Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

MOTOONE Windham got right to business in the first 250cc mo to, poweri ng h is Alley Sernar-tu ne d YZ250 in to th e lead and opening up a small cushion by the en d of th first lap. Settling into second was Wind ham's te a m m a te Henry, on th e boo ming four-stroke, an d right beh ind him and threa tening to pass was Canadian Jean-Sebastien Ro y , who wa s enjoying one of his best-ever starts in an AMA National mo tor Pichon positioned _his Su zuki in fourth , followed b y defe nding champ Emig , Albertyn, Lusk, LaRocco and Ward . Back in 16t h a fter lap one w as Hugh es o n the fa ctorybacked Kawasaki. Well th rough the second lap , Wind ham had alread y established a fairly 'comfortable lead, while Roy continued to hang toug h in third behind Henry. Emig quickly got around Pichon , then Roy, bu t had p roblem s a few turns later that pu t Emig back four places. "Roy bumped me as I was corni ng up ou t of the Screw-U and sp un out," Emig said . "Tha t put me behind all th e fast guys that I had just passed." Only six min ut es into the race and it was a lready clear th a t Windham was _going to be the rid er to beat, as his lead grew la p after la p . After 10 mi n utes" Wind ham was seven seconds clear of Henry, and by about the halfway point 15 minutes - his lead was up to abo u t 13 seconds . Wi ndham w as probably mo re than happy to have no part of a six-way battle that was abo ut to tak e place behi nd him. Henry was fightin g for h is life in second and lead ing a freight train of riders that was made up of Pichon, Lusk, Albertyn - w ho , at one point , had run off the track, as evid en ced bv the miles of tracks ide lItreamers wrapped around his body - Emig, a nd LaRocco, and just off th e pace in eig hth w as Ward . Roy had dropped back to ninth. Pichon picked on Henry for a while, and the two nearly collided in mid air as they leap ed int o Unad illa's Gra vity Cavity. After tha t Pichon see med to lose his rh ythm and started to drop back. Lu sk e ve n t u a ll y found h is wa y aroun d Pichon , and the man Lusk wan ted to pass mo st of all - Henry, the series points lead er - wa s right in fro nt of him . To Lu sk , Henry' s Yamaha mu st have seemed to g ro w eig h t fee t wid er, a s Henry su cces s fu lly bl ock ed Lu sk's every move for the next couple of laps. But this made Lusk just that mu ch more d etermined to ge t a ro u nd th e Yamaha rider . Plus, Lu sk wa s tired. of ea ti ng Henry's roost. "W he n you ge t b ehind th at fourstro ke, you w ant to g e t by - you ge t roosted so bad," Lusk said . Near the 25-minute mark, Henry an d Lusk di sappeared off Unad illa's inf am ous Screw-U downhill / turn /uphill section, and when they reappeared up t he ot he r side, Lusk was a head o f Henry. Lu sk s low ly pulled away from th e four-stroke rid er.a nd started en tertainin g th ou ghts of catch ing .Windh am, ~ whose once-huge lead was no w ge tting noticeably sma ller. '" r But Windham was in total cont rol of T the sit ua tio n, as he taper ed off a little r .toward the end to sav e energy, but he still had abo u t six seconds on Lusk a t the finish . "I love thi s track," Windham said. "I ~ wa s look in g b a ck a n d kn ew exact ly wh ere they w ere at. It seemed like every lap that one of them w as in a d ifferent position , so I wa s definitely likin g being in fron t of tha t." (Left) Emlg (1). Ezra Lusk (left) and Ward (right) mix it up ear ly in the first 250cc mota . Lusk fought his way through a freight train of riders to finis h se cond In the mota. (Below) Mike laRocco chases down Canadian Jean-Sebastien Roy and Emig in the first mota . " It (the freight tra in ) was int ense," Lusk said. "It seemed like I was a littl e faste r than everybody else. I was able to ge t aro und everybody ." He nry finished a fairly close third. "I was running second for a wh ile, just trying to hold my own and not make an y mis takes ." ~ An obvious ly di sappointed Em ig took fou rt h. "1 felt really good but had to ride my ass off to catch back up (after tangling wit h Roy)," Emig said . "I knew I coul d 've done better." Fifth place eventually went to Albertyn, followed by LaRocco. Pichon dropped back to a distant seventh in the late stages , while Ward took eighth after losin g all tou ch with the lead group. "That group was a little bit in fron t of me , and I could 'seen them every lap, but I just couldn 't put any tim e on them," Ward said . Roy fini sh ed a v ery re sp e ct abl e ninth, while Hugh es rounded out the top 10. MOTOTWO Windham cou ld not produce ano ther hol eshot in th e second mot o; inst ead, that feat w ent to Pi ch on , who is no stranger to hol esh ots as of lateo Pich on rounded the first turn in the lead with Henry and ~indham close behind, but Pichon cou ld not hold on to the point position for lon g . Em ig, who had gated right behind . Wind h am , w a s in n o m ood t o foo l around and qu ickly went to work, slipping by Windham, Henry and Pichon b efore the first lap wa s over . A s the pa ck comp leted th e fi rs t lap , it w a s Em ig leadin g the w a y , fo llo wed b y Hen ry, Windham , Pichon , Ward , Hugh es and LaRocco. Four more places back was Lusk, and two spo ts behi nd him ran Albertyn. . Emig wanted to br eak away from the pack as soon as he could, and he opened up a mod es t lead over Wind ham, who had passed Henry o n the second lap. Hen ry hung tou gh and ga ve Windham a fight for a while bu t couldn' t ge t him back. In s tea d , He nry even tua lly los t tou ch wi th Wind ham and began feelin g th e he a v y footstep s of a fas t- ris ing Ward, wJ10 ha d ear lier dropped Pichon back one mor e notch. M eanwhil e , up fro nt , W indh am 'b egan closi ng the ga p on Emig, and the tw o rid er s engaged in an intense dogfi ght for th e le ad . Wind h a m pulle d alo ng s ide Emig a cou ple of tim es bu t jus t couldn' t make the pass stick. After a co u p le la ps of ex tre me ly close racin g , Windham cou ld n' t get his front wheel to stick either, and on a fas t, w ide-open • sectio n of tra ck he we nt d own in a heap . Both Henry and Pichon accelerated pa st th e Yamaha rider befo re Windham go t going again. "Me a nd Emig were ha vin g a go od battl e," Windham said . "On e of the back sections, I missed my line by inches and washed out. I stayed on top of the bike, (a nd) it p itch ed m e. A t lea st it d idn't high side me. I actually spu n all the wa y ,aro und . I go t u p and was a littl e tight, and my front brake was tweaked . It (the brake lever ) was actually locked ou t, [ was sca re d to pull it in, b ecaus e I thou ght it wo uld lock in. But I was jus t getti ng smoked, and I started pulling it and it finally popped in and freed up." Mome nt s af ter Windh am crash ed , -Ward slipped by Pichon , makin g the top ord er after abo u t 10 minutes of racing: Emig , Ward , Pichon , Windham , LaRocco a nd a si nking Henry. A li ttle way behind Henry chased Hugh es, followed by Albertyn and Lus k. Whe n Win dham went d o wn, Emil; suddenly fou nd h im self w it h a fairly comforta ble lead, then LaRocco dropped Wind ha m one spot further, to fifth. Ward then slowly chi pped away at Emig 's ap p roxima tely six-second lead. With fo u r lap s to go, Ward had cu t Ernig's lead in half, and w hen the tw o- lap sign carne out , only a few feet separated the two rid ers . Ward made a cou ple of a ttempts to pass Emi g but just coul d n' t quite pull th em off. The mo to carn e d ow n to a drag race to the finish line, and it was a race tha t Em ig w on b y less than one bike len gth over Ward. "Hell yes I knew Ward was coming," Emig said of Ward ' s lat e-race charge . "Exce pt o n ce ; an d th at' s b ec a u s e I looked back and I didn' t see him, and t he r e a s on I d i dn 't see m him wa s because he was right on m y rear tire. Tha t was wi th a lap and a half to go, I'm like, 'All right, no mistak es, I've go t to protect the inside: But there were a couple of spo ts wh er e I wanted to bait him to the ou tside so tha t when it switched back to the other line, then I could ge t a real good drive and shut off his (dri ve). " It was reall y close last year, and I s tuc k to the ' in sid e co rning ou t o f the final turn, and Larry hac' a killer drive on the ou ts ide," Em ig sai d . "You ca n h ea r somebody b a ck th ere, and yo u kind of kn ow where they're at. I wanted to be real strict with m y lin es through there , get that rear wheel on the ground a nd -d o n "t miss a shift. I' ve had clos e races here before: ' Ward was happy with his ride. 19

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