Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

slim to none. Suzuki's Mickael Pichon is fou rth in the rankings with 259 points, while teamm ate Ferry is fifth w ith 243. Em ig's s tra ng le ho ld o n th e 250cc po ints lead was es tablished with a twomo ta sweep on the first day of the season back in March. With his fifth win of . th e seaso n in Mill vill e, he padded his points cushion to 69 ov er the never-surren dering Dowd, 447 to 378. Emig could a lso clinch h is title a t Wa sh ou gal, though he will more than likely secure the crown at Broome-Tioga in Ne w York o n Aug ust 24. A distant third in the rankings with 335 p o in ts is th e s l ump in g Je r em y McGrath, wh o sim ply could not get off the gate on Sunday and ended up stu ck in traffic all af ternoon. He fini shed an unsuperstarlike eighth overall with a 9' 7, th ough McGrath to o k another bad day in stride. " I didn 't r ide a s bad as I did at Un adilla, and that' s a good thing, " McGrath rea soned, "bu t I'm still not ge tting th e job done. I put in so m e go od laps, I worked hard the who le mot o, but you can 't start in the back of the pack a nd expect to finis h a t th e fro n t. That don't count. I'm going to work on a lot of things between no w a nd the ne xt ra ce, a nd I r eally h ope to ge t a win before the season is over for myself and m y team. On a tra ck like th is, yo u ' ve just got to get a start. " Regardless of th e lack of pass ing lanes, the Spring Creek tra ck designed a nd maintained by former off-roa d star John Martin and crew was the best-conditioned track that the AMA National Series riders have seen this year. Aided in his watering by a fierce Saturday nigh t rainstorm, the hilly, sandy track was wet and muddy for practice on Sunday, bu t by the time th e m ain e ve nts went off afte r lunch, the track was in perfect condition. Many of the rid ers complimented th e loamy soil, th ou gh the early co nd itions made for a lack of lines on the wet perimeter of the track. Still, the record crowd of more than 15,000 was trea ted to one of the grea test races of the year in the exciting second 250cc mota. 2SOcc NATIONAL The first 250cc National mo to started with a bang - literally. Rya n Hughes grabbed the holesh ot on his KX25O, but within five turns he wa s back in 40th after a spectacular cra sh that left his bike laying as the centerpiece of a tabletop jump while the rest of the pack flew by. "I only went 200 ya rds in the lead and I thought I wa s going to be fine, but then I hit a ju m p and the fron t wheel kind of washed and it thnew me into the face of the tabl etop," said Hughes. " It . p itched me over the bars and a ll of a su dd en I was in last. It happened just like that. Tha t's the way my whole yro r has been going." After some jostling in the back. Emig inherited the lead over laRocco, Dowd , Honda of Troy's Mike Kiedrowski, priva teer Jason M cC ormick, a nd Lu sk. Alberty n, Team Chaparra l's Jim my Button, and McGra th rod e in the next small pack. . As the race settled down, Emig and laRocco proceeded to pull away from Dowd, wh o seemed to be slightly out of syn c o n what he considers to be on e of his favorite tracks on th e circuit. He let the leaders pull away and was never in the thick of the battle for first, though he was nev er ou t of sig ht altogether. By the end of the race, Emig was the winner with a few bike le ngths to s pa re o ver La Rocco while Dowd rode fifth. Lusk quietly rode into fourth at the fi nis h line ahead of Albertyn and a strong Kiedrowski, whose sixth-place finish was his best of the outdoor sea- son. Honda of Troy teammate Larry Ward was next, then came Hughes, who cha rg ed from last to eighth. McGra th and Bradshaw rounded out the top 10. "The track is great, the crowd is great, and there's no reason,not to push it aU the wa y to the end," Emig said. "I could slow down and wony about the title, but I think there's a lot of honor in going ou t and giving it your bes t every time. That' s why I'm here, that's w hy Kawasaki is here and tha t's why th e fans are here." Em ig ho les hot the se con d 250cc moto, ahe ad o f Dowd , M cC o r m ick, Hughes, Albertyn and Wa rd . McGrath wa s again slo w off the ga te and would s pend th e rest of th e moto trying to climb out of the deep hole he dug fo r himself off the start. Hughes climbed into third quickly and appeared ready to use his first-mote momentum to make a run at the' win, but Emig and Dowd had their own little thing going and would soon separate themselves from everyone. That left the Kawasaki rider to skirmish with the Suzukis of laRocco and AIbertyn - and

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