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/127728
didn't really care for it. This year the grooves are real deep and I like it like that." Those grooves gave H ughes ample lines and opportunities to recover from a m id pack start in the second mo to clinch the d ay's ove rall. When asked if this thi rd st raigh t Hangtown win ma de up for his slowertha n -expected start at Gainesville, Kiedrowski was quick to defend his season. '" don't think ' had a slow start at all. You people (media) exaggerate things like that a little bit. Someti mes yo u have bad days an d sometimes you have good da ys. Gainesville was so long ago and it m a y not h ave been a g rea t d ay b u t I made up for it th e followi ng week (by winni ng the Dayt ona Supercross). Someone sa id, 'Now you' re riding like the old Mike: and I'm like, wait, I wo n this race last yea r, too. I thi nk that there's good press and bad pr ess." Kiedrowski, piloting a Brian Lunnisstuned Kawasaki KX250, rose to second in the 250cc points stand ings and trails firstrou nd winner McGrath by a sing le d igit (81 to 80). Emig is just as close in third wi th a tota l of 79 points. "It's h ard to tell w ha t's goi ng to hap pe n with the rest of the series:' said Kied ro wski w hen asked w hat his outloo k on the outdoor championship was a fter wi nning Ha ngtown. "There's a lo t of guys going fast and they may get fas ter in th e next few m onths. I'm just goi ng to give it m y hardest a t every race and deal with whatever comes my way. I'm not saying that I'm the best or that I'm going to beat them every moto but that's what I hope to do. I just want to ride like' did years ago and win championships." . Kiedrowski, in his eighth yea r of profess ional racing, already possesses four AMA National MX Championships . The 12Scc class is almost as close. Huffman leads H ughes by one point (8483) whi le first-round winner Robbie Reynard - 3/DNF at Hangtown - is tied for third with Hughes' SplitFire/Pro Circuit teammate Mickael Pichon . "There's a lot of races left but ' feel strong an d my bike is working good and I th ink we ca n get the cham pionship:' sai d H ughes, w ho is wrenched fo r by Wyatt Seals. "Hopefully I will just keep goi ng and going and going." 250Cc South Africa's Albertyn jumped into the lead at the start of the first moto with Emig, Team Noleen's Kyle Lewis, Larry Brooks an d Tea m Hon da/I-800-COLLECT's McG rath in to w . Within a lap McGrath an d Kiedrowski demo ted Lewis and Brooks, giving each of the four Japa nese teams a rider in the top four . In fact, all of th e principle players in the 250cc title chase - with the exce ption of the inju red and absent Mike laRocco go t away cleanl y, though Hon da's Doug Henry went down on the fourth lap and lost more th an a dozen posi tions. For six lap s, Albe rtyn led everyone, but Emig stayed right wi th hi m. Toge ther the two too k th e batt le away from McGrath, who was in tum trying to ho ld his posi tion against Kied rowski. Near the halfway mar k, Emig out-cha rged Albertyn on a long downhill and seized a lead that he would never relinquish. " It see me d like Greg got a little bit scre wed up comin g out of the comer up top but I got the good drive and started jumping down the hill faster than him:' explained Emig of the pass. '" basically had the mom entum and afte r tha t I just tried to be smoo th and pu t in good laps. I think' cou ld have ma yb e pulled away bu t it seemed like I kept getting the short end of the stick on the lap pers, Actually, I got so caught up in that that I d idn 't "That probably cost me two laps to recover and I felt like all I needed was a couple more turns at the end. Hey, 1 got as close to winning an overall as you can possibly get without doing it, and I'm right there in the points, so I'm p retty happy about tod ay." '1 didn't know w ho was behind me:' said Dowd, whose day started with a terrible heat-race high-side on one of the downhills and ended with a solid thirdplace effort. "I do know that that race was really fun and exciting the whole way th rough. It was good experience for me because I need tha t kind of high speed di cing and stuff. lt helps me in the long run. " "The race was tight and fun but the weirdest thi ng happened - my he lmet came unstrapped ," said McG ra th, w ho also fell in a slow comer halfway th roug h (Above) Jeff Emig scored the first 250cc mota win of his career. (Right) Three-time World Champion Greg Albertyn was third in Sacramento. know that it was Aibertyn still behin d me - , though t it was McGrath." '" jus t couldn't seem to settle d own out there:' said Aibertyn later. " I \Vas really stiff and started making mistakes, which is ridiculous, and I just let Jeff pass me. He was riding really well. "rna little bit disappointed with the way I rod e. My forearms pumped u p so bad I've even got blisters from holding on." A t the 20-minute, m ark, Kiedrowski moved'past McGrath and started dosing on Albertyn, but with 10 minutes to go, Kiedrowski crashed hard at the bottom of the long downhill. "I came off that hill from the jump and landed on the braki ng bumps," explained Kiedrowski. "My suspension , was a little too soft, so when I landed the bike just u nloaded on me. I we nt sideways this way and th at way and I was all -o ver the bike. I still tried to make the corner but I fell and it tweaked my knee a little bi t. I was slow getting up but the damage was done - my main thing was to get points on Jeremy ." Kiedrowski never got back up to McGrath let alone Emig and Albertyn, and finished the moto fou rth ahead of a distant Dowd, Lewis and Henry. '" was right behind those guys and I felt pretty tight," a dmit ted McG rath after the race . '" started struggling with tha t and , just kin d of lost it for a litt le while. I was struggl ing to find good lines and wasn' t rid ing very loose. After I passed Kiedrowski back I felt better that kind of charged me u p. The way it started was kind 'If the way it finished, so I need to change that for the second mota." McGrath d id just that when he blasted into the lead at the start of the seco nd 250 mot o ahead of Kied rowski, Henry and the rest of the back . Albertyn was backin six th af ter a lap; Em ig nin th . That left McGrath and Kied rowsk i to con cent rat e o n m aking an im med iate b reak from every one . ."I had a great start - second wa s exactly wh ere I wanted to be:' said Kiedrowski of the seco n d m oto . "Je re my wa s ahead of me and he seemed to wa nt to go fast the first couple of laps to get away. I knew I could stick with him and after a few laps' jus t wen t by and kept that pace the who le time." Wh ile Kiedrowsk i rod e away wi th a hu ge win, the fans were left to watch an amazing five-man battle for second place that would decide the overall winner. Yamaha 's John Dowd and Emig, Honda's Henry and McGrath and Suzuki's Albertyn were never more than a few feet apart throughou t the moto. At one point or another Albertyn, Henry and McGrath all took turns riding in second, and at various times Albertyn, Henry and Emig were all in position to clinch the overall. Bu t the fluid order was no t resolved u ntil the late stages when Albertyn faded from second to sixth in a hurry, McGra t h fo und himself in a similar downward spi ral, and Emig could no t get aroun d teammat e Dowd on the last frantic lap. "I ha d no idea that Kiedrowski was wi nni ng so I jus t kept fo cu s in g o n Henry, " sa id Emig, who wou ld h ave won his first-ever 250cc National had he finis he d th ird in the second mot o, "On the last lap I kep t ye lling at Dowd, hoping he wo ul d mess up o r pu ll over or something but it just didn't wo rk." Emig was also dissa tisfied in knowing tha t a m idrace spill in a slow comer cost hi m some valuable mo mentum and may have made all the differen ce in the end . -the race. "I didn't know whether to lay off or just keep gassing but finally I just said 'Forget it!' and gassed it. Everyone was riding really hard and I just got the short end of the stick. I only lost seven points on the day so I'm not too upset about how I finished. There's a long way togo." "The first moto I rode tight and J just didn't want to ride tight that moto," said Henry, who finished seco nd in the las t race. "Mike got away from everyone bu t I felt like I cou ld ride with everyone else. It's like when Albertyn passed m e . I knew that if I could stay with him for one lap I could stay with him the rest of the race a nd maybe pass him . , guess it worked." "I cou ld see Albertyn in a co uple of turns so I knew he was in seco nd for a w hile:' said Kiedrowski, w ho had a 15seco nd lead at th e hal fway m ark of the nearly 3S-mi nu te-long moto . "1 figured he wo uld be the winner, so I did n't kno w th at I had the overall until ' pu lled off the track an d everyone was waiting for me at the finish line saying. 'You got it! You got it!'" Kied rowski was followed across the finish line by a freight trai n with Hen ry