Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127712
Kied rowski. The Californian ended the first lap in seventh, fought his way u p to third and then inherited se cond whe n his teammate Mike LaRocco crashed at the h a lf w a y mark . La Ro cco' s crash , caused by a hay bale string melting into his rear brake pads, ended any real hope of a bat tle at the front - but even then the chances wer e fairly re mote. By the time laRocco moved into second place, he trailed McGra th by so me six seco nd s and tha t gap never go t any smaller than 5.75 seconds. A su rp rise an d popular third pla ce went to Team No lee n/Sizzler/ Yam ah as La rry Wa rd . Th e Wa shin gt on native was one of those wh o wa s sedously balked by the Emig crash, and he completed the first lap wa y.back in 12th p lace . H is climb to thi rd pl a ce wa s s teady if not dramatic, and he finally moved by the slowed LaRocco on the 13th of 20 laps - putting the finishi ng touch on a race which wa s near ly a mirror image of his outing last year at the Florida Citrus Bowl. In tha t race, Ward led the first seven lap s of the 1994 series ope ne r before crash ing and endin g up 17th. With LaRocco nursin g his KX250 and its malfun ction ing rear brake to fou rth place, fifth went to Team Honda /l-800 Collect' s Doug Henry, with th e twoti me 125cc Na tio nal . MX Champ io n admitting to rid ing"a little tight " in the series opener. Sixth place we nt to Team Kawasaki's Ryan Hughes wi th the Californian coming out on top of a duel wi th Ho nda of T roy ' s M ik e C raig a n d Tea m Noleen/Yama ha's Kyle Lewis, the pair o f p r iv a tee rs fin is hing se v e n th a nd e igh th, res pe ct ivel y . Team Yamaha' s Emig recov ered fro m his nasty firs t-co rner crash to finish nin th after being left we ll behin d the pack. New Engla nder John Dowd com pleted the top 10 in his first Supercross outing as a full-fledged memb er of Team Yamaha. Notabl y m is s in g fro m th e fi n a l results was three- time Wo rld Ch ampion Greg Albertyn. Lookin g so mewhat like a bull in a chi na sho p during practic e for hi s fir st -ever AMA Su per cro ss, th e South African was soon on the pace and was very mu ch a factor by the time the qu alifying ra ces were run. In h is heat race he battled for the lead until crashing, but it wa s a second ge t-off in th at same race that ended his d ebut prematurely and left him in cons iderable pain. The likabl e Albertyn was transported to a local hospital with wha t team manager Roger DeCoster labeled a severely separated shoulder; just how lon g the injury w ill keep hi m out of action remains to be seen. As d ominan t as McGrath was in the 250cc class, local hero Tim Ferry was h is equal in the 125cc d ivision. The 19-year o ld s ho wed h is s peed e arly in t he evening by winning his heat race after a bashfest w ith Mike Brown, a nd in th e final he was untouchable. The resid ent of nearby Pal m Harbor, Florida, nailed down the holeshot on his factory Suz uki and was never headed . French teen ager, Mickael Pichon , finish ed a comfo rta ble secon d on th e SplitFi re / Pro C ir cuit Kawa saki with Team Yamaha ' s Kevin Windham mak ing h is new em p loyers p rou d with a third-plac e finish in h is professional Supercross deb ut. 250cc HEATS Rain, rain go away was the order of the day with showers eng u lfing the area on Fri d a y n ight a n d co n t in ui ng throu gh out Sa tu r d ay . The track wa s cover ed in plastic for most of Satu rday and p ra ctice w as delaye d so me three hours, a n d cut to only one s ess io n. (Above) Jeremy McGrath easily won the open ing round on a rainy night in Orlando. (Below) Mike Kiedrowski finished a strong second after moving past Doug Henry (4) and his teammate Mike laRocco.