's Brian Swink and previously crowned '94 250cc National Champion Mik e laRocco. In the second moto Dowd emerged from a spectacu lar fivebike freight train to beat Team Noleen/Sizzler/Yamaha's Larry Ward and outgoing motocross legend Jeff Stanton, who crashed into the woods on the first lap of the first moto and could not extract his motorcycle from the trees. Dowd's consistency was not matched by anyone else in the field. Ward's 6-2 was good for second ove rall, and Suzuki's Jimmy Button was third via a 4-4 score. "I want everyone out there to know that John Dowd and I are priva teers, and we appreciate the fact th at they were cheering for us out there and ap pr eciate the hard work we do," said Ward after a career-high 250cc outdoor finis h. "That was a great race for everyone because we got to seeSupercross Champions, National Champions - everyone up there dicing. But John Dowd had th e race of his life and nobody could beat him." LaRocco's day w as filled with bad starts and bad crashes . In the first moto he worked his way up to third afte r exiting the l8O-degree first turn almos t dead last. He was in contention for the second-mote win, along with Team Honda's Jer emy McGrath, until tw o separate cras hes on trick y jump sections knocked him out of contenti on. . "I kept going for it, but unfor tunately it didn't payoff," said laRocco, who ended up fifth overall . "The track was tricky and ] just made some mistakes." While Dowd had every reaso n to be excited about winning for his local fans, Henry has become the master of taking ad vantage of his home tracks. The champ also won the Southwick, Massachusetts, round of the series earlier this season and, while on his wa y to the '93 national title, won both Binghamton and South wick last year. "I love to come back and race in this area because I grew up on these tracks," said Connecticut's Henry. "Even though ] didn't win both mo te s, it feels great to have pulled so many points. Now we go to Steel City with an even bigger lead." Henry has been in a late-season battle with teamma te Steve Lamson for the championship, but Lams on's slim titl e hopes got slimmer when he struggled to sixth overall via 11-3 scores, In fact, lamson is no longer the closest competitor to Henry in the rankings. Tha t role now belongs to Hughes, third ov erall on the d ay with a 2-5 score, but st ill 36 points behind Henry with one race to go. Lamson is another seven points back. "I got a bad start in the first moto and then I landed on my ankle and messed it up," said Lamson. "I rode better in the second moto but that first moto hurt me bad." Th e Binghamton track was its usual rough self, but with more stadium obstacles thrown into the rocky mix than in the past. Cool, cloudy weather existed all day long but a massive thunderstorm rolled into the area jus t moments after the final 250cc rnoto, causing promoter Jack Skutnik to joke, "That's just the way we planned it" 250Cc NATIONAL Dowd blas ted into the first-moto lead ahead of Honda Of Troy's Todd Del-loop, Noleen / Sizzler / Yamaha 's Larry Brooks and Stanton. McGrath was no better than 10th; LaRocco did not fall in the first turn, but neverthe less was at the very back of . the pack at the end of the first lap. DeHoop blasted right into th e lead when he practically jumped over Dowd's head on th e downhill double. Stanton quickly pushed Dowd out of his wa y, only to ge t repa ssed tw o turns later by the cr afty pri vateer. Stanton again went to make a move on Dowd, but ended up in the woods instead . "I guess that was a bad time to pick to go into the woods to take a dump," joked Stan ton, who went from second to last wh ile t ry ing to fr ee his b ike from the woods. "I jus t hit a bump that lifted the bike up and pitched me into the woods. I was down in a hole with trees all around and I couldn't get the bike out. It was kind of embarrassing." Swink moved up into third and tried to make a pass on Dowd, but instead stalled in a corner. Teammate Button ran into the ba ck of him and both were passed by Ward. "I wa s trying to pass Dowd when I stalled," said Swink, who would go on to put in his best effort since the season-opener in Florida last March. "I landed on the inside of Dowd try ing to pass him, and stalled. ] think Button bumped into me at that point and fell over ." Dowd eventually moved around Del-loop, soon to be followed by Swink. The Suzuki rider pressed Dowd briefly as the two opened some breathing room on third-placed Button and Honda Of Troy's Mike Craig . Both Button and Craig would soon be disp laced by laRocco, who spent the entire moto trying to overcome that bad start. His stadium skills gave him a distinct advantage in the jump sections - he made overhead passes on both Button and Yam aha rider Doug Dubach wh ile negotiatin g the Dunlop Doubles. laRocco finally took the checkered flag third. "I kind of had to take some chan ces," sa id LaRocco. " I had an oka y start and then I fell down on the first lap and mad e myself work hard. I did what I could. I tend to let it hang out a little more than the other gu ys." Dowd 's fast and fluid pace enabled him to move away from Swink and earn his s eco n d moto win o f the seas on , eve n though he wasn't jumping any of the risky obstacles . "I was watching those gu ys behind me jum ping that stuff, but it just looked a little sketchy to me," said Dowd, who finished eighth overall here last year in the 125cc class. "I thought, 'Screw it, I'm going to play it sa fe.' I saw Brian (Swink ) getting sca ry on it, and DeHoop loo ked a little hairy wh en he jum ped that stuff, too. Once I go t the lead] was keep ing an eye on Brian, and] knew I d idn 't have to risk jumping stuff because I was doing fine without d oing them." " I kept my eye onCraig and Butt on, and wasn't too worried un til I saw Lakocco get them ," said Swink of his late-race acceleration. " When I saw Mike get by them I figured it was time to speed up a little, but John was already too far ahead ." "Well, basically.J pretty much sucked," s ai d th e alw ays-ho ne s t McGr ath, wh o could only muster seventh. "I couldn't find a line once. I jus t sucked. I was sliding, I was hitting every bump on the track, every rock. I don 't know - it was just one of those motos where I could n't do anything right." After spend ing a few adrenaline-building momen ts push-starting his stubborn bike, Dowd g rabbed himself the secondmoto holeshot. "This factory bike has been getting me the starts," said Dowd . "I don't know if it's the bike or the Dunlop tire that hooks up so well, but it sure makes my life easier." But an in vi g o rated McGrath al so hoo ked up w ell. He took the lead from Dowd and held the point in what turned out to be a fantastic five-man fight for the lead. Dowd, Stanton, Ward and laRocco were the oth ers included in the fight, but Swink suffered a bad start. While the leaders were setting up to do battle, a terrib le crash in front of th e announcer' s tow er end ed th e day for Honda Of Troy teammates DeHoop and Craig. DeHoop drifted over on to Craig as they landed from the tunnel jum p, and he came down with such force that he sheered Craig's hand leb ar off at the rig ht tr iple clamp. Both riders required medical attention, but neither appeared to be seriousl y injured. The banging up front resulted in temporary lead s by both McGrath and Stanton, but near the halfway point McGrath ruined his chances - and very nearly himself when he misfired on the Dunlop Doubles. "I got some wheelspin coming out the corner and it just kept spinning right up the face of the first one," said McGrath, who then did a flat-wheel land ing into the face of the second big jump. "Man, ] smashed my nuts so hard I couldn 't breathe! I banged my head off the crossbar pad and just rode around dazed for a couple of laps. You can't believe how bad that hurt!" LaRocco was next to depart the race for the moto wi n . He lost control of his Kawasaki in a whoop section and crashed

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