Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

250Cc Team Noleen /Sizzler /Yamaha ' s Larry Ward won his first heat race of the seaso n after holding off a charge b y holeshotter Jeff Matiasevich. Kawasaki's two Mikes - Kiedrowski an d laRocco finis hed thi rd and fourth, respectively, w hile the rest of the group moved on to the semi. The second heat was dominated by Honda/l-80O-COLLECT riders, with McGrath easily winning over Doug Henry and Jeff Stanton. Team Yamaha's Mike Craig finished fourth. "San Jose is one of my favorite places in the United States, and I came here to do some business," said Ward. " 1 want to win the race," said McGrath. " 1 don't come out here to finish 17th, and I never have." After stalling in the whoops and failing to advance from his heat, Northern California native Steve Lamson rode to a win in the first semi, receiving a standin g ovation from the crowd as he crossed the finish line. The Honda /l800-eOLLECT rider was followed by the Noleen/Sizzler/Yamaha duo of Larry Brooks and Kyle Lewis, Team Suzuki's Brian Swink and Pro Circu it-sponsored privateer Jimm y Gaddis. " 1 heard everybody out there cheer ing for me, and it pumped me up," Lam: son said. Team Yamaha 's Jeff Emig won semi tw o d es p it e the best efforts of Tea m Su zuki' s Ezra Lusk. Lu sk's tea mmate Jimmy Button, FMF-sponsored privateer Shaun Kalos and Honda of Troy's Todd DeH oop filled ou t the top five. "I didn't really feel like riding," said Emig . "I've got to get a little enthusiasm . out there. The crowd is extremely loud. This is one of the smaller places we race in, but it's one of the loud est." Suzuki suppo rt rider Denny Stephenson le d factory Suzuki rid er Phil Law re nce across th e line in the Las t Chance Qualifier. Apparently it little more enthusiastic, Emig gave Yamaha yet another holeshot in the 2Q-lap main event, leading Ward and McGrath out of turn one and over the first set of triples. McGrath quickly d isplaced Wa rd and closed to Emig's rear wheel. It appeared that the Honda ace would soon have control of the race bu t Emig had other ideas. McGrath's first pass attempt came in a se ries of whoops on lap one, bu t Emig turned it up a notch and exited the long sec ti on with the lea d still intact. McGrath r egrouped and tried again over a long tr iple on lap three, and when that failed, yet again in the follow ing tum. Surprisingly, Emig still held firm, then co ntinued to d o so in the w hoop section. "1 felt good," sai d Emig. "Tha t was the idea - to hold him off; I wasn't going to be backing down. " The rivalry be tw een Emig and McG rath is well documented, and th e fans sensed that something was going to ha ppen. McGrath has sho wn before that he is not conte nt just to score points to win the championship; he wants to win every race he enters . At the same time, _ Emig was putting on the most impressiv e performance of his career - at least _on a supe rcross track. He was matching every move of the best indoor competitor in the world, and he d idn 't appear to • be rid ing over his head. ) The fo u r th la p brought the en tire crowd to its feet. McGrath again tried to pa ss o ver the triple, and after be ing rebuffed yet aga in, he powered by his arch-rival through the whoops. Em ig rega ined the lead, but McGrath tripled a se t of ju mps nea r the end o f the lap, leaping by Em ig. In the sha rp, ri gh than d tum after the finish line, however, Emig cut under the champ, taking over the lead once more and providing a hint of w hat was to hap pen a few laps later. McGrath appeared to back off for a few laps, ma king a nother attack ju st before the midway point in the race. He closed in the whoops, then made his m ost aggressi ve mo ve yet in the tum after the finish . Emig entered the turn wide, while McGrath had the inside line. On the exit, McGrath d rifted out, and Emig aga in tried to cut back un der the Honda rider. McG~ath slowed as Emig sling-shotted to the inside, and the two hit ha rd, both falling to the ground in a heap. McGrath remounted fi rs t, but not before the third -pl aced LaRocco had snuck in to the le ad. Em ig had a sore righ t heel from casing a double in his heat race, and while he was quick to pick his bike up, he had trouble restarting it. By the time he d id so, he was in seven th place, wi th no hope of notching his firstever supercross win. "A little too deep - wh at can I say?" said Emig in reference to McGrath's line. "1 was putting in my laps and trying to ho ld him off. It's pretty obvious he took it too d eep , or he wouldn' t have fallen down, himself." "What did he (Emig) sa y?" as ked McGrath, when qu es tioned ab out the incident. When told , McGra th groaned and said : "Let me draw it out. (Drawing the tum on a table with a felt-tip marker). Over the finish-line jump, he jum ped on the outside; I was on the inside. He cu t back to th e insid e, and I stopped, b eca u se I didn't want h im to s nea k behind me like he did the time before. My bike was com pletely shut down - I wa s o n t he brakes, but all I hear is 'Braaaaa!' and he launched straight into me. Then he just kept it on - that's wh y he fell down, too. "1 just wanted to get around him - it wasn't anything personal. He was ahead o f m e a n d I w a nted to w in ; I heard laRocco coming ." LaRocco was coming, and when he saw the mayhem in front of him, he took full ad van ta ge. "1 couldn' t see exactly w hat happened, because the finis h-line jump was in the wa y," he sai d. "1 just sa w the aftermath. I didn't really worry about what happened. I was just happy to be in front." LaRocco's lead was ap proxi ma te ly five seconds, a n d w hile McG r a t h attemp ted to reel him in, the gap stayed about the same until the finish. "After I (Above) An enthusiastic crowd of 27,2S6 filled the bleachers of San Jose's Sparta n Stadium. (Right) Damon Huff man crashed on the fi rst lap and finished third, but stili clinched the Western Regional Supe rcross Champ ionship. fell , I kind o f tighte ned up ," sa id McGrath. Th e act io n had been so inte nse up front, that no one pai d much att en tion to the battles back in th e pack. Wa r d m a intained th ir d pla ce un til crashing ov er a scary do uble, handing the position ove r to Lamson . Lamson he ld th ir d to the finish , despite nearly crashing while d oubling past lapper Ji m my Gaddis. Dou g Henry overca m e a terrib le start, steadily adv ancing through the pack to finish in fourth. Emig was a d isappointed fifth, and as the riders left the track , he pulled up alongside McGrath, telling him his move was uncalled for. "I do n't know if I'd have won, but it would have come down to the en d ," said Emig later. 'Til tell you one thing - I was going to give it everything I had. It's alwa ys something, isn't it?" Brian Swink overcame an even worse start than Henry's to finish sixth, while Jeff Matiasevich spent the en ti re race between seven th and ninth places; he was se ve n th at the finish . Ward re moun ted to place eigh th, one spo t ahead of Ezra Lusk. "To tell you the truth, I got a p retty good start, bu t me and Matiasev ich hi t and he knocked me down, " said Lusk . "1 bent my clutc h lever all up, so it was kind of tough. I love the 250." Following a horren dous start, Stanton marched through the pack to complete the top 10. Denny Stephenson was 11th, while Kiedrowski finished a disappointing 12th. "1 got a bad start and crashed a couple of times," said Kiedrowski. " I just d idn't ride good in the ma in . 1 wasn't nervous about the championship or anything; 1 think 1 just had one of those offnights." In the pits, laRocco didn't look like a man who had just wo n a Coors Light Challenge. "I was kind of waiting to see what Jeremy did, but whe n he wasn't catchi ng me 1 wasn't worried," sai d LaRocco . " At this poi n t 1 know the championshi p is ou t of the question; I just have to win races." "The first one (championship) probably fel t a little be tter, but it still feels ~ good," sai d McGrat h. "It wo ul d have 0\ bee n nice to ge t 10 (wins), bu t it's s till ~ more than anyone else. Eight, nine, 10 - it do esn't really m atter; I'm the cha mpion." 125cc The 12Sec class d idn't provide quite as much action, but it was not lacking in controversy. 7

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