Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

SUPERCROSS' Round 12:Texas Stadium u Supercross series .s. Henry leaves 'em By Kit Palmer Photos by Kinney Jones IRVING, TX, APR. 30 t all started off innocently enough. Many h ad co me to Texa s Stadium near Dall as ex pec ting to see Jeremy McGrath win his 28th career supercross victory and tie Rick Johnson for the alltim e SX win record . After all, McGrath had already wo n eigh t of the 11 roun ds thus far and his closest rival in the series point standi ngs, Mike LaRocco, was on the disabled list with a broken arm . So when McGrath scored a wi re- to-wire victory in his heat race early in the night 's program, that all but cemented everyone's assumptions that McGrath would win again. He-hum. But something happened in between McGrath's heat-race win and the featu re tha t would change things drastically - it started to rain. Big, heavy droplets of rain fell through the large hole in the Texas Stadium roof and turned the track into a giant mud bog that made just getting around the track an accomplishmen t in itself. By the time McGrath and the rest of the 2D-rider field came to the starting line for the 2D-lap feature, it was su dde nly anybody 's race. Wh ile most of the rid er s cursed the unexpected rain, there were a few in the pits who were saying under their breaths, "Let it pour," like New Englanders Doug Henry and John Dowd, who are notoriously good mud riders. In 1991, both Henry and Dowd won their first outd oor Na tionals in w h at wa s perhaps the wettest, muddiest MX race ever, in Sacram ento. And when the ch eckered flag dropped in Dalla s, following wh at wa s the muddiest supercross race in recent history, both Henry, of the Honda/l-800Collect team, and Dowd, of Team Yamaha, had, again, taken thespotlight, I While most rid ers we re floundering ar ound the track in th e sli ck , shi ny, brown mud, it wa s Henry, on his Pete Steinbrecher-tuned CR25O, the only rider who consistently and s u ccess fu lly attempted nearl y all o f the trip les and doubles and made the fewest mistakes, who took a solid win, his first ever in a supercross feature. The first thing Henry did a fter the r a ce wa s ca ll h is wife, Stacey, who was back hom e in Oxford , " Connecticut. "She jus t screamed," said an ela te d Henry. "I' m so excited I don't know wha t to think. I just thought to go out, have fun, get an early lead, do all the triples and I knew I'd have a chance ." After crashing twice on the second lap, McGrath spent most of the race wo rking his way through the pack until he had con tro l of second place by the n inth ci rcuit . But by the tim e he got there, Henry had already developed a 25-second lead tha t continued to grow with each passing lap. "After [ fell I thought, , Aw man,''' sa id McGrath. "Then I decided just to have fun and ride, and that' s what I did. I'm happy the way things turned out and I'm real happy for Doug." McG ra th's excellent ride, however, was pe rha ps overshadowed by Henry's wi n a nd th ir d-pl ace finishe r Dowd 's performance. It was the first time Dowd had eve r finish ed on the rostrum in a su pe rcross race, and yo u could tell by the look on his face th at he was quite plea sed with his perfor man ce. "I ha d a bla st out there," said Dowd, wh o hail s fr om Massachusetts. "Once it s tar te d raining I thought I'd just go ou t ther e and see what happens," Just as happy as Dowd was Kawa saki rid er Phil Lawrence; wh o came from lIth aft er the first lap to finish fou rth, just ahead of Honda of Troy rid er Todd DeHoop. DeHoop wa s the lead er after the firs t la p, th en ran second fo r fiv e laps before dropping back and spe nd ing the rest of the race dicing w ith Dowd and Lawrence. Another happy man was Team Noleen rider Larry Ward. Despite finishing sixth, the Yam ah a rider moved int o secon d place in th e se ri es point stand ings, relegating Kaw asaki's Mike Kie d ro wsk i to th ird a n d an absent La Rocco to fourth. Kiedrowsk i h ad a roug h tim e in th e mud, never running a ny h igh er th an sixth befor e crashi ng and settling for 10th. The 125cc riders di d n't h ave it any better. The rain began falling just before the 250cc last chance qualifier and made the initially hard -packed and dry track extremely greasy . Sta nding water formed all aro und the track . In the combined East /West final , Team Suzuki's Damon Huffman grabbed the holesh ot and was passed by Honda of Troy rider James Dobb and Team SplitFire's Mick.ae l Pichon on the first lap. Huffman passed them both back on the next lap and pulled away for good . Despite doing a complete 360-deg ree spin out in front of the pit board area and crashing once, Huffman kept his pe rfec t reco rd intact, finishing approxima tely 20 sec-, onds ahead of series rival Ryan Hughes, who came back fro m, in his wo rds, "a dead-last-pl ace start." Finis h ing th ird was Honda of Troy's Mike Brown, who started off in fifth, while Pichon passed Dobb on the last lap to take fourth. Most of the claimed 35,007 spectators in the stands endured the rain, but identifyin g the mud-covered riders became next to imp ossible after the first couple of laps. Even race ann ouncer Larry Nas ton gave up trying after a whil e. 250cc With s t ill g ood tra ck conditions, Hond a of Troy' s Mike Craig and Henry battl ed to the bitter end in the first 250cc heat race. Craig shot into the lead ahea d of teammate Del-loop, bu t Henry moved into second before the first lap was thro ugh . From that point on, Craig set th e pace with Henry in tow and i t wasn't until the last two laps that Henry really started making a bid for the lead, and it was on the final circuit tha t things really go t crazy . On that final lap, Craig and Henry tr ad ed p laces four times . Every time Henry go t a w heel o n C r a ig , Cra ig would ans wer right back. But when the two riders flew over a triple ju mp side by side, Craig ca me u p a few in ches short, which was just eno ugh for Henry to take th e lead for good. " I ju m pe d th ose triples in first gear," sa id Craig . "Can you believe that ? I missed a shift so I just held it wide open and lifted." After getting passed, thou gh, Craig took it easy and idl ed across the finish line content with seco nd, while Kiedrowski finished all alone in third . DeHoop ran a strong race, finish ing fourth just ahead of Brooks and Buddy Antunez. To n o one's s u rp r ise, McGrath jumped into the early lead in the second heat race and led every lap to the checkers. H owever, Team Noleen/ Sizzler/ Xtrerne/ Yamaha's Ward gave the twotime cham p a run in th e ea rly s tages b e fore d ropp in g back afte r doing a painful "wedgie" on his bike's gas tank. Suddenly, breathin g was his top pri ority. "You don't want to know what happened," said Ward. "I hit 'ern so hard I th ou ght I was going to d ie. I couldn' t breathe: ' Yamah a's Jeff Emig passed Ward on th e fifth lap, jus t befor e Ward s ta rted slow ing d own to a wa lking pa ce. Honda of Tro y's Brian Swink and Dowd, who w ere b attlin g b a ck a n d forth, al so slipped by Ward. When it was all over, McGrath took the checkered flag with room to spare over Emig, Swink, Dowd and Team Noleen's Kyle Lewi s. Like McGrath, KTM' s Jeff Dement scored a w ire-t o-wire win in th e fir st semi, but Larry Brooks pressured the you ng Texan the whole race . Antunez finish ed third , ahead of Can adian Jean Sebastien Roy and Kawasaki rider Gene Na umec. Texan Gra yson Goo d ma n led mu ch of the second semi before the rain started falling, w hich quickly turned th e tra ck in to a slippery mess. Goodma n eventually slid out, handing the top spot to Suzuki's Greg Albertyn, then Ward and Law rence took ov-er second and thi rd. As the rain intensified, Albertyn and Ward gingerly diced for the lead , then, thr ough a long, difficult section of whoops, Wa rd bounced by the Suzuki rider, taking over the top spot. Ward went on to win, followed by Albertyn, Lawrence, Goodman and Lewis. KTM's Tony Amaradio was the crowd hero in the LCQ as he was the on ly ride r to clear the now su per-slick triples, while everyone else was singli ng them. As a result, Ama rad io scored an easy win, wh ile fellow KTM rid er Carl Hanson grabbed the last transfer of the night in second. After havin g wa tched the 125cc race moments earlier, the rid ers in the 250cc feature knew that staying upright and maintaining clean goggles would be of highest imp ortance, though near impossible. It was still pouring when the gate dropped for the start of the 250cc main, and it was DeHoop who grabbed the holeshot, but McGrath do ve undern eath him and loo ked as though he'd come away with the lead out of the first tum. But inside of McGrath came Emig, who

• Cover