Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

SUPERCROSS u.s. Supercross Series . ~ ~ - ~ 0\ ...... L() ' ...... C ctl 2 ..n (l) ~ 8 When it was all o ve r, Lusk ended up holding on to third, and Craig finished up in fourth, knocking fifth -place finisher LaRocco into the semis. Henry was sixth ahead of Emig and Suzuki's Greg A1bertyn . Lamson rebounded from his ea rlier n in th -pl ace fin ish in his heat race by running away and h id in g in the first se m i. The Hond a rider, who has obviously healed from an ea rly-season rib injury, cru ised to victory, while Honda of Troy's To dd De Hoop was a d ist ant second th rou ghout the race. Dowd went to the feature via a third-place finish, as d id the fourth- and fifth-place finishe rs P hi l Lawre nce a n d Josh Stee l, w ho edged ou t Suz uki 's Tim Ferry . One of the most exciting races of the n ight took place in th e second se mi, when Emig powered his Yam ah a into the lead ahea d of Kyle Lewis, who had crashed heavily in the first heat. Albertyn an d Henry were a lso in the m ix. Alberty n quickl y moved into second, while Henry and LaRocco se ttled into th ird and fou rth after passing a fading Lewis. "I sho uldn' t ha ve been out there after my crash," sai d Lewis. "I hit my head pretty good and tweaked both my knees." At this point, Henry was the rider to watch. He quickly disposed of Albertyn and th en reele d in his longtime archriv al , Emig . T he two r id e rs h ad the crowd on its feel' as they diced for the lead. Emig took the whi te flag leading the way, bu t Henry was in the driver's seat. The Hon da rid e r se t Em ig up through a long section of w hoops and doubles and cut underneath the Yamaha in a 180-degree left-hander. Hen ry took Emi g's line and ne arl y drove him into the hay bales. Henry went on to win the race, with Emig hanging on to second . In the meantim e, LaRocco shot p ast A lbe r ty n a n d cl os ed in on the Em ig / Henry battle. But tim e ran ou t and LaRocco finished third with Albertyn taking fourt h . Finishin g fif th an d takin g a tr ip directly to the feature was Dobb . Ferry an d Buddy An tu nez p lay ed follow the lead er as they raced clear of the rest of the pack in the Last Ch an ce Qu alifier. Ferry took the early lead with An tu nez. keep in g a close eye o n th e Suzu ki rid er but never mou nting a serious challen ge. Ferry scored an unev entful w in, wh ile Antu nez finis hed approximately four seconds behind. Finishing a d istant th ird w as Ca n ad ia n Je a n Sebastien Roy. There was actually a brief mom ent in th e 20-lap main even t w he n McGra th did not lead , and that was throu gh the first two turns of the rac e. In st ea d , it was Lu sk, the ' 94 East Co a st 125cc Super cross Ch ampion , wh o led the way on hi s factory Suz u ki. But in the th ird tu rn, a s ha rp ri gh t-h and er, McGra th w h ip ped h is Honda underneath Lusk and quickly took control of his custom- . ary position at the fron t of the pack. "I didn't wa nt to wa it aro und," said McGr a th . " I wa n ted to ge t b y him (Lus k) righ t away and get away." In ty p ica l M cGrath fa shio n , the defendi ng cha m p qui ckly opened up a comfortable cushion over Lusk and settled in to a pace that no one cou ld challenge. Despite the fact tha t it was st ill ea rl y in th e ra ce, most o f th e ne a rl y 40,000 specta tors had alr eady accep ted th e fact tha t McGrath h ad the race all but won, yet they sti ll had a couple of good reason s to re ma in in their sea ts: On e, it was cold outside and, two, thei r local hero was in third . War d h a d agai n ju m p ed out to a good start an d was hammering away on Rou d4: SeattleKingdo e n m Lusk. Ward qu ickly passed Lusk for second, but could d o nothing abo u t th e hi gh -fl yin g McGrath , who en jo ye d about a five-second lead. The rider on the move, however, and wh o many th ought mi ght still have a ch a n ce to at lea st cau se concern for McGrath, was LaRocco, who rounded the first turn in fourth after a mid pack gate. By t he fifth lap, LaRocco h a d moved in to third and quickly reeled in Wa rd . "I saw hi m coming and he wa s riding real fast," said Ward . "Once he got on me I basically let him by." LaRocco passed Ward on the eig ht h lap and sti ll h ad p len ty of time left to wo rk on McGrath. At this point, abo ut nin e seconds se parated LaRocco fro m McGrath , b ut th e 250cc Nationa l MX Champio n mana ged to narrow that gap slow ly bu t surely . LaRocco go t to as close as five seconds fro m McG ra th, befo re the Californian decided tha t was close eno ugh and began picking up his pace again. A lmos t immedia te ly, McGrath gai ned tw o of those seco nd s back and it was obvious at th is poin t that laRocco wasn't going to catch him . "I was a little concerned at first," said McGra th, "because Mike (LaRocco) got a better s tart (than las t week at Ana' h e im ). Mike s ta rted p ushin g Lar ry (Wa rd), th en he began ge tt ing a li ttl e close. Skip (Nor fol k) was giving me plu s -s ix pl us-eight s ign s s o I pre tty mu ch kn e w w here I was th e w ho le tim e." LaR occ o wasn 't McGra th 's o n ly worry d u ring th e 20-la p race: " I w as wo rrie d abou t fitness," sai d McGrath. "I came down with a cold on Monday and was basicall y lying around all week. I rode but I really didn't train thi s week but I still man aged to pick up the pace an d pull away." Ward finished all alone in third and was qui te pleased wit h his performance. (Right) Larry Ward, the loca l favorite, ran second for much of the race before gelling passed by laRocco and finishing third, for the third time this season. (Below) Damon Huffman came from behind to win his third consecutive 125cc feature . "I'm really happy," sai d Ward . "I could hear everyone cheering for me and that hel ped. We've go t th e bikes working really good and my mai n goal is to finish on the pod iu m : Righ t now I'm secon d in points and I' m reall y h appy about that." Finishi ng a distan t fourth wa s Kiedrowski, who p u t in a brillian t but almost unnoticeable ride. The Kawasaki rider rou nde d the first turn in 11th - one be tter than last week in Anahei m - an d th en clawe d a n d scra tc h e d h is way through th e fie ld . By th e time h e reached fou rth on the 11th lap, he was n early 15 se co n ds behi n d th ird -p lace War d . Kied ro ws ki narrowed th at ga p significantly but ran o ut of tim e before mounting a serious challenge on Ward. Henry, who rounde d ou t the top five, s ta r ted th e race about se ven th, d iced with Emig for a while, and moved up to fourth before getting passed by LaRocco on the 10th lap. Pu ttin g in on e of his best rides in a while was Swi nk, who slu mped out to a 13th-place sta rt but foug h t to the end, grabb in g six th for his effo rts, one spot ahead of fifth-p lace starter, Emig . Pichon rode an inspiring race. He too go t off to a s low sta rt in 14th, but climbed up to eighth befor e it was all over. T he Sp litFi re/P ro Circu it/ Kawasaki ride r finished one spot ahea d of Lamson, who got bogged down in the first tu rn, "Someone fell in the first turn and I go t t an gl ed up in -it," sa id Lam son . "Af ter that, I began wo rking my way up a n d th en Swink a n d I ta n gle d an d I w ent d own. But my bi ggest problem was probably my condition ing. I haven't been abl e to tr ain (d u e to an in jury). After abo ut five lap s I was beat." · . phil Lawrence sho we d th e form of old , provin g to everyone tha t he is fully recover ed fro m a series of inju ries that ru ined h is season last yea r. The pr iva teer Kawasaki rid er cha rged fro m 15th to finish 10th . . Dobb worked h is way back to 11th af te r getting off to a six th -p lace ge taway, w h ile Mike Cra ig climbe d from 18th to 12th . After a promising start, a d isappointed Lusk took the checkered flag in 13th after crashin g at least two times . A naggin g ank le injury sustai ned at th e Orlando Supercross didn't hel p matters any fo r th e yo u ng Georgian . "I've go t the speed b ut my ankle was giving me prob lems," sa id Lusk. "My timing was off." Anothe r priva tee r, Bud dy An tu nez; rode well to 14th, while John Dowd was his own wo rst enemy after sta rti ng in sixth then crashing back to 15th. Finishing 16th was DeH oop, who was fol low ed by factory Suz uki rid er s Ferry an d Alberty n, who had cras he d in the first tum. "So meone wen t across Jerem y - he sto pped and I hit him and we n t down," said the likable Sou th African. "Then I ca ug h t up to 12t h and crashed again. LaRocco (w ho was la p p in g Albertyn) we nt insi de of me in a tum... He didn't hit me, it wasn't hi s fa ult, th ere was p lastic in my rea r .b r a ke a n d I wen t straight into the hay bales." Rou nding out the top 20 were Ohi o's Josh Steel, who completed 15 laps, and Honda of Troy's Mike Brown, who completed just nine laps.

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