Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

riders who beat him at Budds Creek are title co ntend ers only mad e Huffman's ba d d ay worse. He leads the point sta ndings wit h 149 points, followed closely by Brown (147), Ferry (145), Frenchman Mickael Picho n (144) and SplitFire/Pro Circuit/Kawasa ki teammate Ryan Hug hes (138), and Kawasaki factory rider Robbie Reynard (129). "I think that I can get right back in to th e cha mpionship:' said the 24-year-old La mson, who ha s a lr eady DN Fed one mot o in the series and sat out tw o others wi th an injured knee. "I feel that everyone is going to have some bad motos. I was 61 points down when I got her e and now it's down to abo ut 40. No, it's not too lat e for me if I just keep working hard and riding hard ." Mc Grath stretched h is 250cc lea d fro m one point on teammate Henry to 13 on Yamaha's Jeff Emig (165-152). Henry was sandwiched between McGrath and race leader LaRocco at the end of th e first moto when he suffered a sp ectacular crash at the bottom of one of Budds Creek's steep downhill ski jumps. Henry did n ot finish the first moto or start the second and fell from second to fifth in the point standings as a result of his accident. Another rid er posting so-so scores was Kawasaki's Mike Kiedrowski, now ra nked third in th e series. Kied rowsk i only managed a seven th place showing a n d d ropped m ore than 30 po ints behin d McGrath in the process . The long, ho t d ay at Bu d d s C re ek s aw temperatures push th e 90-d eg ree ma rk, making this the warmest race day of the season so far. Prom oter Jonathan Beasley did a fine job of keeping the fas t track in to p s ha pe; dust w as n ev er a problem. A crowd estima ted at around 9000 tu rn ed out for the Nati onal eve nt. 250 NATIONAL LaR occo burst into th e lead at th e start of the first 250cc moto and the twotim e N ational cham p was never headed . Howeve r, H enry a n d McGra th gave LaRocco p len ty to thi nk about as they went about the ir ow n little war for second. "Do ug w as r eall y h a rd to p a ss because there's not a lot places to pas s here today," said McG ra th. " I was trying to pass Dou g bu t I was also trying to be nice about it." Further back Yamaha's Jeff Ernig and Suz uki's Greg Albertyn were having an amazing bat tle of their own as the everd efensive Emig gave the Sou th African a to ugh lesson in defensive riding. "Tha t was one of the most frustrating races I've ever h a d : ' said Albertyn . "Every tim e I get behind him I waste all m y time trying to p as s h im cleanly. I w as so mu ch faster than him but going d own the straig htaways he would look over at me and push me over to the tires on purpose . I tried to bump him a cou p le of times but I couldn't bump h im hard enough to get by him. It wa s fru strating as h ell. I was ea ti ng d irt th e whole race." After starting 10th Yamaha's Damon Bradshaw rose to fi fth by th e fi ni sh, looking much more at ease on his YZ250 than he did in his comeback race three weeks ago . Yamaha te amm ate Jo hn Dowd and Noleen ' s Larry Ward fol low ed him across the checkered flag . . Checking in a d isappointin g ninth was Kied rowski, who had problems with the fork guard on his Kawasaki . "I was working my up pretty go od but I had a rock bust my for k protector: ' s aid Kiedrowski. " It was grabbing th e w heel and I immediately thought that I ha d busted the hub. The guys in the pits . did, too, so they pulled me in to cha nge it but fou nd ou t halfw ay through the in the infield was that he had cleared the speaker wi res that crossed above th e track. True or not, the landing turned out to be disaster. Henry came back to terra firma with his feet on the pegs and his arms on the bars, but his arms gave out upon impact and his head slammed the ha ndlebar and gas tank. Henry cartw heeled over the bars and almost over the fence on the outside of the corner. Henry was immediately attended by track-side d octors and paramedics and then flown via helicopter to a nearby hospita l with back injuries (See Briefly ...). LaRocco ended up winning the an ti-elimactic moto with McGrath a stunned second and Emig still hold in g off Albertyn for third. "After he (Henry) did that I couldn' t even rid e: ' sa id McGrath. "I hope he' s all right because he flew so far! I kn ow his throttle d idn't stick, because I was rig ht next to him and I saw him braking going up the jump. Then all of the sudd en he ju st w ent brrrrrrah and just gassed it. Dude, I could not believe it. I ro lled off it because it I wanted to see how far he was going to go. He went so hig h." Emig holeshot the seco nd ra ce but (Above) Steve Lamson was another ri der wh o came off the disabled li st at Budds Creek, and he wen t on to score th e 125cc Nati onal vi ct ory. (Right) Honda of Troy's Mike Brown extended hi s recent hot streak, putting together 3-2 mota fini shes for runner-up honors in the 125cc class . change tha t it was just the gua rd. The y ripped it off and I was able to ge t back up to ninth, whi ch is a lot better than a DNF." "I rod e well lik e I ex pected to d o," s a id LaRocco . "I've b een rid in g a n d train ing and I knew I could still go fast. I kn ew that I could come here an d wi n." Wit h two laps to go Henry made a puzz ling and cos tly error. Th e Honda rider was still within striking distance of laRocco and the lead but McGrath was giving him fits from third-place. Henry blasted off one of Budds Cr eek's massive downhill ski jumps and rose so far out and above the ground that t~e talk wi thin one ha lf lap McGrath was ab le to knife under him in a hairpin and take the lead. Not to be out-done, Emig gave as good as he go t it a fe w turns later when he cr iss -crossed on McGrath in one tu rn and th en blasted aro und him on the next. flat hairpin corner. -"Em ig is so good at going around 19

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