Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

.SUPERCROSS ..U .S .S upercroSs S eries . Round 1 0:Pontiac Silverdome After crashing In the first turn, Craig (19) came from last place to finish fourth. Here, {;raig rode to a s econd-place finish In the first heat race. that until we get there. I'm looking forward to the rest of the series and maybe ma kin g things a lot more fun by beati ng him a few times." Wh en he got to the podium th e 22ye ar-old Swink th an ked th e Michi gan fans for chee ring he and LaRocco on. He al so thank ed h is mechanic M arshall Plumb and h is main sponso r, Ho nda of Tro y for standing behind him this year. "The re's 20 fact ory guys out ther e and some of th em are n ' t even making the m ain . We' ve go t two guys in th e to p fou r tonight and two guys on the podi u m in the 125cc class. We're for rea l." make it into th e mai n. As a matter of fac t, it w as not until th e secon d se mi that a Suzuki rider tra nsferred into the . 250cc main . . Lu sk ho le shot the s e co n d se m i aboard his RM250 and effectively pulled awa y from Honda-mounted Ch ad Pederson, Ohio privateer Josh Steel, Nebraska's Brian Deegan and Team Nol een's Larry Ward . "My Suzuki has got me up fro nt in just about every heat race this yea r, but I just haven't been ab le to h old on to it," said Lusk afte r his semi win . "I' m trying to get better an d I'm trying to get everything togeth er . It' s been a tough yea r." And it w as a· tough night for Ward . The popular pri vateer hero tan gled with . Suzuki-mo unted Cliff Palmer and both riders went dow n on the first lap. Ward appeared to h ave plenty of tim e to ge t b ack into qua lifying position b u t th e Yamaha ri der fe ll again a short time later and was forced in to the LCQ. Lusk pulled away for the win, followed by Swi nk, Ped e rs on, Dee g an a nd Steel. Pa lmer m ade it b ac k up to six th b u t wo uld have to join Ward in the LCQ. Palmer ho leshot the LCQ but Ward passed him going up int o the stands on th e third lap . As Ward p u lled away sligh tly the focus turned to Hu ffman 's all-out assault onPalmer 's final. qu alifyin g pos it ion . Fo r th e rest of th e race Huffman pu shed the matt er with Decker in tow, but Palmer was putting on an excellent displ ay of defensive ridi ng. In th e en d , after failin g .on severa l p ass attempts, Huffman crashed an d surrendered third to Decker. When asked about his lon g night of qualifying, Ward said he planned it that way. "Thi s track is real nice and smooth and so much fun that I thought I would ride as much as I could," dead-panned Ward. ''I' m d e fi n ite ly having s o m e problems here ton ight. The ruts go t me secon d last year and th is year th ey 're kicking m y butt. Guys ge t in front of you in the ruts and th ey mess up and corne over on you. They don't mean to do it bu t you just can' t help it in the se conditions." Ward also mentioned that he hit his knuckle in the heat race and l-< wa s still suffering the effects of a mid0.... week p ractice crash. "I'Il be real happy ~ whe n this night's over." . Th e Yamahas of Em ig a n d D owd fire d into th e le ad at th e sta rt of th e -... 8 main, fo ll ow ed by De egan, Swink, Lewis and LaRocco. Hughes and Cra ig fell in the first turn and wou ld rem ount in 19th an d 20th, respectively. Emig Jed for four lap s but could not get away from Swink, wh o made short work of the steadily improving Dowd. LaRocco also raced past Dowd and followed Swink into Emig 's shadow. Further back, DeHoop' s already good night w as getting better as h e ju m p ed into fifth ahead of Lusk, Kiedrowski and McGra th . On the fifth lap Swink sent the crowd int o a roar when he race d pa st Emig in the long whoop section . "I got a good start and I just wanted to charge," said Swink of his best main event finish in two years. "Jeff was riding well but I just felt like I sho uld go past him and thi nk abou t my ow n race." Within a lap LaRocco wo u ld also over. take Em ig and e n ter. in to a crow d pleasing du el with the unde rdo g Swink. "Me and McGrath ki nd of tangled a n d I go t the wors t of i t," s a id Kied ro ws ki, who fell from se ve nth all the way ba ck to 14th on the fourth lap . "My bike wen t into neutral and I just fell ove r in the tum . I got back up and just started char gin g an d try in g to ride the ruts. Before I knew it I was all the way u p in to third . Guys were shooting one way and then ano the r way - it was kin d of hard to get set on a line an d keep it." "I looke d for McG rath ea rly bu t I didn't se e h im , so I d id n 't spend too m uch time worrying abo u t h im," sa id LaRocco. Mc G r a t h w a s wo rk in g h is w ay through traffic at a respect abl e pace, slowly closin g the distan ce on the lead ers. " I w as catch ing up to th ose guys, but th en I ju st messed up," admitted McGrath, who started the race in 10th . The two-time cham p mad e it all the way up to fou rth on the ninth lap bu t landed on Emig's rear tire as he followed the Yamaha rid er. "Jeff jumped u p on the tabletop and kind of cased it, but I was already in the ai r. I cou ldn' t help but land on him - it wa s the best line and 1. was rig h t behind him . He wen t down right aw ay and 1 almos t saved it, but 1 cou ldn ' t get the bike back under control. I lost abo u t four spots but couldn't get my rh ythm back. Still, I sho u ld 've got ten third . Kiedrowski was right in front of me when I go t go ing again." As for the si tu ati on with Emig, McG rat h sai d there were no ha rd feelings. "I talked to Jeff after the race and explained that I was already in the air when he messed up. H e s a id it was cool. Someti mes thin gs like tha t just ha ppen." Emig's throttle stuc k wid e open as the bike lay on the ground and it took a few moments for him to get go ing again. He eventu ally finished 15th. With Ward having an almost-as-bad night - eve ntually fin ishing a season-low 11th in the main event - Dowd wa s left as the highest-finis hing Yama ha on the track . " I' m pretty psyched because that's my best supercross fini sh ever," said Dowd after crossing the finish line sixth . "I go t a good s ta rt and it was kind of cool, because Emig was right there with me. We we re goi ng 1-2 for a whil e, but 1 sta rted to ge t a little tired and fa ded back a little bit. It see med like everyone was ge tt ing a little ti red because th e track w as so rutty a nd hard to keep your lines going . 1 di d get tired, thou gh , and 1 was kind of mad abou t that. It's s till my best finish, thou gh." Wh ile it see med lik e everyo ne was going down Craig was moving up. "I cra shed with Hu gh es off t he start and was dead -last," sa id Craig, w ho ma y have been the fastest rider on the track for at least the first 10 laps. "I came all the way throu gh to third . Iwas passing so ma ny peopl e that I didn't kn ow how far u p I h ad go ne. My pit bo ard sa id ' 18,' th en ' 15th ,' a n d down and down. I jus! sto ppe d looking at it after aw hile. I sta rted having p roblem s with sweat dripping int o my eyes. 1 ended up fourth and I'm happy with that. 1 want to prove everyone wrong as far as not qui ttin g goes. 1 want to show that I'm a charger from here on ou t. It's a long year an d I've got a lot of races to prove it." By th e e igh th lap L aRocco was all ove r Swink and probing for a wa y around the Honda rider. . "I took my time passing him because there reall y w asn 't an yon e else aroun d us," sa id LaRocco. "I didn't want to do anythi ng stupid so 1 took my time and made it h appen later." Once past Swink, LaRocco rod e at a fast but steady pace and was neve r threatened again. As for the rest of the series, LaRocco s ai d that th e n e xt race in Charlo tte wou ld b e an im p orta nt on e. "A win the re will bring me a lot closer to Jeremy, bu t I'm no t go ing to worry abou t 125cc Hond a pr iva te er Jam e s Eic ke l grabb ed the holeshot in the 125cc main e ven t w ith Su zuki -m ounted Jim Ches ter, Nathan Ram sey and Ho nda of Troy' s Mike Brown right alon gside h im. Pichon w as pinched off going int o the first corner and exited the tu rn as the last man on the track. "I went in to the first turri in too much of a hurry and 1 went too far to the outside," said Pichon, who was fortunate in that the Pontiac track held ample roo m for passing. Withi n a few tu rns Brown secu red the lead and immediately started to pull away, ai de d by h is d arin g leap of the tri ple ju mp s every lap. F & S Suzuki ' s Davey Yezek jumped into second bu t d id not have th e torqu e of Brown (or Picho n, for that matter) to eve n attempt the di fficult triples. Brown kept ju mping the trip le even after he almos t impaled himself on the third jump on the fourth lap . Several more near miss es occu rred before the jump became too rutted for Brown to att empt wit h confid ence. Further back Pich on was met hodically working hi s way toward th e front. After bein g 15th at the end of th e first lap, Pich on ran 12th for one lap , ninth for the next thr ee laps, and then jumped all the wa y up to fourth on the very next go-a rou n d. By th is tim e Brown w as pull ing away from Yezek and thinking in his min d th at the race was in the bag. "I wa s ou t front and I though t 1 was too fa r ahead," ex p la ined Brown. "It went to my head and I lost my timin g an d s ta rted mess ing 'u p everywhere. Picho n caug ht me and I jus t ende d up second ." Pichon had passed Yezek for second wi th four laps to go and immedi ately erased the di stance between second and first. Pichon then went aro und . Brown on th e sma ll double before the finish line, using the outsi de berm to get up eno ugh speed to ju mp the rutted set. Pich on ro de away w ith th e win w hile Brown was left to defend his sm all cushion over teamma te Dobb, wh o pa ssed Yezek for third on the 12th lap. "I h aven 't been on a motorcycl e in three and a half weeks and I cou ld certainly tell tonight," said Brown, w ho wa s inju red on press d ay back a t th e Indianapolis SX. "M y arms pu mped up rea lly bad because 1haven't been riding, b ut 1 can' t say I got tired bec au se I' ve been trainin g really ha rd s in ce th e injury. It's just that when yo u don't rid e your arms go awa y." "I've been there every week bu t I've just had terrible starts," said Dobb, who has had a trouble-filled season. "I'm no t making any excuses - 1 just need to get better starts. I've been off the bike since Day to na , but Honda of Troy an d my mechan ic Dean Baker ha ve been putting in so much work tha t I can 't help bu t be on the pod iu m." .

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