Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

'MNationalC O S'lZ5125.0cc MX Series R d5: B ddsC kMX P k O OChampionship T RS AMA aU" u ree ar o· 0 0. Jeremy McGrath (1) co mp letes his pass on Jeff Emig (2) In the fi rst 250Cc National moto. McGrath went on to win both motos, while Emig fi nished second both times. "On this track it is very important to get a good start and go with the leader when he tries to breakaway, because it is very hard to make up time anywhere you can only lose time," said Pichon. "I also knew th a t I would be tired la ter because I am not used to this kind of heat. 1 wanted to ride fast for as long as 1 could and get away from everyone else in case 1 got tired at the end." "1 knew that Pichon would probabl y get tired , so 1 was thinkin g in the back of my mind that 1just needed to stay in front of him and keep the pace up," reasoned Lamson. Bu t no one was expecting Pichon to make a pass on Lamson, as he did after 15 minutes. "1 certainly didn't expect him to be·that aggressive, but 1 got right"back aro u nd him after. We were bo th ridi ng pr etty aggressively, makin g some contact and all. 1 kn ew he might ge t tired later, but 1 wasn't expecting him to charge like that. We were definitely bumping a little bit." Aft er Lamson snu ffed Pichon's only pass after just two turns Pichon lessened 125 NATIONAL the pressure on the leader and settled in for the drive home in second. Lamson opened a few more bike lengths and then had room at the end to throw his first-ever ou td oo r Na tiona l heel -cli cker for th e approving crowd. "I've never even done a heel-clicker on the 125 before, but once I got up in the air on the last tabletop I figured 1would go ahead and do it." I Pichon rod e across the finish line in second - his best ride since finishing second in the first mota at Hangtown in early Ma y - while Antunez held off a frantic cha rge by Dowd for a seaso n-best thirdplace finish, Throughout the mota An tunez rode by himself, while Dowd battled wi th a motivated Scott Sheak and SpiitFire/Pro Circuit's Chad Pederson for fourth. Honda of Troy's Mike Brown was with them until his lack of conditioning sent him back to the pits. Brown has been out since April with a broken wrist and was understandably wasted after 20 minutes. "It's kind of hard wh en you 're riding by yo urself to know how fast you' re going or how fast you need to go," admitted Antunez, who has had a career resur- By Davey Coombs Photos by Karl Ockert and Coombs O 14 n the first truly hot summer day of th e 1996 AMA Na tional Champions hi p Series, Tea m Ho nda / I-800-Collect/Fox Racing team mates Jeremy McCra th and Steve Lamson burned their competition to a crisp. Each rider topped his class in both mot os to extend th eir r espective p oints leads McGrath in the 250cc class and Lamson in 125cc - at southern Maryland' s Budds Creek Raceway. "The heat was th e biggest obs ta cle today, an d you just have to keep telling yourself that it's the same for everyone," said McGrath, who won his fourth 250cc National in five starts. "1 know that I've been working hard and training hard and 1 feel like I'm stronger now than I've ever been. Instead of thinking about how hot it is 1 th ink about ho w rea d y 1 am ." McGr at h' s 1-1 score bettered the 2-2 of long-time rival Jeff Emig and the 4-3 of Suzuki's Mike Lakocco, "On a da y like today you can' t worry about weather - you've just got to go as fast as you can for as long as yo u can," rea soned La m son, w ho al so won the 12Sec National at Budds Creek last year. "I wanted to save a little energy and be strong at th e en d , but I kn ew th at if 1 charged at the beginning I would be riding by my self, so that' s what I did. It turned out to be a good call." Lamson' s 1~ 1 landed him atop the 125cc-cJass podium, while Yamaha's John Dowd went 4-3 to beat privateer hero Buddy Antunez's:>4. McG rath con tinu es to dominate the 250cc Nationals. The 24-year-old Honda rider ran up his eighth and ninth wins in 10 motos to date and added s ix more points on Team Kawasaki's Jeff Emig in a yawner of a points battle. McGrath left Budds Creek with 241 out of a possible 250 points, while Emig is a distant second with 212 poin ts. Lakoc co, third overall at Budds Creek, is 81 points behind McGrath in the chase for the 250cc title with 160 points . Teammate Greg Albertyn is fourth with 150 points after finishing fourth at Budds Creek with 3-5 moto finishes. Lams on pus hed ou t his 125cc points le ad to a n even bi gger m argin than McG r ath as those around him in the points battle suffered through inconsistency on the scorchi ng h ot Budds Creek course. Lamson totals 219 points and three mota wins no w , while Yamaha' s John Dowd (4-3 for second overall) is second on the leaderboard with 174, 45 poin ts down on Lammy. Fellow Yamaha pilot Kevin Windham finished fou rth on the da y wi th a 12-2 showing and now holds thi rd in the point s chase with a tot al of 152. Frenchman Mickael Pichon dropped to fourth in the points (147) but will no doubt drop out of sight after breaking his wrist early in the second moto. Suzuki's Tim Ferry is fifth with a score of 132 - he ran 9-12 and was both ered by the heat all da y long. The temperature was in the 90s from early in the day until the finish of the second and final 250cc mota . Althoug h the Glen Helen National may have been hotter, the East Coast humi dity that summer brought to Budds Cr eek was dizzying . Throughout the day ride rs tried to pac e thems elves on the rou gh , fast track and late in the motes the effects could be seen on the faces and form of most of the riders. The afor emention ed Ferry was running sixth in the second moto and might have ended up fourth before a dizzy spell caused him to pull off. He lost 30 seconds and six positions in the process. Thi s year marked the firs t time that promot er Jon athan Bea sley d ecided to dir ect the riders in a clockwise direction on the Budd s Creek track, meaning that the riders would be climbing many of the track' s notorious ski jumps rath er than dropping off th em . But the re was still some big downhill air as some tricky kicker jumps were built into the face of several obstacles, including wh at turned ou t to be a dan gerou s finish-line area . However, the rou gh, wide track was we ll-received by the rid ers and the huge turnout of fans, which was ann ounced at 15,000. "1 th ink the track was better in th is direction late in the race, especially when it' s hot lik e th is," sa id McG ra th. "The jumps aren' t as dan gerous when you 're tired and the tra cks all rou gh . 1 mean , I can see how Dou g (Henry) cras hed so hard last year. When it gets hot like this your hands don 't grip as well and you r eyes are waxed at the end. That's what's so tough abou t the outdoor Nationals." ° At th e start of the first 125cc mota, Lamson blasted his CRI25 Honda into the lead at the top of the steep starting grade, foll owed cl osely by Antunez, Dowd, Pichon, Team Chaparral's Brian Deegan, and East Coast privateer hero Scott Sheak . Left at the back of the field were Yamaha 's Kevin Windham and Splitfire /Pro Circuit's Casey Johnson. Windham was only up to 28th plac e after two laps on the Budds Creek track, which is notoriou sly difficult to pa ss on due to it' s mix of sweepin g turns and d eep insid e berms. But the 18-year-old Yamaha hero kept pushing until the finish an d ended up 12th behind the almost-aspoorl y starting Robbie Reynard (lOth) and Hond a of Troy's Mike Craig. Before the first lap was over Pichon ap plied a push-out pass on Antunez at the bottom of one of the long Budds Creek d ownhills and took over second spot. Lamson was already breaking out from the pack, and Pichon's quick move into second meant that the Frenchman had the opportunity to go with the d efending 12Sec National Champ.

• Cover