Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

again after being taken down by Lusk, Mike laRocco, on the Factory ConnectionlJack in the Box Honda, rode around McGrath and into third place for his first podium finish since the Indianapolis Supercross c last year. LaRocco started the St. Louis race off in fifth, worked up to third and, at one point, was hounding McGrath for second before letting McGrath get away and having Lusk pass him three laps from the finish. "I can't say that I'm not happy to be on the podium, because it's been so long," LaRocco said. "But, honestly, I'm not happy with the way I rode. I got a good start, for me, and had a decent first half of the race. But once I got up there, I kind of rode tense, maybe because it's been so long (since racing among .the leader ). Normally I hang it out when I ride, but when I got up there, I just kind of rode a level down, trying not to make any mess-ups. I don't ride as well that way; that was the mistake I made." Finishing nearly a half-lap down on LaRocco in fifth was Yamaha's Doug Henry, who passed Honda of Troy's Mike Craig for that spot on the 17th lap. John Dowd, who like teammate Henry qualified for the feature through the last-chance qualifier, finished seventh, followed by Kawasaki's Damon Huffman, Suzuki's Larry Ward and early leader Pichon. Pichon grabbed the holeshot, quickly opened up a sizable lead but couldn't do much about the high-flying Windham. Pichon was passed by Windham on the sixth lap and from there things went downhill for the former two-time 125cc East Coast Supercross champ. The Team Suzuki rider would also get passed by McGrath on the eighth lap before crashing a lap later and becoming mired in the middle of the pack. Finishing in 11th place was arenacross star Cliff Palmer, followed by Honda of Troy's Stephane Roncada, who was making his second appearance in the 250cc class. Team Honda's Steve Lamson was unable to climb any higher than 12th after going down on the first lap. Lamson finished just ahead of Canadian JeanSebastien Roy, Honda of Troy's Mike Brown, Gauldings Kawasaki's Kevin Crine, Thor's Jeromy Buehl and Tom Morgan Racing's Ryan Terlecki, who was making his seventh main-event appearance of the year. Rounding out the field in 19th and 20th places were Chaparral/Yamaha's Jimmy Button and factory Kawasaki rider Ryan Hughes, both of whom never made it beyond the first lap after going down in separate incidents. Button came up on the short end of the stick in a collision with Ward, which left the Yamaha rider with a broken triple clamp on his YZ250. Hughes went down all alone in a whoop section. J:n a lot of pain, but suffering no serious injury, Hughes would retire to the pits. For Button, this would be the fourth time he scored three points or less in the last five races and, as a result, he now sUs 10th in the series point standing after running as high as second earlier in the season. Despite finishing off the podium for only the second time this year, McGrath . still enjoys a hefty 52-point lead over St. Louis winner Windham, 267-215. Lusk is fourth with 199 points, followed by LaRocco with 175 and Ward with 172. For the second week in a row, both defending champ Jeff Emig and Team Suzuki's Greg Albertyn did not compete at St. Louis due to injuries (see Briefly...). HEATS Windham and Lusk settled into the first two positions at the start of the first heat race, and right behind them were Hughes, Brown, Button, Kawasaki rider Roy and Pichon. The stage was set for a Windham/Lusk duel to the finish, but Windham had different ideas. His plan was to steadily pull away from Lusk and that's exactly what he did with every pa sing lap. When it was all over, Windham had built up a comfortable lead over Lusk for the impressive win. Elsewhere, a few close individual dices had brewed, one of which was between Hughes and Button for third. They mixed it up during the early laps until Hughes bobbled in a turn, letting Button get away and Pichon to get around him. Hughes, however, hunkered down and went to work on Pichon, driving to the outside and passing Pichon in a turn. Then Pichon lost the front end of his Suzuki and crashed, making the first four qualifiers Windham, Lusk, Button' and Hughes. Brown barely held off teammate Roncada for fifth but was still one position out of a transfer. Off to the semis were Brown, Roncada, Pichon, Jeromy Buehl and Roy, among others. The second heat race saw McGrath put his Chaparral Yamaha into the lead right off the start, ahead of Dowd, Craig, Huffman, LaRocco and Ward. Craig quickly moved into second but, on the third lap, came up short over a triple jump and careened off the track. Craig unfortunately reinjured his justhealed wrist and rode back to the pits. "I think I spun the rear tire on the jump and came up way short, completely framed it," Craig said. "My wrist hurt and I thought I broke it again." As it turned ou t, Craig sprained the wrist, taped it, and got ready for the semis. Meanwhile, Huffman suddenly found himself in second and began closing in on the champ. By the last couple of laps, Huffman was threatening to pass McGra th as they threaded their way through lapped traffic. McGrath .was forced to double a triple and single a double, nearly getting passed by Huffman. But at the same time, a lapper held Huffman up on the last lap and McGrath was able to forge ahead for the win, with Huffman taking second. Sneaking up and finishing righ t behind Huffman in third was LaRocco. Taking the checkered flag some distance behind LaRocco but in the all-important final transfer position was Ward. lamson finished a distant fifth, followed by Kawasaki of Carrollton's Cliff Palmer and Dowd. One of the nonqualifiers was Henry, who suffered a hard get-off. Near the middle of the race, while running fifth and pressuring Ward, Henry nose-dived into the face of a triple jump, catapulting him off his cartwheeling motorcycle. Despite the violent-looking crash, Henry quickly remounted but slowly circulated the track. Henry was semi-bound. SEMIS Brown and Pichon provided most of the action in the first semi, as the two riders quickly broke away from the rest of the pack, with Brown leading the way. Pichon, however, kept close tabs on the Honda rider through every turn and jump, and it wasn't until the halfway point that Pichon decided to make his move. The Suzuki rider cut underneath Brown in a turn and snatched away the lead. Brown stayed close to Pichon for the rest of the way but could not get close enough to attempt a pass. Pichon scored the win over Brown. After getting off to a terrible start, Roncada rode a determined race and climbed his way through the pack, finishing third. Roy took the checkered flag in fourth, while Buehl took the final transfer in fifth. Sore wrist and all, Brown nailed the holeshot in the second semi but came up hort over a triple jump right after the first turn. He cased his Honda, and Yamaha riders Dowd and Henry plowed into the back of him, with all three riders going down. Brown got up first, while Henry restarted his Yamaha back in last place. Dowd was less fortunate, as he had to push his broken bike back to the pits. Kawasaki rider Cliff Palmer inherited the lead, followed by Lamson, Yamaha of Troy's Todd DeHoop, Crine, Terlecki and Airdfie Motorsports' Jason Frenette. Palmer led for a couple of laps before Lamson passed him and rode off with the win, while Palmer held on for second. Craig was on fire as he made up for his first-lap crash to finish third, just ahead of Crine. The ba ttle for the fifth and final transfer position went down to the wire between DeHoop and Terlecki, with Terlecki making a last-lap pass on DeHoop for a trip to the show. LAST-CHANCE QUALIFIER Two-thirds of Yamaha's entire factory team was featured in the last-ehance qualifier, with both Henry and Dowd on (Above left) Mike laRocco (5), on his Factory Connection/Jack in the Box Honda, found his way to the podium for the first time in over a year with a thirdplace finish. (Above) Team Honda's Ezra lusk chases down laRocco late In the main. He went on to finish second. the starting grid. Off the start, Dowd again had problems early on after getting run off the track in the. first tum, and Henry came out in third, then second. Henry quickly had control of the lead after passing Yamaha rider Mike Katin, but Dowd had to work for a while, eventually settling into second - and the last transfer spot of the night - at the halfway point. Henry went on to win, followed by Dowd. Fini hing one spot out of the transfers in th.ird was Kawasaki rider Mike Jones. MAIN Pichon powered his Suzuki to the front of the pack at the start of the main event, just ahead of McGrath, Windham, LaRocco and Lusk. The first turn wasn't kind to a number of riders, including Lamson, who went down, and Dowd, who was pushed off the track and onto the concrete floor that surrounded the track. Soon after that, Button and Ward got together. "Larry Ward took me out and broke my triple damps, plain and simple," an angry Button said. '1 was in the air and he friggin' hit me while I was in the air totally T-boned me; bent my swingarm and everything. I'm not happy about no one's riding tonight." Button's night was prematurely over, while Ward rounded the first lap in 17th. Ward would later fall again and eventually finish ninth, a repeat performance of his placing last week. Things weren't any better for Hughes. "I got tangled up in the first turn; I think Yogi (Lusk) hit me - imagine that? He hits everybody out there," Hughes said of his first and only lap. "I got up and I figured that I'm going to have .to hang it out and do it. I got to the whoops, went to the right, my foot kind of fell off the peg, and I went over the bars. I hit the ground so hard - I knew nothing was broken or anything, but it hurt so bad I couldn't move. My leg was so charlied, my shoulder was so hurt, I couldn't move. It was weird. I kind of saw a couple of stars, too." Windham chased down McGrath and passed him for second on the

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