Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

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

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