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/127834
SUPERCROSS
THORR'ARTS UNLIMITED AMA
SUPERCROSS SERIES
took the lead away from Ward. But first
it was Hughes who turned in four
strong laps before developing problems
with his breathing due to asthma. Struggling for each breath, Hughes slid back
through the pack to Where he would
eventually finish in seventh. Ward
assumed the lead on the fifth lap and
held Lusk at bay'for another six laps
until Ward started to drop back with
arm pump.
"I don't know, I started getting real
tight and there was nothing I could do,"
Ward said.
Lusk put fading Ward between himself and the rest of the pack and used
this as an opportunity to get away from
the 20-rider field, including McGrath in
fourth place, who was having a hard
time getting around his teammate Mike
LaRocco. With valuable championship
points on the line, McGrath desperately
searched for a clean line around his fellow Team Suzuki rider which he finally
found six laps later. But, by that time,
the damage was already done. After
passing LaRocco for third, McGrath
quickly got by Ward but had lost just
too much ground on the high-flying
Lusk, who was showing no signs of letting up.
For the second week in a row,
McGrath had to settle for runner-up
honors. But this time, at least, he managed to gain a few precious points on
series leader and last week's winner Jeff
Emig, who went from fourth after the
first lap, to fifth, then back up to third
By Kit Palmer
Photos by Kinney Jones
ORLANDO, FL, MAR. 29
erhaps Ezra Lusk should get run
over more often.
Usually when somebody gets
mowed over by q, motorcycle on the
track they would be lucky just to get up
and finish the race let alone win, but
that's exactly what happened to Team
Yamaha's Ezra Lu k, who became the
sixth different rider to win a 250cc
supercross main event this year, in front
of 27,522 spectators at the Citrus Bowl in
Orlando.
A heat-race incident where he said he
was "run over" by Kawasaki's Ryan
Hughes seemed to fire up the factory
Yamaha rider for the rest of the night.
Lusk came back and easily won his
semi, then passed Hughes and Honda of
Troy's Larry Ward in the main event
before opening up a solid lead that
would carry him across the finish line
with seven seconds to spare over eventual second-place finisher Jeremy
McGrath. In tlle heat race, Lusk was
leading when he fell over in a turn and
was struck by Hughes.
t'-.
"I fell in front of him and I felt like it
0\
0\ was pretty unsportsmanlike in the way
...... he just ran over me and really didn't try
to go around me," Lusk said. "And that
...... really upset me and got me fired up. I
l-< came out for the rest of the night real
.0.. aggressive and I wasn't going to take