Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

.MOTOCROSS NaIlonaI ..W l~ By Davey Coombs BUCHANAN, MJ, JULY 2 or the second time this year Bonda's Jeremy McGrath and Steve Lamson were able to give their Red Riders team a double win in the AMA 250/125cc National MX Championship Series. Team Honda/I-800-Collect/Fox's McGrath was the 250cc class winner while Lamson topped the 125cc class at Red Bud Track-N-Trail near Buchanan, Michigan. Sunday's win was the third of the year for both riders and gave each momentum in their' parallel pursuits of a first-ever outdoor National title. McGrath, three-time Supercross Champion, continued to frustrate his thinning corps of outdoor skeptics by ~ 0\ ...... 8 putting together a fine 1-2 performa!,ce to extend his current 250cc series points lead. Yamaha's Jeff Emig fought bitterly with McGrath throughout the afternoon in the hopes of extending his personal Red Bud winning streak to four consecutive years, all three of those previous wins coming in the 12Scc class. Emig finished within a few bike lengths of McGrath in the first moto but with localtalent-turned-superstar Mike LaRocco sandwiched between himself and the Honda. In the second race Emig grabbed the holeshot and then held off a 35-minute-long assault by McGrath to take the moto win by just a few feet. However, Emig's 3-1 was not enough to out-point McGrath in the final results. ~pionshlp MOtocross series Round 6: Red Bud Track~N· Trail Team Suzuki's Greg Albertyn matched his season-best finish with third overall, while Yamaha's resurgent talent Damon Bradshaw was a solid fourth on the day. In the 125cc class McGrath's fellow Californian and Honda/I-800Collect/Fox teammate Steve Lamson kept up his own hot streak by scoring his third consecutive Qverall win. The 24-year-old Lamson reeled off two mistake-free motos for the overall win. In the process Lamson continued to make huge strides toward getting back into the National Championship hunt after missing three of the first four motos of the series with various problems. Finishing second overall on the day was 18-year-old Kawasaki factory. pilot Robbie Reynard, whose 2-2 performance marked his first competitive outing since he won the series opener in florida back in March. Rounding out the top five overall were Team SplitFire/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki's Ryan Hughes, who carded 5-4 finishes, Honda of Troy's contender Mike Brown, and Team Suzuki's Damon Huffman. Huffman started and ended the day as the 125cc series points leader, but in the middle of the afternoon he fell to third in the standings between teammate Tim Ferry and Brown. After struggling to eighth in the first race, Huffman lost his lead to third- and fourth-place finishers Ferry and Brown, who started the day tied five points behind Huffman. But a third-place finish in the sec- (Right) Steve Lamson made Ita Team Honda/l-800-Collect sweep by winning the 125cc National with a perfect 1-1 day. (Below) Supercroaa champ Jeremy McGrath (3) leads rival Jeff Emlg (6) through the first tum In the first 250cc National at Red Bud. McGrath want on to win the mota as_II as the overall victory :<'11th 1-2 moto finishes. Emlg went 3-1 for runner-up honors. ond moto allowed Huffman to recover the lead he's held since the second round of the series. Ironically, neither Huffman nor Brown, now first and second in the standings at the halfway mark, respectively, have been able to secure an overall win. Huffman now leads the super-competitive class with 223 points, followed by Brown (2J 9), Ferry (218), Hughes (210) and Frenchman Mickael Pichon (204). And on the heels of their fine Red Bud showings, Lamson and Reynard are both back in the title picture. Lamson picked up 17 points on Huffman and now has a total of 202 points; Reynard has amassed 200. "1 feel a lot better now about the title," said Lamson. "I went from 61 down to about 40 and now 21. I'm liking that, for sure!" In the 250 cIass McGrath continues to lead Emig, having added two points to his lead at Red Bud to make it a seasonhigh gap of 13 points, 255-244. Four-time National Champion Mike Kiedrowski is third with 195 after suffering through another off-day in Michigan. Albertyn (189) and Yamaha's John Dowd (171) fill out the' top five in the standings as the series begins its second half. '1 didn't expect to be in the points lead when the series started but once I started riding good I felt like I could maintain my lead," said McGrath of the series to date. "Now it looks like Emig and me, and I think it's going to go down to the wire. I'm prepared to fight for this. Jeff is the guy to worry about but I'm not just thinking about Jeff. I'm thinking about every moto, every point. What's really going to make things interesting is if it rains. I know he's a great mud rider and I know I'm not the best, so we'll see what happens." ''I'm not really racing McGrath, I'm just racing myself," said Emig of his strategy in the title chase. "If I just keep riding for the win and not the title I'll have my best chance of winning. I just need to win some motos to catch him in the points. I've upped my training because I've got two months, just two months, to focus on. It's time to give it 150 percent. It definitely took a bite out of me that first moto. This track is one of

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