Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Round 6: Georgia Dome An obviously cool and co llected Jeremy McGrath , alon g with hi s tuner Skip Norfolk, walt for th a start of the 250cc fi nal. McGrath has now won fi ve of the six rounds held. and I wa s making a lot of mistakes. I couldn't get back going." Ninth place was wh ere Henry wo uld end up. He felt his en ergy drain after missing the jump, but his troubles started w e ll before the m idwa y point, though he temporarily overcame them. "The firs t tum was really tight and my clutch lever got turned up. It took a , while to get used to," said Henry, who'd wo n the first heat race of the night "The firs t 10 laps were great. I w as th ird behind Emig and then I came up short on the step-up jump." Compl eting th e top 10 w a s C liff Palm er on the KlM, the only non-Japanese motorcycle in the field . Palmer's race was a consis ten t one. He completed the first lapin 11th befor e dropping back one spot, then moved into 10th for good on the eigh th lap . Mak ing his comeback after a two~ rac e absence was Denny Stephenson , 0\ the American Suzuki /Pro Circuit /Fox~ backed rider who took 11th place - easily hi s be st performance of th e ye a r. Stephen son hadn't ra ced a su percross since Ana hei m, though he d id compete in a costly arenacross. "I hit a wall and smas hed my fingers. I got 30 stitches in one finger and 20 in another," Stephenson said of that cras h, after finishing fifth in the second heat. "I feel a little tired tonight. I followed Jeremy (McGrath) around to see what kind of lines he has . It was the best I'd rid den in a couple of years. I wan t to run up front and I want a factory ride back and I want some salary." Doug Dubach, Ryan Hughes, Bud dy Antunez, and Larry Ward rounded ou t the top 15. ' 250Cc The fi r s t heat was taken over b y H enry ea rly on the firs t lap and he quickly made it his own. Though a trio of riders wo uld make a run at him , none wo uld succeed and the wi n would be his . H is only problem would be the occasional lapped rider. "I was going pretty much 100"10. They (Ia p p ers) took my good lines away, that' s a bo u t a ll th at was d iff er ent," Henry said. Sec ond wa sn 't as ea sil y defi ne d . Emig had it earl y, thou gh he succumbed to pr essure from Craig on the thi rd of eigh t lap s wh en Craig wen t un d er him in a 90-degree left-hand er as the field turned into the eas t end zone . Less than half a lap later, Kiedrowski was also by Emig , flying pa st on the far sid e triple jumps. The final rid er to get past was Jeff Ma tiasevich, the NCY/Oakley /Bell Helm ets-backed Yamaha pilot squeez- ing und ern eath in a hairpin left on the fourth lap. On the fifth lap , Kiedrowski co n ti nued his m arch, d riving harder through a wh oop section and then stuffin g un de r Craig in anothe r hairp in left. But Craig wasn 't giving up, taking second back on the ou tside of the same tum on the following lap . They ended the sixth lap side-by-side over the finish line jump, Kiedrowski getting the better drive out of the following left to hold onto second place. Cra ig never relented , dogging Kiedrowski to the finish, but had to settle for a hard-fought third. McGrath owned the second heat from the drop of the gate to the checkered flag, though Mike La Rocco did make a charge at the end when McGrath slowed. But it was too little, too late, and the win , as well as the chance to cla im the $3000 Coors Sil ve r Bullet Showdown mon ey, wa s McGrath's. Though laRocco was second off the li ne, Stephenson took that spo t awa y about half a lap later, with laRocco in third and challenging. It wou ld be ju st befo re the end of the fourth lap tha t LaR occo wo uld re-assert hims elf, taking the low line in a be rme d hai rpin le ft two turns from the finish ju mp to reclaim second. Stant on was lurking in fourth with Lamson on the move, and the two g ot more agg ressive after the halfway point. Stanton took over third on the sixth lap, but Stephen son took it back by out-flying the Honda rider over the triple jumps, th en Stanton regained th e position s ho rtly therea fter. Everything changed, sta rting with the seventh lap, as La m so n cam e through and passed both those rider s to take ov er third. The ord er was set with McGrath holding off laRocco for first and second, Lam son th ird, Sta n to n fou r th, a n d Stephenson fifth. Ear ly in th e firs t se mi, Swink took control, neve r slowing, and held on to win, though Ernig closed it up at the end an d was second th e e n ti re d istance . Doug Dubach came in third , after cras hing on a table top jump with less th an three laps to go . Th is a llowed Gene Naumec to finish a close fourth on the Beach Motorcycle/Yamaha/Shoei Per formance Engineeri ng en t ry . Buddy Antunez was fifth. The secon d semi bel on ged to Stephenson, riding the six laps without cha llenge. KTM's Palmer was the best of a three-rider fight for second, taking the s po t for go o d on th e fo u r th lap a nd fending o ff La r r y Ward a nd Ryan Hu ghes . ' Two, fin al riders would ge t to th e main from the 250cc Last Chan ce Qualifier, and fro m th e fir st la p on it was Antunez in the lead. TI,e self-sponsored Kawa sak i ride r mad e it look easy , taking the win and one of the transfers. The se co n d s po t w as co n tested be tween Jer om y Bu eh l a nd Tra vis Hodges until H od ges dropped out on the fourth lap wh ile in th ird , leaving Bu eh l to ta ke h is Lan ca s te r Sp ort Cycles /Pro Circuit / AXO-sponsored Yamaha into the sh ow. The bi gg est q u est ion m ark in th e main wou ld be McGrat h's endurance. If he he ld up , there wo uld be no stop ping him , but even he wasn't su re what to think. "I was pretty tired in the heat race. I just want to han g in there and sco re some points. This track is different. It's rea lly so ft an d if takes a lot of ene rgy . H op efully, I ca n get th e holeshot and run awa y with it," McGra th said. He didn 't get th e h ol esh ot - that honor went to Emig - but he was away a patient fourth after avoiding the first tum pile-up that claimed Kiedrowski. By the second lap McGrath was up to third, ha ving passed Lam son on the inside on the run-up to the finish jump at the end of the first lap. On the third lap, Swink crashed and McGrath was up to second. Emig was the only obstacle between McGrath and the lead and he began testing the Yamaha rider on the fourth lap in the tripl e jumps. The pass would come soon after the start of the fifth lap, with McGrath taking a tighter line out of the left-ha nder onto the main chute. His lead would quickly increase and the ride would look like a day in the park. "I wanted to gain some distance and tak e it easy," McGrath said after winning and claiming the $3000 Coors Light Sil ver Bullet Sho wdown money. And th ou gh th e wi n loo ked easy, McGrath wasn 't read y to lay claim to the season title. "By no means there a re a lot of races left : There's a tou gh one coming up at Dayt ona. It is a good start to the season." On ce McGrath began to pu ll awa y it was up to Emig to defend second place, which he did successfully until the 13th lap , wh en Stanton pr essured him . Stanton had s ta rted sev enth after getting blocked at the start. "Unfortunately, tha i's racing and you have to work with eve ry circumstance," Stanton said. Once in third, Stanton wanted more and tqok second from Emig on the 13th lap when the two collided. Both stayed upright, and Stanton stayed in front to the end. "I'm happy to be on the pod ium after a dismal 17th last week," the three-time Sup ercross champion said. Emig, though relegated to third, had da ylight behind him and rod e to a trouble-free finish . " I got a few hol esh ots tonight," he said. "I ju st wanted to ride nice and smooth and not cause any trouble. I've been in the spo tlight as a troublemaker and I'm not like tha t." Dropping from the top three, Henry fell in to a battle fo r his fourth-place spot, fin all y relinquishing it to Cra ig with five laps to go. Cra ig had been battling for the second half of the race with LaR occo, Lamson a nd Kiedrowski. laRocco was the first to drop out when he crashed on the table-top jump while in fifth. That moved Craig up to fifth, and he took fourth a lap later when he led a trio including himself, Lamson and Kiedrowsk i past a fad ing Henry. The ga ps am on g th e trio grad ually len gthened to a pr ocessional finish. laRocco recovered to finish seventh. Swink also took advantage of the fading Henry to move into eigh th with three laps to go; Henry's descent land ed him in nin th, one better than Palmer. » 125cc The season continues to be perfect for Suzuki's Ezra Lusk, the Georgian taking his four th 12Sec Eastern Regional Super-

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