Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

.SASupercross SeriesS Round15: M ighStadium UECOS PRR ileH A M luJ~ ~o/) I By Kit Palmer Photos by Kinney Jones DENVER, CO, MAY 18 II ! w a s a totally different ride r tonigh t," said Team 1-S00-Collect /Honda /Fox Racing' s Jerem y McGrath after crui sing to victor y at the ina ugural Denver Supercross. "The pressure built u p over the past few races - with the streak and all. You just don 't really no tice Itow much pressure builds up till you get whipped , then th e ai r goe s out of you like a balloon. Tonight, I was to tall y relaxed the whole time; I pushed the first 10 laps, cruised the last 10. Easy." . Yes, that it wa s. In front of 30,12S spectators in Denv e r's Mil e High St adium, McG r ath gr abbed the holesh ot in the 20-lap main event, op ened up a four-second lead by th e se co n d lap, an d that wa s a ll she w ro te . By th e time the thrashing w as over, McGrath, on his Skip Norfolk tuned Honda CR250, had increased that d ist an ce to about 10 seconds ov er hi s ne arest competitor, Team Suzuki's Ezra Lusk. The win was no thing bu t icing on the cake to what was a near-perfect season for McGrath, as he had alread y wrapped up the AMA Supercross Series Championship four rounds earli er at the Pontiac Supercross, April 13, and any hopes McGrath had of winning every race of the IS-round series was put to rest at the previ ou s round in 51. Louis, where Kawas aki' s Jeff Emig be at the seemingly unbea tabl e. But w innin g all but one race isn't too bad. "Th ere are a lot of guy s o u t there who'd di e for second place - that was the low point of ou r season," joked Norfolk. "I am the luck iest guy in the world," said McGrath, who owns four supercross championships. "I had an extr emely lucky year and luck is a part of it, too . But everyon e (at Hond a) gav e it 100 percent. I' ve go t the best team, the best mechanic, the best bike. All I had to do was do m y thing at home (train an d practice ) and race. Overall it's a go od package." Even the race for se cond place w as somewhat unevent fu l, as Lusk, on his Ed Longacre-tuned Suzuki, held dow n the number-two posit ion the entire race, pretty much all alone, but Emig, who will always be known as the man who en ded the streak, came from nowhere to cha llenge Lusk on the ve ry last lap . "The race kind of crept up on me," said Emig. "I didn ' t realize w e were th at close to the end." Lusk's second-place finish at Denver match ed his season -best finis h at Indianapolis, but it wasn' t goo d eno ugh to ca tc h Em ig in the fi n al series p o int stan din gs. McGrath finished off the sea- son with a gra n d tot a l of 372 p oints, more than 130 points ahead of se ries runner-up Emi g wi th 240. Lu sk did, however, mo ve up to third in the series, relegating an injured Ryan Hughes to fourth. Hughes did not ride in Denver. Lusk fini shed out th e series with 215 points, and b oth Hughes and Gre at Western /CTi2 /Xtrem e Phil Lawrence ended up with 202 points apiece. But Hu ghes will carry the number- four pl ate ne xt yea r a fter having more tie-' bre akin g se con d- p la ce finishes th an Lawrence over the course of the season. Hughes did it twice, Law ren ce once . Lawrence e dged out Honda o f Troy / Sinisalo' s Larry Ward for fourth at Denver. It was his second-best placing of the year. Team No leen's Kyle Lewis enjoyed what was by far his best ride of the year, finishing sixth after a 16th-place start. Seventh went to Te am Suzuki's Greg Albertyn, while eighth p lace went to Suzuki of Winston-Salem /Performance Engineering's Nathan Ramse y, who was competing in his first supercross race in the 250cc class . Rounding out the top 10 overall w ere GW / CT i2/ Xt reme' s Buddy Antunez and F&S Suzuki's Cliff Palmer - season-high fini shes for both riders. Pret ty much the onl y question to be an swered at Denver was, wo uld Team Yamaha's Kevin Windham wrap up the 125cc Western Regional Supercross Ch ampionship or would Qu icksilver / Team Suzuki-backed James Dobb - the on ly rider who had an outsid e chance of d efeating Windham for the number-one plate - spoil Yamaha' s "sure thing "? Windham need ed to finish 14th or better in the IS-lap, 125cc West Coast main to wrap up his first -ever title. Just to be on the sa fe side, the factory Yamaha pil ot from Baton Rou ge, Louisiana, went out and won, leaving no d oubt in anyone's m in d th at h e is the u ndi sp u ted 125cc West Coas t cha mp. Wi n d h am sp en t the first few lap s ch asing down Team SplitFire / Pro Circuit / Kawasaki's Casey Joh nson be fore taking over the lead and pulling away for his six th w in of the season. Windham was one injury-rela ted no-show at San Diego and a th ir d-p lace fin ish at Dallas from a perfect recor d. "It' s been a long, up -and -d ow n year," said an obvious ly thrilled Windham. "I'm glad to get that first champion sh ip under m y belt. This is reall y unbeli e vabl e . This is so m et h in g you dream about an d live for; it's the gre atest feelin g in the world." Austra lian Kim Ashkena zi, of th e Primu l Impulse /Bill 's Pipes/Honda team, returned to the p odium for th e first time since San Diego, where he finished second, to finish second again in Den ver. The six-time Au stralian N ational Champion battled his wa y pa st such not ables as teammate Pedro Gonzalez and Johnson to finis h second in the race and third in the series. Despite a last- lap ge t- to ge th e r with a lapped rider a nd Gonzalez, Johnson hung on to fini sh third. Desp ite winning his heat race, Dobb had a mi serable night. He locked ha ndlebars with another rider coming out of the gate, was involved in a secondtu rn pileup, then was later sidelined with a broken footpeg. N everth eless, Dobb finished out the se ries in seco nd place, not bad for someone who didn't ha ve a rid e at the beginning of the season. Team Suzuki gave Dobb race-byrace su pport wh en Crai g Decker' s bike was left availabl e followin g his injury. 250cc Emig left little doubt as to who was going to win the first 250cc heat race, as the factory Kawasaki rid er blasted down th e very sho rt start chute and into the lead . The only rid er who gav e real chase wa s Great Western/CTi2/Xtreme rider Ph il Lawrence, on his Kawasaki, who kept Emig honest throughout the six-lap race . The two riders crossed the finish line only a few seconds apart, wit h Emig tak ing the win. Most of the close racing took place just behind Law ren ce with the likes of H ond a of Troy / Sin isalo's teammates Brian Sw ink and Mike Craig, Albertyn, Ram se y, a n d GWB /CT i2 / Xtreme ' s Buddy Antunez. Swink fought his way to a third-place finish, while Craig w as passed by Antu nez, Ramsey and Albertyn in on e corn er. Albertyn veered off the track and, ultim ately, went to th e sem is. Wh en it was all over, Antunez won the battle for the last transfer position in fourth, ahead of Ramsey, Craig and Suzuki rider Jeff Hed den. McG ra th su rprised no one by easily w innin g the se co n d 250cc h eat rac e, whil e Yam aha's Dou g Henry held down secon d th e wh ole race. Suzuki' s Ezra Lusk, however, kept Henry in sigh t the wh ole way while m a king som e halfhearted attempts to pass. As it turned out, Lusk was waiting until the last lap to make his move. Th rou gh the last section of whoops, just before the checkere d flag, Lu sk outrode Henry in the rockers and nipped the Yamaha rider at the finish . Lusks teammate Mike LaRocco finished fou rth. A close fifth went to Honda of Troy /Sinisalo's Larry Ward. Cr aig scored a start-to-finish win in th e fir st semi, while Su zuki-m ounted Ramsey broke free from Canadian JeanSebastien Roy to finish second. Finishing behind Ro y in third wa s F&S / PJI /Suzuki rid er Todd DeHoop. Taking the last transfer position was Kawasaki rider Jeromy Buehl. Failing to make the cut for th e second time was Albertyn who crashed, then later on nearly ran off the track twice more. The second semi featu red a close race involving GWB /CTi2/Xtreme's Denny Stephenson, PJI / Burnsville Yamaha / Xtrem e/ Atomic 22's Jimmy Button , Lew is and W ard . The ba t tl e boil ed down to a two-way dice for th e lead between 'Button and Lewis, w ith Button taking the exciting w in . Third went to Ward, fo llowed b y Stephenson and Palmer. . The fina l two transfer position s were up in the air in the LCQ which was easily won by Albertyn, while Hedden grabbed second . McGrath and Ernig lined up right next to each other on the starti ng gate for the main even t, and when the gate dropp ed , th e two long time ri v a ls bump ed into each other down the short , sta rt chu te. . "He (Ernig) got all squirrelly off the line and we connected, " sa id McGr ath . "I guess I came ou t of it pretty good ." " M e, Jerem y a n d Lusk all came together there; I got the short end of the stick," said Ernig. M cG r ath quickly ju m p e d out to a two-second le ad, fo ll ow e d by Lu s k, Swink and Emig . Trailing the pac k after crashing was Button. McGra th was a ll bu t gone after a couple of laps, building up a solid lead that no one could cha llenge. "I basically pretended that t his was the first race of th e seas o n a n d just re la xed, " sai d McGrath. Lu sk and Swin k engaged in a semiclose battle for secon d while gradually pulling a way fr om Em ig, who w as

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