Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

ing as the night went on. In fact, with th e except io n of LaRocco a nd Swi nk, almost eve ry rider in the race sampled the Michiga n di rt a t lea st once. And LaRocco and Sw ink bot h cras hed ou t of their heat races earlier in the program. Some notewo rthy Pontiac casualties in clud e d Pe dro Gonza lez and 125cc rid er Robbie Rey na rd, each of whom could not make it thro ug h the afternoon qualifying sessions withou t having to visit the hospital, and Yamaha 125cc rider Kevin Windham and 250cc privateer Denny Stephenson who didn 't make it through the heat races. The most spectacular crash bel on ged to Swink, who crashed so hard he broke the starting gate! In fact, all three of the 250cc podium finishers had to qualify out of the semi rou n d after going down in (Above) Yamaha's Jeff Emig (6) holes hot the 250cc feature next to Brian Deegan (35), while Honda of Troy's Mike Craig takes a header. Emlg later crashed and finished 15th and Deegan ended up 18th. (Left) Frenchman Mickael Pichon, of the SplitFirelPro Circuit Kawasaki team , posted his third win of the season in the East Coast 125cc main. their h eat ra ces . Th ere m ay not have been a m an on the tr ack who mad e it through the nigh t without a crash. If th e wreckage of the 250cc class w asn't en ou gh , the 125cc class offe red even more ca sualtie s a n d a no ther Kawasaki -mounted w inner. With th e o ft-i n ju red Re yn ard out a nd Tea m Ya mah a's W indh am sideli ned with injuries, Frenchm an Mikael Picho n had a clear path to victory, even thou gh he had to p ass 20 other rid ers to do so after. starting dead-last in the main event. "I 'm happy ton ight because I got a very bad sta rt, but I came from very far back to w in," said Team Spli tFire/ ProCircuit's Pichon of his third 125cc main event win of the year . "The bike wa s really good and I cou ld ju m p a rea lly difficult (trip le jump) section every lap and I think that's why I won. Tonight it was a good tr ack for me. I live in th e north of France and it rains a lot there. When I w an t to practice 1 have to rid e in . conditions like this." Finishing second in the 125cc main event was Honda of Troy 's Mike Brown, who wo n this eve nt last yea r. His British teamm ate James Dobb finishe d third to mark his best U.S. supercross finish ever. 250cc Team Honda/l-800-Collect's Steve La mson h ol esho t the first 250cc heat race ahead of Mike Craig, Doug Henry. and Ho n da of Troy's Tod d DeH oo p . DeHoop fell rig ht after the first trip le, giving Kied rowski a quick opening to fourth. In the next turn ano ther incide nt occurred wh en LaRocco and KTM's Jeff Deme nt fell together. "He sq u a re d off the tu rn way too early an d I was already in the air, so there w as noth in g 1 cou ld d o, " sa id LaRocco. "I kind of go t trap ped under my bike and we were stu ck for a lon g tim e." Lamson had some problems up front and sa w Craig, Hen ry and Kiedrowski a ll race b y. Kiedrowski tri ed to m ove past the Hondas on the inside of a lefthand corner that used a tall blue pole as the inside marker. Kiedrowski jumped into the turn too fa r inside and was "clothes-lined" off his bike in spectacular fas hion . He remounted quickly bu t fell agai n ha lf a lap later, meaning tha t neith er he nor LaRocco wo uld transfer d irec tly to the main. A couple of laps later Kawasaki-mounted Phil Lawrence crashed in the very same spot. The next rider to throw it away was F&5 Suzuki privateer Denny Ste phenson, ·w ho bobbled on a lo ng, rutte d triple jump and crashed violently . While Stephenson was attended to by paramedics, the rest of the pack had to single each of the three ju mps before him, slowing the overall time of the race considerably. He nry and Craig battled back and forth for the lead until Henry finally crossed the finish line first..Lamson was equally close to Craig and scored third ahead of Team SplitFire/Pro Circuit's rear fender-less Ryan Hughes, who was able to hold off a late-charging LaRocco for the final transfer spot, but LaRocco would have worthy company in the semi : Suzuki's Damon Huffman, Craig Decker, Lawrence, Del-loop, Kiedrowski and Dement, all of whom failed to transfer. Suzuki's Ezra Lusk shot into the lead at the start of the seco nd 250cc heat but lost the point shortly thereafter to Yamaha 's Joh n Dowd. Team No leen's Kyle Lewis was third a hea d of McGrath. Lusk charged pas t Dowd as they bou nced th ro u gh the long whoop section befo re going up in to the gra ndstand section. Unfortu na tely for the Su zu ki pilot, he could no t make it up to the top . of the hill. "I pictured those whoops just like the ones I h a ve at m y house an d I ju s t . pinned it , " said Lusk of h is crash. "Unfortunately, I don't have a peristyle a t the end of my whoops, so I d idn' t know what to do. I jus t cross-ru tted an d fell in fron t of everybody." McG rath and Dowd picked u p th e ba t t le for th e lea d u n til Mc G ra t h cras hed. "John and I collide d up there in th e corner and th en we tried to bl ock eac h othe r a little bit, he slammed me and I went do wn," said McGra th. "I go t up and thou ght that I wo uld jus t cruise arou n d a littl e b it and check out the track, but the guys up front threw themselves on the ground. I know that it was a lucky w in but I'll take it " McGrath was talking about a bizarre crash involving Dowd and Swink. While charging down through the infie ld jumps toward the same left-handed corner where Kiedrowski fell, the two riders tangled together ~hen Swink landed on a cross-rutted Dowd. The Yamaha rider bailed immediately but an out-ofcontrol Swink held on to his bike over the last jump and then over the outside berm. The next track obstacle in his way was the starting gate, which was already set up - in the upward position - for the next event. "I was just falling out of the air ·and I looke d down and saw that it was going to hit th e starting ga te," sa id Swink. "I mig ht've been able to save it and keep going if the gates were do wn, but I had to step off." Swink's bo dy missed th e gate by about a foot but his bike de molished three gates on impact, resu lting in a 25-minu te delay to weld th e ga tes . Swink was unhurt . McGra th, who had previously passed Lewis, accepted the lead and the wi n from his fallen rivals. All of the crashing, combined with the deteriorating track, meant that McGrath's winning lime was nearly 15 seconds slower than that of Henry 's. A poor-starting Jeff Emig quietly motored into second with Dowd getting up in time to finish third ahead of Lewis. Further back rode Larry Ward, Lusk and Swink. Dement grabbed the holeshot in the first 250cc semi but was soon demoted by crowd-favorite Todd Del-loop, w ho hails from nearby Hudsonville, Michigan . Kiedrowski did likewise to the feisty young Texan a nd immediately started trying to fin d his way around DeHoop. Kiedrowski almost got him on the short uphill secti on by doubling to the top but ended up casing the landing instead. Right behind th e leaders LaRocco passed Dement with out incident for thir d and soon joined the battle for the wi n. However, much to the deligh t of th e pa rtisan crowd , neit he r o f th e Kaw asak i superstars could find a way around local hero [)eHoop. For the rest of t h e race Kiedrowski rode on DeHoop's rea r fender but cou ld not find a place to pass. "Man, I' ve been trying to do so mething like that all year long," said the 27yea r-old DeHoop while be in g in terviewed b y floo r an nou nce r La r ry Maiers. " It just feels great to bea t th e Kaw asaki guys and all the rest of the factory rid ers. My mec ha nic said, 'Go ou t th ere an d ju st kick th o se g uys' butts!' Som etimes I get kind of inti m idated but every race I get a little more aggressive and I know th at I can beat these guys now." The las t transfe r spo ts went to De m en t a n d Lawren ce, as Su zuki ' s Hu ffm an a n d Dec ker aga in failed to ..... l-< ~ 7

• Cover