Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

(Lell) Oscar Valdez took the 125cc tnterm edlate-ct ass win with a 1-2 at the fourth round of the GFI Fall M otocross series, held In Lake Plru, California. (Above) Kev in Holmes won the snee Beginner class at the fourth round of the GA· Fall Mot ocros s Series . GA F llM a otocross Series,Round 4 Valdez victorious By Gr eg Robertso n LAKEPIRU, CA, OCT. 12 uzuki rider Oscar Valdez ran away w it h th e first 125cc In termediate mota wi n, the n played it smart and took a second- place finis h in the second mota to w rap up the overall win during . rou nd four of the GFI Fall Series, held at the lemon Grove Motocross Par k. The firs t 125cc In termedia te mo ta started wi th a bang as a first-tu rn pileup on th e uphill start claimed series points leader Brya n McGavran, Terr y Gastou niotis, GJen n Bra ns o n a n d Chris SprenkeL Mark Tilley escaped with the lea d over Va ldez and Du sty Walters. Valdez got around Tilley by lap two and pu lled away for a convincing win. "I saw McGavran fall an d I saw him hit pretty hard," said Valdez, "so I just said, 'I gotta get away now if [ wa nt this overall: so I had to do it and got around Tilley in the back straight to lead." WaHers lat ch ed on to Tilley' s back fend er on la p th ree a nd never let go. Tilley greeted the chec kers in second place wi th Walt er s in his shadow, just wai ting fo r a m istake th at ne ve r happen ed. Paul Temmerman w a s ba ck a few se co nds for fourth, ahead of Nick Scott and Gastouniotis. The seco n d m o to belong ed to McGavra n righ t from the d rop of the ga te . The Fox / N CY / CTi-ba cke d YZ pilot gra bbed the holesh ot and wi thin a lap had six seconds on Vald ez. "I jus t wa nted to win and get a good pla ce and add so me po ints up (for th e series) and hope fully pull away as far as I could, and I di d that ," McGavran sa id . "I just tried to rid e smooth and not thin k abo u t anybody else, and rid e my ow n race ." Valdez knew he d id n't ha ve to wi n th e seco n d mota to cla im the o vera ll S w in, a n d s e t a comfo rt a ble p a ce th at kept him out of the grasp of Tilley, who was running third. "I u sually get th e ho les hot , but I don't know what happened thi s weekend ," Valdez said . "McGavran wa s fast ou t there. I kn ew I didn't have to deal with him, so I just rod e smart and go t second in the mota. The track got a little rough in the second moto, but I had to d eal wi th it" Tilley finished a lonely third for seco nd ov erall o n his lBZ /Spy / l u n d e Racing-backed RMI25. "I fina lly got good sta rts and ra n up there w ith those guys, n ot pla ying catch-up anymore: ' Tilley co m mented afte r th e second moto . "They've just got motors on me. I' ve go t to get my motor done. The tra ck got rou gh. I like it when it' s rough: You find out w ho's been traini ng a nd who's not been training." McGavran picked up the third -p lace trophy with his 7-1 score. Walters d ogged Branso n all the way to the finish in the second m oto fo r fo u rth overall with 3-5 scores . Temmerman went 4-7 to round out the top five. Michael Mea dows and Diet er Ternmerman went at it head to head during th e first 125cc Novice race nn the hilly track. Meadows jumped out to an early lead a nd would spend the entire race keeping Temmerman at bay. A mis take by Tem mer m an o n the final lap gave Meado ws so me br eathing room a t th e finish . "On the last lap, I was trying to pass him (Mea dows) and I wre cke d over 'a tabl etop in the back," Temmerman sa id . "I still go t up in secon d place, so it was all rig ht." Matt Co ndon overcame a bad start to tak e a well -d eserved third over Jason Ebel and Cliff Jennings. The seco nd mota saw Mead ows get a nothe r good s ta r t, but Ternmc rrnan was r igh t o n h is ta il a nd h ad other plans. "I had hi m (Meadows) a co uple of tim es almost coming down the downh ill in t h e fir st m o to," Temmerman ex p laine d , "so I ju st tri ed to ge t h im right away, and I got him on the first lap and jus t tried to pull away really qu ick and hang on fro m there." And tha t' s wha t he did, ta king th e sec on d- m ote wi n a few seco nd s a head of Mead ow s. " I had a hard time keep ing up with him (Tem merma n) . I wish I could ha ve got him ," sai d Meadows, who recently moved up to a 125 from the mini class. '1 think this is my sixth race on a 125. I like them a lot- a lot more than the minis. No more minis; I can 't hand le them." Jen nings and Condon argued over third place fnr much of the seco nd moto, wi th Jenn ings breaking away in the final stages to earn the position. Condon's 3-4 score just edged out the 5-3 of Jenni ngs for the third-place trophy. Jason Ebel slowly climbed through the field in bo th rounds to go 4-5 for fifth . David Sullins was unt ou chable in the opening round of 12Sec Beginner action. Su lli ns es tab lished an immedia te lead that grew to 10 seconds wi thin the first couple of la ps. Clin t Ew ing spen t the mo to gelling his new YZ up to speed and was rewarded wi th a second-p lace fi nish in fron t of Jay Joh nso n, Jimmy Eberle and Jaso n Mono ha n. Kevin Jennings had a disas tro us first rnoto, cra sh ing a co u p le of ti mes a nd ju s t p lain no t gelli ng a long with the har d-packed track en route to an eighthplace ride. The second moto was a totally diffe rent story, as Jenn ings nailed the ho leshot and never looked bac k d uring his runaway wi n. "I just rode s tea dy." ad mi tted Jenn ings after ro und tw o. "I d idn' t want to go hayw ire and go way over my rid ing abili ty. I pull ed away fro m the m pretty good. Once I pulled aw ay, I just stayed the sa me pace because I d id n' t want to ride too fas t and cras h. In th e seco nd moto , the track dried ou t a lit tle, bu t besides th at it w as -an a w eso me tr ack." . Sulli ns was buried in the pac k off the start but never ga ve up an d managed to wo rk all th e wa y u p to third, which wa s good enough for th e overall win. Joh nson held off Sullins in the final laps to finish in the ru n ner· u p positio n a nd earn second in th e class w ith h is 3- 2 score. Ewing went 2-5 for.third. An ob vio us ly happ y Sh a ne Good g ree te d th e checke rs well a head o f everybody else in bo th 250cc Beginner motes. '1 got good starts and rod e smooth," Good said . "I love the track. This is the first tim e I've ever been here. I haven't raced in six months; I just came ou t with my buddies and did awesome. I honestly thought I would be top-five if I came ou t here - I didn't think I wnuld d n that good. I'm totally su rprised, totally stoked!" A first-mota fall kept Chris Conahan from finishing any hig her than fourth , but a good s ta r t and staying on two wheels during roun d two paid off wi th a secon d-place troph y for the Honda rider. Mark Broneau's 3-4 score go t the beller of Scot t Meierhoff's 2-5 for third ove rall. Bran den Milstead led every inch of the first 250cc Novice moto for the w in, bu t not wit hout plenty of pressure from Rya n Doty during th e fina l tw o la p s. The Pomona Valley Kawasaki /lBZsponsored Dot y was quickest out of the ga te in mot o tw o, only to go d own on the first lap . " My fr on t e nd just washed rig ht out," Doty said. "I was able to pick the bike up fast enough to still be in fourth. I bat tled all the way u p to ge t by him (Milstead). I go t him on the whit e-flag la p with a clean pass an d was able to hold him off." Milstead finis hed a close second with both front-runners wel l ahead of Dusty Na bors, who went 3-3. Honda of Troy's team manager Erik Keh oe was the 250cc Pro-class winner. Yamaha-mo unted Takeshi Koikeda definitely mad e Kehoe work for his money, though, as Koikeda was all over Kehoe for the firs t IS la ps of th e 17-la p onesho t Pro mo ta . Kehoe put a cou p le of seconds on Koikeda right at the end for the victory. Eric Flem ing used" th e power of his Thou sand Oa ks Kawa sak i-ba ck ed KX500 to pick up the Over 30 N ovi ceclass firs t-m o to win w hile th e gro u nd was still tacky. Eric Hameister closed in on Fleming, but ran out of time and had to sett le for second . Hameist er holeshot rna to tw o, but Fleming dropped him to second by lap tw o. Hameister stuck with Flem ing and re tu rn ed th e fa vor on the la st lap to wrap up the ove rall win. Bruce Richa rds and Scott Highl and pl ayed catch-up in both races to fini sh third a nd fourth ov erall, respectively. "" , . 0\ N

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