Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Dowd and Windham, Dubach an d Antunez. "I thought 1could outl ast Pichon , so 1 figured as long as 1 d idn't let him get away too far 1 cou ld ree l him in a t the end," said Lamson of early second-moto leader Pichon. "Once 1 got into secon d he made a few mi stakes and maybe eve n got tired, so 1 was able to get him earlier than 1 thought 1 would." After Lamson passed Pichon , Dowd followe d su it a short time later. Then Pichon fell . in the same corne r where he ti pped over in the second moto and handed third to Wind ham. "This is not my favorite track on the circuit and last yea r 1 had my worst race," said Pichon, who ended up fourth in the moto. "I have not been on tracks like this very much and I'm not comfortable. To finish third overall is very good fo r m e her e and 1 a m seco nd in th e points, so 1 a m happy with my result toda y." Lamson seemed to be in con tro l of th e race u ntil Dowd sud de nly caug h t Ferry and we nt after the leader. With in three laps Dowd erased the d eficit and was able to challe nge the lead er Lamson . "Once 1 got to second I was thinking, 'Oka y, this is pretty good, this is Lamson's home track and he's going to be tough to beat:" explained Dowd of his thinking in the midd le of the race . "Then 1 tho ugh t, 'Wait a minute, that's no way to think righ t now . 1 should let it all hang out: so I did, and 1 caug ht him . 1 think 1 su rp rised him w he n 1 caught up , and I kind of surprised myself." "Dowd was ragin g!" said Lamson of his late pursuit. "I knew somebody was back there, bu t 1 thought it was Ferry or someone like that, because 1 rea lly a sudden, la te charge fro m Yamaha 's John Dowd in the second moto. The wi n allowed Lamson to move way ahea d in the 125cc National point standings, showing a total of 97 ou t of 100 possible points. Pichon is a d istant seco nd wi th 74 points, while Dowd ho lds 60. Lamso n's surge on the points charge was aided by a woeful day for first-round p rivat eer star Scott Sheak, w ho poo r-started his way to 19th overall, an d no-shows by injured contenders Mike Brown of Ho nd a of Troy (broken arm) and Kawasaki's Dam on H uffman (kn ee). McGrath, who also' wo n both motos at the series-opene r in Gainesville, Florid a, in March, has a perfect score of 100 in the 250cc point standings, whi le Emig slip ped a little fu rther back at Hangtow n afte r a 2-4 s ho w ing fo r seco nd ove ra ll. Emig has a to tal of 84 points, w hile third-ranked Mike LaRocco of Team Suzuki shows 64 total points. The 1996 Hangtown Classic was the best even t the Dirt Diggers Motorcycle Club has produced in years. A renewed commitment by the club in the past few yea rs to im p ro ve their ev en t certainly showed in the track that gree ted the riders on a warm, su n ny da y. Countless truckloads of topsoil and sa nd w ere brought in prior to the event and made for a rough, deep -benned track - a welcome change from the dry and d usty even ts that used to happen here . A hu ge tu rnout of 15,300 fans packed the fences aro un d the long, fast Hangtown track. 125cc Whe n th e first 125cc Na tional mo to left th e ga te Lamson surged in to the lead as Team SplitFire /Pro Circuit's Rust y Holland, Great Wes te rn Bank's Buddy Antunez, Cha pa rral's Brian Deegan, and Pichon filled in the first few spots behind the num ber- o ne-p lated Honda. Left in the loamy berms of the first corner was a bevy of privat eers that included Tenne ssee' s Nathan Ram sey, Primal Impu lse / Bill' s Pipes /Honda' s Pedro Gon zalez, Xtreme-b acked Cory Keen ey, Ch aparral 's Micha el Brandes, v ideo su pers tar Mik e Metzg er , H onda of Troy's terribly unlucky Jeff WilIoh, and Team BSY' s Dou g Dubach. Lamson set a very fast ea rly pace in the lead, th ou gh Pi ch on im me dia tely m ade s tr ides towar ds th e fr ont 'a nd gathered up second sp ot before the end of one lap. Con tende rs Ezra Lus k, John Dowd and his Yama ha teammate Kevin Windham were just outside the top 10 and, on a difficult-to-p ass-on track, were basically elimina ted from winning contention before they really got started . "I was try ing to pa ss Lam son at th e beginning beca use 1 had three or fou r lines where I wa s faster than him," said Pich on of his early bid for the lead . "A couple of times I got righ t beside him, but then 1 think he saw my lin es, and the lap right.after that he changed all of his lines and too k mine. After that 1 could no t pass him, because 1 did not know where to go." While Lamso n and Pichon motored away in a race of their own, Holland d id an ad equate job of ho lding third for the first part of the moto as Antunez, Suz uki/Quicksilver-backed James Dobb, and SplitFire /Pro Circu it' s Casey Joh nson chased af ter him . Fu r ther back, Lusk, Wind ha m and H ond a of Troy's Mike Craig all took tu rns faIling d own an d wo uld each spe nd the rest of the moto making up for lost ti me. Cra ig fared best , making it to seven th, while Lusk was eighth and Windham was 10th. The just-back-from -injury Reynard was also on t h e mo ve after a bad s tar t a nd climbedas high as eigh th before making (Above) Greg Albe rty n was chas ing down McGrath In the firs t 250cc moto when the clutch rod in his Suzuki bro ke, for cin g his lon g walk back to the pits. (Right) Honda of Troy's Br ian Swin k takes a trip ove r the bars while chasing Doug Henry in t he sec ond 250cc moto. Swin k fared mu ch bette r In the first moto where he fini sh ed a st rong t hird. . a mistake and dropping out of the top 15. "I wen t to grab a tear-off and th ey were all gone, so I tried to clean my goggles wi th m y hand and I ra n off th e track," said the 18-year -old Hond a privateer. . Up front Lam son and Pichon were abou t five sec on ds a pa r t u n ti l th e Frenchman slip ped at the bottom of one of the long downhills wh en he cross-rutted his Kawasaki ina corner. "I was trying to find a new line when I fell," said Pichon . "I wa s trying to ride where it was pretty flat, but I went too mu ch outside and when 1cut to the inside 1 crossru tted ." Do wd wa s a b le to mov e pa st Antunez when he sli p ped in a corner and then outleaped the feisty Holland o n a downhill do uble to m o ve into third. By then Lamson and Pichon were long gone w ith the top spo ts. Lamso n to o k a n easy win, w hile Pichon drifted across the line a satisfied second. Dowd was third, followed by 'a ve ry satisfied A n tu nez in fourth . A se mis u rp rise in fifth was the teenager John son, who also pu t in a ter rific rid e a t H ang town in ' 95 b u t then m issed most of the rest of the seaso n with a broke n leg. Johnson' s teammate Holland d id not fare as well at the end of th e moto and fell all the way back to 15th after flirtin g with a top-five rid e for more than 20 minutes. "I got a bad s tart and it took me about five laps to get going," said Johnson of his fine performance for fifth . "Once 1 go t going 1 had a really good pace and started picking riders off. Once those guys get out there off the start they ' spread out so quickly that it's really hard to make u p any spots . 1 just neve r stopped trying. This is like a hometown race fo r me an d I've bee n rid in g here ev er since I was on a lit tle 60. It feels really good to ride up front here." Pichon star ted out in the lead when th e seco nd 125cc moto blasted off th e line and into the first two right-handed corners . Lamson was ri ght up th er e behind him, as were Suzuki's Tim Ferry, wa sn' t lookin g a t my pit board. It seemed like ev ery tim e 1 went by (the signaling area) there were some lappers or something around me and 1 couldn't see my board. Then 1 took a peak back over m y shoulder a nd saw John and thoug ht, 'Holy shit, he picked it up a little bit!' But 1 had a little extra spee d left to ho ld him off." Twice on the last lap Dowd got rig ht alongside Lamson, bu t he couldn't find a pl ace to pass and Lamson cer ta inly didn't give him an inch or a m istake to work off. Lamson crossed the finish line just a bike length ahead of the Yamaha. Windham came along about 15 seconds la ter, fo llo wed by a cruising Pichon, Ferry, Lusk and top privat eer Antunez. Round in g ou t th e top lOin th e m oto were Australia's Kim Ashkenazi, Casey Johnson and last-place-stafting Reynard.

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