Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

·SUPERCROSS · Round 6: Georgia Dome .'U.S. Supercross series '_.' (Abo ve) Here. McGrath (1) passe s leader Emig (6). but. at the same time . Kiedrowski pas sed th em bo th in one swo op. (Left) Micka el Pic ho n, of the SplitFirelPro Circuit/Kawasaki team, came fr om behind to win the 125cc main. the lead and the w in. "Mike went to the inside of the comer and I was doublingd oubling on the o u tsi de, w h ich was a littl e fast er . I gassed it around th e outside of the comer and took ad vantage of wher e I wa s on th e track." Once into the lead, LaRocco quickly pulled away, offering an anticlim actic end to what many in the pi ts we re soo n calling "the best race in years." Lf) "I wa s pretty slop py at the beginning ~ of the race but towards the end I got it r l going," sai d LaRocco. "I found so m e 00 . good lin es, caught ba ck up to everyone and found so me good pl ace s to pa ss." As for the frustrati on of six races to wi n his firs t SX of the yea r, LaRocco sa id it ha s been hard to handle. " I expected to win much earlie r than ton ight but I'v e had a lot of p rob lems this yea r. We've been monkeying around a lot with dif- fere nt stuff and I feel like I can still tum things a ro u n d . I' ve had so me s tu p id problem s and all, but this w in is ac tually earlier than the first one I go t last year." "Jeremy has spe nt the last cou ple of years running away fro m everyone but ma ybe now we' re starting to catch back up," reasoned Kied rowski after the twotim e champion failed to ge t away from the pack. "I'm w orkin g on things a littl e bit, trying so me d ifferent and stuff and starting to get back up th ere." ..It was rou gh ra cin g, but it wasn't th e kind o f ra cin g where you s ta r t drilling people," sai d Emig of th e surpri sin gly clean main event. "We all rode real hard and we all gave it ou r best. We we re rubbing elbows and just pushing people out of the way. One guy w ould get by and th en yo u ' d pass him back and an oth er gu y. I think tha t th is is the bes t that I've rid den all year. I've made a few changes w ith my racing and so me changes in my life and I feel like I can w in - I need to win. I think it' s going to w ork out ye t." "This brings m e back to reality for sure," said McGrath during a brief vis it to the pod ium after settli ng for fou rth . " I won five races in a row and now I just need to sta rt another streak. Wh at else can I d o?" As far as endi ng his winning streak, McGrath sa id that it wasn' t that big a deal to him . " Last year I only go t four in a row, now I'v e got five. Maybe next yea r it w ill be six, but I don' t rea lly w or ry abou t things like that. Eve ryone hyp es it u p so mu ch and it gets beat into you r brain . Now it 's lime fo r the outdoors. No press ure - I'm ready. I believe in myself." Henry ended up fift h with Ward a littl e way b a ck in six th . Then ca me Albertyn, w ho qu ietl y pulled off his best U.S. Su percross finish ever. . "That' s much, much better!" said a de lig h te d A lbe rty n after th e race. "A t le ast I stayed on two w heels tonight, alt ho ug h I did stall it on ce. [ was working rea lly hard and not seei ng a result, so I wa s s tarting to get a littl e bit fru stra ted . Now I'm seei ng th ose results and I'm happier. My goal toni ght was to stay on two w heels, rid e smoo th ly and not make any mist ak es . It was a good seven th b e cause I p as sed Lams on a nd Swi nk , so I'm happy w ith that. Now I'm going to work hard this w eek bef ore Gainesville and Daytona and go for two w ins . That's wha t I'm here for!" Rounding o u t the top 10 b eh ind A lbertyn were Hughes, Lamson and Swi nk. Yamaha' s Dowd fini sh ed 11th a fte r s la m m ing in to a d own ed Lu sk early in the race . Lusk ended up pulling oui of the race after the seco nd lap. 125cc The firs t 12Scc h eat race featu red Windham's sho rt, successful battle w ith Suzuki-mounted Greg Rand. The second heat w ould have been th e race of the night if not for the s pectacu la r 2S0cc ma in event that e n de d the even ing . Here 19-year-old Pich on and Honda Of Tro y ' s M ik e Brown go t to ge ther (a t Brown' s invita tio n) fo r a d o gfi ght. As Brown tried to pass Pichon for the lead a t th e en d of th e thi rd lap he tried a tak e-out move jus t before the fin ish line. Pich on held on for one more tu m be fore Brown hustled past. Pich on retook the lead with a clean move bu t Bro w n go t him b a ck, thi s ti me look in g over a t Pich on as he brak e- ch eck ed him into an other hairpin turn (a [a' the Jeff Matiasevich / Larry Ward battle in Seattle in 1990 ). Pi ch o n finall y gave it ba ck to Brown h alf a la p la ter, th ro ttli ng in to Bro wn ' s fr on t w heel wi th an insi d e pass . Fro m there the Frenchman pulled away from the game but tiring Brown. " I thin k h e is ve ry s t u p i d, " s a id Pic ho n of Bro wn, referri ng bluntly to their heat race skirmish . " He tried a lot of times to touch me but I still won, so no problem." Brown gave u p the figh t, but still finis hed second at the end with H ond a O f Troy tea m ma te James Dobb th ird . Pichon did ha ve problems once th e 12Scc m ain sta rte d. H e m ad e th e first cou p le of turns just inside th e top 10, w hi le W indh am, Yeze k, Bro wn a n d Ferry m ade u p the firs t four p ositions . Pichon sta rted to rise th rough the field as soon as the pack made it to the triple jump . It was he re that Picho n rose above the field as the only 12Scc rid er to make the ju mp ev ery lap. Once he caugh t up to Ferry , both rider s went past Yezek. Two laps lat er both we nt p ast Brown and start ed cutting into Windham 's lead of approxima tely six seconds. Pichon soon ope ne d his own ga p on Ferry as he moved in on the lead er . On the 10th lap Pichon did the double-double at the finish line to pass Windham. H e then pull ed out a lead of about five seco nds on hi s w ay to the checke red flag. Windham tried in vain to hold off the cha rgin g Ferry, but finally settled for th ird behind the 19-year-old Suz u ki factory pil ot. " I was not read y for the first race of th e year (O rlan do ) and d id n't rid e so good, but now I am very happy and I fee l ve ry good for the cham pions h ip," sai d Pichon, who now holds a five- point lea d o n W indham in th e East Region point standings after ent ering the race in a tie for the lead . " I know now that even ' w ith a bad start I can wi n; it is possibl e a t every race. I felt ve ry good on thi s track and I knew it was possible to ca tch b ack up wi th Ti m Fe r ry a nd Ke v in Windham . It w as very technical because of the ruts, even a littl e hard: ' "There w ere a lot of guys ou t th er e and it seem ed like every one ·was go ing everywhere," said Fer ry of the see m ingly end less traffic that covered the st ad ium flo or. " I think those ruts actually ma ke for better raci ng. Som e guys got squi rrelly and it slowed me down a littl e bit and I made some mi stakes of m y own . I wi sh I could 've go tten first, but second is the be st I could do:' "We've been off for a good while on this s ide and I ju s t w asn't up for th e challe nge," said a di sappo inted Windham , who, unlike Pich on, Fer ry and the H onda Of Troy rider s, has n ot be en moonlighting in the West Region 250cc rounds. "M y arms pumped up a lit tle bit less than halfway through; my wind w as all rig h t but my arms w ent away an d I couldn't feel th e bars and it felt like I was gett ing some headshake. My hat is off to Pichon and Ferry for coming from behind to catch me. I feel real bad for letting the guys at Yamaha down -

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