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/127714
Round 3:Anaheim Stadium (Above) Suzuki's Ezra Lusk (24) and Team Noleen 's Larry Ward (next to Lusk) fought fo r the holeshot in the 250Cc feature. Ward came out ahead and led for 12 laps before getting passed by McGrath. (Right) Afte r two thi rd-pl ace finish es at Orlando and Minneapolis, Larry Ward did one better at Anahe im by fi nishing sec ond. Here, he Is happily gree ted at the fini sh by his mechanic Clint Barry and Noleen foun der Clark Jon es. (Below) Team Split Fire 's Ryan Hughes (9) and Suzuki's Craig Decker diced for second place in the 125cc feature. Damo n Huffman was lon g go ne. second ahea d of Tea m Nolee n's Kyle Lewis, Do ug Dub a ch a nd ph il Lawrence, who was on the bubble for mos t of the race. They finishe d in tha t order. Kied rowsk i h a d littl e probl em in winning the LCQ as he led from start to fi nis h . The o n ly q ues tio n w as w h o wou ld finish second , th e last transfer position of the nigh t. It carne down to a duel betw een Brooks a nd 12Scc East Coast regular Mickeal Pichon. The battl e wa s d ecided on the penultimate. lap wh en Pichon tripl e-jumped his way past Brooks and into the feature. Ward led the pack through the long, sweeping, first left-hand tum at the start o f the 20-lap N ational, just ahead of Lamson a n d Lu sk . Surprisin gl y, McGrath' s Hond a was not among the lead er s but was instead mid pack. "I actua lly had a pretty decent start," sai d McGrath of his unusu ally slow getaw ay . "I was lined up right next to the (starting) bo x, but somebod y carne ove r on me pretty hard and I had to back off. I think it wa s one of the Honda of Troy guys." Getting off the line eve n wo rse than McG ra th w ere hi s tw o main ri v a ls, Kiedr ow ski a nd La Rocco. The tw o Kaw asaki rider s rounded the first lap in 12th and 13th place, respectively. Bu t the man of the hou r looked to be War d, wh o was begin nin g to di stan ce him self from the rest of the pack. ~' I had a lot of confide nce and I knew that Jeremy was way back there," sa id Ward. "I figu red I had a chance to win it." De spit e h is injuries, Lam son w as h old in g his ow n in second bu t Hen ry wasn't cutti ng his team mate any slack in third. Henry, a two-time 12Scc Na tional MX Ch a mpion, p ressu red Lam son fo r seven laps before suddenly cras hing . "I had just go tten by Steve (Lamson) when I came u p short over a jump," sa id He nry . "I wa s tak ing a breather and just mad e a stu pid mistake." The mistake cost Henry five p laces. Up fro nt , Ward con tinu ed to pu ll away fro m Lamson , bu t all eyes w ere focuse d on McGrath, who was grad ua lly working his way up th rou gh the pack. "I made a cou ple of mistakes early, an d wa s riding a littl e squirre lly but was still making the passes," said McGrath. "Then on ce I go t close to the front I felt a little more secu re and started rid ing fast an d smoo th. I w a s s ti ll o n th e ed ge, though." By th e ninth lap, McGrath had slipped by Lams on for second bu t still had four seconds to make up on Ward . However, he gained approximately a second a lap on the Team No leen rider until he was br eathing down his neck. On the 12th lap, the inevitable happened w hen McGrath sa iled by Ward over a triple jump - taking his left hand off the bars a n d pointin g hi s finger at the Yamaha rider. For the remaining eight laps, the race was all McGrath' s as he opened up a comfortable lead and took the checkered flag going away. "Ri ght n ow all I want to d o is w in races," sai d McGrath, wh o took th e ch e ck e re d flag a fter h av ing ea rlier ripped off his goggles. "T wo laps from th e end, I hit my face on th e crossbar a nd knocke d th e sw e a t d own on th e inside of the lenses. Tha t made it a little blurry and I could n't see ." The A n a h e im w in gave McG rath eve n more confidence. "I' m feeling great right now; I have the stamina and I' m feeling more like the Jeremy of '93. Last year, I kind of slacked off a little, didn' t train as much, and had p roblems late in the race s. Now, I' ve bee n train ing rea l hard and feel as good as eve r." Wa rd hung on to fin ish an im pres sive second . "I m ust ad mit that I got a little ner vou s whe n I saw Jeremy coming," sai d Ward . "I'm not used to running ou t in fro nt and he's won the last two races. But I'm happy becau se th is gives me more experience and maybe I can win it next time." The main d ice in the late stages of the race was between third-p lace Lusk and Emig . With tw o laps to go, Emig finally dived underneath Lusk and the two riders made contact with Lusk going down. "He (Emig) just went too fast going into the tum," said Lusk. " It was just a take-out. But I g uess that' s racing . Because of the rain we'v e had lately, the track wa s a little soft and grooved up. That made passin g a little difficult." Emig ended up third, while Lusk had to se ttl e for ninth. Lamson en d ed up fourth ahead of Henry, Kiedrowski, Dowd and LaR occ o; who wasn't th e least bit happy about finishing eighth. "I J had worked up to fifth and went to pa ss Emig for fourth when he moved over to block me," said LaRocco. "(jeff) Dement had stop ped on the side of the track and I hit him." In h is frus tra tion, LaRocco took a s wing a t th e 19-year-old KTM rider, Kied rowsk i w asn ' t all th at pleased with sixth : "Just a lot of bad br eaks," sa id Kied row sk i. "O n e th in g le d to ano ther. I was coming up through the ) pack (in the feature) and fell, then I got up and did it aga in. It was just one of J those nigh ts." 125cc Th e 12Scc mai n event was decided jus t a few y a rds in to th e I S-la p ra ce when Hu ffm a n p o w ere d hi s fa ct ory