Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

dence back. I'm looking fo rward to n e xt weekend." Defen din g cha m p Je ff Emig h ad a quiet n igh t a fte r h a vi n g qu ali fie d for the m ai n thro ugh a sem i an d then spe ndi ng nearly the whol e m ain event w ay b ack in fourth pl a ce, di ci ng wi th teammate Damon Huffman . The two riders w ere nearly a h alflap down on th e leade r s wh en it w a s all o v er . Hu ffm an ne ver did pass hi s Kaw as aki t e amm ate and se r ies points leader Emig , and settled for fifth. "The last d ay or so, there's bee n so m e ev ents that didn' t really he lp m y fin ishes, " Emig sai d (thou gh h e w ouldn't ela bora te on those "events"), "b u t I impro ved on th e night. I'm s till th e re in poi n ts . M cGrath an d Lusk, they we re re all y hookin ' it - reall y chargin' - and I was s ti ll tr y in g to fi nd m y groove. I got fo ur th; I'm all rig h t." Kevin Windham w as Team Yamaha's highest-placing rider in six th, followed by Mike La Rocco o n hi s Fac tory Co nne ction /Jack in th e Bo x H ond a . Team Kaw asaki's Ryan Hugh es, still suffering f ro m a sore fo ot an d low er b ack, climbe d f rom 13th t o eigh t h; w h ile Team Suzu ki's top finisher was former 125cc cham p Mickael Pich on. Rounding ou t the top 10 w as Chap arral / Yam aha's J immy Bu tton, wh o is s truggli ng to regain lost confidence. Eleventh p lace w as taken by Suzuki's Gr eg Albertyn , who crashed on the first la p an d took ou t teammate Larry Ward in the process. Albe rtyn and Ward circulated the first lap last and second-to-last, re spectiv el y . W ard sa lvaged a 13thp lace finish, one spot behi nd H onda of Troy's Mike Brown. Te am Yamaha' s Doug H enry, who many tho ugh t h ad a s trong chance of wi nning the Ari zon a race because of th e d ry and slick tr ack conditions (sim ilar to th e cond iti ons of last year's Las Vegas Supercross, in which H enry w on on th e Yamaha four-stro ke), w as never a m ajor fact or among th e leaders. Hen ry sta rted ou t in third onl y to work hi s w ay backw ard, still feeling the effec ts of th e flu, w hich se riously affected him the previous week at H ouston as we ll. The remain ing fini shing p ositions w ere fille d by main- e ve n t qu al ifi ers KT M ' s La nce Sm ail , Suz u ki's Kyl e Lew is, Canad ian Je an-Seb a stien Roy and Gre at Lakes Airl in es' H ea th Voss. N oleen Yam aha's Tim Ferry crashe d ou t of the race on the fifth lap while running fifth. For McG rath, things weren't all bad. With Em ig (th e. m an w ith who m McGrath w as tied for th e series p oints lead go ing in to the Phoenix Su percross) fin is hi ng fourth, M cG rath is n o w the sale possessor of th e poin ts lead - something he hasn 't h ad since 1996, the year h e won his last SX title . McGrath currently has 64 p o in ts to Emig's 60, but closing rapidly on them both is Lu sk with 55. Windham is fou r th with 45 points, ju st one point ahead of LaRocco . HEATS Craig started the evening off w ith the h olesh ot in the first 250cc hea t, but righ t b ehind him w ere d efending cham p Emig, Windham, Button, Law rence and (Above) McGrath and Lusk tra ded paint late In the main. McGrath led most of the race until Lusk got him two la ps from the end. The two riders lapped up to 11thplaced Greg Albertyn (7). (Right) An out-of-syn c Jeff Emlg (1) finish ed a distant fourth. He and Damon Huffman (15) dueled all race long. A lbertyn. Despite th e bi g co m pa ny, Craig wa s on the move an d was actually pulling away fro m Emig, who had h is hands full wi th Windham and Button. " I ha d the whoops dia led," Craig sa id of one particularly long sec tion of whoops, w here he was gaining most of h is time. Butt on, how ever, was on the move as h e began picking on Windham and eventually cut underneath hi m in a turn, taking him wi de and taking over thi rd place. And Button wasn't d one yet. Bu tton se t h is sights on Emig and pa sse d th e champ in a turn to take sa le co n t ro l of second. Emig's problems w er en't over ye t, as he was now being hou nd ed by Windham, w ho eventually passe d h im as well. Then, on the last la p, Emig 's problems continued w hen N oleen Yamaha's Tim Ferry surprised him an d dro pped Emig to fifth an d into the semis. While Emi g h ad tro ubl es comi ng to terms with the slick track and, in particular, the lon g section of whoops, Craig had the Phoenix tra ck d ialed and pulled out a comfort able lead to the checkered flag. "A lot of it was the start," Craig said of hi s winning ride . "This is my kin d of track: hard and slip pery. The whoops is the toughest part of th e track; make on e mi st ake and you' re going down." Button finishe d second, just ahead of Windham, who w as fo llowed by Ferry, Emi g, Albertyn, Law rence an d Ward. Lus k sh ot hi s Ho nda in to the lea d at th e star t of the second heat race, ah ead o f McGra th, while Henry got pinched off o n th e insid e d o w n the lon g s tart straight. H o w ever , H enry was ab le to sta nd on th e brake, pivot on th e inside of th e first turn and pass nearly hal f th e tra ck, putti ng hi s th umper into thi rd . Settling in to fourth was H uffm an, fo llowed by LaRocco, Brown and Picho n. Before the firs t la p was completed, McGr ath h ad passed Lu sk in a turn for the lead, and the two riders wou ld bat tle closely for a w h ile before Mc Grath sta rte d pulling away eve r so slightly. Huffman soo n go t aroun d H enry for third and qui ckl y squirte d away from the four-stroke-m ou nted rider. Pos itions remained th e sa me u nt il th e second-tolast lap, when LaRocco pinched H enry off in a turn for fou rth. At the fini sh , it w as McGrath taking the wih w ith roo m to spare over Lu sk, w ho. h a d abou t th e sa me d istan ce o n third-p laced Hu ffman. LaRocco climbed to four th, just ahead of Henry a nd Pichon. "I fee l good tonight," McGr at h sai d. "In the old days, I used to be really aggressive on the sta rt. Ezra got away and I k new I h ad to ge t him q uick. Every week, I'm feeli ng m ore comfortab le. Everything coul d n't be better right now." SEMIS Emig powered h is Jeremy Albrechttu ne d Kawasaki in to the lead in th e firs t semi an d had no problem pulling away from the pack and taking an u nco ntestedwin. Taking second was A lber ty n, w ho made most of his passing on the first lap d o wn th e lon g w hoop sectio n. In o ne d ra w n -out m ov e, A lber ty n pas sed a number of riders and put his Suzuki in to second, w here it stayed th e rest of the way. Kyle Lewis w as running third for a while befo re having problems and d roppin g back. Suzuki's W ard w orked hi s way u p through the pack to finis h third, just ahead of La w rence. H ond a rider H eath Voss transferred to th e final with a fifth- place finish . Kawasaki ri de r Travis Hodges took the h ol esho t in the seco n d semi, bu t Brown quickly took over. Bro wn h ad the lead down the n ext straightaway and, by the secon d lap, Hug h es had taken over second. Hughes found him self right behind Brown an d the two riders battl ed down to the finish. Th rough the last turn, Hughes made a last-d itch attempt to pass Brown, and it paid off. Hughes d ived to the inside an d o u td ragged Brown the next 20 yards over the finish-line doubl e jump. Finis hi ng th ird after ge tting off to a sixt h -p lace start was Pich on, followed by LaRocco a nd Cana d ia n Je an Sebastien Roy, w ho edged out H od ges at the finis h. LAST-CHA NCE QUALIFIER H od ges too k the early lead in th e LCQ but was pa ssed by Takeshi Koiked a on th e second la p. Ko ike d a opened up a sizable lead an d looked to be headed for a su re trip to the m ain. Unfortun ately, on th e fifth lap, he came up sho rt over a triple jump and ricoch et ed off the track, all but ending his eve n ing. Lewi s took over the lead and rode to vic tory, bu t th e ba ttle fo r second - the las t ticket to the m a in - w as fa r from over. H od ges an d KTM's Smail started go ing at it la te in the race, and on the last lap , Sma il stuffed Ho dges in a -tu rn and took over second p lace. Th e m ove knocked th e wind ou t of Ho dges' sails and the battle was, for all intents and purposes, over. Smail held on the rest of th e way to take the last transfer position of the night. MAIN Emig e dge d o ut C raig fo r the h ol e sh ot in th e 20-la p fea t ure, but McGrath was back to hi s u su al tricks, trying to ge t ou t in fro nt right away and pull away. And he di d just that. M cGrath q u ick ly go t arou n d Em ig and th en foll o w e d C rai g fo r o ne la p before sq u a ri ng off a turn and diving u nd erne ath the H onda r id e r for the lead . Em ig se ttled into third, follo wed by Lu sk, H enry, H uffman , Fer ry, Button and LaR occo . Trailing the fie ld after crashi ng w ere Tea m Suzuki 's Albe rty n and Ward. Then Ph il Lawrence cra shed on the seco nd lap and had th e d ubious hon o r of pulling up the rear. "It was a pretty tight fir st tu rn this week," Ward sai d of his fir st -la p tro ubles. "I qualified through the semi, so I w as on th e outside (on the starting line). I go t there (to the first turn) pretty good, but everyone came in a little too hot and ca me s li ding to the o u tside and s la m m e d in to me a n d A lbe e. The n Alb ee got pretty aggressive an d ended u p crashing. I w as right behind him and crashed into h im . Th ere was no th ing I cou ld do. I go t u p in 19th. " McGrath, mean w h ile, h ad begun his ea rly -race sprin t and ope ne d up a small le ad o n Craig. Bu t Lusk - McGrath' s main conce rn - was on the m ove. By the third lap , the H onda rid er had passed Emig an d was starting to close the ga p o n Craig . Four "laps la te r, Lu s k h ad reeled in and slippe d by Craig for seco n d. M cGra th , Lusk a n d Crai g were clea rly in a league of their ow n, as the 7

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