Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

SUPERCROSS . F IMWORLD CHAMPIONSH SUPERCROSS SERIES IP Final round:Palexpo Convention Center and Damon Huffman into the first turn. Th e start w as more sp ecta cu lar th a n norm al since th e rou ting forced riders to negotiate th e track backw ards for nearly one-sixth of a lap though sta di um w ho ops a nd a mi dsi ze d d oubl e jump. McGrath quickl y forced his way int o the p oint position a nd opened u p a small lead . It looked to be a normal night under the lights for McGrath until the fourth lap, wh en his Honda of Troybacked CR250R go t out of sh ape on a huge triple jump. McGrath was unable to rec over and crashed, se nd ing h is b od y a n d bike cartwheeli ng in to a w ho op se cti on. Dazed and confused, McGrat h staggered to his feet as trac k workers tried to get med ical aid to the sup erstar. McGrath, however, mad e the d eterm ination himself tha t he was okay, and got back in the race. Unfortunately, . he was only able to complete a d ozen laps , which wasn' t enough to earn him any championship points. "I was pre tty beat up," said McGrath. "It' s been a whi le since I hav e cras he d that hard, especially in a race, so I wan!ed to make sure that I didn 't do anything to further hurt myself." Further examina- "This feel s gre at," sai d H uffm an immediately foll owing th e near 16minute race. "I'm so pumped... I knew I've been riding a 250 really good, but I d i d n't k no w how well I would do aga ins t a lot of the oth er gu ys. There's so me rid er s h ere th a t I've onl y raced against a couple of.times because we've always rid de n in different classes or in different series . Now I know that I will be com petitive at home (in theU.S}" IIMa n, this is aweso me ," said Lawrence of his best-ever su percross finis h . "I' ve been riding rea lly fast the last m on th, bu t I ha ven' t been able to pu t it all togeth er. Hopefully this should open some eyes an d prove.that I'm still real competitive. 1 beat a lot of factory guys tonight and I had to do it by coming through the pack." SUNDAY With th e tit le on the line, McG ra th was back for the final race of the season. Hi s one-ti me enormous cush io n h ad been cut to a mere three points, meaning he couldn't let Ward win. McGrath got the early jump goi ng into the first tu m bu t was passed on the outside by Huffman . Brown, Ward and (Lell) A rare crash lell Jeremy McGrath out of contention In Saturday nlgh!' s final , though the Honda rider stili retained the series points lead. (Righi) Oamon Huff man dispelled any rumors about his not being accustome d to his new Kawasaki as he traded win s with Jeremy McGrath in Switzerland . By Ken FaughtlDirt Rider Magazine GENEVA, SWITZERLAND, DEC. 9-lD here has been a lot of speculation as to w hy Damo n H uffman pa ssed over mos t of the lucrative overseas races . Many insiders believed that Huffman was having a d ifficult time adapting to his new works Kaw asaki, w hile others felt the 125 specialist simply wasn't comfortable on 250s. The tru th is tha t Huffman has ad apted extremely well, and he proved it during th e fina l sto p on th e FIM World Championsh ip Su percro ss Seri es. The tw o-time AMA 125cc Western Region Super cross ch a m p traded wins with Jeremy McGrath during two wild nights of racing inside the 14,000-seat Palexpo Convention Cen ter, and came ho me the top prize-m on ey winner, ea rnin g $23,000. The surprise of the weekend actua lly ca me d uring Sa turday night' s fi na l, when McGrath crashed while leading. "I land ed wrong off a triple and got thrown sideways into the whoops," said McGrath. Fortuna tely, McGrath wa sn 't hurt. The incident, however, put him ou t of contention for th e night, and though h e fi nished 13 of 20 laps, he failed to earn a sing le series po int. McGrath's mishap allowed Honda of Troy's newest recruit, Larry Ward, to move closer to the poi nts race, trailing by thr ee points, 115-112, going into Sun d ay' s final. The drama intens ified as McGrath an d Ward came ou t of the first turn side-by-side in a battle for third. It ap peared to be the classic confrontation until Ward auge red in a whoop section Y 8 and ha d to withdraw from the race with a b roken th rottl e hou sing. Ward ' s demise handed McGrath his secon d consecutive 250cc World Championship Supercross Ser ies tit le a nd hi s third championship of 1995. SATURDAY The format used during the seri es was sim ilar to that used in the United States. However, the smalli sh nature of some of th e stad iu ms limited the number of racers to 16 instead of the 20 that American fans are used to. This meant that qualifying for the main was more difficult since only thr ee rid ers instead of four transferred from th e tw o heat 'races and only fou r ra cers wer e ta ken from th e pa ir of semis (w here as fiv e advanc e in the States) . The only similarity is that two riders tr an sfer fro m th e Last Chance Qualifier . The act ion d uring Saturday's qualifiers proved to be interestin g since many riders struggled to master the track built b y John Savitski. The cou rse featu re d many combin ation jumps, which made finding the best lines more d iffi cu lt . Plu s, th e jumps we re la rger than norm al, e ven b y U.S . sta n da r ds, which intimidated some riders. Larry Ward a nd Jer em y McGrath won the two heat races, whil e Mik e Brown and Damon Huffman sought to . transfer through the heat races. Former World Championshi p Supercross Series winner, Guy Cooper, had to ri de th e Last Chance Qualifier for a sp ot in th e final. Brown got th ings under way during the main after leadi ng Ward, McGrath tion la ter revealed that McGrath broke a little fing e r a nd chipped five teeth. As Amer ica ' s fa stest rid e r got under way, Europe's fastest stad iu m racer, Fren chman Mick ael Pic hon, al so found himself taking a soil sample. Pichon hit a h a y ba le th a t h ad been d isl odged b y McGrath' s bik e and w ent d own har d e nough to put him o u t of th e ra ce. It marked th e seve n th ·con secutive tim e du ring the eigh t-race series that Pichon wasn 't able to score any cha mpionship points. With McGrath and Pichon ou t of the picture, the ba ttle for the lead intensified . Wa rd assumed th e point po sition while Huffman houn d ed Brown. Even tu ally, Huffman made short work of the tw o H onda of Troy rid ers an d found himself in the lead on th e sev en th lap with no challenges. . As Huffman p ulled aw ay from th e pack, much of the attention tu rned to privateer Phil Lawrence . The for mer. Team Suzuki rider gated about eigh th, but blitzed his w ay though th e field , first passing Ryan Hug hes, th en Jam es Dobb until he broke the top three. Wh en it was over, Lawrence h ad worked h is w ay in to second beh ind Huffman. Ward hung on for third, followed by Ward, Brown and Hughes. Joh n Dowd completed th e initial top . five as the pack sor ted itself out. As anticip ated, McGra th repassed Huffman to ass u me th e lead. McGrath ap pea red to ha ve everything und er contro l until H uffma n reco ve r e d and charged past the most decorated supercross rid er the spor! has eve r known. The pass was clean and something that McGra th ~adn' t experienced in a su percross race In more than a year. "I cu t to th e insi de to d ouble and exp ected Jeremy to triple from the ou tside," said Huffman . " I m u s t h a ve caug ht him off guard because he do ubled too. We were side by side in the air, bu t I had the better line going in to the next tu m ." Simultan eousl y, Ward moved in to third, w hich put hi m ri gh t behind McGra th . This set up w hat' could have b een a fie rce batt le for the ch a m pionship. Unfortunately, Ward , still adapt-

• Cover