Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

rider to hold the points lead, relegating last week's new leader, McGrath, to second. LaRocco heads into next week's round at Anaheim with B2 points, followed by McGrath with 79. Third is Pichon with 66, and fourth is Lusk with 65. HEATS Pichon scored a start-to-finish win in the first 2SOcc heat race, but he was challenged early on by Ward. At one point, Ward slipped his Suzuki past Pichon's Honda, but Pichon cut back underneath and retook the lead. From there, Pichon started inching out his lead and began pulling away from Ward, who eventually crashed out of contention. "Oh, r just had the front end wash out on me," Ward said. "Kind of hurt my collarbone, though." LaRocco put his Honda into second after a short scrap with Huffman, who later gave in to Button. Pichon went on to take the checkered flag with room to spare over LaRocco, who had an equal advantage over Button, Huffman, (Left) Mike laRocco moved into the series points lead with another solid performance. So far, his score reads: 3-33-2. (Below) John Dowd found his way on to the podium with a third-place finish. rider. By finishing second, LaRocco broke his string of three consecutive third-place finishes and surged into the series points lead. Dowd, meanwhile, held on to finish a season-high third, making it three veteran racers on top of the Seattle podium. Finishing fourth at the Kingdome was previous-round winner Jeremy McGrath on the Mazda/lBOO-COLLECT/No Fear/Chaparral Yamaha YZ250. McGrath and many of the series' top riders such as Ezra Lusk, Jeff Emig, Robbie Reynard, Sebastien Tortelli, Mickael Pichon and Jimmy Button were caught up in a first-turn pileup. McGrath spent the whole race working. his way up through the pack. Rounding the £jrst lap in 15th place, McGrath skillfully picked off riders one by one, finally settling into the number-four position on the 16th lap. "1 had a killer start," McGrath said of the first-turn incident. "Then (Kevin) Windham came on the inside and hit me - I had a clean holeshot, I got hit and r fell over. After that, I felt great, relaxed and worked hard." Team Suzuki's Greg Albertyn was one of the lucky ones who avoided the first-turn carnage and ran fifth for most of the race. He ended up finishing there, taking the checkered flag with a few seconds to spare over FMF/Yamaha's David Vuillemin. Emig was the next rider to take the checkered flag, in seventh, followed by Team Honda's Kevin Windham, who simply had a bizarre ride. Windham emerged from the chaotic first lap in second place and spent the early part of the race siz- ing up Ward. The factory Honda rider then put the move on Ward and actually took over the lead on the ninth lap, silencing the huge Kingdome crowd. But that didn't last for long. After opening up a small lead, Windham suddenly went into reverse mode, handing the lead back to Ward; then he kept slipping backward. Soon, both Dowd and LaRocco got by him; then Albertyn, McGrath and Vuillemin all rode by him in succession. Finally, Emig rode around the Honda rider before Windham's nightmare ride was all over. "I don't know what happened," a frustrated Windham said afterward. "I don't know what to tell you. Everything was going fine. 1 was in the lead; then my aTms pumped, 1 got tight. 1 don't know. 1 really wish r knew what happened." Finishing behind Windham was Team Noleen Yamaha rider Tim Ferry, while Kawasaki's Damon Huffman rounded out the top 10. Taking the checkered flag in 11 th was Team Honda's Ezra Lusk, who, after getting swallowed up in the first turn, crashed again near the halfway point. He fared one position better than his teammate Tortelli, who was followed by Chaparral/Yamaha's Steve Lamson, Team Yamaha's Jimmy Button, Pichon, Planet Honda's JeanSebastien Roy, and Team Suzuki's Robbie Reynard, who took a hard spill on the last lap. Completing the field was Team Moto XXX's Phil Lawrence, who crashed out of the race on the second lap. In the series points chase, LaRocco's con istency is paying off. He has now become the third different 7

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