Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

SUPERCROSS THORtf'ARTS UNUAfITED AliA SUPERCROSS SERIES (Left) Jeremy McGrath finally got the monkey off his back with his first win of the year end the first. on Suzuki. He's now sitting third In the series point stendings, just six points behind leader Jeff Emig. (Below) Emig (3) nailed the holeshot in the 2SOcc main but was running fourth before the first lap was completed. He ended up getting passed by Doug Henry on the last lap, finishing fmh. By Kit Palmer Photos by Kinney Jones MINNEAPOLIS, MN, MAR 15 veryone knew it was going to happen. Everyone knew that Jeremy McGrath was going to win, sooner or later, but not many really thought it would be later. At least not this much later. Eight supercross rounds and one outdoor National into the year, the four-time AMA Supercross Champion finally got his first win of the year aboard his Nac Nac Enterprises' Suzuki of Troy / I-800-Collect / Fox Racingbacked RM250, and what could be better than to get that win in fron t of a sellout crowd in a 60,000-plus capacity stadium? Perhaps having one of your r--. teammates finish right behind you? 0\ That's exactly what happened at the ~ Metrodome in Minneapolis. With 60,049 spectators .looking on, McGra th and Greg Albertyn gave Suzuki its first supercross 1-2 finish since the Barnett/Howerton days of the early '80s, bu't the talk of the night at the Metrodome was McGrath's long-overdue win. "I feeJ...what's the word for it? I don't even know," said McGrath who was having a difficult time putting his feelings into words. "I'm more ecstatic now than when I won my first race - my 44th win, first one on Suzuki, I mean, it's really awesome, because I went up, and then I went back down a little and now I'm back up again," he said of his progress since joining Suzuki. McGr.ath went into the Metrodome feeling good and it showed. All day long, McGrath looked confident and relaxed in the pits, arid he seemed to be just plain having fun on the bike during practice and during his heat race, which he won. The reason for the newfound selfassurance no doubt came from his two promising rides at the Gainesville ational two weeks prior and at the Daytona Supercross the previous week. "All day today I felt so at home on the bike," McGrath said. "After my Florida trip - we had three weeks in Florida - and everything went so good. We had a few mishaps here, a few mishaps there. I didn't win any races, but I learned a lot. This week I didn't ride much, I just trained a lot, really hard, had one day of riding, came here and was really enthusiastic about riding. Everyone's been working so hard on the bike - Pro Circuit, Roger (DeCoster, team manager) and everyone at Spzuki. I'm so happy." McGrath's win at the Metrodome wasn't handed to him on a silver platter, either. He worked for it, though McGrath would later say, '1t was easy." Kawasaki's Jeff Emig grabbed the holeshot in the 20-lap feature, followed by McGrath and Team Chaparral/ Yamaha's Jimmy Button. McGrath went after Emig right away and was in the process of passing his longtime rival on the hectic first lap when Button came around and passed them both in one fell swoop. Button led the way while Albertyn moved up to third and Emig dropped back to fourth. It took McGrath five laps before he executed a clean pass on Button and opened up a modest lead. A lap later, Albertyn relegated Button to third but could not do anything about McGrath, who maintained about a fivesecond cushion on his teammate the rest of the way. One- could almost hear the sigh of relief from the Suzuki pits when McGrath took the checkers with his fist held high in the air in celebration. Perhaps the most relieved of all was Roger DeCoster, Suzuki's team manager. "I'm really happy," DeCoster said. "This is the happiest I've felt in quite a while. It was not a lucky win, it was a well-earned one. I knew it wasn't going to be so easy (getting McGrath's first win aboard the Suzuki) because there was no testing before the eason. Jeremy does not give the impression that he is under a lot of pressure, but all the changes, mechanic, bikes, team, all-new personnel, there was so many things different for him that I'm sure there was a lot of pressure on him and a lot of pressure he put on himself. He was really great to work through all this. He never gave up. We had some problems with the bike because he is a different rider than our other riders and he needed different things on the bike. But he never gave up, never lost his poise. He's a true champion."

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