Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

first ever in the .250cc class. (He sat out most of last year with a leg injury.) Huffman went 10-4 at Glen Helen to grab sixth overall, one spot ahead of teammate Jeff Emig, who never really got untracked all day, going 7-8 for seventh overall. "That wa one of the worst National rides I've had in a long time," Emig admitted. "The pace was fast, I rode hard both moto , but l did not flow." The top Suzuki rider was former 125 and 250cc World Champion Greg Albertyn. He went 6-9 for eighth overall, edging out teammate Robbie Reynard's 4-13. McGrath - Yamaha' top rider rounded out the top 10. Eleventh place went to Jimmy Button on the factory-backed Yamaha fourstroke. Button was one of many riders who got hung up in a first-moto, firstturn pileup and had to spend the whole race making up for that, finishing 14th. But in the second moto, Button nailed the holeshot and led for a few laps before McGrath and Tortelli got by him. He would go on to finish a strong fifth in the moto for 11 th overall. "I got a great start (in the second moto)," Button said, "got a good lead, but I settled into a little bit too slow of a pace." Suzuki's Larry Ward took 12th overall with a 12-10, while Team Noleen Yamaha rider Tim Ferry grabbed 13th overall via a pair of 11 ths. But what about the defending 250cc National Champion Doug Henry? "Bad breaks today," he said. Or did he mean bad brakes? In both motos, Henry dealt with rearbrake problems. In the first moto, a rock got stuck in his brake pedal on the first lap, and it took him a while to figure that out. By then, he was already trailing the 4Q-rider field by nearly half a lap. He caught back up to 17th at the finish. In the econd moto, Henry was running among the leaders when string from a banner got wrapped up in his bike's rear wheel, resulting in another momentary los of his rear brake. He ended up finishing 12th for 14th overall. "I still had a great time," Henry said. "It was the neatest thing, being whatever place I was in and the whole way around the track, J had people cheering forme." Despite his problems on the day, Henry was all smiles afterward. "It's my last year and I'm not going to get all upset over stupid little things," he said. Big Valley Honda/Great Lake Aviation's Heath Voss ended up 15th overall with a 15-16 score, while Team Yamaha's John Dowd took 16th with a 13-21 tally. It was Dowd's first race since injuring his shoulder at the Daytona (Above) A spread-out 9-2 score still gave Mike laRocco runner-up honors. (Right) Honda teammates Mickael Pichon (5) and Ezra lusk (4) mixed it up in the second 250Cc moto. Pichon went 3-7 for third overall, lusk 8-3 for fourth overall. Supercross, and he struggled to find his rhythm and strength. . ''I'm beat down," Dowd said. "I don't know, I guess I'm okay, but it was tough out there. The second moto, I just ran out of muscle power - my arms and my shoulder were just all done. I couldn't hold on to the bars anymore. I managed to at least finish the race. This place got pretty gnarly - ruts, downhills and stuff." . Eighth place went to Mazda/Chaparral/Yamaha's Steve Lamson (30-15), followed by Excel Motorsport's Josh Demuth (16-36) and Tony Amaradio (33-17). By winning both motos and just about everyone else having inconsistent rides, Tortelli jumps out to a big lead in the series point standings. Heading into round two, Tortelli owns 50 points, followed by LaRocco and Pichon's 34. Lusk is fourth with 33. Henry leaves Glen Helen with 13. MOTOONE Windham put.his Alley Semar-tuned Honda into the lead at the start of the first moto, followed by McGrath, Emig, Hughes, Planet Honda/Pro Grip's Jason McCormick, Ward and Pichon. Tortelli was back about 12th, and even further back were both Lusk and LaRocco.-Button wa also way back after getting caught up in that previously mentioned first-turn pileup. "Pretty much all my fault," Button said. "I slid coming off the gate - spun the back wheel - which put me in a group of guys going into the first comer. I was maybe sixth or seventh and I think Spud Walters started to crash, and when he crashed, his handlebars went into my front wheel and just tore my disc (brake) completely up. I was thrown over the bars and 15 guys plowed into me. I was the last one to get up." But no one was further back than Henry after the first lap was competed. "A rock got caught in my rear brake and it was sticking on," Henry said. "I didn't know it, actually. I pulled into the mechanics' area and told my mechanic what happened, and he moved it (the brake pedal) and it felt free, so 1 just took off and rode the best I could." Meanwhile, up front, Windham continued to lead, and he actually put a few seconds between himself and McGrath. Emig continued to hold down third, but he had already lost sight of both Windham and McGrath. With Hughes and Pichon pressuring him from behind on the second la p, Emig clipped a hay bale going into a tum and went down. "Ryno (Hughes) was pushing me pretty hard," Emig said. "I was trying to protect the inside and 1 hit a bump. It kind of made the front end twitch and I went right into the hay bales." He got going again in eighth but was now well behind the lead group. Three laps into the race, McGrath had significantly cut into Windham's lead, while Tortelli was slicing his way through the pack and had just passed his teamrna te Pichon for third. At this point, there wa a seven-second gap between second-placed McGrath and third-placed Tortelli. McGrath began to seriously challenge Windham and finally got around him by the fifth lap. He railed around. Windham for the lead and began pulling away. A few laps later, Tortelli caught and passed Windham, and there were now only about two seconds between him and McGrath, and the battle for the lead was on. By the halfway point, McGrath had actually gained about a second on Tortelli, only to have Tortelli cut that margin back down. Then McGrath's engine cases caught a rock and began losing oil. "He snuck up on me," McGrath said. "I was battling with Kevin there for a while, got by him and thought I was pretty much in the dear when actually he (Tortelli) was sneaking up behind me." On the infield section of the track, the World MX champ eventually rode around the supercross champ - who e bike was gradually losing power - and grabbed the lead. From there, Tortelli steadily pulled away from McGrath and even tua II y took the checkered flag approximately six seconds ahead of the Yamaha rider. McGnith, however, could never relax, as Pichon closed to within striking distance of McGrath and his crippled bike; but Pichon could never mount a serious challenge and he settled for third. "I tried to stay with Sebastien when he went by me," said last year's Glen Helen winner, Pichon, "but he was fast. I saw him catch Jeremy and thought, 'Good.' But I didn't get close enough to them when they started battling." Pichon had plenty of room over the next group of riders that was made up of Reynard, Albertyn and Hughe . Windham was among that group before pulling into the pits, grimacing in pain bu t not from his injured shoulder, as many people had assumed. "I got a handlebar in my thigh," Windham said. "I was by myself, got in a little swap in third gear - pretty much pinned - and I went over the high side. 1 got it (the handlebar) in the leg. I flew like 20 feet past my bike, landed on my f~t, 0 I did a complete front flip. I was worried about my shoulder. 1 got the most intense bruise I've ever seen in my life on my leg. I couldn't put any weight on it." Reynard managed to hold back his Suzuki teammate Albertyn for fourth, . with Hughes finishing right behind the Suzuki riders in sixth. Lusk completed his strong comefrom-behind ride in seventh, a few seconds ahead of LaRocco, who, like Lusk, had a bad start. '1n the second corner (of the race), I just kind of stuck my front end in the soft dirt,~ LaRocco said. '1 fell again on the second lap. I managed to settle down and actually felt pretty good but could only catch up to ninth. The field is pretty deep this year." Huffman finished right behind LaRocco. "j had a pretty bad start," Huffman said. '1 was about 23rd by the econd or third comer, but I worked up all right." Ferry finished up behind Huffman, followed by Ward and Dowd. Button salvaged 14th after his first-turn crash, finishing ahead of Voss, Jo h Demuth, Takeshi Koikeda, Akira arita and Henry. MOTOTWO In the second moto, Button stayed clear of any crashed riders and pulled a huge holeshot on hi Yamaha fourstroke. He opened up a quick lead, followed by Huffman, McGrath, Windham, Henry, LaRocco, Pichon and Dowd. Hughes was back in 10th, Emig was 11th, Ward 12th, Lusk 13th and Tortelli 19th. ear the back of the pack, after having a run-in with Tortelli, was Albertyn. Button kept the pack at bay for about three laps before McGrath, who had already slipped by Huffman, started reeling him in. McGrath finally got around his former Chaparral teammate in the infield and began ope.ning up a small lead of his own. Then Huffman started giving Button problems, as did the now fast-approaching-Tortelli. Then Huffman made a daring pass on Button . g: en

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