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/127722
SUPERCROSS·. Round 9:HoustonAstrodome .U .S .S upercross Series Jeremy McGrath scored his 26th career s upercros s win in convincing fashion. He needs on ly three more wins to become the winningest supercrosser in history . thi n kin', thinkin ', th ink in'. I should be jus t rid ing and having fun ." Hu ffma n had fun . "Win n ing mean s a lot m or e w he n yo u co me from behi nd like tha t," sa id Huffman, wh o was as far back as 19th . "And it means even more when it's a combine d East and West race. I start ed tight, but I just concen trated and loosened up. Once I saw that I' was catching him, I knew I had it," Huffman boasts a flawless 12S-poin t tally in th e Weste rn re gion, 23 better th an Hu gh es' 102. H u ffm an' s Su zuki teammate Craig Decker - fifth in Houston - sits thi rd with 96. Fourth- p laced Mickael Picho n holds down the Eastern re gion lead w ith 132, 12 m ore than Windham, who ha s 120. Team Suzuki's Tim Ferry ha s 107, but was effective ly elimi nated from the title chase wh en he su ffered a broken and dislo cated jaw on pr actice d ay . (See Briefly...) T By Donn Maeda Photos by Kinney Jones HOUSTON, IX, MAR. 25 he 'O"~? Su percross 101. The class room? The Houston Astrodome, home of M ajor League Baseball's Astros a nd th e Na tional Football League's Oile rs. Th e teachers? Professors Jeremy McGra th and Damon Huffman. For the seventh lime this year, Team Honda / I -BOO-Collect's McG rath held a riding clinic for 19 of his favorite pupils and proceeded to school them all on the finer points of indoor speed. Rather than the same 01' holeshot and run away lectur e, the theme of this week's lesson was patience. McGrath shadowed Jeff Emig of the Yamaha fra ternity for six full laps before dem onst rating a textbook fakeout an d sneaking into the lead . As usual, on ce McGrath inhe ri ted the point, the ·r e s t were left to take me nta l notes . Though Emig dropped some nine seconds back by the finish" he did manage to hold off Kawasaki teammates Mike laRocco and Mike Kiedrowski, who finished th ird and fourth, 'respectively, a few seconds further back . "I was waiting and waiting, but Jeff was riding good," said McGrath. "It was good to see him rid ing that well, but I decided that I had 'to get by before the others got close. I was yelling, ' Go! Go! Go!' in the corners, th en I faked right and went left to pass him," McGr ath's seventh win of the series and second in a row gives the two-time Supercross Champion an even tighter grip on the series point lead . H e now leads LaRocco by a full 2S poin ts, 207IB2. "That means I can miss a race and still be in there," said McGrath. "That's good," And the lesson was the same for the u nderclassmen, as Suzuki's Huffman romped to his fifth win of the season in th e co m b ine d Ea stern and Western Regional 12Scc Supercross main even t. In winning, the defending Western Regional Champion keeps hi s perfect record in tact - no other rider has stood ato p the highest step of the podium as long as Huffman was around. This time, h owever, most of th e class got to see Huffman in action, as he was third from last as th e field rounded turn one . He we nt to w ork quickly , and within five laps had taken over second. Rookie sensation Kevin Windham led from the getgo, but Huffman - seasoned in compariso n - s tea d ily cl osed the gap on the Yam ah a speedster . SpIitFire /Pro Cir cuit/ Kawasa ki's Ryan Hughes was also ab le to run down Windham, but was well off the pace set by Huffman. Windh am held on to third, but seemed disappointed in his performance. . "I have the speed, I know it," said Windham . " It 's just nerves . I s tar t 250cc Stev e Lamson led th e way ea rly in the fi rst of the tw o h eat ra ce s, but LaR o cco enjoyed an unusually good start and pounced qu ickly, tak ing ove r before the first lap had been completed. H o nd a of Troy's Mike C raig also sneaked past Lam son , as d id KTM's Jeff Dem ent. W it h the h om e-s t ate fa ns behind hi m, Texa n Dem ent rode like a m an possessed as h e swoo p ed pas t Lam son and p ressured Craig. Lamson 'm an a ge d to mu s cl e hi s way past Demen t for th ir d , but the fi rs t-yea r 2S0cc rid er held tou gh . Until lap thr ee, that is. With a full d ose of adrena line flowing through h is vei ns, Dem ent grabbed a handful and tripled in to a tricky section of jumps. Th ough he cleared th e first three jumps - an d th e foll owing tabletop - with relative ease, he ent ered th e ne xt doubl e-jump section too fast and took a trip over the bars. " I wa s feeling rea l good," said Dement. "I w as thinking, ' Man, these guys aren't pulling away: and I maybe go t too confident," Dement suffered a badly tweaked left ankle, an d his chances of a main-event ride were effectively over. LaRocco scored an easy win over Lamson, as five seconds separated the two. Doug Henry came from the middle of the pack to nab th ird , only inches ahead of a hard-charging Larry Ward. Craig faded to fifth, and would return in a semi. "I was a little worried about tonigh t," said LaRocco. "I'm still pretty sore from my crash at Indy last week, but I felt okay. The main is a lot lo nger- than a heat race, though. so we'll see how it goes." . Team Su zuki ' s Ezra Lusk grabbed the holesho t in the second heat ahead of McGrath, and led for a lap before McG ra th stormed past. Lusk re taliated