Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

.MOTO·CROSS.. '. . AIIA·t2SI25lIcc ~ IIotol:ross Championship Series Round 11: Washougal Motocross Park (Left) Yamaha's Doug Henry (15) and Suzuki's Mike LaRocco (8) battled for the entire second 250cc moto. Henry held him off to win his first national moto of the year while LaRocco settled for the overall victory. (Below) Team Honda of Troy's Mike Craig stepped up fwm a third at Millville to a second at Washougal with a 3-3. the mix. Dobb, Team Suzuki's Ezra Lusk and Craig also were right up there. Lamson immediately began to pull out a lead that would become insurmountable by the end of the moto. He knew what he had to do, wanted his championship and wop by nearly 20 seconds. The pack battled heavily behind Lamson for the whole race, with Pederson hovering between the second and third positions, feuding with Dobb. Pederson would go down very hard, though, and retire for the day with a bruised sternum and maybe more. He was off to the hospital. Lusk and Craig, in third and fourth, respectively, battled for a while before taking each other out after the finish line, with Craig getting up much faster and only losing a couple of positions. Windham was in third and hounding Dobb for the newly acquired second position, and eventually got by Dobb on lap 11. At about the same time, Suzuki Sports/Pro-Circuit/ Answer's Scott Sheak went down badly, stayed down - for a while, and eventually retired for the moto. Dowd made a strong charge from as low as 15th position and worked his way up to sixth by moto's end, and took alternative lines to get around Lusk two laps from the finish. At the finish it was Lamson, followed by Windham, Craig, Dobb, Brown, Dowd, Lusk, hometown-hero Jason McCormick, Team Splitfire/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki's David Pingree and Brandes. The second 125c~ moto got off the line much like the way it had in the first moto - with Lamson pulling away from the pack at the end of the start chute. Brandes was in s.econd, followed by Craig, Dowd and the rest of the 125s. Team Kawasaki's Damon Huffman, McCormick and Lusk all came around toward the back of the pack, all victims of bad starts and other ailments. Craig and Dowd got around Brandes on lap three, running second and third, respectively. The two would stay in this order until Dowd took Craig's lin.e away in a comer late on lap 13. The top three finishing positions for the race and the overall were set, wi th Lamson in first followed by Dowd, then Craig in third. Reynard put on an impressive ride, coming from as far back as 13th to eventually finish fourth. Windham and Ferry were running as high as fourth and fifth, respectively, but tangled and got stuck on each other after lap eight. Windham regrouped.and started moving forward, but Ferry dropped back and finished 23rd - scoring zero points on the day. After 30 minutes plus two laps of racing, it was Lamson by about 10 seconds over the still-battling Dowd and Craig. Reynard finished in fourth, followed by Huffman, who rode like a madman after having more speculated motor problems in moto one, where he finished 34th, and the bad start of moto two. Windham was in sixth, Antunez got seventh, Brown held eighth and Brandes and Ashkenazi rounded out the top 10. 250cc NATIONAL Emig jumped out to an early lead as the gate dropped for the start of the first 250cc National moto; fonowed closely by Lewis, McGrath, Husaberg's Mike Young, and FMF / Get Busy / Holley Racing's Justin Tiearney. By midlap the lead sorted out and it was Emig, McGrath, Lewis, Albertyn, Tiearney and Young finishing off the top five. Emig held the lead for the entire moto and held off the early charges of McGrath, ,and then the charges of Albertyn when he got by McGrath in hill section. Albertyn rode hard and he and Emig were one to two seconds apart for most of the moto, but when Albertyn went in to try a pass, his and Emig's bikes locked together. Both riders freed themselves up and continued to battle until Albertyn's bad luck bit him again. On the last lap, he endoed badly in the trees. After remounting, he roosted up the side of a tunnel to rejoin the course and was sent over the bars when a wire fence grabbed his footpeg and sent him flying again. He would eventually remount and finish in eighth for the mota. LaRocco got by McGrath to take third on lap three and would hold the lonely position until the end. McGrath held on to fourth for quite a while until Team Kawasaki's Ryan Hughes and Bradshaw got around him at nearly the same time on lap 10. With two laps to go, Lawrence was moving up on McGrath, who was in sixth, when McGrath bobbled in a comer and went down. McGrath got up in about ninth and finished there. At the conclusion of the moto, it was '. Emig taking the win with LaRocco second, followed by Bradshaw, Hughes, Lawrence, Team Honda of Troy's Brian Swink and Ward, Albertyn, McGrathand Lewis crossed the line in 10th. Surprisingly, it was not Emig who was in front when the pack came over the hill at the start of the second 250cc National. It was Smith/Thor/Pro Circuit-backed Rich Taylor out in front and pulling away. Taylor stopped Emig's streak of consecutive holeshots in the Nationals at 10. Taylor was followed by Hemy, Ward, Tony Amaradio, LaRocco, Ernig and McGrath. Albertyn got a bad start along with Button and Hughes, who all started working up from the back. Taylor led for a few laps and w.as putting a little distance on second when he crashed in the lower section of the course, taking himself out for good. Reports were' that he suffered a concussion in the incident. Amaradio was riding well and got up to second place on lap three, but faded back to 11th by the moto's conclusion with a flat rear tire. The race turned serious and stayed that way until the end when a freight train of five riders - Henry, Ward, LaRocco, Ernig and McGrath - were raging around the track with about a second between each of them. When the leaders came around to the infield at the conclusion of lap five, McGrath was missing. He had endoed in the trees and pulled off, scoring not a single point in the mota. Back up front, the fast foursome of Henry, Ward. LaRocco and Emig were still as close :IS ever, and LaRocco was finally able to get around Ward for second on lap eight. Immediately, LaRocco began working on passing Hemy for first and Emig began dicing with Ward for third. . Henry was not about to be denied his first National moto win of the season and held off numerous attempts by LaRocco. The two of them swapped plastic on the widest uphilJ of the course, but LaRocco didn't have the power to pull Henry. Emig s.lipped and fell while chasing Ward and had to settle for fourth. Bradshaw worked his way up to a podium position when he dropped into fifth on lap 13. At the checkered £lag, it was Henry taking the win, folJowed by LaRocco who got the overalJ for the day, Ward, Emig, Bradshaw, Lewis, Albertyn, Lawrence, Button and Ryan Huffman came across the line, filling out the top 10. It was one of the best motos of the year, and it had promoter / announcer Brian Barnes claiming it was one of the best motos he had seen at the track. CN Washougal Motocross Park Washougal, W88hlngton Aesulta: August 18, 1996 (Round 11 of 13) U5 MOTO 1: 1. Steve Lamson (Hon); 2. Kevin Windham (Yam); 3. Mike Craig (Hon); 4. James Dobb (Suz); 5. Mike Brown (Hon); 6. John Dowd (Yam); 7.

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