Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Moore, Oklahoma, who was competing in his first-ever Camel Supercross program after turning pro just two weeks earlier. Unfortunately, what looked to be a brilliant supercross debut for the Kawasaki rider ended up in disaster. Reynard, who qualified for the IS-lap fe-ature by placing second to Englishman James Dobb in the second heat race, was running third in the ma in event until the last lap when he landed short over a triple jump. The force from the impact broke Reynard's right wrist. 250cc A heavy dose of rain earlier in the day left the tight Rich Winkler-designed track slick in some spots and tacky in others, bu t, for the most part, in ideal condition by the time the evening's program got underway. Kiedrowski grabbed the early lead in the first of two 250cc heat races, arid the AMA SOOcc National MX Champion never looked backed, as he extended his lead over Stanton with each lap. Kiedrowski crossed the finish line with approximately three seconds to spare over Stanton, but the battle over third through fifth involving Team Suzuki's Brian Swink, LaRocco and Team Yamaha's Jeff Emig, the defending AMA 12Scc National MX Champion, wasn't decided until the last lap. The four riders traded places back and forth throughout the eight-lap race in what was a very exciting battle. When it was all over, LaRocco emerged in third, just a few feet ahead of Swink and Emig, who missed a transfer position by one and was forced to ride in the semis. McGrath came out swinging in the second heat race and easily scored the win over local hero Steve Lamson, from nearby Pollock Pines, California. Lamson, a Team Honda rider, gated fifth, one spot ahead of Bradshaw, but had control of third by the end of the first lap; running in second was ProCircuit Honda rider Buddy Antunez. Lamson chased Antunez for four laps before passing him through a section of whoops. Antunez then had recently crowned Eastern Regional 12Scc Supercross Champion Doug Henry to deal with. Henry passed Antunez a few laps later, and Antunez dropped even further back when Bradshaw and Suzuki rider Larry Ward passed him, making the final finishing order: McGrath, Lamson, Henry, Ward and Bradshaw. Antunez ended up sixth. The first of two eight-lap sP.mis featured what was perhaps the closest race of the night. Team Suzuki's Guy Cooper, who had earlier crashed in his heat race, and teammate Ezra Lusk spent the entire race dicing closely for the lead. Cooper, an obvious crowd favorite, inherited the lead when Emig crashed in the whoops on the first lap. Two laps later, Lusk dove inside of Cooper in a tum and passed him for the lead, but Cooper retaliated a tum later. Although Lusk stayed close, Cooper took control from that point on and scored the win, much to the delight of the boisterous crowd that cheered for Cooper as though he had just won the feature. Finishing a distant third was Yamaha rider Jeromy Buehl, fourth went to Team Noleen Yamaha's Larry Brooks, while Team Yamaha's Doug Dubach took a trip to the feature with a fifth. Heading to the last chance qualifier in sixth was Brooks' teammate Shaun Kalos. Bradshaw had no problems winning the second semi, leading from start to finish, while Antunez spent the entire race in second, trying to keep him in sight. KTM's Cliff Palmer ended up finishing a close third, while Jeff Matiasevich climbed to fourth after a 10th-place start. Suzuki's Denny Stephenson made the feature via a fifthplace finish, while sixth-place DGY Racing's Jeff Dement went to the LCQ. Ernig scored a seemingly easy wireto-wire victory in the LCQ, but Honda of Troy Racing's Todd DeHoop survived a late-race charge by Kawasaki's Mike Fisher to take the final transfer spot of the night. The start of the 2a-lap feature wound up being a two-man drag race to turn one between McGrath and Stanton. The two rounded the first tum side by side, Jeff Matiasevich (12) and Guy Cooper (7) diced for third place during the feature. Damon Huffman (center), Jimmy Gaddis (right) and Mexico's Pedro Gonzalez Oeft) finished 1-2-3 in the 125cc feature. It was Gonzalez' first time on the rostrum. McGrath's road to the record ho would've thought that anybody would break Damon Bradshaw's single-season win record of nine just one season after he set the record? And who would've guessed that the rider who would break that record would be a rookie? We certainly didn't. Be honest, did you? But now, with just the June 12 Las Vegas round remaining on the schedule, the 1993 AMA Camel Supercross Series is all but history, and it will certainly be remembered as being Jeremy McGrath's year. The Team Honda rider not only won the series title in his first year of competing in the premier 250cc class, he also broke Bradshaw's record by scoring his 10th win of the year at the San Jose Supercross. McGrath also set the record for the most consecutive wins by a rider in his rookie season with four. His longest stretch without a win was two races, and he only did that twice. Amazing. Simply amazing. And if you're headed for the final round in Las Vegas next weekend, don't bet against McGrath closing out the series with an 11th win. You know, lucky number II. Listed below are the dates and venues of the 10 Camel Supercross Series rounds that McGrath won on his Skippy Norfolk-tuned Honda CR250 en route to breaking the single-season win record. W Anaheim, California )anuary23 Seattle, Washington January 30 San Diego, California February 6 Tampa, Florida February 13 Dallas, Texas March 27 Charlotte, North Carolina April 3 Pontiac, Michigan April 18 Indianapolis, Indiana April 24 Los Angeles, California May IS San Jose, California JuneS and it wasn't until the first long straight that McGrath settled into the lead position. By the end of the first lap, and to no one's surprise, McGrath was already opening up a slight lead over Stanton and the rest of the pack, while Lamson forced his way into third. The first nonTeam Honda rider was Team Suzuki's Matiasevich in fourth, closely pursued by Cooper, Kiedrowski, Swink'and Henry. Bradshaw was back in eighth, and his teammate Ernig was next-to-last in 19th. "I wheelied off the line and leaned into Lusk who was right next to me," said Bradshaw of his bad start. "I was almost dead last, but 1 made a lot of passes right away." Honda's hopes of a 1-2-3 finish all but ended on the second lap when Lamson went flailing off the track in a section of whoops. "I was trying really hard in the whoops to pass Stanton and 1 just swapped off the track," said Lamson. Lamson lost five positions and he fell again in a turn a lap later. "I came over the finish-line jump and forced my bike real hard into the next tum and lost the front wheel and just tipped over," said Lamson, who started the fourth lap in 13th. Lamson's crashes handed third to Matiasevich and fourth to Cooper. This set the stage for a monumental dice between the teammates that kept the 7

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