Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

d efin it ely appea rs to be bro ken, ri ght a bou t the wa tch area of the wrist. It w as already swollen." O ne ha p p ier note fo r Team H onda was that Kevin Windham finished thir d overall, alt ho ug h he certainly had excellen t oppo rtun ities to score th e overall w in bu t couldn' t ca pitalize on them . In bo th mo tes, Windham ju m ped o u t to early leads but jus t d id n't have w hat it too k to collect his wo uld-be fourth win of the yea r; instead he fad ed back to fourth place bo th times. And he had no definitive excuses. " I think it was a co m b in a tio n o f th ings," Win dham reasoned . "My starts were grea t, the bike was wo rking good, I wasn't riding the bi ke pro perl y . I was putting too much weight up on the front end and pickin g bad lines. The bike was beating me up because I wa sn 't riding it right. Albertyn gained a lot of gro und on us today," Windham added . "I'm going to have to pick that back up." Fourth o ve rall was Team Su zuki's Robbie Re ynard . The. factory-backed Suzuki rid er w as hoping to find success at the Unadilla track like he did last year when he carne fro m behind to beat Ricky Carmichael in one of th e 125cc m ot os. But a firs t-mo ta w ash-out on the first lap pretty much ended any hopes he had of an overa ll victory . He stilI go t up about last and fin ish ed 10th, th en rode hard and fas t in th e second mot a to fini sh a ' d istant th ird fo r a respect able fo urth overall. . • Rounding out the top five wa s Team Yam ah a's Jimmy Button on the facto rybacked four-stroke Yama ha . He we nt 7-6 for his best ove rall finish of the year . " I rode really fast, good lap times, but I s ho u ld have my head exami ned for how I go t off the ga te in bo th m ote s," Button sa id . " Ho r rib le, horribl e, absolutely terrible. But I rod e good." Team Kawasaki's Jeff Ernig, w ho had w on the previous tw o races at Una dilla, suffere d th rough a cou p le of crashes one in ea ch mota - to finish out the day in s ix th, foll o w ed b y Cana di a n Je anSe bast ien Ro y (5-10), Yamaha 's Jo hn Dowd (11-5), Tortelli, and Suzuki's Larry Ward (12-12). . Elsewh er e d o w n th e field , Cha pa rral /Mazd a Yamaha's Steve Lamson we nt 15-11 o n th e d ay forTl th overa ll. H e struggled in the first m ota after ge tting beaned in the eye w ith a rock. Finishing a few spots back in 14th wa s Tea m Yamaha's Doug Henry, w ho posted 6-23 mota finishes . Henry w ent down in the second mota while ru nning with the lead ers and had to pull ove r to straighten out his ben t bike. Team Honda's Ezra Lusk w ent 32-8 on the day for 15th ove rall . He bailed in the firs t mo ta af ter bang ing into Larry Ward a nd wa s left w it h a busted fro nt wh eel tha t need ed replacing. Tim Ferry, of the Ch aparral/Mazda Yamaha team , au gered in early in the first mo ta and tallied 29-9 m o to scores for 16t h overa ll, while Team Kawasaki's Dam on Huffman w en t 9-39 fo r 17 th o ve rall. H uffma n fail ed to finis h the second m ot o af ter crashing an d d ama ging his throttle cabl e. After seven of 12 round s, Albe rtyn now leads the series point stand ings with 266 p o ints a n d o ne w in , follo w ed by Windham w ith 245 p oints an d three w ins. (To rteIli also has 245 po ints.) Sitting in fourth is LaRocco wit h 240 poin ts, followed by Lusk with 232. MOTOONE Dam on Huffman carne away with the holesh ot in the first moto, but the factory Ka w as aki pil ot could n ' t keep his machine there for lon g. Before th e firs t lap was com pleted , he had alr ead y surrende red the lead to Windham, seco nd to I.;aRocco and third to the Cana dian, Roy~ Kevin Windham (14) led both motos but couldn't hold on to them . He ended up going 4-4 for third overall. Hu ffm an s im p ly s truggled to s tay o n pace with .the lead ers and would eventually slip back to ninth at the finish . "1 don 't know," Huffman said of his rid e. "I rod e tight, struggled , fighting a littie bit." O ne of the rid ers tr aili ng th e pa ck after the fi rs t lap was Reyna rd , w ho d ropped his factory-backed Suzuki head ing into the seco nd tu m . "I washed out," Reynard Solid. "Then, as the pack went by, someone hit my bike and started dragging it away from me." Reyn ar d wo uld spend th e rest of the race making up for lost time, even tually finishing 10th. Lusk also went d ow n earlv on after getting togeth er wi th Ward on' an uphill sec tio n of the co urse. The H onda rid er staggered back on to his bike, only to find a bu n ch o f bu s ted fro nt s pokes. He would have to pu ll in to the mechani cs' area to replace th e w heel a nd s u bs equently lose a bunch of time. "H e (Lus k) carne on the ins ide of me," Wa rd sa id, "a nd he slid his rear w heel into the back of my leg . Th en I thi nk it (Lus k's fro nt wheel) rnust 've hit my footpeg." "I just carne u p on Larry a little faster tha n I thought and ki nd of ran into his side," Lusk sa id. " It was nobody's fau lt but m ine." Lus k al so land ed hard o n his h ip , leaving hi m w it h a nas ty a nd painfu l bru ise. M eanw h il e , up fro n t, W i nd h am loo ke d to be in control of the race, bu t LaRocco had o ther ideas. By the end of th e seco nd lap, laRocco had closed the gap on Windham and started pressu rin g him. Shortl y therea fter, laRocco put the m ove on Wind ham and took the lea d, w hile Roy stead ily hu ng on to third. But it was onlv a matter of time before both Torte lli and Albertyn go t by Roy, ma kin g it a couple of Ame rica ns o ut in front, a Fren chman in third, a Sout h African in fourth, and a Canadi an in fifth. Hangin g back in si xt h w as ano ther American Henry. By the sixth lap, Albertyn motored his Su zuki a ro u nd Windham fo r secon d, then Tortelli slip ped aro u nd hi s team ma te for third, an d the stage w as set for a dra matic a nd exc iting three-w ay d ogfight for the mota win. . laRocco, Albertyn and Tortelli qu ickly broke free from Win dh am, who would spe nd the rest of th e race defending his pos ition from Roy. The thr ee leaders had the 12,000 stro ng crow d han gin g over the ' fences, m ost of th em cheeri ng on th eir se n timen ta l favorite La Roc co. A t o ne p o int, ea rlie r in th eir b attle, LaR occo enjoyed a six-second lead over Albertyn, but the Albertyn / Torte lli slugfest carried them u p to laRocco in th e late stages, the three of them now separated by no more . than a few bikelengths. A t o ne p oint, w h ile lappin g Lusk (w ho had earlie r cras hed) , Albertyn felt that he didn't make mu ch of an effort to ge t out of his way . " It was unfortunat e," Alb ertyn said . "I w as trying to pass Mike (Lak occo). I could n't ta ke fu ll advantage of passing him because Tor telIi was on my back, so I had to protect my lines. I could n't take my fas tes t lin es eithe r, because TorteIli was on my butt. Then I:us k pla yed a nice mo ve, soon asLaRocco w ent by, Lu sk held me u p. But I see how they wo rk. It's kind of tough w he n you' re alone - yo u're the only one against all the Red ." With jus t a few laps left in th e race, the three rid ers d isappear ed do w n the infamous Screw -U section of th e tr ack, and they re-emerged wi th Tortelli in seco nd a nd Albe rtyn in thi rd . A t th e 180d eg ree turn a t th e bottom of th e hill, Tortelli T-boned Albertyn, leavin g th e Sout h Africa n w ith a nasty w elt on his ankle. " Do w n the b ot to m o f Screw-U, he (Torte lli) cam e down the inside and rod e me pretty hard ," sa id a some w hat peeved A lberty n of th e Tortelli pass . " My ankle is hurting p retty bad . I thought it wa s broken at one stage." Albertyn summed u p the pass by saying, "H e better no t leave th e d oor open wh en I'm aro und ." It w a s no w a s hoo to u t b et w e en LaRocco and Tortelli with tw o laps left in the race, and laRocco barely held on for the popular w in. " It was to ug h for. m e b eca u se I haven't rea lly led m an y la ps this yea r," LaRocco sa id .· "When I got ou t fro nt, 1 was a little choppy at first, then I ran in to la pped traffic an d they got behind me, and I knew I had to stick it ou t. "It was only three or four laps when th e y were ac tua lly rea l close to m e," LaRocco con tin ued . "I was glad to be able to ri de through th at. I knew they were going to try eve rything, but I'm usu ally pretty good in tha t situa tio n." Alberty n ended up finishin g third, so me 10 seconds ahead of the battling Win dham an d Roy. Sixth we nt to a di sta nt Henry, foll o w ed by Bu tton and Ernig, who finished jus t ahe ad of H uffman. MOTOTWO Win dham shot out of the starting gate wit h the holesh ot in the seco nd moto, fol.lowed by Henry, Tort elli, LaRocco, Huffman , Roy, Albertyn, Emig, Reyn ard, Button and Dowd. It wa s on the second lap wh en Tort ell i, whil e trying to pa s s Henry, went down. The two rid ers flew ou t of the ScrewU jump and - d ep end ing on w ho m yo u tal k to - one of th em , if not both, d rifted in m id- a ir and in to ea ch o the r' s flig h t path, and Tortelli cam e d own on the back of Henry's Yamaha. Henry managed to stay 'o n tw o w heels, w h ile Tortelli was flicked to th e g ro und - ha rd . H is left wri st wa s badly tweaked in the fall and was taken immed iately to the hospital. "I felt him hit me," Henry said. "We w en t up the hill a nd I d idn't th in k he was tha t cl ose. G oing up Screw-U is to u g h, b ecau s e it ' s all cho p p y an d there're ruts at the top, and you' re trying to aim for the rut - so me are cu pped out. You go over th e ju m p an d you d on't k now w ha t' s going to h appen sometim es . I felt so mebo d y bum p m e a nd th a t was a bo ut it . I d id n ' t know if he wen t d own or not." Henry managed to kee p seco nd for a few more la ps be fo re Alber tyn , then La kocco, moto red around him. Henry was -passed 1.1ter on by Reyn ard before crashing all alone and tweaking the front end of his motorcycle. He would eventually pull over in th e m echanics area to straig hten things ou t. Up fron t, Windh am continued to lead , bu t Albertyn. w ho had ea rlier p assed LaRocco, was on the move and read y to p ounce. On th e seven th la p , A lbe rtyn passed Wind ham fo r th e lead , as di d laRocco on the same lap for second . Fro m th ere, .Alb ertyn and Lalcocco wa ved good -bye to the rest of the pack, as they set out on their own battle for the lead . Even though LaR occo wa s a lways right there, he never go t close eno ug h to reall y cha llenge Albertyn or attempt a pass. Still, Albe rtyncould ne ver let u p, and he gave it his all rig ht d own to th e end . It paid off for the three- time Wor ld Cha mpio n, as he took the chec kered flag by jus t a few seco nds ove r laRocco. " I kn ew I couldn ' t back d o w n , because I know that laRocco is going to be strong all th e way to th e end ," sa id Albertyn . "M ike; when he' s o n it, yo u know he's not going to fade. He kept me hon est, that's for sure." As it tu rn ed out , laRocco was deba ting wi th himself ~s to w he the r or not he sho uld really go after Albertyn. " A part of m e wa n te d to pass him back and win the moto," laRocco sa id. "I had to make a decision to hang it ou t and catch him back or be conserva tive. Had it not been so long (si nce h is last o ve ra ll win), [ p robably w ould've hung it ou t, but I rode conservative. We di d get into a little bit of traffic th ere, and he split on me a little bit the last few laps." Takin g the checkere d fla g in third pla ce, some 27 seco nd s behind Lakocco, wa s Reynard, who edged his Suz uki by Windham's Hond a aro und th e 10th la p but h ad no ch ance of ca tc h ing eit her LaR occo o r A lbe r ty n . Fo u rth w ent to W ind ham , follo w ed b y Do wd . Em ig, h o w e ver, w a s putting th e move o n Wind ha m on the last lap w he n he we n t d o w n, dro ppi ng him ba ck to seven th, behind Button . 23

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