MOTOCROSS
AAfA 1251250 NATlONAL
CHAMPIONSHIP MOTOCROSS SERIES
IIounds 212: Prairie City SVRA Park
(Left) After a second-place
finish in the first moto,
Greg Albertyn, on his Ian
Harrison-tuned, 1-800Collect-backed Suzuki,
came back to finish way
out in front of the pack in
the second moto to score
the overall 250cc National
win. (Below) Team Pro
CircuitlSpli1FlrelKawasaki's
Ricky Carmichael won both
125cc National motos
going away.
By Kit Palmer
Photos by Kinney Jones
SACRAMENTO, CA, MAY 4
you owned the lead by the end of
the first lap, you stood a good
hance of winning at this year's running of the 29th Hangtown National
Motocross. Just ask Team Kawasaki'S Jeff Emig and Team .Pro
Circuit/ SplLtFire /Kawasaki' s Ricky
Carmichael and they'll tell you that
jumping out in front early was, indeed,
the key to their success at Hangtown.
In the opening round of matos, both
Emig and Carmichael shot to the front
and rode off to victories, and
Carmichael got the second series of
motos off to another first-lap lead proceeded by another runaway victory, but
Team Suzuki's Greg Albertyn was the
exception to the rule in the second 250cc
mota. He did not lead after the first lap
but he was leading at the' end.
In that second 250cc mota, Albertyn
got off the line in third, passed Chaparral/Yamaha's Phil Lawrence and Yamaha's Doug Henry right away and
opened up a huge lead that not even
first-mota winner Emig could do anything about. Emig, after rounding the
first turn in about fifth in the final 250cc
mota, eventually found his way into
second only to discover that Albertyn
was already long since gone, to the tune
of 17 seconds.
As a result, Albertyn and his
mechanic Ian Harrison posted their second major win of the year - their first
coming a t the opening round of the
AMA Supercross Series in Los Angeles
in January - after trading 1-2 moto finishes with Emig; Albertyn's tie-breaking
second moto win at Hangtown giving
him the nod over the series points
leader Emig for the day.
'Tm feel stoked," an obviously ecstatic Albertyn said. "I've had a lot of problems here (Hangtown) in the past (last
year, Albertyn was running second
when his bike broke), and I'm so glad to
come here and win."
With this win, Albertyn has put in
three podium finishes in a row (including supercross races), and is finally
showing the consistency and fast riding
that has earned him three World titles.
"Now I feel I'm really on top of
