Keith Johnson (29), Jeff Stanton (2) and defending champ Jean-Michel Bayle (1) fight for the holeshot in the first 500cc moto. Stanton won both motos.
while Kawasaki's Ryan Hughes finished
a career best third with a 7-3 tally.
LaRocco was the runner-up in the second moto, earning him second place in
the series championship.
The number-one plate went to Emig
with 430 points, followed by LaRocco
with 411, while Tichenor ended up third
with 348 points.
SOOcc National
Going into the final National of the
year the numbers didn't favor Stanton.
The Supercross champion trailed
Kiedrowski by 11 points and, with only
a handful of riders capable of running at
the front, he could only hope for a miracle.
What he could control was the race,
which he did, convincingly from the
drop of the gate.
A light rain began to fall just as the
500s headed up the hill off the start on
the long and hilly Budds Creek track,
throwing another element into the mix.
Stanton was away first followed by
Bayle, Ward, Surf Detergent's Jeff Glass,
KTM's Keith Johnson and Kiedrowski.
On the second lap, Kiedrowski
moved into fourth, while Ward moved
into second and the leading quartet
pulled away from the rest of the 4O-rider
field.
The top three swapped positions for
the next several laps, Bayle taking the
lead on the fifth lap, as Kiedrowski
moved into third dropping Ward to
fourth.
A lap later, Stanton was back in front,
never to be headed and content to leave
the battle over second.
Bayle had control of second on the
sixth lap before Kiedrowski took it back,
as Ward gained ground on the lead trio
in fourth place.
Stanton would eventually win by
about four seconds over Kiedrowski,
who held off Bayle over the finish jump,
with Ward falling off the pace in fourth.
Almost a minute and a half behind
the leaders, Mike Jones finished fifth,
Surf Detergent's Jeff Glass was sixth,
with Esso Canada's Carl Vaillancourt
seventh.
'
"Of course I'd like to win, but I'm here
to win the championship," Kiedrowski
LaRocco's hopes of his first National title were all but lost in the first moto when he clipped a hay bale and broke the shift lever.
7
