Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

MOTOCROSS AMA 1251250 NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP MOTOCROSS SERIES Rounds 212: Prairie City SVRA Park (left) Honda's Scott Sheak posted 3-2 moto finillhes for second overall in the 125cc class. . (Above) Henry rode a white-and-red version of the works Yamaha thumper. t--. 0\ 0\ ..... ~' ..... ~ '<::' ~ 8 a frustrated McGrath was back on the attack in 10th, one position ahead of Lawrence. . Up front, Emig just kept stretching out his lead slowly but surely over Ward, and Albertyn finally got the upper hand on Hughes. Once in third, Albertyn set au t after his next obstacle Ward, who was putting in- one of his best outdoor rides in a long time. "Emig, he didn't have anything on me for sp~d," Ward said. "Actually he was pacing himself. 1 could, see him .slowing down, speeding up." But as the race wore on, Ward began losing sight of the leader and had a fastcharging AIbertyn to deal with. The former World champ, Albertyn, eventually caught and passed Ward at the 30minute mark, while both laRocco and Dowd got around Hughes for fourth and fifth, respectively. The only real battle left was tha t between Henry and McGrath, who were now running eighth and ninth, respectively. Their dogfight lasted a number of laps until McGrath put an inside/ outside move on the four-stroke rider and settled into the number-eight position.· At the finish, it was Emig taking the win with room to spare over Albertyn, Ward and LaRocco, who suffered through the mota in pain with a broken blister on his hand. Sixth went to Hughes, seventh Bradshaw, eighth to McGrath, ninth to Henry and 10th to Kiedrowski. Antunez dropped back to 11th, followed by Button, Noleen/ Yamaha's Tony Amaradio, Lawrence and Yamaha rider Takeshi Kiokeda. "The start was awesome," Emig said. "My bike is just working awesome. It hooked up and pulled me to the 'front (but) 1 didn't have my front brake adjusted right and was a little slow going into the turns. Outside of that I think I had a pretty good race." Henry powered his thumper into the lead in the second mota and, after the first lap, it wa Henry still leading followed by Albertyn, Lawrence"Hughes, Emig, Yamaha rider Jason McCormick, Button, Kiedrowski and McGrath. Emig admitted that he "blew the start. I shifted from second, third and ·fourth too quick and bogged it," Emig said. And Emig's problems continued when he got a face fu.ll of roost. "1 got blasted with mud and I (accidently) pulled off all of my tear-offs at one time, then I got blasted with mud again." Also having first-lap problems were Dowd and LaRocco. Down went down and as he tried 'to get out of the way of the oncoming pack, feU right into LaRocco's path and took him out as well. Meanwhile, Henry took the reigns but Albertyn was pressuring hard and was also getting a face full of blue smoke. ''I'm really fired up about that," Albertyn said of Henry's thumper. "1 nearly crashed a couple times going into turns because I couldn't see. I mean it was bad, and I was choking. They need to do something about that." Henry led for two laps before Albertyn got by him through a series of turns. Once out in front, Albertyn obviously wanted nothing more to do with Henry and quickly started pulling away. McCormick had a spectacular second lap, passing Emig - who was having a difficult time seeing through his mudcovered goggles - and Lawrence, and moved up another position when Hughes washed out on the freshly watered track. Hughes, reportedly, would crash two more times before calling it a day. McCormick ran strong but could not . quite handle the lead pace and was sent down to fourth by Emig on the next lap. Lusk and McGrath would soon get him and others later on, 'and McCormick would finish an eventual 13th. By the time Emig had a firm grip on third, he was still some six seconds behind Henry and orne 10 second's behind the running-away Albertyn. Emig had to pass Albertyn in order to take home overall honors for the day, but, barring any major incident with Albertyn, this wasn't going to happen. Even though Emig closed the gap on Henry as the race wore on, the gap between him and the leader grew to 15 seconds. Emig slowly reeled Henry in and passed the Yamaha rider just after the halfway mark, only to find that Albertyn's advantage had grown even further by two seconds. There would be no catching Albertyn in this mota. "I was still having a hard-time seeing and 1 didn't really go after him (Albertyn) too hard," Emig said. "I was out of the comfort zone and didn't want to push it." Albertyn would go' on to win the mota and take the overall, while Emig could do nothing more but be satisfied with second and matched Albertyn's points total on the day, not to mention extending his points lead on McGrath for the series lead. Henry ran a safe third for the rest of the race, maintaining his slight advantage over McGrath, who just couldn't reel in the leaders on the fast track. Lusk kept his Yamaha on two wheels this time to finish out his day in fifth, followed by Kiedrowski and Ward. LaRocco ended up eighth, Button ninth and Lawrence 10th. 125cc NATIONAL There was plenty of drama in the first 125cc mota and most of it happened.even before the gate dropped. It all started when Windham came back from the parade lap and told his mec~anic Alley Semar that he had heard a strange noise coming from his bike's motor, which proceeded to quit running on the starting line. The race was held up. as the bike was pushed back to the pits and the motor was subsequently replaced with a new one. The bike was fired up but again quit running by the time it reached the starting line, and the pack left without him. A Yamaha spokesman said the problem with Windham's bike was "electrical." As Windham watched from the sidelines, Carmichael roosted to the front of the pack and had already produced a small lead over the pack before the first lap was completed. Craig held down second, followed by Lamson, Reynard, Sheak, Chaparral/Yamaha's Michael Brandes, Pichon, Perolio and Suzuki rider Tony Lorusso. By the third lap, Reynard had passed both Lamson and Craig for second and seemed to match Carmichael's pace for a while before slightly dropping back, while Craig stayed close to Reynard. Next came Lamson who had already jammed his tender thumb, and despite being in considerable pain, Lamson fended off teammate Sheak for a number of laps before giving in. "The pain was a bad," Lamson said. "At times 1 thought [ was going to pull off, but I just kept going. I struggled the rest of the race. 1 figured 1'd just ride through it but it (hi thumb) just kept pounding and pounding." . By the IS-minute mark, Carmichael had opened up a six-second lead over Reynard, who had some breathing room over Sheak. Craig now ran fourth, just ahead of Lamson, Pichon, Johnson, Brandes, Decker and Lorusso. "Seemed like about the fifth lap I got some dirt in my goggles and it kind of screwed me up for a while," Craig said. "That's when both those guy (Reynard and Sheak) got by me. I was trying to blink and trying to' get my goggles going." Lamson continued his painful slide backward, as Pichon and Johnson closed in for the kill. Johnson actually passed Pichon first, then both he and Pichon zapped Lamson just before the 30minute point. The remaining few laps were nothing but a cruise for Carmichael, who would go on and take the checkered flag nine seconds ahead of Reynard, who held about six seconds on Sheak. Even further back came Craig, followed by Johnson, Pichon, Lamson and Decker. Brandes and Suzuki's Tim Ferry rounded out the top 10. Ferry, the recently crowned AMA Eastern RegiOnal 125cc Supercross Champion, had gotten off to a back-ofthe-pack start and spent the entire mota making up for it. . Craig, Johnson, Windham and Carmichael fought for the holeshot in the second l2Scc mota, and emerging in front of the heap was Craig. But just as the leaders were about to complete the first lap, Carmichael put his Kawasaki into the lead again, followed by Craig, Johnson, Windham, Sheak, Reynard and Lorusso. A number of riders were left picking up their bikes in the first turn, including Ferry, who circulated through the opening lap near the back of the pack. Craig ran in second for a couple of laps before both Windham and Sheak got by and started pulling away. At this point, many were expecting Windham, the two-time 125cc West Coast SX Champion and 250cc Charlotte Supercross winner, to perhaps reel in and catch Carmichael but instead Sheak surprised everyone by passing Windham and pulling away from him just after the halfway point. '1 just didn't have the lines," Windham said. "The last time I rode on the track was 9 0' clock this morning and the track has changed a lot since thelL I wasn't as smooth as [wanted to be." By this time, however, Carmicnael

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