Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127842
the frustrated phenom. "If Roncada can almost win, I know I can. When I get on a dry track, I'll smoke them. I don't know what the next race is, but if it's dry, I'll blow them away. They got lu~ky this time." Mike Craig finished lOth with a 19-4 score and holds third in the standings with 123 points, followed by Yamaha's Kevin Windham (115) and Roncada (l10). High Point Raceway was celebrating its 21st year on the AMA National schedule, and the facility was given a major face-lift by the Racer Productions crew in antisipation of another record crowd. The rains didn't damper the turnout, though, as nearly 20,000 people weathered the storm - and a' two-hour traffic jam - to fill the place up. The track itself was dynamic throughout the day, as conditions reflected the weather; It went from bad to okay to absolutely terrible. Huge mud puddles and long, deep ruts drove lap times from just less than three minutes in the first moto to almost five minutes by the end of the day. 250cc Bursting from the middle inside of the gate in the first 250cc moto was Ward, a highly regarded wet-weather pilot. Hughes hugged the inside of the first comer after choosing the far inside gate, an unorthodox pick on the uphill, left-handed High Point chute. "I've been here five years and it's been muddy four times, and every time someone gets a holeshot from tha t inside gate," Hughes said. "I figured it would also be my best bet to stay out of the mud for just a couple of seconds. I'm going there in the second moto, too." Suzuki's Greg Albertyn didn't make it halfway up the short hill before he and Team Chaparral's Phil Lawrence collided and fell. Both remounted, but Albertyn was only able to make a lap or two before pulling off and calling it a day with a shoulder injury. Lawrence would also fail to finish in the points in either moto. . Behind Ward and Hughes came the Yamaha trio of Lusk, four-stroker Henry and mud s~cialist Dowd, then Suzuki's McGrath and Bradshaw. Emig did not get through the first turn before getting his face blasted with so much mud that he couldn't see. "1 got sideways off the starting gate, and then just got caked in the first turn," (Above) Yet another first: Team Kawasaki's Ryan Hughes scored his first national moto win of the year in the first moto. A third place in the second moto netted him second overall. (Below) Larry Ward (6) came within a lap of winning the second 250cc moto. Here he leads John Dowd (14), Doug Henry (20), Jeremy McGrath (2), Hughes (9) and the rest of the 250cc pack in the second moto. said Emig, who had to pull off in the second turn to get new goggles and restart almost last. "My knob-thingy fell off my Roll-Offs when.! went to pull it, and I just decided to stop right then and there. John Greiz from Arnette was down there with extra goggles for me, and that pretty much saved the moto for me." Emig kept coming back throughout the moto, ultimately reaching eighth place. Within a lap, Hughes had the lead, then Ward fell. Hughes then tried to put some quick space between himself and the Yamaha chase group. Henry would be the next to make a mistake, slipping in the back and falling out of the top five. . While the majority of the field struggled with vision and traffic, Hughes and Dowd started pulling away on the muddy track. Throughout the moto, Hughes would open some room, only to have Dowd pull it back; then Hughes would open it up again. Hughes was never seriously threatened, and ended up taking his first moto win since his legendary 125cc title bout with Steve Lamson two years ago. "That felt really, really good," said Hughes, thrilled to be back in the winner's circle. "It's been a long time coming, I guess. Everyone says you have to go down to the very bottom before you can come back up, and I guess maybe I'm starting to come back up now. It was like last weekend in Vegas; It was easy because everything went my way." Dowd was second after getting some intense late-race pressure. '1 pushed at the beginning, but then, after a while, I decided to just hold to second and wait for the next moto," Dowd said. "I was trying to pick up time on Ryan (Hughes), but I just kept making little mistakes, and he was riding well, too." Bradshaw hung in there to finish third, after having to make a pit stop for new goggles. "If I could get out of the gate up front, I think I could finish up front," Bradshaw said. "I didn't quit and I won't quit, but it sure would be easier with a start." Henry recovered from his spill for fourth, followed by Suzuki's Mike LaRocco, Lusk, Ward, Emig, Chaparral's Jimmy Button and favored Pennsylvania son Mike Jones. Just before the start of the second 250cc moto, the rain started hitting harder. Ward again blasted out of the middle of the inside section of gates with the holeshot, while Hughes pulled in right behind him from the inside gate as planned. Emig, Bradshaw, LaRocco, Lusk, Dowd, Henry and McGrath were next. As the rain got heavier and the track got \Y0rse, Ward seemed to thrive more and more out front, and built himself a lead of more than 25 seconds in the first three laps. It took Bradshaw about the same amount of laps to get by Emig and Hughes, leaving him 20 minutes to reel . in Ward and earn the overall win. "My goggles were gone and I was almost blind, but so was everyone else," said Bradshaw, who did not stop for goggles this time. "I figured if I just kept . digging deeper .and deeper it might work out my way." With three laps to go, Ward's lead was down to nothing, as Bradshaw stuck right on his roost, waiting for a mistake. Much to the delight of the drenched crowd, the pass came on the last lap on the set of triple jumps right behind the starting gate - the centerpiece of the track. After drifting wide into a water hole, Ward didn't have enough drive to completely clear the first two jtlmpS; Bradshaw went for it on the inside, and the two nearly collided a they landed . together on the second jump. The in ide line belonged to Bradshaw and, from that point on, so did the race. "I just faded a little bit too much into the water and lost my drive," Ward said later. "I was riding well the whole moto, but he (Bradshaw) just kept coming and coming. I know he really wanted to win bad and so did I, but it just went his way that time." "I waited and waited and he finally gave me the room," said Bradshaw of the last-lap pass. "I'm glad it happened where it did, because when it rains like this, it's really hard for us to put on a show. But with the way things turned out today, I feel like we gave these people fheir money's worth. I would like to thank all these people who stood in the mud and the rain and waited in line to see this race and cheer us on. This has been the sweetest win of all." More than two minutes behind came Hughes, followed by teammate Emig and the Yamahas of Lusk, Dowd, Henry and Button. Pro Action-backed Anthony Pocorobba was the top privateer in ninth, and a struggling Jeremy McGrath was 10th. 125cc Sheak bolted from the starting gate with a clean holeshot on the number 29 Honda, while the Suzuki of Mickael Pichon went into the first turn dead last after mistiming the starting gate. Moto XXX's Brian Deegan, defending High Point race-winner Kevin Windham,