Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
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SUPERCROSS TOYOTA TRUCKsrrHORIPARTS UNUM/TED AMA SUPERCROSS SERIES By Kit Palmer Photos by Kinney Jones TEMPE. AZ. JAN. 24 A El ~ ~ 6 au might say that Team Honda's Ezra Lusk officially ha s the com petition worried . If his wire-towire win the previous week at Houston didn' t convince them he is for real, then hi s co me-fro m- beh in d vic tory on th e h ard -p a cked , dry an d s lick tra ck a t Tem pe's Su n Devil Stadi um surely will . Lusk, aboard hi s Mike Gossel aa rtuned CR250R, had the 55,225 spectators on th eir fee t as h e slowly and cal m ly worked his way up fr om a six-place deficit to a posi tion w here only o ne rider stood between him and his second s t r a ig h t - and four th career - AMA Supercross Series win. Unfo rtuna tely for Lusk, th at one rider ahead of him was four-time Supe rcross Champion Jerem y McGra th . Lusk certainly had h is w ork cu t ou t for him , but he was u p for the challen ge. On the seventh lap of the ZD-lap main event, Lusk passed Honda of Troy rid er Mike Craig for secon d place, and th e race to ca tch McGrath was on. At th is point , McG rath held a mod est five-se cond cushion on the red-hot Lusk, who began to slowly chip away at the Ch ap arr al/ Yamaha rider's lead. Even tu ally, McGrath' s advantage was cu t to three seconds , then tw o, and with only a few laps left , th e tw o riders were bang ing handlebars in an intense duel to the end, all the whil e threadin g the ir wa y th rou gh a thick grou p of lapped rid ers. Lu sk and McGrath pa ss ed ba ck a n d forth - albeit by only a wheel length or two - for on e full lap until Lusk finally put hi s en tire motorcycle in fr ont o f McGr ath 's for good . McGrath tri ed in vain to pass Lusk back on the last, heartstop ping lap, bu t to no ava il. It would be Lusk's nigh t. Round 3: Sun Devil Stadium (Above) Mike Craig (13) and Jeff Emlg (1) lought lor the early lead In the 250Cc main. Emlg, however, walked away with the $1000 lor winning the 1-900PRO-RACE Holeshot Award. Craig went on to IInls h third, Emlg lourth. (Right) Jeremy McGrath (2) and Ezra Lusk (3) went at it In the ir heat race. McGrath stuffed Lusk In a turn en route to victory. The move would hau nt McGrath In the main even t. "This win does a lot for my confidence," a happy Lusk sa id. "I really wanted this one bad, a n d I w a s re ally happy th e way 1 charged up. It's a long, long way to go (to the end of the series) and 1 jus t w ant to kee p ha ving fun . But 1 hope we don' t have anv more races like this - it was a lot of work." McGrath, mea nwhile, was obviously upset with the way th ings turned ou t. Moments a ft er tak in g th e checkere d flag, the usually imperturbabl e McGrath shoo k h is head and, in disgust, pounded hi s fist against hi s thigh . H e wasn 't happy with the fact th at he had lost a ver y winnab le race, nor w as he happy wi th the lappers, wh o, so me onlookers might say , had cost McGrath the win. "Overall 1 felt really good - 1 kn ow 1 was rea lly fast," a d eject ed McG rath said . "Even thou gh he (Lus k) was ga in- ing o n m e a litt le tow ard the thr ee-quarters mark, the lapper s di dn't help at all. 1 go t to a pack of la pper s an d th ere w ere abou t five of them, and they wo u ld not move. It's not like they're su pposed to move out of the way, bu t they are su pposed to be watching, and they w eren 't at all. There w as nowhere I could go. Even if I could have w ent faster, th ere were five o f them right in a row , and they wer e taking all th e d ifferent lines. Still, Ez ra rod e a great race." Finishing on the podium for the first time in a cou ple of years was Craig, who s im p ly h ad a ll ou ts tan d in g eveni n g . Craig eas ily won his heat race and led the first lap of the main event onl y to be p a ssed by McGrath and Lusk - but that w as all . Th e ve teran Hond a rid er ran third a ll alo ne for th e rest o f th e ra ce, ba rel y b re a kin g a swea t in th e process. "I was ther e the first five laps; then McGrath got away - I let him go," Craig said . "Then Lu sk was right th er e and got me . 1 sai d, ' O kay, stay w he re you . are, se ttle down.' So I started jumping thi ngs and tri ed to be m or e smooth . I was okay with that. "I feel like I can d o it now," Craig added. "I' m confident; I got m y confi-