Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127811
SUPERCROSS 1996 FIM World Supercross Championship Series By Davey Coombs ~ Cl\ T'""'i ~ N l-< OJ ...0 E ~ o Z 8 PARIS, FRANCE, NOV. 8-10 ream Kawasaki's Ryan Hughes upset the international applecart at the Paris, France, stop of the 1996 FIM World Supercross Championship tour when he was crowned "King of Bercy" after three steady, topfour finishes. The 23-year-old resident of Escondido, California, claimed the biggest win of his career by employing a consistent weekend attack that landed him in contention for the win all three nights. His 2-4-2 finishes in the Bercy Stadium tripleheader allowed him to narrowly edge Kawasaki teammates Damon Huffman (4-1-4) and Jeff Emig (5-2-3) for the King of Bercy crown. "After all of the bad starts and extra qualifiers and·all that 1 went through this weekend, 1 can't believe tha t I'm actually the King of Bercy!" Hughes said in the winner's circle. "1 remember reading about this race when 1 was a little kid and thinking about how cool it would be to be the king one day. Now I've done it, and it feels even better than 1 thought it would." While Hughes was trying on the Rounds 2·4: Bercy Stadium crown, fellow Americans Huffman, Larry Ward and Jeremy McGrath had to settle for single race wins. Honda of Troy's Ward won Friday's opener after a last-turn mistake by the snakebit Greg Albertyn left him alone in the lead. Huffman was a convincing winner Saturday night after running down an outof-sync McGrath in the second half of the 20-lap main event. McGrath salvaged the win Sunday, his first aboard the 1997 Honda CR250. Since 1984 the Philishave-backed Paris Supercross at Bercy Stadium has been the standard of international supercross events. French fans have a taste for overthe-top spectacles, and the Lariviere race organizers (publishers of Moto Verte) spare no expense in giving the people what they want. Although this year's opening ceremony fell flat on its face - it was a futuristic look at supercross racing that fell far short of its Mad Max intentions - the annual laser shows and jumping contests easily helped fans justify the average ticket cost of around $75 (U.S.). Most of the top Americans were on hand to race in front of a sold-out crowd of about 14,000 people per night. The Paris promoters again shipped in track Ryan Hughes did not win any of the Paris Supercross races but was crowned King of Bercy. having the most consistent top finishes. builder John Savitski, who designed a complicated course that incorporated just about every inch of stadium floor as well as a few under-the-bleachers hallways. Lap times on the jump-infested course were around 44 seconds all weekend long. After the bizarre motorcycle / jousting. opening ceremonies that featured the doomed Mike Metzger (see "Briefly...") in face-paint and geek-riding mode, the Frem;h and American contenders were rolled out in classic American automobiles. Americans McGrath and Emig and teenage French superstar Sebastien Tortelli were rolled out last in a huge late-model convertible. It was a tame introduction when compared to the airplanes and huge mechanical hands of years past. A pair of heat races opened Friday night's program and Larry Ward was able to take th.e measure of McGrath in the opening qualifier. Team Chaparral's Jimmy Button placed third while the rest of the 16 riders headed to the semi round. In the second heat, Jeff Emig outpaced a surprising Sebastien Tortelli, who was competing in the premiere class at Bercy for the first time in anticipation of a run at the 1997 250cc World Championship. Honda of Troy's Mike Craig placed third for a direct transfer. The semi winners Friday were new Suzuki teammates Albertyn and Pichon, and Hughes was forced to qualify through the Last 'Chance Qualifier (known as a repechage in France). That gave Hughes the final pick on the starting gate, which meant the far outside. With no chance for a holeshot but to pin it all the way to the banked wall on the outside, Ryno held the gas on longer than anyone and somehow grabbed the. main-event holeshot. "1 figured my only chance was to pin it all the way to the wall and hope no one else had the same idea," Hughes said later. "1 got a great jump and it just worked out perfectly. 1 figured 1 deserved a good start after riding every lap of every qualifier 'they had!" Hughes led for five laps as Albertyn, Tortelli and Ward gave chase around the narrow track. McGrath suffered a mediocre start and never did find a rhythm. Once his forearms pumped up after the halfway mark, he faded from fifth to 10th for his worst indoor finish in years. "1 haven't raced since the Motocross des Nations (in September) and it's impossible to go race speed all at once," said the no-excuses McGrath. "I rode fine for a while, but then my forearms pumped up and I couldn't hang. I'm sure the more I race in the. next few weeks, the quicker that problem will go away. -I wish 1 could have given the fans a better show. It was funny because everyone was looking at me like a monkey in a cage! Maybe I'll get it sorted out before we leave (Paris)." While McGrath was fading back, Ward was on the rise. Always fast on the international super cross circuit, Ward made a play on Tortelli for third and then set himself up behind the Hughes/ Albertyn battle for the lead. When Albee took a poke at Hughes in a hairpin corner, Ward inherited second; while the staggered Hughes slipped back to fourth behind Tortelli. Moments later, Ward would slip past Albertyn as well, only to hand the lead back when he blew a tum in the tunnels. "1 had some really good lines but a lapped rider made me change my lines and 1 hit a kicker bump," Ward said. "1 went against a hay bale and both Alber. tyn and Tortelli went by me. Then I cased a jump really bad because I forgot where 1 was. On these really small tracks you can get the jump count mixed up and forget how far you're supposed to go." "IN ard got back in the lead mix by . using an incredibly smooth drive down through the whoops each lap to make up time on the rest of the field. Albertyn led for the last nine laps of the race and appeared to have the win in hand as he jumped down the secondto-last stretch before the left-handed hairpin that led to the checkered flag.