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/127711
Perris Raceway ------PERRIS, CA, JAN. 2 t was all sm iles in th e Su zuki pits af ter Damon Huffman and ne w ly signed Crai g Decke r stole the show at the fifth annual GFI $lO,OOO Perris Supercro ss. Huffman, however, was sporting the big gest grin after win ning the pr emier 250cc class and tak ing home a su itcase fu ll of greenbacks, totaling $3500. Decker was ha ppy with the $1075 he earned by win ning the 125cc class . The event has become qui te popular amo ng factory riders as well as the spectators who wanted a chance to see some of their favorite stars in a more "neighbo rly" racing environment, rather than in the larger, more restrictive stadium ven ues . Some of th e b ig-nam e rid e rs wh o a tten ded th is ye a r's Wi seco Pisto n s / Du nlop Tires-sponsored e ven t included two-time Perris SX winner Jeff Emig; Kawasaki 's Mike Kiedrowski and Jeff Matiasevich; Honda of Troy 's Mike Craig, Todd DeH oop and Mike Brown; Team Honda's Doug Henry; Team Splitfire /Pro Circuit /Kawa saki 's David Pingree and Ryan Hughes; Yamaha's Kevin Windham and John Dowd; and Scott Sheak, Chad Ped er son , Mik e Met zger, Pedro Gonzal ez,. Bad e r Manneh and Buddy Antunez, to name a few. Most of the racers were lu red to Perris Raceway by the lar ge purse and , as a re sult , an e s ti m a te d 3000 spec tat o rs swarmed the rather small racing facility in the kicked-back, cou ntry town of Per ris. Th e parking area overflowe d with cars, and local resid ents go t involved by selling prime par kin g spo ts in their dri vew ays. The ev ent was also run in conjunction with d ay' s u sual ama te u r racin g program, which played host to approximat el y 700 riders . All in all , it was a pretty busy da y at the track. There wa s plenty of pre-race talk of Emig perhaps winning his third straigh t Perris SX. " I like thi s race a lot," said Ernig, wh o lives in near by Riverside. "I can wa ke u p at nine o' clock, ea t a nice breakfast and drive about 15 minutes and go out and race for 20 minutes and make five grand. That's my kind of racing ." Unfortunately for h im , thin g s didn' t work out lik e they had in th e past. Huffman was expecte d to ride th e 125cc cla s s but m a d e a la s t-min u te cha nge to th e 250cc cla ss. "T he 250cc race p ays a lot mor e mone y tha n th e 125cc ra ce," sa id Hu ffm an. "My on ly worry is that we only tested this bike for abou t two weeks before this race." Evide ntly, two weeks turned ou t to be more tha n eno ug h time. Two -time Supercross Champion Jeremy McGrath was on hand but chose not to compete, because h is race (works) bike had alr ead y been shipped to Orlando, Florida, for the opening round of the U.S. Superc ross Ser ies that gets underway Ja n ua ry 14, a nd McG ra th di dn' t h av e time to prep a produ cti on ma chine. Kawasaki 's Kiedrow ski was in th e sa me situation as McGrath but raced a prod uction b ike anyway . "The race is only 20 minutes long ," sai d Kiedrowski, who ended up finishing fifth . H uffm a n and Emig were th e tw o fron t-run ner s a t the s tart of th e 250cc feature . The Suzuki rid er managed to put some distance between himself and· Emi g until th e late s ta ges of the race I 6 Team Suzuk i's Damon Huffman scored his first win of 1995 with a start-to-finlsh romp at Perris Raceway . The Acton , California, resident earned 55000 for his efforts . when Emig began inching his way closer to the 125cc West Coast Su percro ss Champion . "I go t slowed by lapper s," sa id H uffman of h is dwind ling lead . "He then began pressuring me." " H e (Huffm an ) was rid in g real smooth," said Emig . "Bu t I kn ew tim e was running ou t so 1 was going for it." This tact ic, however , proved to be Emig's undoing. Heading into a whoop sectio n nearly sideby side with Huffman, Emig bailed. "I just made a sma ll mistake and that' s it," said Emig. "I was go ing for it a nd sometimes it doesn 't wo rk ou t." The cro wd ro ar ed for the te ena ger from Acton, California, as Huffman raced passed the spectator-filled h illside that lines the fa r side of the track. "I knew some thing ha ppened," said Huffman of Emig's fall. "I didn't hear Jeff's bike and eve ryone started cheering for me." A lap later, Huffman took the checkered flag with a commanding lead over a recovered Emig. Sailing the whole race in third was Henry, whi le Craig finished fourth, with Kiedrowski round ing out the top five. Completing the top 10 finishers were Matiasevich, Doug Dubach, Lance Smail, An tunez and Dowd . u man rea s e an