Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

(Left) Mike laRocco rode . as strong as ever and was rewarded with third place. (Right) Former teammates John Dowd (6) and Windham (14) spent much of the evening this close. Windham ended up fourth and Dowd the top non-Honda rider in,fifth. tender Vuillemin. Tortelli came out on top of that race, finishing fourth ahead of Vuillemin, Albertyn and Lamson, who was dealt a bad start. Fast starter Reynard shot his Suzuki into the lead in the second heat race but had big company in his wake: Emig, Carmichael, McGrath, Ferry and Windham, to name a few. Windham quickly moved up, only to tangle with Emig over a triple jump. Both riders went down heavily. A nicked-up Windham remounted slowly, while Emig pushed his bent machine back to the pits. "The ground was really hard, and there were a few deep, square-edged bumps, and 1 was trying to time the triple better, because 1 wanted to jump the quad after it," Emig explained. "1 hit that hole right when 1 wanted to get a little traction, and 1 just lost traction, didn't get a drive and came up short. When I bounced up, I felt somebody hit me from me behind." ''I'm a little sore," Windham said. "Tomorrow's going to be real bad. I got. a handlebar to the groin, which wa pretty bad, and I bit a little hole in my tongue. I.guess we're really lucky; it could've been a lot worse for both of us." McGrath suddenly found himself in second and had some catching up to do. He quickly went to work on Reynard and slowly reeled him in. Soon McGrath was knocking at Reynard's back door and he made his move, pulling alongside him over the aforementioned triple/quad jump and then finishing off the pass in the next turn. From then on, the race was all McGrath's, as he went on to win by a small margin over Reynard. Finishing third in the race was Carmichael, who held down third pretty much the whole way. A distant fourth went to Button after a midpack start. Ferry finished fifth, followed by LaRocco and Yamaha rider Doug Dubach. Dowd was sent to the semi after going down in the first turn. 10 SEMIS Pichon turned things around in the first semi, winning easily. He nailed the holeshot, aheatl of Lamson, and promptly walked away from the pack for the win. Lamson held down second the whole way, giving Albertyn a long look at the back of his jersey. Albertyn finished third, willie Lawrence held back a charging Vuillemin for fourth. Taking the checkered flag behind Vuillemin was Huffman, who was followed by Pedro Gonzalez. After crashing hard in his heat race, Windham carne back to win the second semi, but it wasn't easy. He spent much of the race dicing with former teammate Dowd, who took control of the lead after passing early front-runner Kyle Lewis. Dowd fought back against Windham untH just before the white flag, when Windham overtook him down the triple/ quad section. Finishing a distant third was LaRocco, followed by a closely bunched-up Sellards, Emig and Suzuki rider Kyle Lewis, who wa passed by Emig in the last tum. LAST-CHANCE QUALIFIER Team Kawasaki's Emig and Huffman found themselves sitting on the starting line for the LCQ and it came as no sur. prise that these two riders filled the first two positions when it was all over, with Ernig taking a close win over Huffman. Finishing a close but transferless third after passing Lewis on the last lap was Yamaha Japan's Takeshi Koikeda. MAIN EVENT The opening few laps of the 20-lap feature saw plenty of action, with Pichon leading the way off the start, but the newly acquired Team Honda riger couldn't llOld off the fast-starting Ward for long. By the second lap, Ward held the point ahead of Pichon, Lusk, McGrath, Carmichael, Windham, Dowd, LaRocco, Reynard, Albertyn, Tortelli, Emig, Lamson and Button. Lusk soon started his charge to the front, passing Pichon on the fourth lap and then going after Ward, who held his ground for three more laps before both Lusk and Pichon rode past the Suzuki rider through the whoops. Then a fastclimbing LaRocco got around Ward, who continued to drop back throughout the race with reportedly a bad case of nerves and arm pump. Meanwhile, McGrath was having problems, as both Carmichael and Windham got around him, but the fivetime SX champ recovered and set ut to pass tl1em back. Seeing all opportunity in a turn, McGrath went for it, but he carne into the tum a little too hot and his momentum carried him into the side of Carmichael's bike, with McGrath going down and Carmichael continuing on. "One lap, Carmichael messed me up a little bit, and him and Windham got by me at the same time," McGrath said. "1 was till doing good - I was settling in a little bit - then 1 was battling a little bit witl1 LaRocco. Then I was on the inside of that corner, and 1 think Windham and Carmichael ran into each other - they turned super-sharp and I was already coming in on the inside, and 1 just could not stop and ran right into them. The front end tucked and I just went down. My (clutch) lever was pushed way down - 1 couldn't grab it, and I had to hit it back up, go a little more, then I had to hit some more to use it." "Me and Jeremy kind of had a run-in and broke my throttle housing," Carmichael said. "After that, my throttle was catching, so that kind of sidetracked me the rest of the race." The incident cost McGrath at least five positions (though he would later get most of them back), and it cost Carmichael any chance of moving up. After an exciting first half, the second half of the race cooled off, with Lusk and Pichon settling into a comfortable and smooth pace; LaRocco (in third) and Windham (in fourth).did the same. Pichon did, however, give Lusk some concern along the way, but he never made a serious atteiJ\Pt to nudge Lusk out of the lead; Pichon was seemingly content to not put a certain top finish at risk so early in the season. "1 got the holeshot," Pichon said, "but Larry (Ward) was pretty quick in the first few laps. I was a little bit surprised. I tried to follow him; then he slowed down after a couple of laps, and 1 started getting worried, beca use 1 could see those guys pretty close bel1 ind us. Then Ezra passed me and I'm like, 'Man, they're all going to pass me like that if I don't make the move now.' So when Ezra passed Larry, 1 made the move, too, on Larry. I've been riding wi th Ezra a lot in practice, and 1 know how fast he is, so Ijust tried to stay behind him. 1 stayed close the whole moto. I thought maybe 1 could pass him, but 1 got a little bit of arm pump the last three laps; then 1 took it easy at the end, J was so happy with second." "Pichon was really pushing me harder than 1 wanted to be pushed early on," Lusk said. "If he would've pushed me any harder, then I would've let him go by, because I did-n't want to go any faster than that. It seemed like once the end of the race came around, I started to get a little more distance and a little more breathing room." LaRocco was never tllat far behind the lead duo, but he could never mount a serious challenge - nor could Windham on LaRocco. "My bike works awesome," a happy LaRocco said. "Honda's giving me a Jot more support this year, and we've done a lot of testing with Factory Connection, and 1 just felt really comfortable. 1 knew r had no time to waste and that they would get away if J didn't get going. r did what r could; I got through traffic pretty good. In the middle there, it was tough to catch Ezra and Pichon; they were riding kind of almost the same speed as me." "1 was really nervous going in to it," Windham said of his race. "All in all, I'm happy. It's the first race; we've got 15 left, and fourth at this point is as good as a win. Dowd and I were together all night long; he was riding really well. We really weren't off the pace of the leaders until about five laps to go, when I got a little tight. But ·it's a big relief on the mind to get this first one behind you; new scenery, new expectations, new interviews - it's a big deal to change tearns like this, and the last race 1 raced was Washougal, due to injuries and contracts and all that. It's been a while since I left the gate with 20 of the best riders in the world." Dowd settled down in fifth, while Carmichael rode around in sixth with a sketchy throttle and McGrath caught back up to seventh. 'Tm kind of happy with the finish," Carmichael said afterward. "1 wish 1 could've been on the podium; 1 think 1 would've been able to if my throttle wouldn't have broke. I wound up sixth. That's not bad. At lea t I was in the hunt before that happened. I know 1 can be there, 1 know 1 have the speed - I'm not worrying about it." Elsewhere in the field, Tortelli was finding little success after his second-lap fall. "Albee (Albertyn) caused me a little to crash," Tortelli said. "That was the race, but I was happy with my first couple of laps. I didn't have a good start, but I was doing some good laps and catching back up to the front. I try to catch up, but the race was too short." Like Tortelli, Button spent much of his race playing catch-up after tailing his thumper on tl1e fifth lap. "It was a classic four-stroke stall,"

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