Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Round 6: Georgia D ome th e finish line . Th e rest of the to p six remained un chan ged. Hughes was seventh when the whi te flag came out but fell for a th ird time on the last lap and finished a fru stra ted 10th. Seventh through ninth in the final res ult were Brown, Bradshaw and Ward. "There was like 100 yar ds to go and I endoed like an idiot," said Hughes, wh o fell fro m seventh to 10th and lost tw o places in the sta ndings as a resu lt. "The front end washed ou t, just like the first time. I was up there at the beginning but I was n't in the end, and that's wh at matters. I felt fast; sometimes I jus t need to relax and not try so hard. " s ta r ting ga te, M cGrath tan gl ed with Lamson and appeared to be heading int o the first tum mid pack, but some sma rt decisions in the comer allow ed him to ex it th e tu rn fif th beh ind born-aga in holeshot ar tist Emig, who was leading a m ai n even t for th e first time in 1996. Hu gh es, Craig, Lamson, Ward, Hu ffman, LaRocco and Swink mad e up the next wave, while Brad shaw rode at the very back of the pack a fter a first lap mishap. McGrath made short work of Hu ghes and Craig and set his sights on Emig. For the next few m in utes, McGrath rode aggressively in Em ig's shadow, whi le H u gh es stayed glued to th e champ's back fender. Craig held a steady fourth un t il th e fif th la p, at wh ich poin t h e endoed coming off the long whoops section and broke his leg. Out of the race for the night, Craig was carrie d off the track and taken to a nearby hospital for X-rays . " I wa nte d to ju s t m ake sure that I staye d up the first couple of laps," said McGrath of the ear ly traffic. "As usual, I had Emig in front of me but I had to pass Ryn o, too. But he stu ffed me - that wa s not very nice but it was still kind of cool, yo u know? I didn' t exp ect that ou t of him, but it was okay." . McG rath passed Hughes right bac k a nd w ou ld not be threatened by him again. The much-anticip a ted Emig vs. McGrath battle developed, but it en ded almost as qu ickl y as it started a s McGrath mot ored past Emi g ove r th e triples at the end of the fifth lap . " He d oe s that all th e time, " sa id McGrath of Emi g' s stu bbornne ss . "He gets a good start and will charge, charge, charge un til you pa ss him, an d then he drops right off the pa ce. He' s been rid ing good lat ely, but I'm n ot too worried abou t him - it looks like he's got a pretty good handle on second right now ." " I got pumped up tryin g to race him in the heat race and I wanted to just stay relaxed this tim e," sai d Emig. "I kne w that once we h it th e lap pers an ythin g could hap pen and I d idn 't try to go real fast. I just didn't want to make any mistakes. I probabl y sho uld've taken better adva ntage of that holeshot." McGra th tr ied t o ru n away wh il e Emig was left to d efend se con d from teamm at e Hughes. But th e impatient Hu ghes made a mistake on the seventh lap and crash ed en tering the sand p it. The sp ill cost him fiv e spots and an y chan ce for his first-ever 250cc ma in-event wi n. At th e ha lfw ay mark, M cGrat h led Emig by th ree secon ds with La Rocco passing Lamson for third and Huffman holding fifth. A lap later Huffman woul d a lso p ass the ou t-of-sync Lamson and at tac h himself to LaRocco for a run at Emig's posi tion. But a few laps la ter (Above) Home-state rider Ezra Lusk crashed severa l ti mes th rou gh out the course of the evening , but st ili turn ed In a respectable fift h-pl ace fin is h. (Right) Third-placed Jim Neese, ru nner-up Charley Bogard and winner John Dowd celebrate after the Eastern Regional 125cc main event. Huffman fell as a result of an enco unter with' Iapp er Dement. "I was cl e ar inside a nd ' Cemen t ' sucked me up !" said Huffman, 20, of his tangle with Dement. " It was on the double with all the ru ts before the last trip le, and I was takin g the very inside line. He was thr ee or fou r ruts over and he jus t go t si deways a n d cam e ac ross m e. I thought he was going to go straight - the track goes st raigh t! I just ran into h im and went down." While McGrath was flying away with his 35th main-event win, the attention of the audience turned to laRocco's late ru n at Emig. "I kind of got a clear track once I got up to third by myself," said LaRocco. "I started using some good lines and making up time, bu t it was too late." The Suzuki rider closed in on Emig's positio n, but the checkered flag just flew too early for LaRocco to do anything but finis h third . As for not catching Emig. LaRocco was blunt. "I do n't have much nice to say abou t Emig. There was some lap pers in th e way, and I rea lly di d n' t have much time." Lamson was fourth while Lusk qui etly rod e int o a con vincing fifth ahe ad of Huffman. "I got a pretty good start, bu t I was just struggling with the bike and the track th rou ghout the night ," said Lam son. ".A few laps into it those gu ys go t aw ay, but a few people threw it aw ay and I just hung in there." Up front, McGrath took the checkered flag with a rarely seen Superman jump at Outside th e top 10 rod e 23-year-old Phil Lawrence, the privateer sensa tion of the early season but now a m an struggling with inconsistency. " I was trying to go by Kyle Lewis at the finish line and he stopped for the corner after the jump and I cou ldn 't," said Lawrence, who started the season with a second and a sixth in the first two events. " I hit a hay bale and went over the bars. I don't know what's going on. I still have the speed, bu t everythi ng h asn 't be en co ming together. I' m worki ng o n it, tho ugh - I'll be back up there." " It felt great to be back," said Henry, an inspired 14th-place finisher in his first major race since last June. "I had so much fun ! I'm just looking forward to getting my pace. I was happy just to qualify for the main event. This was a big test for me . and I'm happy with the way I rode . I'm glad 1still have the speed - I just need to show it every lap, every tum." "You kno w, Jerem y' s records sp eak for themselves," said Emig as an afterthough t. "He's a grea t supercross ride r, and he knows wh at he has to do to win. My goal is to win, not to be consistently seco nd behind McGrath. Second su cks. That' s just all there is to it." 125cc The 125cc progra m got un der w ay with a battle be tween Team Yama ha 's John Dowd and Suzuki's Tim Ferry, which wa s won by Dowd. The seco nd heat race was a Mickael Pic hon ru naway as the Fre nc h star cleared both triple ju mp sec tio ns on the track with ease. Th e lead er at the start of the 125cc main event was 17-year old Charley Bogard, a longtime member of Suzu ki's ama teu r su pport team . The former minicycle champion from Gra n d Prai rie, Texas, was making his supercross debut in front of th e Atlanta audience and led fellow pri vateers Jim Neese and Shaun Perolio past the scorers to complete the first lap of his su pe rcross career in first. By the 'end of the second lap Neese was up front on h is Jim ' s Motorcycle Sal es-backed Honda, but within a lap Pichon w as in the lead and pulling away fast. " I d id n ot h ave mu ch competition in my qualifier so I did not know how fast Dowd and Fer ry w ere. I fel t th at I sho u ld ge t in fro n t and pull away as soon as p ossib le, " sai d Pichon. W ith a cle ar tr a ck , Pic ho n was able to triple ju m p hi s way away fro m Neese a nd Boga rd wh ile so-so star te rs Dowd a nd Ferry fough t th rough traffic. "My start w asn 't very good at all," said Dowd . "I sort of got bumped around in the first tu m and I came ou t about 10t h or so . I cou ld see Pichon up there, and I knew I had to get up there. It was hard, tho ugh, because guys were kind of zig-zagging allover. I was try ing to be smoo th, and I . was trying to be fast, too," Pichon's cakewalk came to a violent halt on the seventh lap when he threw the numbe r-on e Kaw asa ki away over one of the triple jumps. Apparent ly, an AMA official was standi ng on the first jump with a yellow flag but w as not wa ving it in a way that wou ld indicate to Pich on where the downed rid er wa s. Pichon launched off the first jump and then realized much to his horror that a lapped rider was sitting still right on his landing point. Pichon step pe d off the bike and landed with a head-banging concussion that ended his n ight. As he wa s helped o ff th e floor , members of the Pro Circuit crew protes ted what they felt was inadequate flagging. With Pichon ou t, the lead was ' left to the spirited Neese, a local arenacross and supercross hero fro m Whitsell, North Car olina. But the fea rless Bogard w as keeping up the pressure by jump ing both of the track's triples. However, before the Texan could seize the lead again, the wily Dowd rode pas t both Bogard and eese for the lead on the ninth lap . On ce into first, Dow d just pu lled away. "I was kind of nervous towards the end there because I've never led a supercross that late befor e," ad mitted Dowd. "I was n't trying to go super fast anymore - I jus t wanted to finish out front." On the 10th lap, Bogar d's Cinderella performance got better wh en th e kid pushed Neese ou t in a com er and moved back in to seco n d, a po sit ion he w ou ld hold to the finish , "My dad was jus t hoping for a top 10, I was sh ooting for a top five, but I had ba rel y a th ought th at I m ight ge t top three, but seco nd - wow!" said an extremely excited Bogard after the race, " It felt so good to be up there. I got a little tense after some people passed me, but then I loosened back up and I was flowing and clicking. I'm so excited!"

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