Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

fourth, eventually passing him on lap 16 and staying there to the finish. After over 30 minutes of racing, the checkered flag came out and the top five finishing o rder was Henry - who had la p pe d everyone up to fourth - McGrath, Dowd, Lawrence and Del-loop. Wa rd, w ho at one time early in the race ran as high as four th, finished sixth, esp ite pitting twice . "I stopped once to change my gloves," said Ward, "The n I stopped again to adjust my clutch so it wou ld last the whole race. But, hey, I'm seco nd in points and I'm happy about that." Swink finished up in seventh, while Craig, Emig and Kiedrowski rounded out the top 10. Brooks, who was nearly dead-last off the start, rode well to 11th, finishing ahead of Antunez and Dement, Lewis ran as high as ninth before taking the checkers in 15th, one spot ahead of Amaradio. Rounding out the field was Roy, Goodman, Albertyn, Hanson and Naumec, who only completed two laps . (Opposite page) Honda of Troy's Todd DeHoop (25) nailed the holeshot in the 250Cc main, ahead of Jeremy McGrath (1), Doug Henry (4), Jeff Emig (6) and Mike Kiedrowski (7). Rain began failing halfway through the evening's program, turning the track Into a soupy mess . (Above) Doug Henry , who won his fi rst outdoor National In the mud In California In 1991, fared j ust as well In the mud at Dallas , winning his first ever supercross. (Right) Yamaha 's John Dowd made it to a supercross pod ium for t he first time, finishing th ird beh ind Henry and Jeremy McGrath. pushed the Honda rider into the outside hay bales . McGra th lost his momentum, as well as his footing, up a greasy jump and fell over. By the time he got going again half the pack had already gone by, th en a few turns later , McG rath we nt d own again . But McGrath wasn't the only rider having problem s in the sou p so were Kiedrowski, Albertyn and man y othe r unid entifiable riders. By the end of the first lap, the e ntire le ngth of th e track was lined by waving yellow flags. Mud expert Swink had slipped into second and then into the lead after passing DeHoop on the second lap, then Emig tried passing both riders but ended up another victim of the mu ck. "I just pushed it too hard in the whoops," said Emig, who would later have more p roblems and d isap pear amongst a pack of mud-covered racers. "I go t the bri!- , liant idea of taking off my glove becau se 1 co u ldn' t hold on an ym ore, but th at made it worse," said Emig. "One time m y han d slippe d off the h an dl eba rs over a jump an d crashed. It was all 1 could do just to get a grip." Emig would eventually finish ninth. By the third lap, Henry had moved up from fifth and into the lead after passing both DeHoop and Swink, who also bega n having problems holding onto the bars and would eventually drop back to seventh at th e finish. Henry imme dia tely opened u p a huge lea d, ha rdly seemed bothered at all by the muddy cond itions and was the only ride r jumping the trip les. "As long as 1 could ge t a clea n ru n, I knew I coul d jump them and that would put me in a good position to win," said Henry. By the fifth la p, only a few riders were recognizable: Henry (who was the only rider jumping the triples), DeHoop and McGrath (who both had taped a "fin" to the top of their helmets with their riding numbers on them), and Dowd (who would later get track ban ners wrapped up in his rear wheel). Everyone else was so covered in mu d and spread ou t that it was im possible to keep track of who was do ing what. After having crashed tw ice, McGra th worked his way up through the pack while weaving around stuck motorcycles and riders that littered the track. By the nin th lap , he had moved into second place after passing DeHoop and Dowd, who were battling back and fo rth. Henry was at least 20 seconds ahead of McGrath and would extend that margin to about 38 seconds before it was all over. Dowd had taken control of third by the halfway point, bu t DeHoop stayed close to the Yamaha rider, who ha d a scare when his rear wheel sucked up a long strand of track banne rs. "Luckily, it didn' t affect me," said Dowd . "I lost my -back brake, bu t the conditions were so bad it didn't matter if you had a back brake or not." Then Lawrence, who started the race in 11th, suddenly appeared on the scene and started pressuring De Hoop for 125cc Huffman powered his Tony Berluttituned RMI25 into the lead at the start of the IS-lap 125cc feature but his advantage wouldn't last for long, as both Pichon, who clinched the East Coast title last week in Charlotte, and Dobb slithered by him before the first lap was over. Undaunted, Huffman came right back as they raced three-abreast down a jump-filled straight, with H uffman sandwiched between the tw o Honda riders. In one long move, H uffman repassed both riders and from that point on never looked back. Huffman simply opened u p a huge lead and ran away from the pack . "I really had a good time," said Huffman. "I just thought I'd make the best out of it and have fun." Huffman did have a couple of scares along the way, though. "One time I did a complete 360, and 1crashed once near the end," said Huffman. "Then my gloves got muddy and that got a little scary." Hu ghes qu ickly worked his way up throu gh the pack and had control of second after passing Dobb, but by that time Huffman had already bu ilt up an insurmount able 19-second lead. "I had a dead-last start, but 1 got up to sixth on the first lap," said Hughes. "I then crashed two more times; it was tough outthere but it was tough fo r everyone. In these kinds of conditions, you just have to enjoy it and say 'hey, this is going to be fun/" Dobb ran third in the early going ' un til he got a hay bale cover wrapped up in his back wheel. He stopped on the track to extract the cover, which gave Brown third. Dobb's problems also gave Picho n, who had earlier crashed on the th ir d lap, tim e to catch back u p a nd begin d ogging the Brit for fourth. On the last lap, Pichon's efforts pai d off whe n he slip ped his Kawasaki by Do bbs Honda, relegating him to fifth. When it was all over, Huffman had taken the checke red flag way out in front ahead of Hughes, Brown, Picho n and Dobb. Finishing sixth was Chad Pederson, while Suzuki's Craig Decker, Tony Graves, David Pingree and Brian Deegan rounded out the top 10. As for the mu ddy conditions, Brown perha ps summed it u p best by sayi ng, "Raci ng in th e mud is fu n once in a wh ile, bu t I wouldn't wan t to do it every weeke nd ." I~ Texas Stadi um Irving, Texas Resuhs:April29,l995 125 HEAT 1 (6 I ~p., 9 riders trans fe r): 1. Damon Huffman (Suz ); 2. Craig Deck er (Suz); 3 . Tommy

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