Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

the re, though . My track in the desert in Arizona isn' t even this slick." While Button was talking, Craig's crash-fest continued. The Honda rider tipped over in the first tum on his way back to the pits. Yet a no ther H o n d a o f Troy rid er (no ne of the 250cc pilots qua lified directly from the heat race round ) grabbed the lead in the second semi - Ten nessee' s Mi ke Br own. Grea t Western ' s Ph il Lawr enc e, Bra dshaw and H oT' s Larry Ward followed in close orde r and wou ld in fact fini sh in that sam e ord er. Fifth went to KTM's Kevin Crine. In th e 250cc Last Cha nce Qualifier Craig finally got things togeth er and pu t in a so lid ride to tak e th e w in fr om Antunez. Ju st m issing ou t onthe last tw o tran sfer spots we re top privateers C liff Pa lmer, Gene Na u mec a n d . Grayson Goodman. , Wh en th e 250cc m ain even t finally left th e s tarting line, it was McG ra th shooting out of the gate with the lead, and ridi ng away into the night. But the battl e for second was tru ly epic. Ward was second right off the bat wit h Lusk, Em ig , Lawrence, Brown and Hughes fo ll o w ing. Much fa r th e r 'back w ere Brad shaw , Hen ry, Huffman and Alber- out to be one of th e s por t's all-ti me mud d iest main s. The open-a ired sta dium that is the home of the love 'em or hate ' em Cowboys sa w so me cloud s pass over it again on Saturday, but the rains he ld o ff a nd a live ly cro w d o f 38,226 tu rned out for the ninth round of the 1996 AMA Supercross Series. The Dir t Wurx-constructed track may have been dry but in some corners it wa s still slic k as ic e . The h a r d- p a ck gro und turned a bluish tint in ma ny places - natur al berms were non-existent and every corner had to be taken with cau tion. It w as as if th e very text ure o f th e d ir t proved to be the toughest obstacle of the nigh t. Still, passing was in effect for just about everyone, especially in the wide, ba n ked U'-t u r n a fter th e fi n ish lin e, w here riders had the ch oic e of go ing way outside to the wall and slings hotting out into the starting area, or try ing to ice skate arou nd the glassy insid e instead. (Opposi te page) This was as close as anyo ne got to Jeremy McGrath (1) all night long. He grabbed the ho leshot and neve r looked back, recording his nint h stra ight victory. Starl ing next to him were Jeff Emig (2) and pr iv ateer Jeff Hedde n (85). (Above) Mick ael Pic ho n (1) stu ff s Kevin Windham (38) for the lead In t he 125cc main. Pic hon went on to win , desp ite having to pass Wind ham for the lead tw ice. (Right) Ryan Hughes (5) puts the move on Ezra Lusk fo r third place. Hughes later passed Larry Ward to fin ish second. 250cc Wh en the first 250cc heat ra ce went off it was Kawa saki's Emig in the lead wi th Honda of Troy's Mike Craig, fresh o ff th e injured reser ve lis t, m aking an im med iate bid to pass him. Yama ha 's Dou g Henry and Hu ghes were follow ing closely. Emig started to ease away from a fast but ou t-of-sync Cr aig, wh o cra cked a bon e in his leg at the Atlanta rou nd four weeks ago . Cra ig w as d oi ng a p retty goo d jo b o f hold in g o ff H enry a n d Hughes until he left the inside open to Henry in th e corner befor e the fini sh line. Henry stuck his foot in the door and the contact that ensued left Cra ig on the grou nd and ou t of a qua lifying spo t. The winner with ease wa s Emig. "I d on't know w hat it will tak e to beat McGrath in the m ain eve nt, but I feel like I'm read y and m y bi ke is read y," Emig said to the crowd after his w in . "I'm in th e best sha pe o f my life, I've got a great bike - I just need to use this bike better and my head better." Henry, Hu gh es an d Huffman, wh o was ha ving noticeable difficul ty wit h his right wrist, were the other three di rect tran sfers from heat one. McGrath holeshot the second 250cc heat to the amazem en t and su rprise of no one in th e buildin g. Grea t West ern Bank' s Buddy Antunez and Yamaha 's Bradsh a w we re next in line with th e Su z ukis of Lu s k, Gre g Alb ertyn and Mike LaR occ o in s ho rt ord er. Wh ile McGrath sped away An tu nez misfired on a sho rt tabletop an d actu ally step ped th rou gh the endo, landing briefly on his feet before tumbling down the backside. Brad sh aw picked up An tunez's ca rt wh eeling bike and crashe d himself. Visibly upset with having lost a cha nce to race with McGrath, Brad sh aw kicked at the d irt a few times . Whil e McGrath co n tinu ed to r id e awa y, an all -RM b a t tle fo r secon d . ens ued betwee n th e three ye ll o w m achines of LaRocco, Lusk and Albertyn, wh o was back for anoth er w ha ck at su percross after last weekend's frightening Houston step-off.'Twice Lusk tried to pass LaRocco on th e in side hair pi n after the finish line, onl y to have LaRocco zip back by"as he struggled to fin d traction . Finally, in the waning moments of th e race, Lus k m ad e a confidenceboosting pass to win what could have be called the "Su zu ki Cha llenge for Second Beh ind McGrath " heat race. "I' m jus t rid ing rea lly we ll right now and I feel really comfor ta ble with the bike and our setup," said McGrath after h is win. " I th in km y mecha ni c Skip (Norfolk ) is going to try a different Dunlop tire in the ma in event th at is a little softer . It' s so slick out there that it' s hard to get the righ t combina tion with tires and gearing." The first 250cc semi saw Craig again m a ke a n ea rly s p ill w hi le ridi n g up front, thi s tim e on his own, w he n both w heels slid out from under him wh ile la nd ing in a left -h and co rne r. Team PJ1 / Xtreme' s Jim my Button inherited th e lead a n d rod e o ff with the wi n, w hile C r ai g' s H oT teamm ate Br ia n Swink rode across the finish line second. Finishing a su rpris ing third wasKansan Jeff Hedd en, who is backed by Nicho ls , Suzuki. The last two Semi transfers wer e picked u p by Gr eat Wes te rn's Den ny Stephenson and Suzuki privatee r Todd DeHoop , w ho su rv ived a scary hea trace crash. "It's real, real slippe ry out there and m y Bri d g est on es h ooked up p ret ty good," sai d Button, wh o ride s a Yama ha. "Nothing is going to work great out tyn, and d ead last was LaRocco, who tangle d w ith Denny Stephenson right off the start. "I was trying to follow Jeremy, but I was breaking loos e in a lot of places," sai d War d . " All of th e sudden I saw Lusk behind me and I thought, 'Man, a year ago I wo uld be p ulling away from th es e guys : I ju st found so me good lines, calmed down and pulled awa y. I just feel a lot better now." Em ig seeme d to be ve ry intense in his at te m p ts to pass Lus k an d Ward early, but the charge ende d up throwing h is timing off . " I wa nted to get to th e fro n t righ t away and I w as ch argin g ha rd an d trying hard, maybe too hard," said Emig. "I was getting off in the marbles an d I just wa sn't makin g any of my block-p asses w ork. I woul d get insi de, bu t the pass just w ouldn't stick becau se I'd be on that concrete sliding arou nd. I kind of got frustrate d after that." Emig w ou ld sli p as far back as sixth before taking his bike ou t of reverse and starting forward again. Ha lfwa y throu gh the race, Law rence fell in the slick fina l comer. "I was going to go o n th e ins ide a n d tr y to b lo ck ...... ..... l-< 0.. -< 5

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