Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

But perhaps the ride of the night belonged to fifth-placed Jimmy Button. While everyone was paying close attention to McGrath, Henry, Pichon and Craig, Button was almost invisilily passing riders left and right after getting taken out in the first turn. Button, who had already knocKed himself out in an earlier heat-race crash, rounded the first lap in 19th place, and from there steadily worked his way up through the pack, passing Team Suzuki's Larry Ward on the last lap to take fifth. Even though the 1998 Supercross Series had already been wrapped up at the previous round in Texas, there were still some races left in the series standings, and one of those involved Ward, who was looking to pass the injured Kevin Windham for the all-important third place in the. final standings. Ward had his eye on seventh - or better - in the main to achieve his goal, and he did that with a conservative sixth-place performance, overtaking Windham by three points. "1 was just riding around really cautious," Ward said. '1 had to get seventh or better to get third in the championship. That was pretty important for me; my first year with Team Suzuki, I wanted to finish in the top three. I know some guys got hurt (during the course of the 16-race series), but I was consistent and tried as hard as I could every weekend. I struggled the first half of the year getting the bike set up and once we got it good, then I rode consistent and had a lot of top-five finishes this year." Finishing a career-high seventh was Kawasaki of Mexico/Tecate Beer's Pedro Gonzalez, who was the last rider to finish on the lead lap. Gonzalez got off to an 11 th-place tart and had actually worked his way up to sixth before being passed by Button on the 14th lap. After sitting out most of the year with an injury, Gonzalez finished out the series in 15th. Oosing out the '98 supercross series on a flat note was Mike LaRocco on the Factory ConnectionlJack in the Box/O'Neal Honda. LaRocco flipped his Honda in the whoops while running fourth on the fourth lap and spent the entire race making up for it. Later on, LaRocco was the center of attention for a brief moment, as he was the lapped rider who Henry slammed into, and even MeG ra th near! y got a piece of laRocco, too. LaRocco wasn't a popular man in the Yamaha pits. "1 thought 1 had given Henry enough room," LaRocco said. "1 guess it wasn't." j LaRocco finished out the series in fifth, eight points behind Windham. Canadian Jean-Sebastien Roy put his Two Wheel Kawasaki/MSR Kawasaki into the top 10 for the third time this season with his second ninth-place ride, and he was followed across the finish line by YSA/Noleen Yamaha's Shaun Kalos. Arenacross Champion Buddy Antunez rode his Answer-backed, Pri- mal Impulse/Bill's Pipes/Suzuki Racing's RM250 to an 11 th-place showing, followed by Kawasaki of Carrollton's Cliff Palmer and ESE/J&M Racing/Desert Only Yamaha's Jeff Dement. Heath Voss piloted his Great Lakes Airlines' Honda to 14th, while SMP's Mike Jones, Streits Motorsports' Jason Thomas and Carrollton Kawasaki's Grayson Goodman filled out the remaining 17 finishers. Honda of Troy's Mike Brown, Tecate's Jeff Matiasevich and Team Honda's Steve Lamson did not finish the race. HEATS The first 250cc heat race proved to be one of the most exciting of the night, as four riders battled back and forth for the win. Craig, Pichon, Lamson and Henry provided all the action as they broke away from the rest of the pack. Lamson took control early on, while Pichon, Craig and Henry mixed it up for several laps. Craig moved into second wben he passed Pichon through a whoop section. Then Henry came up and also got around Pichon. Henry was the rider on the move, as he started challenging Craig for second. About three laps went by before Henry cut to the inside and passed Craig's Honda. The four-stroke rider wasn't through yet, as Henry set his sights on Lamson and began challenging him for the lead. A lap later, Lamson bobbled over a series of jumps and Henry was close enough to pounce. Once into the lead, Henry took off and led the pack to the checkered flag. But the race for second was not over, at least not yet. After slipping back to fourth, Pichon turned things around and worked his way back up, passing Craig on the second-to-last lap to take second for good. Craig held on for third, while Lamson slipped all th.e way back to fourth before it was all over. Finishing a distant fifth was Kalas. Most of the racing action took place on the first lap in the second heat race, as Brown took the holeshot ahead of Ward, Antunez, McGrath and Button. While negotiating a whoop section, Ward swapped out, slowing the momentum of the riders behind him including Button, who crashed. McGrath, however, pinned the throttle and passed them all, including the leader, Browrr. By the second lap, McGrath opened up a comfortable lead, stretched it out and scored the win. Brown ran second for ab9ut half the race before Ward got him, while Antunez followed in fourth and LaRocco in fifth. Meanwhile, Button was on the move and setting a torrid pace after crashing on the first lap. He had caught all the way up to sixth and started challenging Antunez, who had been passed by LaRocco moments earlier. With two laps to go, Antunez bobbled over a double jump and Button landed on top of (Above left) Jimmy Button (11), Jeff Dement (72) and Grayson Goodman (60) were left sprawling In the first tum when Steve Llilmson (hls front wheel can be seen behind Button's rear wheel) slid into them. Button recovered to finish fifth, while Lamson went back to the pits with an injured finger. (Above) Doug Henry led the first half of the race, was passed by McGrath, then tangled with Mike laRocco, who was being lapped. Henry got up and climbed back to third, where he finished. Antunez and slammed body-first into the face of another jump. Canadian JeanSebastien Roy, who was right behind Button, drilled the downed Button and hit the dirt, as well. Button was slow getting to his feet but eventually got on . the bike and finished the race. "He (Antunez) hit some wet ground and spun," Button said. "It kind of knocked me out." When it was all over, Ward finished second to McGrath, while Brown finished thin;!, just ahead of LaRocco. Antunez took fifth. SEMIS The first 250cc semi featured clo e racing but was otherwise an uneventful race. Mike Jones, Shaun Kalas, Grayson Goodman, Jeff Matiasevich, Cliff Palmer and Pedro Gonzalez followed each other around the track all six laps, but no one made an attempt to pass until the last lap, when Gonzalez tried diving to the inside of Palmer and Ma tiasevich through the last turn. The three riders came together three abreast, but Gonzalez couldn't quite pull off the pass. Jones took the win, followed by Kalos, Goodman, Matiasevich, Palmer and Gonzalez. The second semi was a Button runaway. He put his Chaparral Yamaha into the lead right off the start and pulled away to a seemingly easy win. Roy held second for a while; then both Antunez and Yamaha rider Jeff Dement got by him. At this point, the race leaders started to spread out and the race was all but over. When the checkered flag came out, it was Button taking the win far ahead of Dement, Antunez, Roy, and Honda rider Heath Voss in the final transfer pOSition. LAST-CHANCE QUALIFIER In the LCQ, it was the battle of all battles, but not for the win. Gonzalez did that quite handily after passing Las Vegas.' own Jason Partridge on the second lap. From there on, the race was all the Kawasaki of Mexico rider's, but the real race was for second and the final transfer of the night. Partridge, Jason Thomas, Tony Amaradio and Takeshi Koikeda fought back and forth all race long. At one point, Partridge had dropped back to fifth but climbed back up to second on the penultimate lap. Unfortunately for him, the race was one lap too long, as both Thomas and Amaradio passed him on the last lap, with Thomas taking the final transfer of the evening. MAIN EVENT As he has done so often lately, Pichon put his Suzuki to the front of the pack at the start of the 20-lap 250cc main. Pichon nailed the holeshot, ahead of Henry, Craig, Jones and McGrath, while a huge mound of bikes and bodies were left behind. Those involved in the first-turn heap were Lamson, Button, Goodman, Brown, Matiasevich and Dement. Matiasevich, Lamson and Brown all called it a night right there, with Lamson pulling off with a finger injury and Brown with a hand injury. "I know I had the holeshot, and all of a sudden I'm going in and wham, he (Lamson) did not even try to slow down for the first corner," Button explained. "I just went cartwheeling." '1 came into the corner with kind of a bad start, and Brown was in front of me," said McGrath, giving hi view of the pileup. "1 hit him and he went into everyone. I came out of it nice." Meanwhile, up front, Henry had taken over the lead from Pichon before the first lap was over, while Craig held on to third. McGrath had jumped into fourth, followed by Jones, Ward, Roy, Antunez and LaRocco. The top positions went unchanged for a couple of laps, and then McGrath charged past Craig through the whoops· and set his sights on second-placed Pichon. Two laps later, McGrath pulled off a slick inside jump-pass on Pichon going into a turn. It was also at about this point that laRocco went down. "1 dropped the front end into a big set of whoops and cartwheeled:' LaRocco said. The top four riders - Henry, McGrath, Pichon and Craig - were all still very close, chased by Ward a few seconds back. McGrath started hammering on Henry and was obviously looking to pass, which he did just after the halfway point by executing a pictureperfect block-pass. At this point, the leaders were approaching a group of lapped riders and, on the exit of a tight left-hand turn, both McGrath and Henry encountered LaRocco. McGrath just barely missed hitting LaRocco, but Henry wasn't as lucky. He slammed into the back of

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