Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

(Left) Mike laRocco (7) closed to the th e rear of McGrath (1) with seven laps to go, but was unable to make a pass . Here, Mike laRocco S~. frantically inf orms his so n that time is running ouL (Below) Larry Ward (11) led the first nine laps before succumbing to fatigue. Jeff Emlg (6) was the first to pas s Ward , but only led for a lap before McGrath swept past. Emig held on to th ird . close fourth in what was only his second supercross in over a year. 250cc Craig led the charge into tum one in , the first hea t race of the night, but found his comer speed too hot as he entered the left hander. "Someone rammed the insid e of me and hit m y knee," said Craig, w ho straighte ned u p and subsequentl y se n t seve ra l ri ders crashing throug h th e ha y bales - am ongst them were Emig and privateer Yamaha rider Jeff Matiasevich. St an ton a n d Lakocco s n uc k p as t be fo re Cra ig cou ld recover, and then those three rid ers immediately opened up a com for table margin over KTM 's Cliff Palmer. LaRocco s tuffe d his way past Stan ton on lap three and set sail for the finish , but that wasn't the end of the action. On the next lap, Stanton miscued a se ries of jumps and was catapulted over the handlebars head -first into the face of a steep step-up. "I just came up short and ate shit," said Stanton, "I was pretty dazed, but 1got up and wanted to make sure 1d idn't ha ve to ride a semi." Craig was th e only rider to snea k past the dazed Stanton, and the order at the finish was: laRocco, Craig, Stan ton and Palmer. All fou r wo uld transfer to the main . . The se co nd heat be lon g ed to McG rath - fro m start to fi ni sh. Af ter gra bbing the ho lesh ot, McGrath immediatel y began to p ull away, waving to the crowd in th e process. On the final lap, McGrath mad e goo d u se of his seve n-se cond lead by -performing his "patented" leg-o ver-s8if: ';, rial maneue ve r over 'bo th se ts of! frwles . Lams on was a d istant secondf aHea d of Doug Henry and Kiedrowsh ' lioJ j,' " Th a t move is re aIl y"e as y, " sa id McGrath of his antics. "I wanna get to the point where I can do it one-handed." Emig easily won the first semi over Matiasevich, while Noleen/Sizzler/ Yamaha teammates Ward and Larry Brooks supplied the thrills in semi two. B r o o ~s l e d th e ma jority o f th~ .ra ce before -Wa rd reel ed him ' in:'T ogetlier, the identically clad riders jum ped 'sid eo' f~ide~ over th e triples 1 hile 'ioo'k ing w 'e1 ha ve a ha rd time keeping the fron t end down off the liI, e;' an d tha t's w hat's costing m e.'" j ., q Kied rowski fo und hi mself o n' his head and stuck und er his bike on the second lap, and was well over a la p down before he rejoined the race. " I just happened to crash in a bad section of the tra ck," he said. " First 1 7

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