Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

(Left)Team Suzuki's TIm Ferry captured the firstl25cc National win of his career with consistent 2-2 scores. (Opposite page) Team Honda/1-800Collect/Fox rider Doug Henry turned 12 mota finishes Into his first-ever 250cc National win. (Right) Mike Brown (26) topped the first 125cc class mota and Mlckael Pichon (101) won the second mota, but It was TIm Ferry (23) who ea rned the overall. Scott Sheak (38) was lmpresslve in the early laps of mota one. Larry Ward. At the drop of the gate, Henry ripped off the line and appeared to have the hol esh ot, but Bradshaw brought th e crowd into a frenzy by gassing it past Henry and into the lead as the pack exited the second turn . Dowd, Suzuki privateer Cliff. Palmer, Albertyn, KTM 's Anthony Amaradio and McGrath trailed: Bradshaw may have wished that he'd taken the warmup lap when he crashed out of the lead in an off-camber left-hander, approxi. mately halfway around the track. '" think 1 gave it too much gas and the rear end came around on me," said Bradshaw, who remounted 22nd. "It was a great feeling to lead the pack, though. The adrenaline was definitely going. I wish' could have stayed up there a little bit longer." With Brads haw's demise, Henry took over the lead and many expected the race for the point to be over. Little did they know . Af ter starting mid pack, Honda of Troy's James Dobb caught fire and raced into third by the end of lap one. Henry led the way across the finis h line ahead of Dowd, Do b b, Pa lmer, Noleen's Kyle Lewis and ...Brads haw! '" don't know h ow ' got from 20something up to sixth in half a lap," sa id Brads h aw, just as astonished b y his accomplish ment as anyone else. "I didn't cut the track - honest! I caught up and saw Henry lea d in g, and figured that t he lea d e rs must be way, way gone." Dowd pressured Henry in the opening laps, while Bradshaw raced into third. Dobb, meanwhile, held down fourth and looked strong, despite losing his goggles on the third lap . Slowly but surely, Dobb began to close the gap on Bradshaw, and the two riders scrapped for a couple laps before Dobb motored by on lap seven. "After I caught up to Dowd, Henry didn't appear to be getting away so I figured I would back off a little and wait until the end of the moto to make a charge," said Bradshaw. "But when' started slowing down, I started to ride bad. My neck was hurting because my helmet was so heavy with mud." -After passing Bradshaw; Dobb set his sights on Dowd. "Damon was going good," said Dobb. "But he's still the same old Damon. He was riding dirty and I had to defend myself." Dobb continued on with his charge, and passed a surprised Dowd for second on the eighth lap. "By the time Dobb caught me I was s tarting to get tired," adm itted Dowd. "My arms were starting to hurt, and I was havin g trouble with lappers. I was surprised by Dobb, but then again he's . from ove rseas a nd has a lot of mud experience." Dobb surprised everyone but himself as he proceeded to run down He nry and take control of the lead on lap 10. "I've always known that' could run with these guys," said Dobb . "I'm every bit as fast. Sure, it was muddy, but riding a motorcycle is riding a motorcycle." Henry was caught off gua rd by Dobb, but not worried . "I was just trying to pace myself," said Henry. '" was cruising the first five laps, and then when Dobb passed me I decided to stay behind him and follow his lines. They were pretty much all the same, except for one in the back." Cool and collected, Henry took the lead back with two laps to go and was never again challenged for the win. '" pinched him off on a downhill," said Henry. "Basically, I cut under him and took his line away in the following comer." Dobb finished a solid second, nearly 30 seconds ahead of Dowd. Albertyn took control of fourth early in the race and was alone throughout the entire moto. The South African was 40 seconds behind Dowd, and 15 seconds ahead of Kawasaki privateer Phil Lawrence when the checkered flag came out. Lawrence had spent the entire moto chasing after Lewis, and took advantage of a lapped rider on the last lap to stea l fifth. "Chad DeHoop sto p ped in a rut in the las t corner," said a vis ibly angered Lewis . "Right in front of me - Law re nce cut under bot h of us and that was it." Palmer rode steadily throughout the race for seventh, while Bradshaw came home eighth after crashing out of the lead pack on lap seven. "I fell down in a slippery comer and d ropped pretty ' far back," said Bradshaw. '" had a nother fall la ter in the race. It was sloppy out there:' McGrath trailed Bradshaw across the line, in ninth. "Dude; I kept head planting!" said McGrath. '" would crash, get up, catch up, crash, get up, catch up, crash, over and over. I had a major header on the first lap. I fell in the downhill whoop section. My bike jack-knifed and' did a big 01' head plant. My neck kinda hurts. The bike was okay. Mud just isn't my specialty:' Emig rounded out the top 10 after running much further back throughout most of t h e race . " I was back there floundering and thought, 'This isn' t good, [effro,' then' started to pick it up," he said. Ward came home 11th aboard a sickso u nding ma ch in e, while Kiedrowski was a distant 12th . Remarka bly, sunny conditions greeted the riders as they lined up for moto two. The thick, s ticky mud had dried, for the most part, and deep ruts filled each comer. McGrath was third off the line but led Henry, Bradshaw, Emig and Dowd by the third turn. Like he has done so many times indoors, McGrath waved goodbye to his pursuers and roosted off with a convincing win. At the checkered flag, McGrath held a substantial IS-second lead over runner-up Emig. "That's the way to do it, man," said a . happy McGrath . '" didn't even think about getting tired . The only thing that hurt was this blister on my hand, It was just one of those motos - I felt fluid all moto long . I guess' had to redeem myself after that first moto." Henry ran se cond throughout the first part of the moto, but was run down by a hard-charging Emig . The Yamaha rider used an uphill triple jump to close in , seconds at a time, for several laps before Henry caught on and began to triple the obstacle as well. "We were all tripling it during practice, but the mud made it too hard," said Henry. "My mechanic Pete Steinbrecher must have seen Emig doing it, because he signaled me on the pit board to start tripling:' Nevertheless, Emig closed the gap and applied rel e n t le ss p ressu re to . Henry. On lap 11, that pressure paid off as Henry went down in the back section. '" lost the front end in the far side of the course," said Henry. "I could hear Emig behind me the whole time. I knew that I had the overall. but it still would have been nice to hold him off." Despite finishing second, Emig was not overjoyed with his performance. Dowd came home a distant fourth, well ahead of Kiedrowski, who WaS in tum well ahead of Dobb. Dowd actually pressured Henry in the closing stages, but had a crash of his own in the final laps. Dowd fell in the same jump section that Emig and Henry were tripli ng through, but remounted quickly to hold on to fourth and second overall. "I'm finally turning in the finishes that I should," said Dowd. '" could tell that Henry was getting up from a crash, and I really wanted to get him . As it turned out, it wouldn't have mattered if , did:' Brads haw's race lasted for on ly three la ps. Af ter s ta rting third , Bradshaw dropped to fif th when a plastic track banner that was blowing across the course became wrapped around h is body. After slowing and throwing it off, Bradshaw failed to regain his rhyth m and crashed hard in a downhill section of the track. "All I remember is going down the 7

• Cover