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On the last two laps, Matiasevich,
Smail and Yamaha's Doug Dubach all
battled very closely for sixth place, but it
was Matiasevich who came out on top,
taking sixth, with Smail and Qubach finishing seventh and eighth, respectively.
Button took ninth and Yamahamounted Donald Upton finished 10th.
125cc
Forty bikes charged out of the gate in
the 125cc heat, and it was Yamaha-mounted Josh Tarantino who took the holeshot.
Behind Tarantino was Chaparral Yamaha's Michael Brandes, Decker, Ty Kady,
Honda's Scott Sheak and Tony Amaractio.
The rest of the field was slowed down by
a pileup in the second tum.
Brandes made his move for the lead
before the first lap was over. He passed
Tarantino and started to open up a siz~
able lead. Sheak moved into the fourth
spot behind Decker when Kady fell off
the lead pack pace.
Yamaha-mounted Dustin Nelson and
Antunez overcame bad starts and moved
into the top 10. Both riders were moving
through the pack very swiftly and were
putting pressure on Kady and Amaractio
by the end of the second lap.
As Brandes' lead got bigger, thirdplace Decker was putting all kinds of
pressure on second-place Tarantino.
Tarantino finally gave wayan the tail
end of lap three, giving Decker the goahead. Decker immediately started reeling in Brandes. By lap five, Decker had
cut Brandes' lead down to a couple of
lengths.
While Brandes and Decker were dicing up front, Johnson and Chaparral
Yamaha's David Vuillemin were racing
through the pack. Lap after lap, the duo
cticed through the pack, passing Nelson,
I Sheak, Antunez and Tarantino. By lap
six, Johnson was in third, right on the tail
of teammate Decker.
On lap seven, Decker rammed into
the back of Brandes in a turn and went
down, allowing Johnson and Tarantino
by. One lap later, Brandes came up short
on a triple jump, handing the lead over to
JohnSon, who seemed to be getting all the
breaks.
"Brandes went over the bars," Johnson said. "He did a mis-shift or something and came up short on the triple."
Brandes' bobble put him out of contention for the toj:> 10, but moved Tarantino into second and Decker into third.
Moments later, Sheak fell victim to
Vuillemin, giving up a hard-fought
fourth place.
"It's been a while since I've been on a
bike because of Christmas," said Sheak of
his less-than-stellar performance. "1 just
rode too aggressive, I think, and got arm
pump."
Sheak dropped back as far as seventh,
where he would eventually finish.
In the closing laps, Johnson opened
up a commanding lead over secondplace Decker and third-place Vuillemin,
who both got around Tarantino when he
faded to fourth. Antunez sat in fifth and
put a little heat on Tarantino but ran out
of time.
Sixth went to the Yamaha of Travis
1'reston, who had made an impressive
jaunt through the pack all 12 laps. Seventh went to Sheak, followed by Nelson,
YZ-mounted Cory Keeney and Pingree,
who rounded out the top 10. Amaradio
finished 11th and was rewarded a transfer spot in the Pro Challenge beC4use
Antunez had finished in the top 10 in
both heats.
PRO CHALLENGE
As the pros lined up on the starting
gate one last time for 1996, the race o~fi-
(Left) Pro Clrcull/SplltFlrel
Kawasaki's Casey
Johnson (32) came back
from a mediocre start and
moved through the pack
quickly to win the 125cc
Pro race. (Below)
Teammate David Pingree
(57) rode exceptionally
well In the Pro Shootout
and finished second to
Emlg.
cials calculated the 125cc hancticap. The
250cc heat race was 57 seconds faster
than the 125cc heat so the 125s were
given a sizable head start.
When the. first gate dropped, Pingree
and teammate Johnson blasted to the
front. At the first turn, Pingree got the
jump on Johnson, who tucked in for second.
"I got a good start and was out in
front behind Ping (Pingree)," Johnson
said. "Pingree has a habit Of getting good
starts, SO I just followed him and kept up
to his pace."
Just off the lead pace in third was
Keeney, followed by Decker and Sheak.
Just before the top five got into the supercross section of the track, the second gate
dropped for the 250s.
"It was weird at th.e start:' Emig said.
"The gate just dropped for us with no
warning. No 30-second board or anything. My bike was npt even in gear
when the gate dropped, so I was middle
to back of the pack."
Emig was not th.e only one who was
co~sed by the unusual start. Dubach's
. start also was hindered when he was
caught by surprise. 'There was no board
and it just caught me off guard," Dubach
said.
Brown was not caught off guard as he
ran away from the rest of the 2505 at the
start. Bunched up behind Brown were
Button, Matiasevich, Antunez and Hughes. Emig was sixth and his work was cut
out for him.
Up front with the 125s, Pingree and
Johnson raced around the track as the
rest of the.field fell into position. elson
gained the sixth-place spot when
Vuillemin fell back and eventually out of
the race, chalking up a DNF. Nelson himself also would DNF about halfway
through the race.
On the second lap, Emig made up
time by tucking in behind Hughes. The
Kawasaki teammates got around
Antunez, and soon afterward Emig got
around Hughes. Brown was still the lead
250, and by lap four had pulled within 20
seconds of Pingree.
The 250s of Button and Matiasevich
were behind Brown, but Emig and
Hughes were coming on strong and fast
right behind them. In the middle of the
fourth lap, Matiasevich started to fade,
falJing back two places.
The 125s were just as action-packed as
the 250s. Decker and Sheak shot past
Keeney, taking over the third and fourthplace spots. Tarantino and Amaradio
were in danger of letting Brown and his
250 by, and were not going to give in
very easily. Brown followed the two 125s
for five laps before he got around them
on lap eight.
With Matiasevich out of the picture,
Emig and Hughes were able to work
their way up, catching up to Brown and
the lead 125s. Everything was going
smooth until the start of lap six when
Emig laid his bike down in a slow-speed
tum. Hughes went right on by, but Emig
picked the bike up and got going again
without losing any other spots. From that
point on, it was all Emig.
Two laps later, Emig caught Hughes,
who had moved into the 250cc lead when
Brown faded back to fifth. Before lap
eight was over, Emig moved into fourth
place ahead of Hughes behind the 125s of
Johnson, Decker and Pingree. As the laps
counted down, Emig reeled in the top
. three. On lap 11, he passed Johnson, who
would officially finish sixth when the
race was over.
After a 14-lap show of cticing and slicing his way through the pack, Emig
passed Decker and then Pingree for the
lead and never looked back. The National Champion led the remaining four laps
and finished the 20-lap Pro Challenge 20
seconds in front of second-place Pingree.
"There was nothing I could do to stop
Emig," said Pingree, who had turned in
an excellent ride, topping the 125s and
the rest of the 2505.
Behind Pingree was Decker, who
barely was able to hold off Hughes.
"One more lap and I would have had
those guys," said Hughes, who took
fourth right behind Decker and Pingree.
Fifth went to Brown, followed by Johnson, Button, Matiasevich, a hard-charging Smail and Sheak.
The 125/25Occ shootout was balanced
pretty evenly. Four 125s stayed in the top
10, proving to be worthy opponents for
the 2505. However, it seemed only fitting
that Emig would end the 1996 racing
year by coming from behind to win.
f~
Glen Helen Raceway
san Bernardino, California
Results: December 29, 1996
125 PRO: 1. Casey Johnson (Kaw); 2. Craig Decker
(Kaw); 3. David Vuillemin (Yam); 4. Josh Taranti.no
(Yam); 5. Buddy Antunez (Hon).
250 PRO, 1. Jeff Emig (!