Antunez, Palmer and Dement. Morgan
was on the gas and somehow avoiding a
mistake that could cost him a position.
Owens and Morgan battled wheel to
wheel through every comer, but then
coming out of one of the hairpins, Margan's bike bogged and Owens took over
the point position.
The Thor/PrimallmpuIse team was
definitely on the move and quickly pushing its way past the slower riders as
Antunez and Stephenson paced each
other on the way to taking the two top
places. There were many other position
changes throughout the race as we11; one
overaggressive move by Cliff Palmer
while trying to take the inside of
Stephenson put the Suzuki rider back
four places.
Antunez and Stephenson went on to
finish 1-2, and with all of the changes,
Morgan wound up in third to land on the
podium for the first time all season.
Just as he was on Friday, Stephenson
was first out of the hole in the 250cc main
and looked confident as he grabbed the
point. The Nebraskan seemed to be making very smart line selections on the rutted course.
Antunez and Palmer were trailing
close behind him. As of last weekend,
Antunez had a lead over Palmer in the
final points and Antunez wanted to
increase that gap. After battling with
Palmer and Gaddis, Antunez soon
turned up the heat and passed Stephenson for the lead.
Antunez then seemed to have everything in control until a few turns later
when his bike just quit. Stephenson
retook the lead but seemed to be losing
energy while it looked as if Palmer was
just getting warmed up.
With only a couple of laps to go,
Palmer and Stephenson were the primary focus of the race. On the last lap, it
looked as though Stephenson turned the
throttle a little more, but Palmer had that
extra edge to pull off the win. Stephenson finished second ahead of Gaddis,
Crine and Thor Kawasaki's Brad
Woolsey.
Cl'I
N_ Haven Coliseum
N_ Haven, Connecticut
Results: January 17·11l, 1997
(Rounds 15 & 16 of 26)
Friclay
125 PRO: 1. Buddy Antunez (Hon); 2. Jeff Dement
(Xaw); 3. Denny Stephenson (Hon); 4. Jeromy Buehl
(Yam); 5. Trey Owens (!
