SUPERCROSS
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kind of hard to pass on and there were
places that it was kind of easy to make a
mistake. I was hoping he (Ward) would
hold them up a little bit, enough time to
give me some room."
Lusk opened up a comfortable lead,
while Ward dropped off the pace ever
so slightly. A few laps later, McGrath
finally got around LaRocco.
"I felt pretty good, charging through
the pack, made some good passes, had
some good lines," McGrath said. "I
don't know, I just got behind. LaRocco
and he held me up a few laps. It seems
like I'd get by him, he'd pass me back,
I'd get by him and he'd pass me back.
As you know, I'.ve been too nice sometimes in my career. Maybe this is one of
those times."
Once past LaRocco, McGrath found
himself breathing down Ward's back.
McGrath came up, went to the inside of
Ward and passed him in a turn. Ward
did not put up a fight.
"I was done by that point," Ward
said. "My arms were pumped up and I
was just tight."
With five laps left to go, the lead rid-ers - Lusk, McGrath, LaRoc~o, Emig and
Ward - had suddenly become fairly
spread out, and the only question left
now was whether Emig would catch
and pass LaRocco.
Emig slowly reeled LaRocco in, then
the Suzuki rider tipped over in a rutted
turn and the question was answered.
Lusk took the win with seven seconds on second-place McGrath, who
was almost just as far ahead of thirdplace Emig. LaRocco finished a distant
fourth, followed by Ward, Bradshaw,
Hughes and Lawrence.
"I made some mistakes but I had
some fast lap times," Lusk said. '1 just
kept going at that pace all the way
through the last few laps."
Lusk knew he had it won by the time
the white flag came out.
"Things were going through my
mind long before the white flag, let me
tell ya," Lusk said. "With five laps to go,
I'm thinking, 'What should I do? Should
I keep racing or just start looking back?'
So I just tried not to look back at all, just
keep focussing ahead, puttin' in the
good la ps, and it just all came together
so easy.
"It hasn't hit me right now, but it will
tomorrow," Lusk said of his first career·
supercross win. "Next weekend I'll be
super relaxed. I'm just going to go out
now and have fun, and enjoy the pleasures of winning."
a
Grayson Goodman (Yam); 2. Pedro Gonzalez (](aw); 3.
Mike Jones (Kaw); 4. Jason Frenette (Kaw); 5. Josh
Demuth (Suz); 6. Cliff Palmer (Suz); 7. James Povolny
(Suu; 8. Jeff Hedden (Suz); 9. James Chambeda;n
