Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

'MOTOCROSS AMA 1251250cc National Motocross ChamPion~hip Series Round 8: Unadilla Valley Sports Center On lap six the order was Lamson, Craig, Dowd, Ferry, Brown, Buddy Antunez, Kawasaki's Damon Huffman, Team SplitFire/Pro-Circuit Kawasaki's Chad Pederson. Windham had moved all the way into ninth, and Deegan was in 10th. The top four positions were pretty spread ou t with a ba ttle raging between Windham, Huffman, Brown, and Pederson. Craig fell over in a back section and allowed Dowd to get closer, and the two tangled a short time later on about lap 10. "I fell over in the back and still picked it up in second," said Craig. "Dowd came up and pushed me out in a corner, we hit, and J went down. J got back up in about fifth and stayed there until the finish." Ferry got by Dowd after Craig went down and after 15 laps of racing the order was complete. Lamson took the win by a huge margin followed by Ferry, Dowd, Windham, Craig, Antunez, Pederson, Brown, Huffman, and Pichon had worked his way into 10th position. Windham got the drop on the gate in moto two and had a few bike lengths on the field at the first corner followed by Pichon, Brown, Montgomeryville Cycle's David Kratz, (Left) Team Yamaha's Kevin Windham ran away with the second 125cc moto and put nearly 20 seconds on the rest of the field. He finished third overall with 8 4-1. (Below) Emig charged hard after his crash early in moto two. Notice the bent bars and hand guards after Kyle Lewis ran him over and crashed in the Incident. 125cc NATIONAL 16 The pack of riders at the start of the first 125cc moto were pretty tightly grouped until Lamson clicked his Mike Gosselaar-tuned C;R125 into fourth gear and simply pulled away from the field into the first corner. He was followed by Dowd, Windham, Team Honda of Troy'S Mike Craig, Ferry, Chaparral's Brian Deegan, Lusk, and the rest of the pack. After the first two turns the riders snaked down a small hill before the turn leading into the infamous Gravity Cavity, and a bit of confusion and chaos reigned here. Riders tangled and Lusk and Windham got the worst of it, with Lusk getting pushed back to about 10th and Windham to about 18th place. They would both have to fight forward all race long. Up front, Lamson was simply gone, never to be headed. Each lap he stretched his lead further, and by lap seven he had put 12 seconds on second place. The race for first was over, and Lamson won by nearly 20 seconds. "My bike was working great," explained Lamson. "I just tried to stay' smooth and 'save energy for the end. The fans were great and kept me moving." The race for the remaining positions was not dull, however. Craig was riding on the edge and moved into second around Dowd by the end of lap one. He wasn't wasting any time. James Dobb on his Quicksilver/O'Neal/Performance Engineering Suzuki was hov: ering around the top 10 but dropped out when a rock got jammed into his countershaft sprocket and bent the shifter beyond repair. He pulled out on lap three. Antunez, Pederson, Lamson, Huffman, and the rest of the gate. Brown was quickly on the gas and got around Pichon during lap one. Lamson was charging towards the front as fast as possible and was into third on lap two, and into second around Brown after the Gravity Cavity on lap three. It was almost too late for Lamson, though, as Windham had put nearly 12 seconds between himself and second place - he was long gone. The field began to spread out as they chased Windham at his unbelievable pace. On lap six the Honda camp had done the math and realized that Lamson had the overall in the bag as long as he got third or better. Lamson's mechanic, Gosselaar, began pointing to his head as Lamson went by as if to say, "Use your head." He settled down, realizing he didn't need to catch Windham, but didn't want to Jose another position to Brown, who was just three seconds back in third. On lap seven, Pederson went down real hard in a scary swap and auger just past the announcers tower and was very slow to get up, taking a few m,inutes to get back to his feet. He was all right, but that ended a fifth-place ride that would have gone nicely with his seventh from race one. . The riders were well spread out up front by lap 10 with Windham practically out of Sight followed by Lamson, Brown, and the battling trio of Antunez, Dowd, and Ferry. Huffman followed a way back in seventh with Pichon, Craig, and Robbie Reynard in tow. Dowd got by Antunez on lap 11 and the order would stay the same until the end, five laps later. Windham grabbed the win with an 18-second lead followed by Lamson, Brown, Dowd, Ferry, Antunez, Huffman, Pichon, Craig, and Reynard back in 10th. Lamson was excited with his sixth overall National win of the season and was looking forward to the next National in Troy, Ohio, and trying not to thinking about the championship - just yet. ''I'm just going to put my head down for the rest of the series and get good finishes," said Lamson. "I'm not goiJ;tg to start thinking about the championship until we get a little closer. A lot can happen with five races left." Windham was happy to be on the podium in second overall with a 4-1, and didn't look any worse for the wear. '1 feel really good," said Windham. "The crowd was pulling for me and it made the race go by really fast for me. I didn't get the start J wanted in the first moto, but everything worked out in the second moto." Dowd's 3-4 put him on the podium in third, but he wasn't all that pleased with his performance. "I'm not happy about third," explained Dowd. "Some guys jumped and I got stuck in the gate in the first moto, and J was riding a bit tight.·I rode good in the second moto, but I just feel like I can't put together a comp1ete day. I'm really upset with myself, but maybe next week it will happen for me." Ferry got fourth overall with a 2-5 and Brown got fifth overall with an 8-3. ·250cc NATIONAL The start of the second moto was a freight train led by Emig, Team Noleen's Kyle Lewis, Hughes, Yamaha's Doug Henry, Anthony Amaradio, Yamaha~s Damon Bradshaw, and Team Honda of Troy's Larry Ward all mixing it up good. Albertyn, McGrath, and

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