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/127712
Round 1: Citrus Bowl (Left) Tim Ferry thrilled the homestate fans with his runaway win. (Above) French teenager Mickael Pichon ended up second in the 125cc Final. (Below - from left to right) The spoils _ f victory went o to Mickael Pichon, TIm Ferry and Kevin Windham. 10 route to th e winner' s podium, and he took care of the factory Kawasaki rid er on the 12th lap. LaRocco, though, w as safe from further attack as H enry ne ver threatened from fifth pla ce: " I wa s a littl e off at the start, " Henry said. " It wa s an exciting race for me. 1 kn ew 1 would rid e tight toni ght and 1 did, but I'm happy that 1 h ad energy at the end . My stom ach probl em was n ot a probl em tonight. 1 think we have it under control." Hu gh es started ninth, and eventually finished sixth, just ah ead of Craig, Lewis and .Emig, Dowd ended up 10th. One of the factory men who failed to fini sh wa s 125cc W e stern Re gi on al Champion Damon Huffman. The Su zuki fac to ry rid er crash ed hard on th e n inth lap and w as fo rce d o u t with a bl oodied n ose : "I go t a bad s ta rt and wa s catch ing up pretty - g ood," th e teenager said . "I fell in a rhythm sec tion; 1 landed too far over a d ouble and got kicked forward because my weigh t w as to o far ba ck . 1 got a bl oody n ose ; it hurt." 125cc FINAL Action from th e 125cc heat races led man y to believe th at the fina l would be a thriller. Wron g. Tim Ferry had o ther ideas. The Suz uki factory rider gra bbe d the holesh ot and rode off into the Flo ri- _ da night. End of sto ry. " It ma y have lo oked easy, but it wa sn't," Ferry sa id . " I got tig ht towa rds the middle - and 1 had a lot of tro u ble with lappers. 1 knew Pichon was behind me, but from th e heat race I didn' t think . he 'd be that fast." Pichon didn't do much to add excitem ent either . Alth ou gh th e you ng Fren chman couldn't catch Ferry, he had enough speed to easily keep tho se who battled for th ird w ell behind him. And it w as th at battle for th ird that provided th e o nly exc itement in a cla ss u sually filled wi th thrills. " I made a good sta rt," said Pich on, w ho lives in Le Mans, Fran ce. "But after five laps I - h ow you say? - twist m y ankle in a co rner . It w as not smart to ma ke a big ris k. Th ere are still nine races and it wasn' t necessary to win tonight making seco nd is okay." Jim Neese took the firs t tum running third ; then Eng land's Jam es Dobb took a sho t at th e positi on. On th e fifth lap, Team Kawasaki' s Robbie Reynard went into the th ird spo t and he seemed destin ed to make it stick. H is undoing came on th e 12th of 15 laps, when he crashed hard over th e first se t of tr iples while try in g to catch Picho~. The crash put him out of the race and into the hospital with a broken collarbone . By then Windham had worked clear of Dobb a n d Brown . The you n g s te r managed to hold on to the final rostrum spo t, beg inning hi s professi onal su percross career with a result that backed up what was a stellar amateu r career. Dobb and Brown rounded out the top five. " I h ad butterfli es up until the gate dropped," Windham 'ad m itted . "It felt like I was fifth or sixth for mo st of th e race. 1 didn't know 1 wa s third until the race w a s o ver . 1 s ta rted g ood , but 1 made a few mistakes. 1 left some d oo rs ope n and some peopl e took 'em. Thi s is awesome. You can pra ctice su percross all you w ant, but until you're on the line with all the bi g nam e s, it ' s not the same." l~