Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

(Left) After a fourthplace start, laRocco (2) worked up to second, but by that time, the damage was done. McGrath was already long gone. (Below)The 125cc West Coast main featured plenty of exc itement. Here, . Ryan Hughes (9) leads Frederic Vialle(103), Craig Decker (27), David Pi~gree (41) and Damon Huffman (1) early in the race. "To be hon est, I d on 't th ink I'm really goi ng any faster than, say, last ye ar at th is tim e, but thin gs are just go ing my wa y more," said Ward, who is originally from Wa sh ingt on sta te. "Yeah, I'd like to win but my main goal is to finish on the podium. This is gr eat, because I've never been on the podium tw ice in a row before, and the most I've done it in one year is three times. Now , I've done it four times in a row . I'm reall y happy about that. " Finishing a distant fou rth wa s Tea m , Kawasaki's Mike Kied rowski who spent the entire race mak ing up for a terrible start, mu ch like last week at Ana he im . Kiedro w ski rounded th e firs t tu m in 11th pl a ce a n d by th e tim e h e h a d climbed up to fourth, he was nea rly 15 seconds behind Wa rd. Rou ndin g ou t the top five was Team Honda/l-800-Co lleer's Dou g Henry, who sta rted the race off in seventh . McGra th now enjoys an even bigger IS-poi nt lead over Ward, 100-82, in the series point sta ndings, while LaRo cco m o ved passed Kied row s ki for thi r d with 75. Kiedrowski now has 73. While the 250cc main prod uced littl e in th e way of -excitement, the same cou ld n' t be said in th e 125cc Western Region al featu re. Team Suzuki's Dam on Huffm an m a n a g e d to kee p h is wi n strea k alive, but it didn't co me easily aft er h e ro un ded th e first lap in six th place. To make matt ers wo rse, his main concern - Team SplitFire /Pro Ci rcu it/ Kawasaki's Ryan Hugh es was leading. It to ok Huffman nearly half th e race before "gett ing goi ng ." Bu t o nce h e starte d his attack ther e was no stopp ing th e Su zuki rider, as h e methodica ll y passed one rider at a time un til h e was bre a th in g d own H ughes' nec k . With four la p s rem a in in g, Hu ffm an za p ped Hughe s a t the e n d of a jum p-filled straight and quickly opened up a sma ll sta rt to finish third . Honda of Troy's Jam es Dobb claime d fou rth and the last di rect transfer spot ahead of Kawasaki . privateer Phil Lawrence. Crashes p ut Lam son and KTM 's Tony Amaradio into the semi. Yamaha's John Dowd was also forced to the semifinals after breaking a chain while ru nning fifth. Jeff Emig and McGrath rounded the first tu m side by side in the second heat ra ce, bu t to no o n e 's sur prise, the d efending champ dived to the inside a n d fle w in to th e lea d . In ty p ical McG r ath fas h io n, the H on d a r ide r im med ia te ly built a co mfortab le le ad and that was it. McGrath easily sa iled to victory, but there was considerable dicing going on behind him. Su rp risingly, Fre n ch m a n Micka e l P ich on put the move on Emig over a long d oubl e jump and took over second place for good. Emig's problems didn't end there as he also go t passed in succession by Ezra Lusk, LaRocco, Hon d a of Tro y' s Mike Craig and Hen ry. cush io n be tween him self and th e Kawasaki rider . H u ffman went o n to wi n his third 125cc main even t in a row ah ead of Hugh es and teammate Cr aig Dec ker - th e sa me top -three fin ish in g order as in An aheim . " I w as making a lo t of mi s takes a t first," said Huffman, "bu t I knew I had tim e . Ry an was ridin g real go od ton ight. " . Frenchman Fred eri c Viall e fini sh ed fourth after running second for the first six laps, while an ot her Team SplitFire rid er, David Pingree, completed the top five. . By winning, Hu ffman now has a perfect score of 75 to lead th e T25cc West Coast point stan dings ahead of Hug hes' 60 and Decker 's 58. This year's Se at tl e Supercr o s s marked the re turn of the event's traditiona l Feb ru ary date. Last year, the race was held in May after nearly not happening at all. Though it didn't rain on race n ight , everyone in attendance wa s th ankfu l for the Kingdome's enclosed dome, due to the 4O-degree temperature outside. 250cc T he fi rst 250cc heat was fairly uneven tfu l, but tha t wa s just fine with this crowd; since their favori te, Ward, w as out fro nt. Th e Tea m No leen rider blew ou t of the gate, ou tdragged Brian Swink to the first turn an d that was the closest anyo ne go t to the Yamah a rid er. As the h u ge cro w d cheere d him on, Ward stre tche d h is le ad ove r Sw in k, who wa s also putting in a pretty good rid e in second . Cliff Palme r, the former factory KTM rid er, put his H onda in to third but lost his rhy thm in the whoops and was passed by a par ade of riders . Much to the delight of the fans, Ward ro m ped to vic to ry over Sw in k, w hile Kiedrowski mad e up for a seven th-place 7

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