Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

ing about the pressure," sa id Emig, w ho flubbed a tu m before the triple jumps . "I lose m y rh ythm in th e mid dle o f th e race and it costs m e every time." Em ig would lose th ree more spots right away before settling down and getting himself back in to th e ra ce that was goi ng th e other d irection . " I was kind o f kee pi ng m y eye o n th at battl e behind me' but at the sa me time not really tryi ng to pay attention to what w as ha ppening," sai d Lamson of his unusua l rol e as th e lead er. "T here wer e pla ces o n the track whe re I could kind of see everything and maybe at the end 1 was paying a little too m uch atten tion to what was behind me and not in front of me." Fu rthe r back in the pa ck Kied rowski w as having a terrible tim e ove rcom ing a 10th-place start. After failing to ad vance fo r fou r laps th e third-r anked rider in th e cu r ren t s ta n d ings crashed in the whoops and had to sta rt ag ain in 19th place. two long trip le ju mps a n d a shor ter third se t that many elected n ot to attem p t. (This w as th e se t that bro ug h t down both LaRocco and Team Su zuki's Ezra Lu s k, w ho was n ot se rio usly in jured .) Th rea te ni ng wea the r never ma teria li z ed , th ou g h the t rack was mad e overly s lick by some generous po st-practice w atering. (Opposite page) Jeremy McGrath jumped back out to a comfortab le se ries points lead with his 26th career supercross victory, at Char lotte. (Above) Steve Lamson (5) led mos t of the race until making a mistak e and getting pas sed by McGrath on the last la p. He still ended up second. (Right) After a five-race s lump, Larry Ward (11) retu rned to the pod ium with a third-place finish. 250cc laRocco hol eshot the first 250cc he at ahead of Team H onda /I -800-Co llec t' s Doug H enry and Kawasaki te ammate Mike Ki edrow sk i. Honda of Troy ' s Todd DeHoop w as also in the early fra y until Lamson passed him for fourth. Some inspired spa r ring took plac e between LaRocco and Henry which carried th em a w a y from th ir d -p la ce Kiedrow ski un til LaRocco fe ll. The wheel-w ash caused the Kawasaki star to lose five p laces and allowed H enry to inherit a decent-size lead. Th e crowd's attention then tu rned to Kiedrowski, as he successfu lly defended the runner-up slot fr om Lam son . Honda o f Troy's Mike Cra ig had th e fourth and fin al transfer sp ot all locked up but crashed and gave away the last qu alifying position to LaRocco. Emi g hol eshot the second heat of fellow Yamaha fact o ry pilot Joh n Dowd, KTM -mounted Jeff Dem ent, Suzu ki's Ezra Lusk, and Brian Swink. McGrath, still su ffering from th e poor sta rts that ha v e p lagu ed h im thi s se aso n, w as ei gh th . With in a few lap s Emig and Dowd s tarted to pull a way fro m th e field , but once Ward cleared some early traffic he turned th e ra ce for th e lead into a three-way Yamaha fight .'Lusk also see med ready to jo in in until he went down hard in the same comer that pulled down LaRocco in the first hea t. A little wa y back McGrath w as coming through. Aft er going around Lu sk and a .fallen Dem ent, McGrath m otored by Suzuki's Greg Albertyn a n d th en ou tskipped Swink through the whoops, keeping his wheels down to pound each jump, while Swink tried to double and triple his way through. McGrath ended u p q ua lifying fourth because the trio of Yamahas were too fa r gone to catch. Ward ended u p positio ni ng his traditional white Noleen bike between the 'two rare blue factory bikes of race- winner Emig and Dowd . In the first 250cc semi Craig was the easy winner after p ushing into the lead early in the s ix- la p contest. Craig's Honda of Troy teammate DeHoo p and stea d ily im proving Ohio pri vateer Jos h St eel gave th e H ond a brand a 1-2 -3 s ho w in g . BSY Yamah a pil o t Dou g Dubach ch eck ed in fou rth even after ta king a sh ort trip off the tra ck. Th e fifth an d final tr ansfer s p o t wen t to Te a m Su zuki ' s Craig Decker, who thu s became th e first Su zuki-mounted rid er of the evening to make it into the 250cc main event. ' " I got a bad start in the heat race and I go t in to a battle with Mike Kiedrowski," said Craig. " I tried to get into the com er (after the whoops) a little too fast and the front wheel ju st went out from under me . Th e track is so slippery that it's hard to do anything." Ezra Lusk and Jeff Dem ent raced into the lead at th e start of th e second 250cc se m i. Lusk led much of th e w ay, while the energe tic Dem ent ke p t h is factoryba cked KTM in second until the fourth lap, at which tim e Hughes pa ssed him. Hughes w ou ld inherit the lead a fe w moments later when Lusk fell in a slick ha irpin and ga ve aw ay all five qua lifying positions , The fina l o rder in th e seco nd heat was Hughes, Team Noleen's Kyle Lew is, Dem ent, Sw ink and Albe r- tyn. In th e 250 cc last chance q ualifier Lus k pas sed H ond a privateer Ch a d Pederson for th e early lead and pulled awa y for the win. Th e battle for th e secon d and final transfer spo t w as won by Honda-m ounted Buddy Antunez, who p assed Ped er son toward the end and then beat him by a wh eel len gth. To no on e's surprise the quick-st artin g Emig leaped in to the fr ont of th e pa ck when the gate dropped for th e main ev ent ahead of Henry, Lamson, Albertyn, LaRocco, Ward and Craig. McGrath wa s around 10th with Kiedrowski right behind him, but th e s ma lle r-than- n o rm a l track kept early ' pa sses at a minimum. "I d on't know what my problem is with s ta rts thi s year, but 1 just can't seem to ge t it together," sai d Mcqrath. " I wa ited around for a couple of laps then just started passin g people w he re I co uld . I didn't want to take too many cha nces, but I didn't w ant to let those guys up front get too far away, either ." O n th e third lap, Em ig w as getting serious heat from Henry, who, like Lamso n and Em ig, has never won a 250cc m ain e ven t in th e U.S . But Henry pro v ed to be a littl e to o ea ger and ca ug h t a hay bale on the left side of a comer and crashed violently. H enry lost 10 s p o ts and w ould o nly b e able to 'recover to ninth at the finish . Lamson was the next rid er to hound Em ig but this time there would be no m ist akes in the attack, but there w ould be in Emig's defense. "I was just riding too tight and think- "I was ska ting th em and 1 sta rted to en do a n d en do m o re an d then 1 ju st ca ugh t o ne and wen t over the ba rs," said Kiedrowski. "The front brake lever busted off and I had to just go on with it. 1 passed as many people as I co uld, but 1 don 't know how far up 1 go t. I just did the best I could." Kiedrowski ended up 11th in the final tall y. Early in the main event it looked like Ward might be on his way to becoming th e first privateer to w in a 250cc main eve n t since Rick Ryan did it in Daytona in 1987. After completing the first lap in sixth place it took Ward just seven more laps to move into second . " I felt like I had the momentum to go all the way to th e front," sa id Ward of hi s early charge. " I even passed a bunch of guys and felt that I would be ab le to

• Cover