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/127829
forward, and the bike worked great. I promise you, it's coming together soon." Emig's second-place finish seriously closed the points lead that Yamaha's Doug. Henry had amassed in the first five rounds of the IS-race series, as Henry suffered his first bad break of the year at the Georgia Dome - a terrible start on a short track tha t was bad for passing. Henry could only salvage eighth-place points and saw Emig trim his points lead from a comfortable 17 down to eight. And four-times-running erie champion McGrath, still coming to terms with his new Suzuki, improved his standing in the points race by going from 25 points down to 18. Finishing a solid fourth after another late charge was Suzuki's Mike LaRocco, the winner of the Atlanta race in 1995. LaRocco was particularly upset by Huffman's epic holeshot in that he felt that either the gatekeeper or the starting gate itsell malfunctioned. "The gate kind of flinched and I have enough problems with my start as it is," LaRocco said of the balk. "I'm pretty mad about the way that worked out." "I was right next to the box and the gate twitched, and then the box moved, as if the gate man's foot slipped and he missed the lever or something," Henry added. "So the gate shook, the box shook and then the gate dropped, and it just blew my concentration." Finishing a olid fifth was Honda of Troy's Mike Kiedrowski - the best performance yet of the MX Kied's 1997 comeback tour. He was followed across the finish line by two more riders with their best scores yet in 1997 - Team Honda's Steve Lamson and Manchester Honda/AXO-backed Damon Bradshaw. The Atlanta round of the AMA Supercross series has a reputation for being one of the most mixed-up, hardfought battles on the tour, but this year's version was rather tame. In fact, there was an odd symmetry to the 250cc results: The top three riders were scored in the same position for all 20 laps, and the top 10 ·tally showed, in order, two Kawasakis, two Suzukis, three Hondas and three Yamahas. The Atlanta fans found plenty of upset and excitement in the 125cc class as 17-year-old superstar-in-the-making Ricky Carmichael pulled down the first victory of his professional career. The Pro Circuit/SplitFire/Kawa aki rider from Tallahassee, Florida, had the partisan crowd on its feet as he ran down fellow Floridian Tim Ferry of the Suzuki team in the closing stages of the race to secure the upset win. When asked if he thought that he would win this early in his pro career, Carmichael said: "No way! After last weekend (at Indianapolis) I thought it was going to take forever, but I tried to keep my confidence up by telling myseU over and over again that I could win right now. I got past the first lap this weekend, rode my own race and it all worked out. I can't tell you how happy I am." Carmichael's mechanic is Chad Watts, who was able to guide French pilot Mickael Pichon to the last two 125cc East Region SX titles. Ferry, still not 100 percent after last year's injury-plagued season, cruised across the finish line in second with the 125cc East Region points lead in hand. Placing third was Team Chaparral/ Yamaha/FMF/ AXO's Chad Pederson, the arenacross regular who quieted the cri tics who said his strength and endurance were not up to supercross standards. Yamaha's John Dowd, the 125cc East (Right) The gate flinched and Huffman (17) didn't as he blasted to the front of the 250cc main, followed closely by Suzuki's Greg Albertyn, Kawasaki's Jeff Emig and Honda's Steve Lamson. (Below) Huffman (17), Emig (3), Suzuki's Jeremy McGrath (1) and Honda of Troy's Larry Ward battle during the ear.ly stages of the 250cc main. The top three finished in that order and Ward eventually finished 14th. Region points leader going into the Georgia round of the series, sutfered a poor start similar to that of 250cc teammate Doug Henry and spent the entire main event trying to rise through the pack. Dowd made an important pass of series contender Stephane Roncada of the Honda of Troy team for fourth place to keep Ferry within one point in the standings. The Dirt Wurx-built Georgia Dome track, made out of rich red clay, was fairly easy and uncomplicated. The standard obstacles - two triples, a long whoops section and staggered jumping combinations - were all in place, plus a long starting stretch that ran diagonally across the stadium floor. The usual axledeep rut that make the Atlanta race one big bike trap were erased during every intermission by the hard-working groundskeepers...maybe too hard-working. Had the ruts been allowed to build up (or sink down, actually) passing might have been easier on the 54-seconds-per-lap track. . '1 had to ride aggressive, and I know there's a lot of people in the pits right now that aren't happy with me because the only way to pass sometimes was to push a guy out," said LaRocco, who again may have been the fastest man on the track in the closing laps. "The track just didn't set up the way you want it to for passing." 250Cc When the first 250cc heat went off, it looked as if Yamaha's Ezra Lusk would grab the holeshot at the end of the long start stretch, but it was Emig instead at the point. The Kawasaki factory rider, with two main-event wins under his belt already 1n 1997, was in a groove that allowed him to pull away for the win. "My Kawasaki has got a lot of power and those Bridgestone tires really give me the traction I need off the start to get the holeshot," Emig said in NASCARspeak. "It's real important to get off to a good start on a track like this, and winning the heat race will give me a good pick on the starting gate for the main event." Lusk, meanwhile, had to contend with teammate Kevin Windham for second. Windham was on hand in the 250cc division for the second straight weekend; he spends the West Region races in the 125cc class. The part-timer gave Lusk fits for a few laps before motoring by for Second. Finishing behind Lusk in fourth - the last direct transfer to the main event - was Honda of Troy's Larry Ward. Non-qualifiers here included such top nameS as LaRocco, Bradshaw, Lamson, K,iedrowski and Team Chaparral's Jimmy Button. The second 250cc heat· saw Albertyn lead everyone off the start and then pull away slightly as early favorite Doug Henry held McGrath's number-one Suzuki at bay. For half the race, the order stayed the same until McGrath perfected a move on Henry, passing the series points leader for the first time this season. But Albertyn proved to have too much of an early advantage and McGrath had to settle for a close second. "I thought that Jeremy was coming up, but I just rode my own ra£e and tried to focus on what I was doing and no one else," said Albertyn, who's continuing to show improvement in his supercross technique. '1t will definitely be important to get a good start like that in the main event, too." Henry led Honda of Troy's Mike Craig at the end for fourth, while Ryan Hughes scored a frustrating fifth. In the first 250cc semi, Damon Bradshaw, still a favored son in the South, rode an excellent race. He was able to turn a good start into a confidencebuilding race win over fellow one-time retiree Mike Kiedrowski and Honda factory rider Steve Lamson. "It's great to win, but I'd really rather not be here in the first place," Bradshaw said of the semi. "I would much rather get in the top four in the heat race than win a semi." Finishing fourth and fifth here were Button and LaRocco, respectively. The uneventful second semi featured Ernig's Kawasaki teammates Hughes and Huffman riding 1-2 ahead of two more Kawasakis - privateers Swink and Ryan Huffman. Team Chaparral's Phil Lawrence, another contender in years past, is off to a horrible 1997 start. (Coincidentally, Lawrence and Hughe tied for fourth in the points standings last year, but neither are in the top 12 at this point). '1 know it's a semi race but a win's a win, and I need all I can get at this point," Hughes said, offering a different take on his semi win than Bradshaw. "I can only hope that the rest of the night goes just as well." In the 250cc last-chance qualifier, former series contender Jeff "Chicken" Matiasevich put in a no-nonsense ride for the win after bad starts kept him out of a direct transfer position. Joining the t'-... soon-to-be-departing-for-Japan winner ~ with the last spot on the 20-man main- ,..... event gate was FMF /Xtreme/Stiffiebacked Cory Keeney. There was a moment unseen to many in the stands but known to everyone on the main-event line where the starting gate shook but didn't fall, destroying the timing of many of the top rider . The one guy who didn't flinch and went