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lap. Willoh had Matson in his sights and
mad e a m o ve wh ich put him behind
Graves , an experienced block-passer.
The white flag flew, leavi ng precious
second s fur Willuh, Matson and Partrid ge to make a pass if th ey were to
have any hopes of taking o ve r second
place. The checke red flag was out; HoIland styled it through the whoops to the
finish line, taking the lion 's share uf the
55000 purse. Graves bested all of hi s
p reviou s Pro fini shes in th e series to
take second. Willoh fin ished thi rd,
ahead of Matson and Partridge.
Ho lland also gu t a little sumethin g
extra to help with expenses, as he wo n
th e Dash for Cash, whil e Windham dazzled the crowd with his jumping antics
and ca s h ed in o n t h e jump-contest
money . Six -year-old Du stin Pipes uf
Madera captured the hearts of the fans,
wi n nin g both rnotos in th e 50cc (0-6)
class, and Corey Pennington puttogether tw o perfect wins in his 50cc (7 -9)
race .
.~
Cow Palace
San Francisco, California
Results: November 8. 1997
125 : 1. RU!l y Hollan d. (Kaw); 2. Jason Par tri dge
t
(Suz); 3. J Willo h (Yam) ; 4. Tyl~r Eva ns (Suz ); 5. Brad
"ff
H agseeh (Ya m ).
2.50: 1. Rusty H olldnd (K.3w ): 2. Tony C raves (Y.. m);
3.
J ~ff
Will oh < ); 4. Dean Mat so n (Suz) ; 5. Jason
5ul.
P.utridSt> (507.).
Red Bud Grass T
rack
Wagner
mows
them down
By Larry Witmer
B
UCHANAN, Ml, ocr. 26
.J
a y Wa gn er r od e hi s N in e O ne
On e /Ma x Pitts Ya ma ha / Malcolm
Sm ith-suppo rted YZ to th e overa ll
win in the hotl y con tes ted '125oc Expert
div is ion d urin g th e Red Bud Grass
Tra ck at Red Bud Tra ck-N -Trail.
Th e ra ce marked th e eig hth an nua l
running of the "grass race," and it drew
more tha n 400 riders.
The layo ut utilized the sta rting gate
and the regular starli ng area, going ove r
th e "Big Ski jump" and stra ight into the
"Apple Or chard" and th en turning right
into th e "g rass tr ack" area . The track
used the natural-terrain uphill /downhills and so m e old-st yle sw itchbac ks
that got heavily rutted - and tree roots!
Those combinations were tricky. Throw
in some off-camber sections and a small,
na tu ra l-terr a i n d ou b le jum p, some
ro lling bumps and a tren ch ju mp, an d
you have some idea of wha t com prised
this ye a r's co u rse. Th is event was a ll
a bou t fu n, a nd i t wa s a remind er of
what it used to be like in the early years
of mo tocross trac ks.
The upenin g m ot u uf th e 125 cc
Expert division sa w jay Wagn er rip the
holeshot , wi th Brad je ro mi ns ki in sec o nd, Yamaha-mounted Ca rey Wes t in
third and Ronnie Wea ther holt in fourth.
Ben Gra ves was fifth. .
Th e tw o front-runners, Wagner and
je rominski , qUickly left the pack in their
roost, and the battl e waged by the lead
duo for the next 10 minutes was the best
ra ce of the day. Wagner was in the back
off-camber sec tiun un the upening lap
w he n jerom inski tried the first of many '
attempts at taking over the front spot.
Wagn er was u sing an ou tside berm
line, while Jer ominski wa s u sing the
tighter inside line. It looked as though
jerominski had completed the pass, but
Wagner shut the d oor . On the next lap,
[eromi nski used the switchback sectio ns,
setting Wagn er up for the pass wi th an
ins ide-to-outside swoop while Wag ne r
was using the conventio na l line in the
ssa me comer. This wo rk ed for [erornin
ki, as he too k the lead by crossing over
Wa gner' s lin e. Bu t jeromi ns ki's lead
was short-lived, because Wagner retoo k
it in fru nt of the crowd, using the inside
line on the natu ra l-terrain uphill double
jump.
[e rominski hound ed Wagner for the
remainder of the moto, waiting until th e
last lap to try his favo rite passing line in
the sw itchback section. This worked for
a brief mo me nt until jerominski's and
Wagn er 's lines m el. Something ha d to
give, and it was th e front end of [erominski's KX. Th e tw o riders collided, wi th
jcrominski goin g down. Wagn er crui sed
in for th e win , with [erorn inski remounting to claim the runner-up spot. Graves
carded th e third s po t over West , who
was visibly tired after maki ng his first
appearance since suffering an injury ea rlier this yea r.
. Th e secon d -mo te
s ho w do w n
promised to be a barn burner, and th e
spectators were li ning th e tem porary
fences su rro und ing the track to see who
would emerge with the win .
Wagner again had the fastes t thr ottl e
hand, ripping the holeshot, but [erominski was right ther e aga in, in seco nd, to
put th e pressure on . Wagner kept hi s
focus on the track ahead , not on the hot
p u rs u it of je romin ski ' s KX. Wa gner
fended off ea ch a tta ck bv jeromins ki,
wi th the two ge tling physical wit h eac h
o the r, mu sclin g their machin es an d colliding.
[er ominski wa s fas ter in th e swi tchback a reas. w hile Wagn er was visibly
fas ter in the fast sections of the track. On
the last lap, [erominski went for it in the
tight, off-camber section coming toward
the cro w d . It a p p ea red as though he
to ok th e lea d b u t, wi th Wagne r ' s
momen tu m from the o u tside, the two
cu ll id ed . Wag ne r sumeho w s ta ye d
upri ght, while jeromin sk i went d o wn
hard . Wagn er cru ise d home with the
win, but just finishi ng was going to be a
cho re for Jeromi nski.
je romins ki picked up his mou n t, bu t
the throttle side of the handlebars had
s na p ped off in the incid e nt. H e held
tightly to the clutch sid e of the bars and
held the broken section containing the
thr ottl e to ease his way across the finish
line in second . G ra ves took the third
spo t, with West and Weatherholt com ing in for fourt h and fifth, respectively.
The fifth annua l XR75 track cham pionship took p lace o n the Automatic
track during halftim e. There were 22 XRs
lined up, read y to d o battle. Th e track
fenci ng was lined w it h r a cers , gi r lfriends, buddies and the yo unge r crowd,
all anticipating the d rop of the gate.
The Au to t rack was jus t r ig ht to
pou nd these minis of yes te ryea r into
broke n mach inery - the dream of any
pa rts manager a t a mo to rcycle d ealership. The race was to follow a one- mote
format, with a 15-minute time period .
Half the field would not finish, due to
fatigue or mechanical failu re.
On the lin e was tw o-t im e X R tr ack
cha m p io n Todd Flickenger, who was
cons idered th e fa vo rite be cause h is
sta tu re is a good fit with the small bikes.
Another favorite was five-time Wom en's
MX cha m pio n Lisa Akin-Wa gner. She
has won the eve nt o nce before, but the
tr ick 108cc XR ha s had it s share of
mecha nical W QL'S over the years, cost ing
Wagner her cha nces at victory.
Other notables on th e line included
th e "Su p e r Gee k" - none other than
fam ous Red Bud Pit Racer Gregg Watsun . Hi s racin g outfit made hi m loo k
m ore like a woods casu alty than an MX
rid er. He had clumps of grass attached
to a 70s-sty le o pen-faced Easy Rider
hel met , sa ns the duckbill. He wore no
gloves , and had tree branches attached
to his back in place of the conventional
HRP Flak jak . He also had a grass crossbar pad , and ma ny o ther options unsuitab le to ment ion in p rint. What a sight!
The holesh ut went to Akin-Wagn er,
with Dcrrik Gay heart and Flickeng er giving chase. However, there was a pileup
in the first corner, ta king o ut tw o-time
cha m p Flickenger. Wagner got away
clean, with Larry Wilmer taking over the
secon d spo t. Da rrin Borcherding moved
into third , wi th Gregg Watson fourth.
Witmer extended his lead , go ing way
too far off the ju mps, but he paid the
price fo r showbuati ng w hen his front
wheel ex p loded with three laps to go.
Borche rd ing wa s makin g eas y prey of
Witme r. All the dirty tactics - like dragging the feet or block-passing - that Witmer has learned in hi5 20-some years of
MX didn't p a y u ff, as Bo rcherding
za p ped the lame-duck XR of Wi tmer.
T h e s w ee t ta ste of vic to ry was a ll
Borcherd ing's on his specially prepar ed
Darrln Bo rcherd ing won the XR track
ch amp ionsh ip race du ri ng the Red Bud
Grass Tra ck mo toc ro ss at Red Bud Track-
N-Trall.
j MS Pe rfo rmance XR. Flicke nger took
over second, w hile Witmer wobbled his
wuunded XR in fur third.
,,,
Red Bud Track-NTrail
Buchanan. Michigan
Res utts : October 26. 1997
A UT O (4 -0) : I. T h orn Fisher