Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Cycle News 1995 02 15

Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles

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SUPERCROSS .Round 4: Seattle Kingdome u.s. Supercross Series . , By Kit Palmer Photos by Kinn ey Jo nes '-------~ SEATTLE, WA, FEB. 4 t mi ght no t h a v e be en o ne of th e m ost th rillin g su pe rcross fina ls of all tim e, but for Tea m Honda/l-BOO-C ollect's Jer emy McG ra th th at w as just fin e. Unlike last week a t A na heim Stad ium, where the de fend ing su pe rcross champ ha d to come from behind be fore claim in g victo ry, at th e Seattle Kingdom e, in fro nt of one of the lar gest cro w ds in Sea ttle Supercross hist o ry at 39,252, McG ra th used his now patented ge t-o ut-in-front-early-and- the n-cruiseto-victory ra ce stra tegy to perfection and scored a seemi ng ly easy w ir e- to-wir e victory. Technically, the win in Sea ttle was th e 23-year-old's fifth consecutive su percross victory, dating back to last year's series. finale in Las Vegas, and a win in next week's round at San Diego's Jack Murphy Stad ium will put McGrath into a three-way tie with Rick johnson and Bob Hannah for the most consecutive supercross wins. Johnso n won six in a row in 1988 and Hannah in 1978. "I've be en here be fo re; I seem to have a har d time with wi n number five (in a sing le season), so I don' t think th at ty in g th e re co rd is a g iven," sa id McGrath. In Seattle, McGr at h jumped out to an ea rly lead .a fter passing Team Suzu ki's Ezra Lusk three turns int o the race and he qui ckly opened u p a co m forta b le lea d, eve n tua lly taking th e checkered flag with abo ut seven seconds to spa re over Team Kaw asak i' s Mi ke LaR occo. "Showtime" McGrath lapped all but the firs t five finishers. "I go t the start I needed, " said McG rath. "My starts have been fluctua ting lately - last week I was sleeping on the line but this time I got away good, and that makes all the d ifferen ce." LaRocco got one of h is u su a l so-so s ta r ts and by th e ti me he mo ved into secon d, M cG r a th was a lrea dy lo ng go ne. "This is getting a little old,' sai d LaRocco. " I got a bad start and it was tough to get through the pack quickly. By th e time I got u p there he (McGrath) had gotten aw ay . Yo u just can't give away 10 seconds to Jerem y." For the fourth week in a row, Team Noleen / Sizzler / Xtrern e / Yamah a rider La rry Ward finished out th e 'nig h t on th e pod ium . Ward, who won h is firs t (a n d o n ly) s u percross a t Sea tt le five ye ars ago, kept his hom et ow n crowd on the ed ge o f. their sea ts b y running as high as second before getting passed by LaRocco on the eigh th lap and finis hing a solid thi rd. I Jeremy McGrath looks back over his shoulder and sees no one . The defending champ bas ically led from start to finish unchallenged. He had about seven seconds to spare over the second-place finisher Mike laRocco.

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