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/127733
10 ye ars ago. Th er e' s no poi nt s fund ; they keep taking, taking , taking; we keep giving, giving, giving. We (the riders) are ge tti ng sho rt-cha nged . Safet y was jus t part of the problem (tonigh t)." " If they (the rid ers) have a problem, we're willing to talk," said West. Ironically, Emig wa s one of the few factory team ride rs tha t participated in the pre-race parad e lap. According to his team manager Keith McCarty, "It was Emig' s decision, bu t the promoters made every effort they could to go on with the sho w. I commend them for that. It wasn't their fault this happened. I felt th at Jeff should go out and take a lap and if you (Emig and Dowd ) feel it' s unsafe th en fine, (but) you need to get on the bike and d o the parad e lap before making a decision. He (Emig) came back and said it was n' t that bad. I d on 't believe for a moment this was a safety issue. The 125s raced and there wer e no problems." As far as no t taking a pract ice lap, Kiedro wski was quick to respond. "You could tell right away (the track) wasn't g ood enough ," said Kiedrowski. "I walked up to a berm and there were long sha do ws and people were saying, 'you should see the other side of the track, it's even worse: They (the promoters) were trying to talk us int o it. That' s wh y we left:' McGrath and Henry were unavailable for comme nt afte r the race, as they left the stadi um before the main eve nt was over, but according to a press release sent to us from Honda, "After close inspection (of th e track) Henry and McGrath reluct antly d ecided th e tr ack was too dark and therefore unsafe to ride at a racing pace. "...Both Doug and Jeremy wer e prep ared and anxious to race the main a n d g ive th e Las Ve gas fa ns their m on ey' s w o rth ," said Wes s McCoy, Team H onda MX manager . 'The safety of our riders is par amount and we stand behind their d ecision . We are very sorry and disappointed and intend to reward th e fa ns' patien ce and under standing with a great event next year ." Controversy aside, the fact remains that Emig led every lap of the main event to officially. record his first su pe rcross win of his career, while finishing second was Team N ol een /Y amaha ' s Larry Ward. Kiedrowski being one of the six riders choosing not to rid e, Ward had second place in the series all but clinched befo re th e ga te d ropped, as he held aneight-point lead over the Kawasaki rider going into the event. 'The track wasn 't too bad ," said Ward of th e lightin g. Ward was another rid er who had a tough choice to mak e as far as racing or not. But he knew that if he did n't ride, he stood a chance of losing second place to Emig in the sta nd ings, whi ch is exactly w ha t w ould' ve happened with Emig winning. Kiedrowski's decision not to compete _in the main not only cost him his chance of firtishing second in the series, but it wound up ca us ing him to drop from third to fourth in the sta nd ings, with Emig moving into his old spot. But in his opinion it was worth it. "It's not worth taking chances for one race w hen you still have a whole year ahead of you," said Kiedrowski. "Basically, to me it's first or nothing. I had nothing to gain bu t everything to lose. That' s the bottom line: ' McGrath, w ho clinched the title tw o rou nds earlier in Cleveland, finished the series with 320 points and 10 wins; Ward took second with 270 points and no wins; Emig ended u p third with 255 poin ts; Kiedrowski earned 240 points with one win for fourth, while Henry tallied 211 po ints also with one win for fifth . Emig's teammate John Dowd finished on th e podium for the second time this year wi th a th ird p lace finish, while Suzuki's Greg A1bertyn out-dueled Team Noleen /Yamaha' s Kyle Lewis for fourth . Honda of Troy's Mike Brown, KTM's Jeff Dement, Yamaha rider Shaun Kalas and Honda of Troy riders James Dobb and Todd DeHoop rounded out the top 10. 250CC Kiedrows ki and Ward went at it in the first heat race. Ward quickly opened up a m od est lead while Kiedrow ski, w ho gated firs t, struggled through th e first turn a nd su d denly found himsel f in about fifth , but by the end of the first lap, he had already reloaded and was running second, ahead of Dowd, Kawasaki rider Phil Lawrence and Brown. . For th e first few laps, it looked as though Ward might have an easy cruise to the checkers, that was until he bobbled heavily in a long whoop section, allowing Kiedrowski to pull up along side of him . A few turns later the two swapped positio ns more than once until Kiedrowski took over for good. Ward had more troubles with the whoops later on ending (Right) Because of the long delay in the even ing's program due to the powe r outage, the 125cc feature was shortened to 10 instead of 15 laps . Ryan Hughes (9) scored a narrow win ahead of Damon Huffman. (Below) Larry Ward held on to second place In the ser ies by fi nishing second in the main even t. any hop es he had of making a last- lap run on Kiedrowski, who took the checkers with a comfortable lead . Brown rod e a st ro ng race finis hi ng third ahead of Law rence and Dowd, who finished one spo t out of the transfers. McGrath sim ply go t beat by teammate H enry in th e secon d semi. The reigning champ, McGrath , jumped ou t to the early lead but couldn' t shake Henry, who matched McGrath' s every m ove. With a few la ps left , Henry ou t-drove McGrath through a whoo p section and got the inside line on him going into the next, 18O-d.egree, left-hand tum. McGrath tried to squ are off the tu m and cut back underneath Henry , but Henry got a good drive ou t of th e tum , stayi ng ahea d of McGra th, w hose fron t w heel clipped H enry' s rear w heel and a lmost w ent down . McGrath chased Henry down to th e fini sh , bu t while tryi ng to mak e a pass in another tight, left tum, just before the checkers, both tires let go on the slippery track and he went d own . McGrath still recovered in time to salvage second with Henry taking the win. Finishing a di stant thi rd wa s Emig, while Albertyn held on to fourth. The first semi belonged to Mike Craig , wh o was ridin g with a broken wrist sustained in a crash a few weeks earlier; Riding with a special wrist brace, Craig led from s tart to finis h, while performing spectacular aerials over the tripl es. Dowd firtished a close second, while Del-loop, Texan Grayson Go odman and Ja mes Dobb rounded out the top five. Craig's winning ride, however, wasn't as flawless as it looked . "I land ed short over a tripl e and jammed my ankle and wrist," said Craig. 'Tm just glad I'm in the main. Now I've got to go back an d put some ice on my wrist and ankle:' Brian Swink breezed to victory in the second semi but not until after passin g Kyle Lewis, Mike Jones and Mike Healey. After getting around Lewis on 7