Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Steve Lamson (1 ) made It look easy as he ran away to a double-moto sweep In the 125cc National. Here he pulls away from Buddy Antunez (22 ), John Dowd (7), Tim Ferry (20) and Mickael Pichon (behind Antunez and Dowd). ge n ce in th is year's Nationals. "I got a good start and tried to stay on Lamson and Pichon for as long as I could and then just tried to ride on my own. Pichon was too far ahead to key off of and Dowd and those gu ys were working together to catch me . Tha t' s why I sa ved a littl e bit of strength for the very end ." Good thing. After Dowd brok e from the chasing privateers cleanl y and went afte r leading priva teer Antunez and spent the last lap and a half all over the Kawasaki rider's rear fende r. But Antunez held his gro und and gladly rode in to the winner's circle as a podium finis her for the first time in recent memory. '1 had nothing to shoot for and Dowdy ha d four great laps at the end," added Antunez. "I'm real happy with third and I feel like I got enough to do it again." "I was ca tchi ng Bud d y ea rly, but I caug ht my brak e lever on a tire and I had to pi ck m y bike up reall y fas t befor e it stalled," said Sheak . "I didn't stall or nothi ng bu t it took my forearms away because it was hot. By that time, John was right on me and he made a really good pass and then wen t right after Buddy. I think that if I wo uld n't have hit that I could've given Buddy a pretty good ru n myself, and I know Dowdy wouldn't have passed me." While Dowd fin ished fourth, Sheak be ttered a lat e-ch arging Ped erson for sixth. Suzuki's Ezra Lusk rode to a quiet seventh, while British impo rt James Dobb us ed his Quiksilver-backed independent Suzuki to outsprint factory pilot Ferry for eighth-place honors. "I felt pretty good at Mount Morris, bu t I got sick during the first mota," said Pederson, who broke his arm at the Minneapolis SX. "I couldn't ride the pace for the rest of the d ay, but here at Bud d s Creek I feel good. I should've caught Sheak at the end there but a lapper slowed me down at the end and I got sixth." Lamson and Antunez again ran at the fro nt of the 125cc pack, w ith Ped erson , Bro w n, Dowd, Craig, Sheak, Ferry and Windha m makin g up the early pursu it. Pichon fell on the first lap and was way in the ba ck after lap, but he w ould cra sh over the handlebars on the finish-line ski jump and br eak his wrist, meaning that Lamson would only have to worry a little about An tunez for the overall victory. . Lamson im mediately p u lled away from the field an d left little doub t as to who the fas tes t 125cc rider was on the track. '1 had such a bad day at High Point three weeks ago and I've bee n thinki ng ever since about how I wa nted to come her e and remind everyo ne that I' m the champion in this class," said Lamson later as he rushed off the airpo rt for a late flight home. "I knew that if I got ou t fron t early and got away it was too hot for an yone to make a real big push after me. Once I got about 10 or 15 seconds out front 1 started cruising and counting down laps." Lam- son capped off the second-mota stroll to victory wi th ano ther heel-clicker on the last tabletop . Windham was obviously frustra ted by his 12th-place finish in the first moto and started blasting throu gh his com petitors towards the front. He moved on Dowd, Ferry , Craig and Sheak with great efficiency and then reeled Antunez and Brown in to take over seco nd after abo u t 10 minutes. Even with Lamson long gone, Windham n ev er d ro p p ed his guar d and charged all the way to the finish line and a . hard-eamed runner-up finish. Antunez was holding off Dowd, Sheak an d Ferry early, but then Dowd went by on his Yamaha and left the gro up. Sheak migh t have been the next ma n throu gh, but he caught the lip of the fin ish-li ne kicker /ski jump and slammed bik e an d body into the ground. By the time he was do ne tumbling he lay motionl ess in the center of the track , a scene scary in it' s familiarity to last year's Doug Henry disaster. But Sheak was able to get to his feet afte r a few minu tes a nd was w il dly applauded for his efforts by his man y East Coast fans. Dowd ended u p a lonely third while Antunez was a very satisfied fourth. "I just wasn't goi ng as fast as the guys in front of me," said Dowd with a shrug. "I hand le the heat okay and 1 finished the motos pretty strong, so I'm pretty happy with second overall." "I got off to ano ther good start and just ro de the track as smoothly as I cou ld," said Antunez. "There we re a lot of guys aro und me like Brown, Shea k and Ferry who either got tired or crashed or something an d I just kept going . I didn't worry about anyone, even after Windham went by me because he was going so fast. 1 figured as long as I didn't worry about anyone else 1wou ld be okay ." Dowd was the only one to pass the privateer who, with the excep tio n of a small crash midway through the second race, put in one of his best outdoor rides ever. "Heck, I was even hap py when I crashed because I kept my composure!" added Antunez. Ferry then drop ped out of contention when the heat got to him, leaving fifthpl ace to a con vin cing Mike Cr aig, w ho still looked strong at the end of the day. Pederson was again sixth while Dobb was a quiet seventh. Rou nd ing out the top 10 were Honda of Troy's Jeff WilIoh, the 37th-pla ce starting Reynard and Nebraska's Deegan. 250 NATJONAL Emi g su rged into the right- handed , uphill first turn wi th the lead at the start of the first 250cc mo to. No leen Yama ha privateer Kyle Lewis flanked him on one side, while factory pilots McGrath, Albertyn, Yamaha's Doug Henry and Rorick' sbacked privateer Mike Katin rode on the other. Hen ry pushed past Albertyn righ t away, while McGra th relieved "Lucky" Lewis of his ru nner-up s ta tus. Then McGrath we nt after Emig with the same eagerness with w hic h he pursued th e early lead throughout the '96 Supercross Series. "I go t a really bad jump off the gate, but I had so me good lines thro u gh the first couple of turns an d I could get right up there," said McGrath. "I d idn' t want anyone to get away, especially Emig." Henry and Albertyn rus hed past ~ as well, wh ile Katin foug ht for as long as he could to hold off Bu tton, LaRocco, Honda of Troy's Brian Swink and popular local rider Billy Schlag. Deep in the field _ after a woeful start was Honda of Troy's Larry Wa rd and Great Western Bank's Phil Lawre nce, whose race would not last mu ch longer. "I dropped d own on someone in one of the off-cambers and it snapped m y brake pedal off clean," sa id Lawre nce , who has struggled in the last two rounds of the 250cc National Series. "There was no way I could ride aro u nd thi s tra ck without a back brake." Al bertyn soon outgassed H enry to move into the third and, as the inevitable McGrath-Emig breakaway took place, the South African went with them. For the next 15 minutes three of the fastest 250cc riders on the planet rode within 30 feet of each other, hitti ng the jumps and turns with the p recision of a d rill team . But something had to give, and it was little surprise that the first one to make a mistake would be Emig. He allowed McGrath . to roll around the outside of him in a hairpin turn and then take away possess ion of the all-important inside on a nearly circular off-cambered co rner. Emig tr ied to retaliate -right away and cu t even furth er inside of McGrath but the Honda had the right line. Emig had little' choice but to tuck himself in behind McGrath and wait for the next mistake. It tu rn ed ou t to be Albertyn's. Th e South African tipped over in a corner with about five lap s to go and let the lead ers getaway. "I seemed to hit the wall in this heat," admitted Albertyn. "I've been working rea lly hard , but I' m just no t used to the humidity. lt kills me." . While McGra th continued to circulate in the lead, Emig kep t the pressure on, pushing the four-ti me supercross champ into eyery corner but never get ting close enough to show his fender to the leader. Regardless, McGrath ran another errorfree race an d gave Emig nothing . He crossed the finish just a few feet ahea d of the frustrated Emig. . '1 would start to pull awa y then mess up, start to pu ll away and then mess up," said McGra th. "It wasn't any big mistakes, just a missed line here or some wheel-spin there. Towards the end I was able to pick it up and keep Jeff behind me. It's a tou gh track; tough to make time up on. When 1 got aro und Jeff I knew it was going to be a battle to the end . It's so hard to get away from someone on atrack like this, plus it's so, so hot out there! Jeff definitely had me nervous, I'll tell you that for sure." "Jeremy doesn't make a lot of mistakes and there just wasn't a lot of room to try some passes," said Emig. '1 tried to keep the pressure on but he didn't give me a lot of cha nces to get him back. He rode a pretty good race." Albertyn was a distant third after rolling through the last 10 minutes of the race. LaRocco never s topped charging through the field and was able to pass Henry and Lewis for fourth in a copycat battle of w hat was going on 30 secon ds further up the track. Henry did a fine job of holding off Lewis for fifth but admitted later that he was completely drained. "I don't think that I did a good enoug h job of preparing myself for this weather," admitted the Yama ha teamster. "I should've been drinking more water and getting my body ready for the heat. This was the first really hot race of the year and 1 think 1 will definitely be ready for the next one." Honda of Troy's Brian Swink was seven th, while Yamaha-mounted Jimmy Button bet ter ed a rusty Ryan Hugh es and . Suzuki privateer Cliff Palmer for eighth. At the start of the second mota, Emig again launched his Kawasaki into the lead and very nearly into the gro und as he came into the second turn. 'They had just wat ered and I hit a slick spot there on the corner and it almos t took my front wheel out," said Emig. "It kind of messed my head up for a little bit and before I knew Je re my h ad passed me again." McGra th was right behind Emig from the start, along with Henry , Swink, Lawrence and the fast-starting Katin. But once they got into the back section of the track McGrath threw-a pass on Emig and took over the lead for good . '1 knew if I just kept my speed up and kept concentrating on hitting all of my lines," said McGrath of what turned out to be an almost perfect mo ta. "I've really been working h a rd and I' m really pumped about the rest of the series . I do n't want to let up any at all." McGrath beat Emig by about 10 seconds and delivered an un expected nac-nac to the crowd off the ski jump at the finish line. Emig rode across the checkered flag all alone a t th e end, wh ile LaRocco came throug h third . He was very nearly passed by a hard -charging Hughes and Albertyn, who took their battle for fourth right up to laRocco's rear wheel. Albertyn had the advan tage with tw o co rners to go, but Hughes held it wide open aro und an ou tside berm to steal fourth right at the flag. "I felt pr etty good because I loosened up after the first mota and rode a lot better," said Hughes, who was competing in his firs t Nation al since the Gain esville ope ner. "I started pret ty far back in the seco nd mota and just rode as hard as I could . Albertyn put in a little charge at the end to get away from me, bu t he was pretty dead at the end and I wa s, too . I just had a little more left than he did." '1 had all kinds of problems getting off the gate tod ay, and in the second mota I hooked up with Kyle Lewis going up the hill and that sta rted the whole moto off wrong," said a frus trated Albertyn. "I worked and worked and wo rked to ge t back as many spots as I could, and I nearly got ther e. I didn't forge t that Hughes was there in the last corne r, bu t I didn't expec t him to go for that d o-or-die pass, either. He was either going down or going past, but he pulled it off." Behind Albertyn came Lawrence, Ward, top overall privateer Button, an exha usted Hen ry and Lewis. L~ 15

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