Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Emig crashed over the fini sh -line jump w hile chasing McGrath for the lead to start lap two, allow ing a pu rsuing Button to take over second . Hu ghes wen t by Albertyn to take third at about the time Em ig wen t down, a nd the qualifying positions were set. McGrat h took the win with room to spa re over his teammate. Button; Hughes was third , and Albertyn held on to the final transfer position in fourth afte r tak in g so m e heat from Lawrence late in th e ra ce . Emig and Team Suzuki's Larry Ward came home sixth and seventh, re spectively, a nd Suzuki of Japan's Kyle Lewis finished eighth. Roseburg Suzuki /TMR/Throttle Jockey-sponsored Ryan Terlecki and Dirt Squirt /Race Tech/Motorex 's Anthony Amaradio rounded out the top 10. Team Honda of Troy' s Mike Brown go t th e sa m e tr eatment that Henry received in the second heat when he, too, was pushed wide by the pack after looking to have the advantage going into the first corner. Wind ham took adva ntage of the situation this lime to ta ke th e lead go ing into th e w hoops, w it h Team Kawasaki's Damon Huffman, Tom Morgan Racing / Lemonds Yama ha's Robbie Skaggs and Tortelli in tow. Lusk moved into second right behind Windh am a fter a few corners , a nd visi on s of last week's ba tt le began to unfold as the two fought over first place for five laps. At that poin t, Lusk cleanly moved by over a trip le jump. "I didn't shift very quickly out of the start, and Damon (Huffman) got ahead of me goi ng in to th e first tu rn ," Lusk said. "Everybody went way wide, and I h ugged the insi de an d ha mmered the whoops on the first lap and moved right up to Kevin (Windham). After tha t, I watched Kevin, and he was blazing the first cou ple of laps. I just hung in there, tried to stay smooth, picked up some better lines and picked up my times." While Lusk and Windham had first and second wrapped up, positions were rapidly changing behind them. Huffman held third and Tortelli ran fourth until he fell on the second lap , dropping to the edge of the top 10. LaRocco moved in behind Huffrnan to take over the fourth and final transfer spot. Team Honda of Troy's Michael Craig moved up to fifth by the checkered flag , followed by Tortelli, Noleen /Thor/K2's Tim Ferry, Skaggs and KTM's Lance Smail in 10th. SEMIS Emig snared the holesho t in the first semi, just ah ead of Kawa saki of Mexico/Tecate's Jeff Hedden, Ward , Terlecki and Henry. Ward and Henry immediately moved up to Emig's rear fende r and the three diced for position for four laps. First, Henry passed Wa rd in a rh yth m section to take second and then got Emig for the lead in the same place a lap later. Fro m th ere, Henry he ld on to firs t, Emig finished a close second and Ward took third. Lawren ce moved up to ge t fourth, and Lewis took the final qualify- (Above left) Ex-teammates Kevin Windham (8) and Lusk (3) battled for five laps over the win In the second heat before Lusk could finally make the pass stick. Windham finished eighth In the main. (Above right) Doug Henry (19) chased down Jeff Emlg (1) to win the first semi after both riders had trouble In heat one. Emig finished third in the main, while Henry had more problems and finished 14th. (Above) Team Factory Connection/Jack In the Box's Mike laRocco moved up to finis h fourth place. (Right) Ryan Hughes was nursing InJuries, but you wouldn't have known it by his fifth-place finish In the main. Ittook McGrath eight laps to take second place from him. ing position in fifth from Terlecki. Arnarad io follo we d in seven th, with Cy cle Shed /KTM's j am es Povoln y Jr. eig hth, MSR/Kawasaki/Bieffe's Jean-Sebast ien Ro y nint h, and The Ed ge Raci ng / Answer-backed Doug Stone 10th. Ferry s hot into lead in the second semi, with Pichon, Bro wn , Skaggs and Craig in hot pursuit. Pichon crashed and flew over the handlebars , taking Brown with him. That allowed Skaggs to tak e over third. Craig wasted little time getting into second , bu t he could never get close enough to challenge Ferry, wh o built quite a cushion for himself after the Pichon /Brown crash. Tortelli ev en tua lly worked his way into third place by the finish after a midpack start. Jeff Dement, on his 2 Extreme Performance Yamaha, was near the front for mu ch of the race and finished fourth, while Brown climbed back up to earn the final transfer spot in fifth. Some of those goi ng to the last -chance qualifier were Skaggs and Kames Sports / One /Sinisalosponsored Mike Kalin Jr. LAST-CHANCE QUAUFIER Kalin had the lead going into the first turn of the LCQ, bu t Amaradi o quickly d isplaced him to take over the poin t position th rou gh th e firs t whoop sec tion. Roy, Smail and Terleck i were also u p front, looking for their shot at the main event. Roy had second place by the second lap and took over the lead for good on lap three. Meanwhile, Amaradio, Pichon and Smail began to scrap heavily over second place - the final ticket to the main event. After a heated battle, Pichon and Smail shook Amaradio to battle between the mselves over second , with Pichon earning the last qualifying position. MAIN Lusk blazed to the front of the pack to take the holeshot in the 2o-Iap 250cc main event, followed closely by Hughes, Emig, McGrath, Windham, LaR occ o and Henry. McGrath quickly passed Emig over a triple jump to move into third and began to work on Hu ghes as Lusk pulled away out front. Although he was near the front , Emig wasn 't too happy with his start. "In the heat race, I went wide in the firs t turn and the n pulled an a ma teu r maneu ver in th e main w he n I did th e same thing (as in the heat ) again," Emig said. '1 drifted wide in the first turn, and if I would've just gotten on the brakes and stayed tigh t, I woul d have gotten the 1-900-PRO-RACE Ho les hot Awa rd. I know better than that, an d I know tha t was th e m istak e th a t cost me th e wi n tonigh t." As Lusk's lea d con tin ue d to grow, McGrath wo rked diligently on Hugh es before finally displacing him in a rhythm section on lap eight. By then, Lusk was long gone. "Man, it took me about eight laps to get by Ryno (Hug hes). By the time I got by, Ezra wa s alrea dy too far ahe ad to think about catching him," McGrath said, "so I was trying to have my way in second and hang in there." Further back in Hie pack, Emig was trying desperately to bag Hughes so he could move into th e final pod ium slot, while laRocco wo rked hard at displacing Wind ham to take over fifth. laRocco was the first to get the job done when he passed Windham near the midway point to grab fifth place. Hughes tried valiantly to keep Emig at bay, but Emig finally made his move in the rhyth m sec tion before the finish on lap 16 to commandeer third . From that point, Hughes tried hard to hold o ff LaR occ o , but the two-time National Motocross Champion proved to be too mu ch for the injured Hughes, and he relinquish ed fou rth place with just three Iaps to go. The top five remained the same to the finish , with Lusk taking the win with a four-second cushion over McGrath . Emig came across the line a satisfied third . " I' rn really s toked with my ri de tonight, and I'm just building - just stackIng pennies," Emig said after the race. LaR occo he ld on to fourt h, bu t he knows that better starts are the key to his 00 success this year . 0\ "I went really good into the corne r, ~ but turning righ t into those whoops - if you're not one of those first two - you're going to get bottled up," laRocco said . "Tha t's pretty much wha t hap pened to me. I came ou t seventh or eighth or so, which was just far enoug h back to keep me off of the pod ium. My Factory Connection / Jack in the Box Hond a felt grea t, and I felt great on it. I spent a little too mu ch time behind Wind ham - I think 7

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