Briefl
•••
:.Get out your rumo r charts and mark thi s one off
as a done deal: Ezra Lu sk announced at Southwick that he "", 1 be leaving the Yamaha teamat
1
the end of the 1997 season for a spot on Team
Honda..The 21·year-old Georg ian said that he
was glad to get the deal done. ·SO I ca n concentrate on the.rest of the season with no pressure
whatsoever and get so me more Wins for these .
guys at Yameha. " Lusk said. "They have been a
great bunch of guys to ~ With. and I will miss
them all next year: In the meantime, I am go ing to .
keep giving it .1 00 percent ." True .to his word.
Lusk held the same pace as teammate J ohn
Dowd for most of the first moto before sett ling
for second. An early full in rcce two relegated him
to 18th place. ' .
Honda also got so me- good news in a .mtdday
phone call from M ammoth M ountain. AXO boss.
Jim Kale called his race-suppo rt dire ctor, Scott
Taylor. fo r the t2S cc National resu lts, and
informed him that Steve Lamson wa s on the
M ammo th tra ck cleaning up the 2 5+ dos s .'
"Steve told us he wa s hurt ing too bad to even
ride on Friday: so the news is kind of surprising,"
Honda's Jeff Stanton said, " Hopefully , he will be
back fer Red Bud.WLamacn'a tuner Cliff Wh ite 'added , " He was supposed to be doing som e
.training and Rshing up there."
Honda should else hove secon d-moto crash' vic'tim Scott Sheak at 100 perce nt by then . Sheek
was taken to the hospital after .his early get-off,
because he was SPlttln9 up blood as a result of
some possibly broken ribs , 8 y the end of the
second 250c c mota , the "Iron Sneak " was back
8t the track and walking around.
"This is the third year in a row that my wife hasn't
gotten to see me ride at Southwick. SQ, I guess I
had better do som ething. big next year. ": jo ked
Yamaha's Doug Henry from the sidelin es . WI
was hurt two years ago And J eanM ichel Bayle in 1990 had four 125cc Natio nal
wins and five 250 Supercross main -event w ins
in his firs t full year in Ame nca .
M anche ster Ho nda made C anadian privateer
Jason Frenette an offe r he couldn't refuse . '
The 24,-ye
ar-old was g iven a fun support ride fo r
one we ek in place' of injured 125cc rider Robbi e
Ska ggs. In other words. Frenette we nt fro m llvi.ng in his van to being Damo n Bradshaw ' s teammat e on the semi -factory t eam . " This has all
been unbelievable," said Frenette. who got the '
full M anche ster treatment . "To go from being in
my van to all of thiS is a big. big change . They've
all t re ate d me really w e ll. " Fr en ett e was
approached aft er the Budd s Creek National as .
Skaggs' replacement, and dec ided to make th e
dras tic change fro m a Kawasaki KX250 to the
H ond a CR125 r ac e b fk e . Unfort unately .
. Frenette failed to' fi nish In the poi nts in eith er
mota,
sixth. overall Scott Car1er from Ash ford, Coonecticut. and seventh-place d Ron Ti chenor.
The Suzu ki-mo unt ed Carter ( 1 1·8) picked up
$ 500 and Ticheno r $200 . In the .2 50cc class,
Roseburg . Oreg on's Ryan HuHman was top s
with a 13·7 s core . w hile N ew York's Bruce '.
Stratton was second -best privateer with 18-8
mote scores . They took home the same slzed .
c~ecks . respectively. 8 S the 125cc guys. '
When the number-tea Kawa saki burst into the .
first tum of the first moto among the leaders and
stayed in the top' 10 throughout the race , even'
the most know ledgeable fans were left scratching
their heads . The last time someone saw number- ,
103 'was at the second round of the Los Angel es
SX, when 125 cc W orl d Champ ion Sebastien
. Tort elli came ou t for one race . Wha t was Tcrtelli
doing .in Sout hwick instead of cc rnpe tmq at the
The word from Euro pe is that three-urns W orld Belgian 250 GP in Kester? Turn s out it wa sn't
MX Champion Stefan Everts is still planning to . TorteU at all. After a serie s of 'b ig crashes, Tearn
i
lead '8 mlni-mvas ion of ,GP riders 'to Unadilla for , Moto XXX's B rian S win k decid to requeste
ed
the 250cc National on July 20. If everything goe s
number change .from the AMA . his old # 13 just
according to plan, the Honda factory rider will be didn't feel very lucky. and number-f03 was evanable. " If seemed like I Was getting hurt every time
followed from the Brazi lian GP to the U nit ed
States by Team Chesterfield Yamaha 's Mik e . , go t on the motorcycle . " said Sw ink. wh ose
Brown' and Tallon Vohland and Hon da ·of most memorable crash 8 S number-13 might have
Troy 's Pedro Trag·ter. Then the world champicome at the Oro ndo 5X. "I was neverauperstionship regulars wiU head ,for ' 1nd~sia for a GP
tioUs about eoumber unt nnow. "
the.following week.
.
.
. -You can.practice all you. want, · but nothing get s
If you'can't beat 'em ...tThe National ~rs have: you ready fo~ the race pace at a Nationa l excep t .
being here,- said Flonda'a Ron Tic henor, who
·.the following wee k .off before returning fo r the
l
J uly 6 Red Bud NatIOna in Buchanan, M ichigan. ' is trying to' make a co me bac k o n the 12 5cc .
Runaw ay 12 5 c c p o int s . Iead er R icky · National tour afte r several very successful years
Cannichael is planning on spending his wee k
In J apan. Tichenor was definitely on the top ·five
: entertaining SplitFire/Pro Circuit Kawasaki team- · pac e at So uthwic k on the PEl AXO / Ben t Frame
Suzuki; but a crash each time hekl him to seventh
mate Craig Dec ker for 'some riding and training at
ove rall. " I fee l like I'm getti ng stronger and faster
his Tallahassee. R orida. home. The tw o frie nds
every time ," he said. Tichenor' s father, Ron Sr.,"
also plan on joining S uzuki factory pilot Tim Ferry
on a trip to Georg ia for few ' practice session's. was ·cruising the piti ~ith a Sou thwick '86 souvenir T:shirt - from Ronnie 's first ·visit to the leg- .
with red-hot Yamaha nder Ezrll Lusk on his pliendory ,track. '.
,
' ..
'. .
.
'Vate praCtice,trock . ..
a
(Suz); 20. Brock Sellard!l (Kaw); 21. Wally Silva (Yam);
22. r aul Cume (Ka w ); 23. Charles Bogard (Su z); 24. Jeff
.
.
Willoh (Y.lm); ZS Bri.ln ~.ln (SU%)
U See AMA NATIONAL C HA M PIO NS H IP SERI ES
POINT STANDIN GS (Afte r 6 o f 13 ro un ds) : 1. Ricky
unnkhaeJ (258/5 'Airn;); 2. Scott Sheal (184 /1 w in); 3.
Kevin Windham (173 ); 4. Mile C raig (171); 5. Rob b ie
Reyna rd (15 9); 6. Stephaee Roncada (153 ); 7_ Case y
[ohoeon OSO; 8. Tim F..rry (149); 9. Michael Pichon
(131); 10. MichM-I Brcu",ln (113); 11, Cra ig Decker ( 97);
12 . Dav id Ping ree (87); 13 . Tony Lorusso (78) ; 14 .
Damon H uffman (77); 15. Brock Sd L d... (59); 16. Ron
u
TIchenor (51); 17. mEl SI~ Lamson/Ca.'t')' lytlr (55);
19. Bany Car!llen (54); 20. Shaun Perolio.
2SO MOTO 1: 1. John Dow d (Yam ); 2. Ezra Lusk
(Yam); 3. Ryan Hughes (Ka w ); 4. Greg AIbertyn (Suz); 5.
Damon Bradsha w (Hon); 6. Jeff Em ig (Kaw); 7. Mike
LaRocro (Suz); 8. ~my McGrath (Suz); 9. Larry Ward
(Hon); 10, Brian S'Aink (Kaw); 11. Jimmy Button (Yam);
12. Phil Lawrence (Yam); 13. Rya n Huffman (Kaw); 14.
AnlhUn~O(orobba (So L); 15. Kt."i th Johnson (Kaw); 16.
Au!
