Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

up position . Hond a-mounted Brian Deegan a n d Yamaha pil ot Cory Keeney rounded ou t the top five. "1 was a bit sick and 1 got a bit tired, bu t becau se 1 ha d a big lead 1 cou ld take. it easy fo r th e las t three laps," sai d Pichon, who banked a lot of lead time for himself jus t in case his flu - and the com pe tition - cau ght back up with him. "If the rest Of the races go like thi s it will be a very go od and very easy championship to win." They call Tampa Stadium " the big so m bre ro" all the tim e on Tampa Bay Buccaneer football telecasts because the building is shaped like a giant hat, and a hat (and an umbrella) is ju st w ha t it looked like everyone wo uld need as the cloudy skies th reatened to sto rm all n ight long . The r ain h eld off and an anno u n ced atten da n ce of 35,286 came out to see the action. The very technical Dirt Wu rx-d esigried track wa s short and tight, with a lap time of abou t 50 se conds . Just like in Da llas two weeks ago, the slick ground proved to be as big an obstacle as an ythi ng else on the track. 250cc Denny Stephenson of the Great Western Bank team mastered the holeshot in the first 250cc heat but was rob bed of the lead by Emig as he exited the first tum. ,Yam aha's Kevin Windham, the 125cc ' West Region points leader, also jumped pa st Stephen son after a lap for second, followed by Damon Huffman, teammate Damon Bra dshaw, H ond a of T roy ' s Mike Brown an d Yamaha's Dou g Henry. -Bm ig set a qu ick early pace up front, bu t the teen age Windham was going even faster. He closed in on the veteran leader and took a couple of stabs at passing him but then made a slip exiting the fir st corner and lost contact w ith th e Kawasaki. "I' ve got so me 250 races under m y belt and I'm feeling a lot more comfortable rid ing with these gu ys," said Windham, who h as w on fou r 125 cc ma in even ts this year and shows a sixth-place finish as his best 250cc score. "Unfo rtunately, 1 tried to pass Emig in one of the slickes t com ers ou t ther e an d 1 slid ou t and lost a little bit of time . 1 wa s able to m ak e sam e of the ti me u p an d t h a t makes me feel bett er. H opefully I can' keep it up in the main." Emig ea rned th e w in, followed by Windha m, Grea t Wes tern Bank's Phil Lawrence, and Brow n. Among the disappointed non-qu alifiers we re fifth-place La rry Ward, H uffman, Henry, Te am No leen's Kyle Lewis and crash-prone Bradshaw. "My Kawasaki got me to the first tum in a goo d position and then 1just made a qu ick move for lea d," sa id Emig, "a nd that' s exact ly what I'm going to need in the main even t becau se the track is a little slick and one-lined. 1 want to get the first turn firs t because 1 kn ow wher e 1 am going from there." McGrath must have been listening to Emig on th e s ta rti ng gate b e cau s e "Showtime" hi t the first tu rn in the lead and nev er looked back. He was follow ed at a dista nce by so me' of the usu al suspect s - Honda of Troy' s Brian Swink, Hu ghes, Su z uki' s G reg Albert yn a n d Ezra Lusk. At th e opposite end of the p ac k was La Rocco, w ho crashe d just afte r th e start an d w ould not m ak e it back up to a top- fou r, di rect-qua lifyi ng position . Whil e Showtime rode awa y int o the clou dy Tamp a n ight, " Ry n o " a nd "Swinkster" settled into the second and th ird p ositions, while th e Su zuk is of "Yogi" and "Albee" mixed it up for the final transfer spot in this all-nickn ame hea t race. An aggressive Lusk forced an (Oppos ite page) Jeremy M cGrath (1) came from behind to keep his winning streak alive at 11. Here, he leaves the st uffing to Greg Albertyn and Phil Lawrence. (Right) Jeff Emig (2) grabbed the holes hot but couldn 't break free of McGrath. Emlg ended up sixth after crashing. inside pass on Albertyn on the face of a double jump an d in the pr ocess for ced Albertyn off th e side of the ju m p an d into the middle of the whoop s section. Albertyn was fortu n ate not to be facing any oncoming traffic and was relegated to the semi round alon g wi th teammate LaRocco and independent team mem bers Xtreme / PJI-Atomic 22 Jimmy But-. to n and GWB/lnno vations Sports' Buddy Antunez. ' On the way to the easy win"McGrath d id have one uncomfortabl e m oment while la p p in g Te am Xtreme's A lex McElya. "1 couldn't jump the do uble at the finish becau se he d idn ' t jump it, " s a id McGrath of the incid en t. "That's the first time 1 h adn't jumped it and 1 d idn' t know h ow far aw ay the co rner was. 1 went to tum as soon as 1 landed from the second jum p and it was way too early! 1 almost had it laid down and was getting re ady to gas it w hen I looked u p and saw the hay bales, no t the track! Then the guy clipped me and I almost wen t down. 1 guess [ need to watch what I'm . do ing ou t there." Stephenson grabbed another ho leshot to start the first 250 semi but w as soon overtaken by Kyle Lew is and Damon Huffman. Also in the early m ix w ere Larr y Ward, BSY's Gene Naumec, Doug H enry a nd Br ad sh aw . Huffma n, still bothered by his painful wrist injury, was not at h is best and was dropped a spot by Ward. Ju st a moment la ter Lewis mad e a costly mistake entering the last comer an d ro de over the banked tu rn, th rou gh th e h ay bales and down onto the football field , The mis ha p left Ward ' in the lead and the unlu cky Lewis waiting for the LCQ . . At the fin ish W ar d le d H uffm an, w h ile Brad shaw raced past Henry an d Naumec for third. The odd man out was a frustrat ed Stephenson, who sa w his second holeshot of the night go to waste. The privateer w oul d also head back to the tunnel for the LCQ along with BSY's Dou g Dubach. Suz uki privateer Mike Jones holeshot th e secon d 250 se mi alongside Team Chapa rra l's G reg Schnell and Great Western Bank's Davey Castillo, Suzuki facto ry pilots LaRocco and Albert y n were next, but neith er wou ld wai t long before m ovin g into the first and second posi tio ns . Farther b a ck , pri v a te er s An tunez and Button tan gled togeth er an d wo u ld both drop out of the race, Albertyn and LaRocco tou ched a few ti mes on ce th ey m ade it to th e front, marking the second race of the night in which Albertyn tangled with a teammate. Still, the South African went on to score a confidence-boosting win over his ' favored teammate. "It feels good to win a race - it's been a long time," said Albertyn. "I' ve been working hard and 1 felt good out there. " As for his second close battl e with ' a fellow Su zuki factory rider of the n igh t, Alberty n said, "You know, 1 don't want to ban g bars with my own teammates. 1 want to save tha t for the rest of the guys out there!" Jon es, a barn-storming in ternational are nacross star, finished third on his BT Racing /B a rr' s Comp. /FMF /OBGbacked Suzu ki. Yet an other Suzuki finishe d fourth under the d irection o f a two-class stand ou t Jeff Hed den, while Davey Castillo landed a spo t in the 250cc main event for the first tim e w ith a fifthplace sho wing. Cast illo 's GWB te ammates Buddy An tu nez and Denny Stephe nso n would not fa re as w e ll in th e LCQ, as b oth failed to make the tw o-m an trans fer to the main. Antune z w as in volved in a ho rrific cras h halfway down the starting ch u te and d id not comp lete th e race; Stephenson lost out t o Lewis an d Dubach. With rai n clouds sti ll swirling above the st ad iu m the m a in even t went off with another Em ig holeshot, followed out of the firs t turn by Hu ghes, Lusk, Windham, Law ren ce, McG ra th , Albertyn , LaRocco and Henry. "1 th ink 1 co u ld h oleshot w it h m y eyes clo sed on th is bike," sa id Emig . ''1'm just trying everything 1 can to win and holeshotting is part of that," While Emig tri ed to p a rt w it h th e field, McGrath immediately sta rted picking h is way through th e pa ck. He w as quick ly u p to fou rth and th en p assed Lusk as th e Suzuki rider was tr ying to mak e a p as s of h is own on Hu gh es . Mom ents later McGrath wen t right past Hugh es to se ttle in b eh ind Emig, but rather than stalk his prey McGrath we nt righ t to work, cutting to the insi de of the Kaw asaki rider after the finish-line do ubl e and takin g Em ig 's a p p roach li ne away on the upcoming trip le. The two riders do ubled in close or der, McGra th leading, an d then rolled the third ' jum p to u se the inside of the next right-hand comer. McGrath tucked his Ho nda tightly in to th e turn, on ly t o feel Emig go eve n tight er. But there wasn' t even room fo r th e Kaw as a ki and, with McG ra th holding his gr t9und, Emi g tipped over when the two bikes touch ed . "I was going to run in on him and try to bump h im ou t," said Emig . "Da mned if you do, damned if you don 't. I'm trying to use my head an d do the best that 1 can . I jus t need to get away from Jerem y and m ake him chase m e d own rather th an ha ve circumstances like that. If it would ha ve been McGrath in m y place, it wou ld have been the same thing." "Jeff tried to get at me a little bit and it kind of sucks th at he fell d own after we came together," said McGrath of the en cou n ter with' h is on-track riv al, off tr ack friend . "A fter 1 go t in fro nt 1 felt rea lly com fortable and just wen t for it. The lappers stayed out of m y way at the end. 1 was on it a t th e end. 1 w a s pumped and it felt go od . I broke two records tonig ht and I'm sto ked!" Just tw o comers later Emig fell again, this time afte r Albertyn crashed right in front of him. He lost a handful of spots bu t kept trying to come back. He made it back up to fifth at one point but then slid off the"side of a jump and almost landed on some of the Ho nda personnel in the mec hanic's area: On the other sid e of the track, course workers were hel ping Damon Huffman to his feet after the runner-up in points , m issed a gea r on a plateau jump and la n d ed , head first o n th e grou n d , momentarily knocking h imself out. "1 was jumping up on that p lateau in second all day bu t after losing so much of my clutch 1 sw itch ed down to firs t, which was a lot easier," said Hu ffman. "Bu t that one time [ jumped u p perfect and 'shifted to secon d, but 1 was actually in neutra l. Over 1 went on my head ." Huffman broke his full-face Ar ai helmet in the crash but was glad for that. "Obviously m y h elm et worked !" said Huffman . Up fron t McGrath rode at asmooth b ut fast p ace, picking his way through lapp ed tr a ffic an d se tt ing h imself up wi th a sho rt lead over Hughes, who was never threa tened for second by the battle th at dev e lop ed betw ee n th e d u eling Suzukis of Lusk and LaRocco for third. McGrath h ad tim e to do a last-lap nacna c an d then a seldo m seen "Superm an Air" over the finish line to celebrate the 39th main-event wi n of his career. His lead read just five seconds on the scoresheets but McGrath's comfo rt zone in the 17-mi nu te m ain w as much m or e tha n that. "Je ff Bobbett fro m Showa h ad m y bike working killer in the whoo ps, and that m a d e a bi g diffe rence," s a id ' McGra th. "I felt pretty good in the race even though my arms kin d of pumpe d up at - ...... I-< 0..

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