Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

:M T C O S..Motoc:rOs~ Series O OCRpionship -. . . S .AMAN ational ham (Above) Wyatt seals' pit boa rd says It all. seals was Jeff Stanton's tuner th is year. (Above) Jeff Sta nton (5) competed In his last race at Stee l City. Here he chases down J ohn Dowd en route to a s ixth overall placing. thinkin g, I go tta keep this g uy be hi nd m e. I madesome m ista kes ha lfway through the race and he got up to me. I got m y head back on and tried to pull back a wa y . Some ti m es w h en a guy catches y o u an d then y o u pull back aw ay even a li ttle bit it w ill mes s that guy's h ea d up. I don't know if tha t's w h a t worked w i th Je ff or if h e ju s t d eci ded not to g o fo r it.. . Yo u know, that guy was winning National championship s when I was still racing as an amateur Loretta Lynn's!" "It felt good," said Stanton of his ride. " I kept it on two wheels but it 's hard to pass out there without taking some chances. This track has always been noted for its high speeds and for ·.. fl V•. ~'. .' ..Bte. ' r. . . " . . . ~ (Right) Sie ve Lamso n (4), here leading Rabble Reynard (33), made It a Team Honda 1-2 champions hip swee p in the 125cc final point standings. He also finished second at Steel City. .; .. . i " .. , . . .', ~~Ing ., ' ' MI~ Craig; oil this Weekend after inJ~ring his m;kle at BrOOme ~Toog~ Is ; also saidbe ir, coniention'feir the Kawasakijob inJ apan. .':. ' . . . ... '" , . . . :. ~~·prO: Stats, a~mputersc~ring ~nd~iini~9· Company~ to .;. that has been dOckJng,"ttie 'p" o Nationals this 'summer fo_~ several team r 'nie Stee i CitY ' National inciuciedtw6 small cerem'onie~ io h~rior ihe :.'managerSaridthe AMA, the fastest laP of the day ori the long Stee l CitY . long' anddistiilguished career of six~time ctiamp Jeff Stanton;'Beloi'e " track was that of Mike uiRoccO at 3:29, clicked off during the opening ' thE! first mete s tanton'spoke to his fans lrom the announcer's tower and ': lap In the first 25OCc' moto. singleiastest·.125Cc ' lap time was a :'his ·Wife Sara was presented a new camera by Racer PrOdueiions, the .',3:32 that ,Robbie Reynard registered On the'lest lap'of the first moto.' ' promoters of the Steel City arid High f>oint Nationals. After the race : ': :. : '. ' . :, '.". ,,:' ," .' , .' , ..,, ; . Honda hilll a large spread set up for'the nder, Iiis'family,:fnends and ' , er ik Kilhae made /1isfirst appearanceat.a pro National sirice injurin'g' j ans to'mingle under: Special.commemorativeT-shirts were 'handed out , .,his back earlier tliis summer, ~I fractured three vertebrae in my back at : in the 'plts and to tr;tck personnel by' AXO, StantOn Clothing sponsor ; ~ Mt Morris '(f>ennsyhiariia) in May,"'said Kehoe, "ttwas a eornpresslon-. 's .and his Image appeared on the event T;shirt and ,the souvenir ptogra'm .fracture of T-S; -6' and : 7.' t should be able to rkre 'again In' about a : cover.,Stanto n startedme pre-race parade lap way before the, rest. of ' montli bui iight now I'm just relaxing and ' hanging out." Kehoe's also, ' the 250 claSs,'s Pending that time 'rid ing 'along the ferice llnes to 's hare , : bee n preparing for'lne after hiS own racing career. "Phil Alderton and J: handshakes 'with the crowd: "My' mechanic Was kind of mad at me after . are going to meet at Honda of Troy In Ohio this weekend and talk about .' . . ', . that " joked Stariton after the ' race: .':WYatt (Seals) said; .'Why did.yoll" next year'~ team," ~id Kehoe.,". '. even go out there n you weren't even going to look at ,the trackr Well, . " , ' . ':" :;.. . . . what theheck!~ Stanton made a slower.lap foRowing .the second mote -. · In the week leaqing up ,to. the International Six Day Enduro at Tulsa,' ' He was also sprayed.down'with champagne by ~ when he'crossed .' Oklahoma, Noleen.win have.a support truck on hand to !lelp cornpetl-' . ".the firiisO fine fo.~ the I~ ti~. :' -. . . ' :.: ." _ ~. tors from aI.1 cOl!ntries: dial in tl:'ei~ bik~ ·.and .pt:epare-for the event. 'V'fe ~ ", , : .: .... . c · · . o. : , . " . " wa nt to be thereto su pport the. riders' and support the event," said . Jeremy McGrath.created qu~e a stirIn Friday's press-day practice Ses-.· 'Noleen's Clark Jones. '"Something like this doesn't come along very . sicn 'when he took to the track'witha set of Scott gOggles on rather than . often, sowe want to do a little something to help make things better for ' his customary OakJeys; Apparently,. McGrath and Oakley had a mid' " anyone Who might need Some help." . . ,:' . . . . . '. week 'dis?greement overMcGrath's involvemimt witha' new sunglasses .....,':. . ., . , " : .. ' ..' , ' ." e company andswitched over to seen .tor the week, nd; McGrath d id not '. "I've been ndinil'th&500 for about two weeks 'now so I thirik I will be :. get his goggles 1r0m. ·Scott's Bevo Forti, who was probablyrnore sur- ' ready next week;".said laRocco of; his upcoming engagement ,as a ' prised than anyone ' about McGratti's falling-out with Oakley: ~I wasn't," . member ofTearri USA at .the Moto cross des Nations. ."Hopefully ,we will : dig up an extra pa ir for him·1 0'wear on'..: have some g~ .luck over there' and keep it going for 'another Year.~ ready:tor this, but .1,think I S1unday n he needs them," sald.Fortiof this 'g ift horse; : " .' : ..,. . ,:laRocco will be joined by Jeff Emlg on a t25 and Mike Kiedrowski on , . . ' : .. -. ":'. ': .' '. " .,:. ': . ., ... :' ." : : ,.... ':. , " . ", a 250. In a related matter; Jeff Stanton wassaid to be the team aner- . Yaniaha privateer Jeff ."Chicken" Matlasevlcti was again a no:show.at ' ~ nate should'someone get hurt, bUtWhilEi KiedroWski's Status reniained : .Ste~1 City but. nevertheless .his l)8me w sS. being churned through.·the ,up in:~e air until. his .performance at Steel" City, the AMA supposedly , rumor milL Matiasevich is said lo:have bee n ,offered a deal to ride for': told Ryan Hughes to get ready for active duty should Kiedrow not be ski .KTM In America as wellas a fullKawasaki ride' for the 'J apanesll Natio": · ableto ride . Why HugheS rather thanStanton? KawaSaki already had a ' ill Olarripiciilships: replacing former NationaJ cOrripetitor Eddie Warren. '. .bike shipped Dlierio Switzeriarid_ BrieflY,.. . " . ... " ,. , The <, can 6 . • . '. .f ' - ' I • • , • " ' . , . ' • • • . ' ". • . ••• ; . . .. -:' . .: : , .: : ' . the fact that it doesn't get rea lly rough. It was fun and all but it was just hard for me to pass." Back in eig h th rode a fr ust rated Brian Swink, who crashed in the first tum and sta rt ed the race dead last. " It seems like eve ry week I get sixth, seventh, eighth... I'm ju st getting tired of it," sa id Swink. " If I could've passed a few more guys I would've been happier. I'm just si ck of being out of the top five ." Last week's o ne-two privateer punch - Dowd and Team Noleen/Sizzler/Xtreme's Larry Ward - struggled on th e fast Steel C ity t rack. D o w d , again competing on the facto ry bike that Mike Craig left behind, ended up seventh overall but he ld on to his second place ranking in the fina l championship standings. Ward struggled with mid-pack s tarts in bo th motos and could only manage eighth overall with a 10-9 score for the two motes, Steel City was an even worse ra ce for Wa rd 's teammate Kyle Lewis, who entere d the race ra nked fourth in the ch a m pionship stan d in gs and finished sixth in the firs t rno to. H owever, a second-moto start crash le ft Lew is with zero p o in ts and dropped him ba ck to seventh in th e final rankings . laRocco led the start again w hen the seco n d m oto go t 'u n d e r w a y . St anton had a great sta rt as well but got caught in the second tum banners and co ul d not free himself fr om the tangle as he rode down the following hill one- ha nded. By the tim e he got the pennants off h is n eck a n d s h o u ld er s h e had los t about 20 positions. McGra th m a d e a be tter start th is tim e and s et himself up in LaR occo's shadow w ith Swink a comfortab le dis tance behind them in third . Kiedrowski rode in 10 th but eventuall y cl imbed into th e top five along w ith Button. The tw o had a vocal encounter that had them over-revving and brake-checkin g one another in the comers. "Look at my arm where Button tried to run up on me," said Kiedrowski of the scrapes tha t lay o n h is le ft arm under a torn sleeve. "He s lam med me pretty good bu t that's racin g, I guess." As for h is co nd itioning, Kied ro ws ki said, "I felt okay, really. I was consistent ev en though I never really got good starts "I h a d to chase La Rocco all day, which I didn't expect to be doing," said McG rath. "I mean, the guy got two rare ho leshots. Too ba d they had to come at th e very last race. Just for everybody's information, I really like the outdoors," joked McGra th in th e winner's circle, " and I'm rea lly sto ke d on how I've been rid ing o utdoors . Las t year I d idn 't care ab out it tha t much , but th is yea r I worked a lot hard er at it. I'm starting to pick u p lines that I never would have and I'm getting that m uch closer. Next year I will be in the hunt!" "I d on 't think I've ever had tw o holeshots in a race," admitted the victorious Lakocco. " It helped me out a lot. I really d idn't ha ve anyone showing me fenders after that so I ju s t rode smooth ." Stan ton finally finished seventh in his las t-ever U.S. National and then set abou t on o ne las t la p to s hake hands wi th th e w aiting crowd . "O nce I go t back to th e pits I cried for awhile and the n go t that over with:' said Stanton as he si g ned autogra phs lo ng after the race. " I wa s kind of ha p py to get it all over wi th but now I'm kind of sad. I k now that it 's the right thing to do because my heart just - - - - - -- Ctmtinuedun page 21

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