Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

SUPERCROSS _AMA S upercrossSeries the midway point," said Hughes , who moved to within three points of Emig for second in the stand ings . "I was having trouble in the w hoops, w h ich is us ually my strong point. Hop efully in the next couple of races I can do better. I was hoping to catch Jeremy and I w as rid ing hard but once my arms pumped he scooted away a lit tle bit. Better to ge t second than midpack, huh ?" While Hughes rode alon e to second, LaRocco finally got away from Lusk to pick up the thir d and final podi um spot. "I fee l a lot m or e comfo rtabl e and things are going a lot better for me," said LaRocco after the race. "It's been a wh ile since I' ve been on th e p od ium a nd I wasn ' t ove rly aggressive. I jus t tried to get through everyone as clean and quick as I could. On ce I saw' Hughes the race got sho rt and it was ove r." Lusk held on for fourth, tho ugh late in the race he was approached by a hardcharging Bradshaw, wh o h ad troub le in the ea rly traff ic and did n' t really get him self going until later in the race. "Fourth is goo d, but I just got a little tigh t there tow ards the end of the race," said Lusk, who has been very consistent of late. "I lost time w hen the red cross flags came out for Dam on and I didn't want to take a chance of land ing on him . I was singling everything but the othe r gu ys weren't and I lost touch w ith the lea ders. That frustrated me and made me start trying too hard. There' s only a few races left and I think it's time I started really letting it all hang out. I want to get up th ere to third , seco nd, fir st fou rth is better than 10th, but I want to be up top ." "I got off to an other sorry start and it's just disgu sting to be ridin g back that far ," sa id Bradsh aw, wh o might have been the second-fastest man on the track at the end. "I just kept riding, and when guys m ad e m ist akes I just go t a rou nd them . I felt as goo d at the end as I did at the beginning and I guess that's '! good thing. It's hard to be clean and aggressive at the same time on these tracks . So far I' ve been nice and I'm to the po int w he re I' m getti ng ti red of struggling beh ind guys I shouldn 't be behind. I' ve been too nice to them, and that' s the end of that. " Em ig led th e second five across th e lin e, followed, in o r der, b y Ward , Lawrence, Swink and Windham. "I'm just not coming up with that little bit of luck or little bit of smarts," said Emig of his bad night. "I just can't qu it trying to win races now. I know I can do it. Jeremy Car) do no wron g. I mean, lu ck is on his side . If two gu ys go down, they fall op posite ways and he goes between th em. We' re all try ing and trying, but everything just goes his way. Maybe he kno ws so me th ing th e rest of us don't know." " My m a in event s u cke d," sa id Lawrence. "I was up into fourth and I felt real good , but then Albee just lost his head or some thing and came straight in and cleaned me. I w as on th e gro un d an d had to com e ba ck th rou gh with a bent clutch for eighth. I'm just not happy with that. " "It' s ju st one of th ose mine! th ings that I need to w ork ou t," said a disappointed Windham of h is 10th-place finish. "I try all week an d feel-gre at an d then com e ou t here and halfway through I'm dead . I guess it's just going to take time. I have the speed, which would be harder to get than the strength if I didn't have it. It will come ." A1bertyn finished 12th bu t was riding as fast as he has all year, save for a few sp ills . " Com ing from Europe, I'm just Roun :Tampa Stadium d11 not used to having to close the door all the time ," admitted the for me r th reetime world champ. "In this kind of racing you have to have eyes in the back of vour head. It' s mu ch more intense ou t the re than it looks," 125cc Team Yamaha' s John Dowd quickly put last weekend's disastrous non-qualifying ride in Indian apolis behind him by scoring the first 125cc heat-race win over privateers Tommy Clowers and Tony Lorus so. In heat two, Team SplitFire/ Pro Circuit / Kawasaki's Mickael Pichon wo n th e best race of th e nigh t by pass ing Su zuki privateer Na tha n Ram sey in the last comer. At the s tart of th e 125cc main New Yorker Scott Sheak, the privateer hero of last m on th ' s Ga in e s v ill e Natio na l, grabbed th e h olesh ot ahead of Texan Grayson Goodman and Pichon. Californian Sha u n Pe rolio, Nebraska's Brian Deegan and Massach usetts' Dowd were ne xt in th e field of 22. Suzuki' s Tim Ferry, the homestate favorite, su ffered a woeful start and then fell with Clow ers. The Floridian wou ld n ot be a fact or, especia lly after falling even deeper in the field after a fourth lap fall. Ferry never stopped trying to recover and ended up - 12th in the field . It took less than a lap for Pichon to drive 'his number-on e Kawasaki to the front of the pack. Once there he jus t keep going, building a lead that reach ed 20 seconds before he set the chromed Pro Circuit Kawasaki on cruise control. "I ' ve been wo rki ng very har d to imp rove with every race, and to night Mitch (Payton) and my mechanic (Chad Watts) set the bike so that I could jump a ll o f th e tripl es and it w orked ve ry goo d," sa id Pichon, whowill be a hot p roperty when the factory teams start looking for 1997 250cc supercross talen t. "I knew that I might be tired at the end, but I was far enough ah ad to rest for a little bit." As often has been the case this year (Right) Ryan Hughe s turned In anot her solid perf orman ce, th is ti me finishing second. (Bel ow) Team SplitFlre/Pro Circu it/Kawasaki's Mlckae l Pichon again breezed to vi ctory In the 125cc East Coast" main event, over John Dowd and Scott Sheak. a cross th e b oard in th e 250cc main ev ents an d th e 125cc East and We st Regional races, the race for second provide d the most excitement of the night. Shea k wa s de te rm ined to ge t o n th e podium for the firs t tim e in h is career and fought for every comer with factory pilot Dowd , who had to overcame some thick ear ly traffic to get a clear shot at the runner-up. "My start wa sn't tha t great, but after a few lap s I got up to where I could see th e leaders, tho ug h Picho n w as pretty mu ch gone," said Dowd of his early disadvantage. "H e was a good s traigh taway, or even two straightaw ays ahead by the time I got to th ird , so I kind o f concentra ted on chipping aw ay at the little lead that Scott h ad," Sheak led Dowd past the wh ite flag but was himself trap ped behind a stu bborn lapper, Jeff Yen tzer. Sheak could be heard yelli ng at Yentzer going pa st the wh ite flag and the nex t right-hand corner, but did not appear to be getting any help from the blue flags. "I got ou t there and I was riding really grea t until I go t hooked behind that lapped ride r," sai d Sheak, who ne ar ly - made the podium for the first time last w eekend a t Indian a poli s. "I foll ow ed him the whal e lap and I'm yelling and screaming the whole time! I'm right next to him and I can't believe he can' t hear me. I we nt way ou tside on the whoo ps and lost time, I rolled the whole doub le sec tion b eh ind hi m an d lost so mu ch tim e. John was right th ere before too long." Finally, going info the first comer on the tr ack for the last tim e of the ni ght Sh eak tr ied to go ou ts ide of Yentzer, wh o in turn seemed to be trying to get ou t of his w ay by moving in the same . direction. That left the fro nt d oor open for Dowd, who slipped in un der Sheak's bike and executed a clean block pass. "I was kind of thinking that I had the option of getting him in the first come r the whole race, but I didn't want to do that unless I had to," said Dow d, ever th e good sportsman. "I wanted to ge t him somewhere else bu t I wasn't picking ~p any time on him, so it came to the last lap an d I figured I had to do it if I wanted to get that next position." "Hey, nice pas s for John and all, but I feel th at he should not have been th at close to me," said the fru strated Sheak. "There' s more we ekends to come and now that we've made some adju stments to my bike I'm jus t rippin' the starts. I've go t a ll th e con tro l I w ant, and now I know I can run up ther e. It's taken half the year to get up there, mostly becau se I do n't have access to a supercross trac k like th ese other guys and -I d on' t get d ialed in as qu ickly as they do. I'm not up to my peak in su percross - I need to get some tim e on a su percross tra ck. I pray to God I get on a factory team next year, b ecau se I kn ow I worked for it . Still , man, I' m so stoked to be on that po dium." . While Pichon was well into his victory lap, D?w d led Sheak across the fin ish

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