Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

in g Kiedrowski. The Kawasaki rider seemed to struggle to find his form early in the race, bu t there was no doubting his speed in the middle laps. Unfortunately, his bid for third came to an abrupt halt when he slid out on the next-to-last lap. '1 went to cut under Larry and I lost my front end," said Kiedrowski. Ward and Emig traded places four times in the last two laps, and it was Entig who came home in third. '1 was a little surprised:' said Ward. ·We were all ri ding rea lly clean. We were blocking each other left and right, but no one ever slammed anyone. After a great race like that, it's satisfying even w he n you come up short with fourth. Wh at ' s im portant to me is that I beat Kiedrows ki." St rangely eno ugh, most of the fans forgo t a bo u t th e long -gone McG ra th while they focused on the great battle for second, third and fourt h. "I just holeshot a nd stayed real aggressive fo r abo u t eight laps: ' said McGrath . "I heard it was a grea t race for seco nd. I wish I could have seen it... No, maybe I don't." " I kn ew th at winning every round would be really tough to do," said Huffman. "It's disa ppoi nting to finally lose a race, but it's grea t to wrap up the championship. like they say, you can't win 'em all. I got a little flack last year for not being real happy when I clinched the championship. I didn't win the race then, just like tonight. Bu t I think I've grown up and matured a lot in the past year, and now I know wha t an accomplishment winning the championship really is." Thi rd in th e m a in even t wen t to Orange County Suzu ki's Greg Schnell. The home state topped Huffma n in a hea t ra ce ea rlier in th e eveni ng, an d backed up th at perf ormance wi th a n ad mirable third in the main. "This feels real good ," said Schnell. "I . was in the sam e position at Anaheim earlier this year but I crashed and broke my leg. This is a good comeback for me." 250cc KTM's Jeff Dement set the pace at the sta rt of the first eight-lap heat race, bu t even tually gave wa y to a fu ll-of-co nfide nce Henry. Kiedrowski did his best to ma tch Henry's pace, and stayed on the leader's tail until the end. Ward suffered a mediocre start and closed in on the lead duo near the end, but ran out of laps before being above to make a serious bid for first or second. Team Yamaha's John Dowd was a distant fourth, fending off the charges of Honda of Troy rider Mike Brown for the last direct transfer position . Early leader Dement dropped to eigh th and would return in a senti . "I've been feeling better and better on a 250," said Henry. '1 was having some bad finishes at the beginning of the year, and tha t was making me mad. When you get m ad you ma ke mistakes . Now I'm more confident in my abilities." Heat two offered a prelud e of things to come. Emig gra bbed the holeshot ahead of McGrath, and for a moment, it looked as if he could pull away . McGrath clipped a ha ybale on the opening lap and d id a spectacular "flying W" as he chased after Emig. but rega ined control and quickly set to work. McGrath took over the lead near the end of lap one and wa s never headed, although Emig did stay close for several laps . A nac nac here and a nac nac there, and McGrath was off to the fastest hea t race win of the night. Believing that he had second in the bag, Emig began to whip his Yamaha sideways over the two la rg e tr iples, unaware th at Honda of Troy's Brian Swink had moved into third and was closing the gap at an alarming rate. On the last lap, Swink whipped his Honda sideways over the triples in tandem with Emig, who was still una wa re of his presence. After the following tum, Swin k blitzed through the w hoops section - perhaps fas ter th an anyone, all nigh t - and past a surprised Entig. Swink was a po pular second at the line. Entig was third, and Noleen 's Kyle Lewis finished a distant fourth for a d irect transfer. "I go t a bad s ta rt a nd had to pl a y catch up: ' said Swink. "I was gaining on Emig, a nd he was out th e re playing. That's fine: I thought , and I got him on the last lap ." Brown led every lap of the first senti, leading Dement, Kawasaki privateer Phil Lawrence, HoT's Jam es Dobb and Cliff Palme r int o t he main . Honda priva tee r Brian Deegan led early in senti two, but three- time World Champion Greg Albertyn took over and rode off with the win, le ading form er event winner Doug Dubach, Deegan, KTM's Anthony Amaradio and Japanese rider Takateru Atsuta across the line and into the main. Local hero Rusty Holland flew to the win in the LCQ. Jeff Hedden was second, and the last rider to qualify. 125cc Hugh es and Schnell scored the wins in the two six-lap heat races, and Brian Deegan scored the win in the LCQ. Huffman didn't get a great jump off (Above) David Pin gree scored his fi rst-ever 125cc superc ross win. (Right) Doug Henry (4), Jeff Emlg (6) and Larry Ward (11) engaged in a heated battle ove r second. Henry preva iled. (Bel ow) Damo n HUff man wra pped up his seco nd-stra ight Western Regio nal 125cc Supe rcross Champ io nsh ip. McGrath blasted down the long start straight at the drop of the gate and led Emig, Dement, Henry, Ward, Albertyn, Dowd and Kiedrowski through tum one. "Supermac" immediately began to put distance on Ernig, and had a three second lead by lap two . Behind Emig, Demen t, Ward and Henry scrambled for position a nd allowed the Yamaha ride r to tem porarily break away as well. "I knew that I was alone in second, and I'm really disappointed that I let the race ca tch back up to me:' said Emig, who at one point was a safe four seconds ahead of Ward. Dement crashed on the seventh lap and retired for the evening. '1 got a handlebar in the... well, you know," said the personable Texan. "I felt good all night, but the rear end of my bike was skidding around everywhere." With Dement's demise, Ward and Henry closed the gap on Emig, and by lap nine, the three were running in close order. Kiedrowski;meanwhile, was in fifth and closing the gap as well, while Albertyn ran alone in sixth , H enry was the fastes t of t he no nMcGrath bunch, and took con trol of the runner-up spot on lap nine. Entig briefly moved back past him , but in the end, Henry wo uld enjoy a two-second cush ion over third. Wit h Henry's de parture, Emig and Ward were left to deal with a hard-charg- the line at the start of the IS-lap main, but his Tony Berlu tti-tu ned RMl25 p ulled long and h a r d down the long sta rt straight. At the end of the straight, Huffman led Hug hes by half a bike length. Entering turn one, Hughes and Huffma n both see med to continue to go straight, and plowed thr ough the hay bales that lined the track. As expected, both riders had differe nt versions of wha t occurred. "I was going into tum one and someone plowed in to me: ' said Huffman, as he pointed out black tire marks on his left side panel and left pant leg. "We went straight into the hay bales." "I was second and Huffman pinched me off," said Hughes. "He cut in front of me and we tangled and went down." While the tw o series heroes were picking themselves up off the grou nd, North County Yamaha's Co ry Keeney assumed the lead over Sp ud Wa lters, Pingree an d Schnell. While Pingree and Schne ll worked into first and second by lap three, Hu ffman and Hu ghes were up to 10th and 11th. By lap nine, they were third and fifth. While Huffman seemed to easi ly work - - - -- - - Continued on page 78 17

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