Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

(Left)Team 1-800CollectIHondaJ Fox's Jeremy McGrath became the first rider to win four supercross titles let alone four straight tilles after chalking up his 12th consecutive victory of the year, at the Pontiac Silverdome. (Right) Ezra Lusk (34) of Team Suzuki grabbed the holeshot and led for two laps before getting passed by Ryan Hughes and . then crashing. The Georgian came from 13th after his fall to finish a remarkable third. checkers one spot ahea d of Mike laRocco, w ho gated about 15th. Comp leting the top five was Ho nda of Troy / Sinisalo ' s Brian Sw ink, who was follo wed across the fin ish line by Yamaha's Dou g Hen ry, HoT team mate Larry War d, Albertyn an d LaRocco. . Tea m Yamaha's John Dowd recorded his second wi n of the year after a hard- fought battle in the I S-lap , 12Scc Eastern Regional mai n event. He battled early on wit h Suz u ki's Tim Ferry, who led for a cou ple of laps before Dowd go t him back. Series points leader Mickael Picho n soon got in on the action after a horr en dous start. The Team SplitFire / Pr o Circuit /K a w asa ki ri d er passed Ferry, the n set o u a fte r Do wd a n d eventually p a ssed him a n d be g a n pulling away before suddenly cras hing all a lo ne in the whoops. Dowd rode right by the d own ed ride r and back into the lead . Picho n remoun ted and began reeli ng in the Yama ha rider once mo re. But a cou ple of mist akes let the wind ou t of Pichon's sails, and Dowd held on for a popular win . "I star ted out ahead of him (Pichon ) and th at gave me co nfidence, " said Dowd. "I got a good pace go ing and tried riding more agg ressively." Pichon was obvious ly upset w it h himself for throwing away a sure win. "I just m ad e a lot of mistakes," said Pichon. "I'm pretty frustrated ." Ferry eventually pulled off the track after tweaking his knee, making room for an exciting duel to the finish over third place between Suzuki riders Scott Sheak and Na tha n Ram sey. Their ba ttle came dow n to the last lap w hen th e two riders bumpe d wit h Sheak going down . Ramsey wen t on to finish on the pod iu m for the first time in his career, wh ile Sheak settled for fourth. "It was a good race," Ramsey sa id . "We battled pret ty ha rd ." 250cc The 250cc heat races got un der way w ith Henry winning wha t would be one of th e m ore exciting ra ces of the nig ht. He nry jum ped ou t to the early lead ahea d of Albe rtyn, Emig, Hughes and Yamaha's Kevin Wind ham. Emig, Hu ghes and Wind ham quickly got around thr ee-lim e World Champion Alb ertyn just before th e Su zuki rider crashed in a difficult whoop sect ion , nearly taking ou t Dam on Bradshaw and Larry Ward in the process. By th e fourth lap of th e ei ght-lap race , Henry and Em ig h ad become engaged in the ir own battle for the lead, while Hu gh es and 'Wind ham disputed third. This went on for a while un til the H ughes/ Wi nd ham battle ca rried its way up to the Henry / Emig fight, and all fou r we re soo n d icing for th e wi n. They trad ed places back and forth, and things really bunched up w hen Hen ry was slowed by a lapped rider at the top of the uphill / d ow nhill section tha t ru ns u p into the s ta nds, a tr adition of th e Pontiac Supercross. Henry held on to take a narrow w in over Emig, Hughes and Windha m. Finishing one spo t out of the transfers was Ward in six th, followed by Brad sh aw, Tea m PJI / Xtreme / Atomic 22's Jimmy Butto n and Great Weste rn Ban k / Innovation Spo rts' Phil Lawrence. H ond a of Troy's Mike Cr aig led from start to finis h in th e seco nd hea t race, w hile McGra th go t th e crowd's a tten tion wh en he bailed in the whoo ps o n th e fo u rt h lap, recoveri ng in last place. "I go t a Dad start," said McGra th. "I was on the inside and someone shut me down . No big deal, I hit the hay bales and fell ove r." McGrath began his cha rge through the pa ck w hile Craig opened up a big lead ove r LaRocco, Lusk, and John Starling Racing' s Travis Hodges. Ho dges, however, nearly bailed hard w hen he drifted almost off the track over one of t he. tra ck's two big tri p le jumps. He eve ntually pu lled out of the race. Just after the halfway p oi n t, McGra th passed Lusk fo r third, then engaged in a d uel fo r seco n d with LaRocco but just could n't find the openin g he tho ug ht was safe e nough to make a pass. "I was rig ht on laRocco and I didn't want to force anything in a heat race," ad mitted McGrath. "I gave u p . (I tho ught) 'N o p roblem, I' m in third.' Th en I saw him again and I thoug ht, 'Shoot: and got back on him bu t really d id n't wa nt to get into it." Craig finished way ou t in front wi th a bi g lea d, fol lowed by La Ro cco, McG ra th a nd Lusk. Ho nda of Troy's Mike Brown fi nished just out of the m o ne y, inc hes a head of tea m m a te Swi nk, Team No leen's Kyle Lewis and Great Western Bank/Innovati on Spo rts' Denny Stephenson. Ward made it loo k easy in the first semi as he led from start to finish, scorin g an unch all eng ed w in, t ho ugh Law rence kept him hon est througho ut the race, taking runner-up honors over Albertyn, Bradshaw and Button. Le w is led th e seco n d se m i for a w hile until Brown passed him on th e t hi r d lap a nd beg an pullin g a way . Behind th em , GWB' s Stephen son an d Bu d dy A n tunez, BT Racin g ' s Mik e Jones and Swink were all mixing it up wi th Swink making all the right moves to land third by th e end of th e race. Fourth went to Antunez a nd fifth to Step he nson. Bromley Suzukr / Per forma nce Engi nee ring- bac ked rid er Barry Ca rs te n fi nishe d next , but he, alo ng wit h Jones, had to rid e the LCQ. Jo nes, F&S/PJI / Ar enacr oss' To d d UeHoop and KTM's Kevin Crine went at it for th e fina l tw o po sitions of th e night in the LCQ. Jones pretty mu ch led the w ho le way w h il e DeHo op and Crine mixed it up. At one po int , Crine looked to have the fina l tran sfer ticket in ha nd until he sud de nly slowed and le t DeH oop by . Crine, w ho has bee n bothere d by a naggi ng a nk le inju ry, tried co m ing back b ut co uld not ge t around DeHoop. The 2S0cc m a in event sa w Lusk power his factory Suz uki into the lead , a spot he managed to hol d thro ugh the first, sweepi ng left-ha nd turn . Righ t behind him was Button and Henry. Back in sixth was McGrath, and eve n further back we re LaRocco and Brad sh aw. Button soo n fell and picked up his black and yellow Yam ah a in last place an d wo uld eve ntually salvage 13th. Being back in six th d idn't bother three-time cha mp McGrath. . "I knew I was fast tonight:' he said. "Because of th e heat race ea rlier I felt really good and I wasn' t really wo rried. I' m mean I'm used to it; I've been getting sixth-place starts lately." Lusk held on to the lead for two laps until H ughes ma de his m o ve to the front, and a few tu rn s lat er, Lus k sho t off the track and cras hed. "I just cross-ru tte d in th e w hoops befo re the uphill," said Lusk, w ho reen tered th e race in 13th. McGrath, meanwhile, had mad e a few slick moves on Emig, Lawrence, Lewis, Swi nk a nd Ward du ri ng his qu ick climb to second pla ce, w hich he had control of after th e th ird la p . He particularly enjoyed the passes he put on Ward and Emig. "I mad e a killer pa ss on Ward and Emi g on th e firs t lap on the flat tra ck co rner b y th e s ta r t chu te," sa id McGrath. "I we n t o n the outsid e o f Ward, just pitched it - so cool! I've rid den speedway before just for fun - felt like a little speedway action out there." A sm all ga p now s eparated h im from leader Hughes. "I w a s fee li ng really good and strong," sa id Hu gh es. "I thought this migh t be the nigh t." McGrath slowly chi p ped away a t Hughes' lead until he was right on his tail. Hughes, however, kept his cool and held McGra th a t bay fo r a number of lap s. At o ne p oin t, t he two ri de rs bumped into each other in a tight righthand turn. "He (H ug hes) had a couple seco nds lead and then Ryn o and I bumped a littl e bit th ere," sai d McGrath . " Bu t he cam e in; he like saw me and gasse d it, slid, and cam e int o me. I mean , I did n' t m ean to d o it, really . It w a s just a friendly little th ing." Hu ghes was no d oubt rid ing one of his best races of the yea r. "Every thing was going good, then 1 started thinking, and that was my prob lem. 1started thinking too much." Durin g the seventh lap , Hu ghes rillsju dged a d ou bl e s tep-up ju mp a n d clip ped the to p of th e second jump which slowed him dow n just enough to let Mc Grath by. Hughes did a n admirable job tryi ng to ha ng with th e ne w lead er bu t just couldn't quite do it, a s hi s a r ms bega n pu m p i ng up . Mc Gra t h s tretched o u t h is lead b y . a p p roxima tely a seco nd a lap o ve r H ughes an d the Honda ri der would fi nish out the race with 12 flawless laps. While McGrath and Hughes were batt ling, Law rence was wa tching all the action from behind in thi rd, until Emig relegated him to fourth on the 10th lap . Em ig had a l m os t invisibly climb ed through the pack afte r his mid pack sta rt a nd was now beg in n in g to t hreaten H u g h es for second . By th e 11t h lap Emig was glued to his teammate's rear fender bu t see med to be taki ng his time setting him up for the inevitable pass . "I wa nted to be real ca utious w ith him (Hug hes):' said Emig. "We kind of got togeth er in the heat race tonigh t and th er e' s a litt le bit of bad feeli ngs. So I wanted to ma ke sure 1 got by him real clea n, so I made a real clean pass on him. 1 kn ew his arms wo uld p robab ly pump but he still would be going for it, because th at ' s his attitude. He'll fight you right d own to the checkered.". Emig mad e h is m ove on Hughes through the wh oops and would graduall y pull away from his teammate as well as gain some grou nd on McGrath moving to within five second s. "I knew 1 had abou t five seconds on him (Ernig)," said McGrath. "I was really relaxed and just held my ground." .l-<. .. 0.. -< 11

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