Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

,M T C O S"':, , OO R S , : .i': ,AMA NatiOnal ChampionshipM otocrossSeries Final Round: S C teel ity " Tracks with jumps are my favorite," said 250cc class runner-up Je re m y McG rath. "Everyone knows that. I really like this trac k because I grew up on hard-pack, and that's what I rea lly like. I felt good all day. Actually, I've felt really good all summer outdoors." Making his quiet return to compe tition at Steel Ci ty was outgoing 250cc National Champion Mike Kiedrowski. The "MX Kied " ha d been o ff s in ce breaking his finger at Unadilla earlier this summer, but came ou t for the final National to prepare for his 250cc roll on Team USA at next week's Motocross des Nations in Switzerland. "1 felt that I rode pretty good and each , tim e out I get better," said Kiedrowski. "1 was making some little mistakes and not going as fast in th e tu rn s as I shou ld have. Tha t's w here everyo ne was leaving me. I'm just basically here getting the pra ctice an d stuff to whip them over there at the MX des Nat ion s in Switzerland." Kiedrowski used a hand gu ard to protect his broken digit. This was the seventh annual National held at Steel City Raceway, but the first to fea tu re 250cc bikes ra the r tha n the now-defunct Open class. The track is the longest on the Nation al ci rcu it , with average fast lap limes in the mid 3:305. Th e lo ng co u rse m eant longe r-tha nusual motos. (Reynard took 39 minutes, 54 seco nds to finish.) The fast, ha rd packed track also featured seve ral spec tacular stad ium ob stacles to give the crowd more to watch as they waited for the lea ders to come around each lap. Approximately 8000 fans were on hand for the show . 125CC NATIONAL By Davey Coombs DELMONT, PA, SEPT. 4 fter a yea r filled with upsets, illness a nd co n trove rsy, Te am Honda /l-800-COLLECT's Do ug Henry sa t qu ietly in the back of his team truck follow in g the final moto of the season. His wife Stacey sa t next to him on a cooler as mechanic Pete Steinbrecher s too d b y in the darkened t ruck. Scores of fans were w aiting on the perimeter of the Honda camp to get the au tograph of the man who had just claimed his second 125cc AMA National Championship in a row . "Man, I'm I glad that's over," sa id Henry. "You don't realize how much of a relief it is until it's actually over." Why the melancholy? In a matter one afternoon, Henry had gone from enjoying the pleasure of clinching the title with a first moto third-place finish, to bein g pointed to as th e ins tigator of a co llis ion and b ra wl with Team SplitFire/Hot Whee ls / Ka w asaki ' s Rya n Hughes. The run-in effectively ended Hughes' cha nces of beating ou t Henry's teamma te Steve Lamson for the v icechampionship. "He just plain-ass took me out," said an angry H ughes after the bizarre incident. "I'm really no t too happy w ith him right now ." The two spent abou t A 4 20 seconds wrest ling with one ano the r and a r g u i ng as the p a ck rode past them. Meanwhile, over in the Kawasa ki pits, there was sa tisfaction and confidence. The 12Sec class winner at the last Na tional of the sea son was once again Robbie Reynard, the extremely fast but not oriously inconsistent 17-year-old . Reyna rd 's win may hav e come as a surprise to some, but not the 250cc clas s domination b y previo usly crow ned 250cc National Champion Mike laRocco. The Indi ana nati ve ran 1-1 to claim his seventh win in the 12-ra ce ou td oor sea son, while Reynard completed the series ranked seventh. " It felt really good to w in toda y, because everyone was cheering for me and I really like tha t," said Reynard in th e winner's circle. "Winning here makes me feel good because I had a bunch of bad m o tos a nd some bad breaks. Now I'm going to heal myself up and be ready in 1995." "1 feel really good th at my turn to ride with the nu mber-one plate is finally coming," said laRocco. "1 didn't get to we'!r it this yea r because there was no 500 class, so I've been wa iting for a long time to wear it. I'm going to give it 110% again and hopefully they'll work ou t again as they did this year . It's no fun to get beat." After a 30-minute delay du e to the extra qu alifiers needed to narrow the large field to 40 riders per class, the first 125cc moto went off with Hond a privateer Mi ke Brown, H enry, Hughes, Yamah a ' s Jeff Emig a nd H onda of Troy's Dav ey Yezek leading the way. Rey na rd and Te am Green pro digy Kevin Wind ham were next in line. lamson was back in 10th place bu t the spacious Steel City track gave him plenty of passin g opportunities. Halfway through the first lap Henry took the lead from Brown, who would not fmish the race afte r his chain broke later in the moto. Henry started to open a small lead on the rest of the field but his breaka way pace was soon matched by Hughes, Reynard and th e rapidly rising Lamso n. Emig's da y qu ickly wen t d ownhill. After a fo u rth-place s tart the former 125cc title-holder face-plan ted into the grou nd ha lfway through the opening lap of th e first moto. "1 just got sid ewa ys in the grass sec tion and it spun me into the ground," said Emig, who had a fru strating outdoor campaign in 1994. "1 made up as many places as I co uld before I just kind of ran out of tim e." Emi g's charge towards the front ended behind 16-year-old Kevin Windham , who will be joining Team Yamaha sh ortly. Wind ha m looked .ca lm and s teady on his way to a career-best fifth overall in wha t was o nly th e fourth Nationa l of his career. "1d idn't ride a pro nat ional from the end of May until last weekend at New York and I cou ldn't believe how much faster everyone got over the sum mer," said Windham, who did not finish in the top 10 of either moto in New York. "1 was kind of ou t of it last weekend bu t I felt a lot better tod ay because I kn ew what to expect." At the head of the pack Henry and Hughes a ppea red ready to make the same first-mo to breaka way that carried them away fro m the field at BroomeTioga seven days earli er. However, Lamson and Reynard would not let the two get away. Instead, the lead quartet eased s lo wly away fr om fifth-place Windham to se ttl e the race amongst themselves. Hughes and Lamson each moved around Henry, who momentarily remembered what he was trying to accomplish. "1 was okay for about 10 minutes, then I started thinking too much about the title," admitted Henry. "Those guys got me bu t they di dn't really pu ll away. Th e last 10 minutes I kind o f forgo t a bo u t the title and s ta rted think ing about jus t winni ng th e ra ce a nd the ov eral l. " H e nry sli p ped a ll th e way back to fo ur th beh ind Reyn ard while Lamson ou tg u n ned Hugh es fo r th e lead. "The first couple of laps I couldn't put anything togethe r so I jus t backed off a little bit and tried not to go down," said Reynard, who has had several costly earl y crashes this season. "1 picked it back up a nd I st a r ted clicking. I followed Henry' s lines for a few lap s and used some of them and some of mine. It wo rked out really we ll." On the last lap Reyn ar d tried to go outside-inside on Hughes as they circula ted a d ownhill off-eamber . However, Reynard left the doo r open to Henry on the inside, who slid across the Kawasaki rider's fron t whee l and then shot back across 'the track. In the process Reynard went back ahead of Henry and effectively set up Hughes for an other pass in the following comer. "1 was going outside to set up Hughes and then I hear d Hen ry's bike coming." said Reyn ard of the line-swerving pass. "I d idn't shoot ou t to the inside like I was goi ng to because we would ha ve hit . I backed off just for a second and then fired across. 'Rhino' was still in front of me, but I kept it wide open and shot to the inside of him in the next tum." His mind off the title and back on the race, H enry also pass ed Hughes a nd helped his teammate Lamson wipe out the seven-point deficit he faced in trying to beat Hughes for the runner-up spot in the standings. Lamson, meanwhile, held off the steady a ttack of Reynard all the way across the finish line. "That was a really close ra ce the whole way, " said Lamson. HI knew Robbie was behind me the whole time and was p ushing me and it allowed both of us to catch up to Ryan. I'm glad Doug wrapped up the title and passed Hughes at the end. Now we're tied going into the last moto. ' The battle for the second-mote victory - and the overall, for that matter - was over by the lime the 125cc pack hit the first tum. Just like he did here last year Reynard hit the first tu m running with the lead and never loo ked back. After just one lap he held a five-second lead; by the end of the second lap it was up to eight seconds. "1 feel really good righ t now," said Reyn ar d after the race. "I rode a real smoo th race and d idn't make any mistakes. Eve rythin g seeme d tim ed jus t righ t, althou gh I d id miss a cou ple of doubles . M y b ike was w o rk ing just right and I felt g rea t. What else can I say? " "1 knew if Robb ie got a good start he would be tough to beat here," said lamson. "When he wen t in to the first comer first I said, 'Uh oh.' He got o~t pretty far rig ht awa y. H e rides this trac k p retty well. I give him credit because he stayed

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