Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Round 8: Indianapolis RCA Dome Ya ma ha Emig. La Ro cco ret u rne d with a straigh t bike fo r the s ta r t of the first semi but abo ut 100 y a rds in to th e race, th e Ka w as a k i r ider agai n fou nd h imsel f picking up his bik e after crashing in the firs t tu rn. He rem ou nt ed in last pl ace with Kawasak i rid er Phil Lawrence settin g the p a ce u p fro nt after passi ng DeH oop. LaR occo beg an th re ading h is way through the pack, picking off riders at wi ll, w hile Honda-moun ted Buddy An tu nez settled into second a nd DeH oop third . But it was laRocco who was on th e move, and ha rd ly anyone noticed when lead er Lawrence fell in a l SD-degr ee left tu m . An tu nez inheri ted the lead ahead of DeHoop and Suzuki's Craig Decker. "Th ere was a lapper in front of me so I ch an ged m y lin es," sa id Law re nce. " Bu t 1 go t all crosse d up a n d w ent d own." LaRocco had soo n moved in to fifth, and then fourth wh en Decker went in to a tu rn too ho t a n d p la n te d hi s fro n t wheel underneath a hay bale and nea rly we nt down. This put LaRocco in to thir d . win over Hug hes and Dowd. Pederson hung on to fourth, while Pingree ma de the trip to the main via a fifth-place finish. KTM's Jeff Dement ou td ueled Swink . in the LCQ. Bot h rid e r s ca me from beh ind after passin g early leader Mike Jones, who cras hed over a triple jump. O nce Dem ent and Swink moved int o firs t and second, the two riders ba ttled down to the wire with Dement taki ng a close wi n over Swink. As he had done earlier in his hea t race, McGrath blew out of the ga te and int o th e lea d at the start of th e final. "T he s tart was everythi ng ton ight, " McGra th wou ld la ter say. "T he track was so technical you had to get away." An d that is exactly what McGrath d~ . In ty pica l McGrath style, the Honda rider qu ickly opened up a big lead over Craig, Henry, DeH oo p and LaR occo . Ba ck in six th w a s H ughes; e ig h th Kied rowski; 10th Ward ; and way back ' in last p lace was Emig. "Me and so meo ne else (Cha d Pederson) we nt down in the first tu m ," sai d Emig . "Then, on the same lap, I crashed try ing to pass somebody, and a lap after tha t I slid out. It wasn't one of my better starts." Craig was ru nning a strong second ing his decli ne to the middle of the pack. _Kiedrowski soon settled into Henry's old po sition, while Ward slipped in to fifth but still had Lamson and Craig to contend wi th. Neit her riders, however, could put a dent in Ward's armor, as Lamson and Craig traded places a few times, wi th Lamson getting th e upper hand in that battle. The anticlimactic finish saw McGrat h take the wi n wi th approximately 12 seconds to spare over Hug hes . " I was rea lly nervous," sai d McGrath, "but once I got ou t in the lead I told myself to calm down and brea th. I never rea lly knew where Mike (LaRocco) was, because Skip wouldn't tell me , He didn't wa nt me to get any mo re nervous than I already was." A thorough ly pu mped Hughes he ld on for second, while LaRocco sett led for thi rd . In a dis ta nt fourth fini sh ed Kiedrows ki, w hi le Ward ro u nded ou t the top five. Lamson edged out Craig for six th , wh il e Em ig rod e a s t rong come- from-beh ind race to take eigh th. "Ma n, I cras hed three times the first tw o or three laps," said Emig. "T he other 17 (laps) were good; I felt stro ng." Henry eve ntually d ro pped to nin th, w hile Craig Decker, in only his second 250cc race, completed the top 10. Afte r round ing the first lap in 12th , Joh n you ng factory Yama ha rider na iled th e ho leshot and pulled away from Canadian [ea n-Sebastien Roy and Yezek, while Ferry qu ickly moved into fourth after a six th- p lace sta rt. Even worse off was Picho n in eight h, but he quickly moved up. It o n ly took Yeze k, Fe rry a n d Pic hon a few laps to d is pose of Roy, w ho wo uld even tua lly fi nis h a respectab le six th. Bu t it was Windha m ' w ho caught eve ryo ne's atte n tion with his quick getaway, but his moment of g lo ry wou ld only la st a th ir d of th e race u ntil h is pace began slo w ing. By th e en d of th e fif th lap, Yezek and Ferry h ad reeled in the Yama ha rider, while Pichon watche d the action fro m a safe fourth . Shortly the reafter, in ju st one lap, Windham d ropped from firs t to fourth and beca me detached from the lead trio. "I ju st s ta r te d rid in g tense, " sai d Windham . "Ti me a fte r tim e I ge t th e holeshot and work ba ck. I have to learn to stay th er e. It's n ot th at I' m out of sha pe - I train hard an d practice almos t every day - it' s jus t a litt le d ifferent in the race, with ot her riders and all th e peop le. It ' s more psychological th an physical; halfway through the race I let it (leading) get to me." Yezek found himself ou t in front but Here, Steve Lamson (5) leads Lusk (24), Ryan Hughes (9), Larry Ward (11), Mike Kiedrowski (behind Ward) and Brian Swink (10) ear ly in the 250cc feature . and right behind DeHoop. With on ly a few turns left, La Rocco cha lle nge d DeH oop but came up half a bike length s hort acro ss th e fin ish lin e . An tunez took th e w in just ahea d of De l-loop, LaRocco, Decker and Ho nda ride r Rich Tayl or. Fa iling to m ake th e cut were n otables Bri an Swi nk and Den n y St ephen son, w ho cras hed into eac h other late in the race. Th e secon d se m i fea tu re d a threeway d o gfi ght in v ol v in g Ya ma h a's Dowd and Emig, and Hu gh es. Dowd jumped in to th e lead a t th e s ta r t but gave way to Hu gh es a lap later. Back in fou rth and fifth chased Ch ad Ped erson and David Pingree. Em ig was the m an to wa tch as he fou ght h is w a y b y Dow d a n d th en Hugh es. But Hugh es passed him rig h t back, as did Dowd a few turns later. On ce again, Emig had to wo rk his way aro u nd h is teammat e and in the exact same spo t he passed Hughes ear lier, he passed Hu gh es again. This time, however, th e fo rmer 12Scc N ational ch amp mad e the p ass stick and scored a narr ow for two laps un til stalling his engi ne in a tum. This dropped him to fifth, maki ng the top five McGrath, Henry, LaRocco, Hughes an d Craig. By th is poi nt, McGrath had a lrea dy d evel oped a co mfo rtable lead , while LaRocco m o v ed into th ir d b ehind Henry, but a couple of laps later, LaRocco go t ou t of shape in a comer, ram med a h ay b a le a nd b o th H ughes a nd Kie drowski, w ho h ad ea rlier passed Craig, roos ted by . LaRocco wasted little time rep assin g his teammate, Kiedrowski, for third but th at wo uld be his last p ass of the n ight . From la p ni n e on, LaRocco stared at the back of Hughes' jersey, never mak in g a real atte mpt to pass for the res t of the race. "I'm really so re," sai d LaRocco afterward. "It just got to me, so I decided just to settle for third and the points." By the halfway point, the race was all but over, as the top positions were very spread out wi th McGrath cruising ou t in fro n t, Hu gh es in second and LaRocco third. Henry, so re th u mb an d all, he ld down fourth for a wh ile befo re continu- Dowd could on ly im prove on th at b y one position, finishing right in front of Huffman, who wasn't pleased wit h h is ride. "The only way to have go tten a worse start than I did was to cras h in the first tum," sai d Huffman. "I just felt that I was out the re - not par t of the race . I do well on the 12Ss but ge t a little d iscouraged on the 250s." A ban ged -up Swink, wh o started the race in 13th, ende d there, as we ll. After winning his 'semi, Buddy Antunez we nt from 11th to 14th in the main, finis hing just ahea d of DeHoop, Pingree, Dem en t, Pederson and Taylor. Finishing in last place after crashing on th e fourth lap while ru nn in g 10th an d event ua lly ' pulling out of the race was Ezra Lusk. "Actually I crashe d tw ice," sai d a dejected Lusk. "I guess I' m try ing to push too hard ." 125c c Kevin Wi nd ha m si m p ly outrode everybo dy in the 125cc fea ture - for at le as t th e fi rst five lap s, th at is. Th e the race was far fro m over, as he ha d two-ti me 12Scc SX wi n ner Fer ry to worry abo ut, as we ll as Pichon, who had closed the gap on both riders consid er- . ably. . Ferry eventually passed Yezek on the n inth la p, bu t a la p a nd a h alf la te r, Ferry slid out exiting a turn. . "I we n t into the turn a little hot an d I was w or ri ed a bo u t D a v ey cu t t ing underneath me," said Ferry. "I got on it a little too hard and the back end slid ou t." . As a resu lt, both Yezek and Picho n passed Fe rry, an d it was a t th is point that Pich on knew he had a real shot at the wi n. On the 12th lap, Pichon saw his cha n ce and cu t to th e ins ide of Yezek a n d g ra b bed th e le ad a n d q u i ckl y opene d up a few bike lengths over the Suzuki ri d e r . W it h o n ly a few la p s re maini ng, th e on ly questio n lef t was whether or no t Ferry had enough time to catch Yezek for second, which, as it turned out, there was. Just befo re taking the white flag, Ferry slip pe d by Yezek an d in to se cond but h ad no ch ance o f

• Cover