Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

• DAY-SIX:' By Kit Palmer· t seems lik e just yes te rday that we were in Orlando, Florid a, cruising the pits a nd chec king out all t he ne w bikes, riding gear, helmet paint jobs and the new' crop of privateer team s. That was 15 races ago at the op ening round of . the 1996 AMA Supercross Series. Looking back, it was a pr etty good series that genera ted a lot of surprises. Okay, maybe it was no su rprise wh atsoever that Jerem y McGrath took home the number-one plate for the fourth year in a row. Every one we spo ke to before the ga te dropped at the Citrus Bowl predicted that McGrath would take the title, but no one, not even McGrath, predicted that he would come w ithin a coup le of laps of winning every single race on the circuit. No w tha t is a surprise. Think about it. McGrath won 14 out of 15 races . That really is an incre dib le feat . Only on e ri d er bea t h im to the checkered flag in 15 main events in w ha t is the premier class in supe rcross racing. Sure, th ere have been other motorcycle racers who have dominated their respective field of competition but rarely at the extreme level, o r as successfu lly as McGr ath. McGrath wasn't jus t beati ng the Bobs at his local track, he was consis- . tently finishing in front of gu ys like Jeff Em ig, Damon' Brad sh a w a nd Mike LaRocco, so me of th e best riders this wo r ld has to offer, and d oin g so all across the country. There's no step higher tha n the 250cc class in th e A MA Super cross Series, but if th ere we re, McGrath would be in a class all his own. Some ha ve sai d tha t McGrath is "ru inin g the sport of motocross," claiming that the racing has become "bori ng." Okay, maybe the races for first place at many supercrosses this yea r hav e been les? than thrilling , bu t you could always count on close racin g elsewhere in the pack. If you go t ti re d of wa tc hing McGra th circula ting the track, just look beh in d him. Som eb od y w as always stuffing somebody. As fa r . as ru ini ng th e s port of motocross, 1 don't think so. If any thing, because of McGrath and his 14-race win streak, supercross has ventured into new territo ry, d eep in to th e m ains t ream mecca. Th e sp ort is becomin g no tice d outside th e ind ustry, much thanks to I McGra th . We' ve seen McGrath in terviewe d on TV during a n NHL hockey ga me, on cab le, and fea tu red in many lo ca l newspaper s across th e cou nt ry . McGrath is more proud of th is accomplishment than he is of winning 14 races, though he would not ha ve one without the oth er. "I' m s toked that I can make an impression on the spo rt," McGrat h said shortly after winning the final SX round of the year in Denver. "People are paying attention (to supercross), and that's what makes me feel real good. I want to contribu te something to the sport." As far as our an nual beginning-ofthe-yea r su percross p redictions, well, they are nothing to be pro ud of. Perhaps that' s not surprising, eit her . You might remember that befo re the SX series got under way in Florida, we gave our own predic tion, as well as those from 12 other people we asked from within the su percross indus try. We asked them to pred ict the series top-five finishers and only two - SX ann ouncer Larry Nas ton and, well, yours truly - man aged to guess at leas t the first two places correctly. In juries se rio us ly affected theoutcome of this year's SX series . Steve lamson , Dam o n Hu ffma n, Rya n Hughes, Larry Ward and Greg Albertyn were just some of the stars tha t were bitten by the injury bu g this year . Believe it or not, no one picked Team Suzu ki's Ezra Lusk to place amo ng the top five, let alone to finis h th ird, so he certai nly surprised a lot of people with his strong perform an ce. I guess no one was read y to pick Lusk for a top finish. Pres umably his reputat ion as a cras her 'was taken into account. Obviou sly, Lusk seemed to hav e gotten over that. . An other big surprise th is yea r was privateer Phil Lawrence. He opened a lot of eyes at the series-ope ner wit h a seco nd -p lace fin ish - w ho w o u ld ve g uessed that ? Evi den tly , not many . Lawrence would never visit the podium agai n, th ou gh he did ru n among the leaders more than once and continued to ga rner s tro ng finishes th rougho ut the series. He was rewarded with top privatee r honors, and with it a $5000 check , for finishing fifth in the final standings. Perha ps his success this year will unlock the doo rs to a factory sponsorshi p next year . Unfor tu na tely, it d idn't for last year's top privateer Larry Ward. Not all the su rprises this yea r were necessaril y good ones, at least for those involved, suc h as Team Suzuki' s Mike LaRocco. Man y predicted th at LaRocco woul d give McGra th a ru n fo r his money and place among the top three in t he ser ies . At the very least , m os t thought tha t the former 250 and 500cc National MX champ would win at least a handful of races . Ins tea d , LaRocco didn' t win a single race an d finis hed a disappointing sixth in the series, despite qualifyi ng fo r every main event a nd making it throug h an entire series without serious injury. That in itself is a surprise. laRocco finished on the podium just four times, not once high er than third very un-La Rocco-like. It' s ta ken a lot longer for him to get used to his new bike than peo ple had expected . He has shown some promise in the Na tionals, though, so there's hop e he ca n tu rn things around before his '96 seaso n turns into a comp lete was h. It's also hard to believe tha t Suzu ki d idn' t win one 125cc supe rcross race this year, and won only two heat races in the 250cc class. Las t year, "Team Not-SoMellow-Yellow" d om ina ted the 125cc ranks with East Coas t champ Lusk and West Coast ch amp Dam on H uffman, who nearly wo n every wes tern round last year. Tim Ferry didn' t live up to his SX ex pectations this year, but Ja mes Dobb did come to the rescue by filling in for th e inju red Craig Decker . Englishman Dobb finished a surprising second . And th en there was Greg Albertyn. Many thou ght he wou ld be a threat for the cha mpio nship. After all, he was no lo ng e r a roo kie . Wh o w ould ha ve thought tha t Albe rty n w ould sta rt th e series off the exact same way he did last year - walking off the sta d ium floor with his arm held above his head with a dislocated s ho ul der. (Inser t theme music from "The Twilight Zone" he re) . Too wei rd. Th ough Albee struggled with crashes an d injuri es the entire SX series, he did show signs of improvement , and plenty of prom ise. Maybe next year. Team Yamaha su p plied us with a few s u r p rises, as well, especially ear ly in the yea r when Dam on Brad sha w placed third in Orlando and second the followin g week in Minneapolis. The Brad sh aw of old was back, people we re say ing. However, the North Caro linian struggled after tha t, visiting the podium only one more time, at Daytona, w here he finished second to - here's another su rprise - Jere my McG ra th, w ho had previously never done well a t the famed mo tor speedway. Thi rty-o ne-year-o ld John Dowd led the East Coast 125cc SX Series for a w hile, th en really surprised everyone when he failed to qualify for the mai n event at Pontiac, which severely affected his bid for the championship, basically handing it over to Mickael Pichon . Neverthe less, Dowd assure d Yamaha th at th ey in deed made the righ t choice by keeping him on the team for '96 by finishing a stro ng second in the series . Another ni ce s urprise was the fac t th a t m o st rou nds e njoyed r ecord crowds, eve n after se tting man y a ttend an ce reco rd s last year. More th an a h a lf mill io n s pectators ca me o u t to watch su percross this yea r, which was an AMA Supercross record . The largest cro wd of th e year numbered 65,264 a t Ana heim Stadium, but that's no big surprise. On e of the smallest crowds of the year wa~ 30,128 at the series finale at Denver' s Mile High Stadium, but that's und e rstand abl e when you take into accou n t th a t McG rath had a lrea dy wrapped up the series a few rounds earlier, that Kevin Wind ham had all bu t clinched the 125cc title, that McGra th's streak 'was ov er, a nd that, just ac ross the road , the Colorad o Rockies baseba ll tea m was hosting th e St. Louis Ca rdinals at the always sold-out Coors Stadi um. It was a lso nice vis iting tw o new 5X ven ues this year - 5t. Louis and Denver . And perha ps the biggest surprise of all, the SX promoters, the AMA and the rid er s see med to get a lo ng (or once. Could this be a new trend? Just think , it starts all over agai n in just seven months, 30 days an d 19 hours . But who's counting. I·:LOOKING BACK~~~ ' I 25 Y AR E SAGO... JUNE15, 1971 U.S. Formul a One win. M ik e Spencer finished second in his first F-l outi ng ... Bruce Penhall racked efend ing champion up a p erfect score at th e World Joel Ro b e r t wo n Championship Speedway Qu alifier the Italian Grand held in the Los Angeles Co lise um. Prix in Busco, increasin g Penhall was sc u r ryi ng to borrow h is lead fo r the 250cc bikes and leath ers a half hour before ti tIe in the World th e start w he n his eq ui p me nt van Motocross Champi fina lly arri ved ,.. Frank Stacy took his onship Series . It was fourth win in five the Belg ian ' s fourth ro u nds of t he (ij~iTl';:Jr::!T-,._L w in of the sea son... AM A Two-D a y Tea m Montesa domi- ~~~S~!!i'"::tiiE; Qualifier Series, at na ted the Scottish Six- Perry Mountain in Days Tr ials for the third yea r ru nAlabama , Stacy ning. Mike Ad rew of Team Ossa took said afterward that individual first with Montesa's Gordon the most difficult Farl e y seco nd ... J.N. Rob e rts w on th ing he did o n -another desert race, this one called the th e whol e run Desert Knights Knightmare in the Red was to change a Mountain area of Californi a. Rick Thorspa rk plug. walds on was second. D 15 Y SAGO... EAR JU E10, 1981 N 5YEARS AGO..: JUNE 1 1991 2, hen Freddie Sp en cer won his first National a t round nine of th e AMA G rand N ational Cham pionship, it was also Honda' s first ast-lap heroics by Kevin Sch wan tz earned him victory at round six of . the World Championship Ro ad Race Series, in Hockenheim, Germ any. W L Schwantz ou t- ~':7iTr::.~'-'!'-_ bra k e d 1/ Way n e 'ii~~!~~~tJ Rainey in a • fast righ t into the relatively tight s ta diurn sec tion, his b ike ho p p in g sideways as he dod g e d inside to ta ke the lea d ... S te f a n Everts d evastated th e co m pe tit io n a t round four of the World Championship 125cc Motocross Series . Everts' double m ot o vi cto ry moved him a hea d o f Donny Sch mit in the series point standings ... Steve Hatch and Terry Cunningham split the overall win at round three of th e AM A Nation al Cha m pionshi p Re liab ility End uro Se r ies h eld a t McArthur, Ohio. Cu nni ng ham had the least points bu t co m pete d as a n AA rider, while Hatch campaigned as a Letter of Intent r id er a nd had to follow more stringent ru les. f:'i Malco lm Sm ith s plas h es h is Hu s k y th rou gh a stream In 1971. Photo from the Cycle News Arch ives. 75

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