Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127929
SUPERCROSS TOYOTA TRUCKSITHORIPARTS UNUMITED A ASUPERCROSS SERIES M By Kit Pa lmer Photos by Kinney Jones 00 0\ 0\ ,..... 4 SEAITLE, WA,jAN. 31 fter la st week's tough loss at Ph oenix, Chaparral /Yamaha' s l\, Jeremy McGrath came into Seattle's Kingdome with a sco re to ' settle . He was fired up and it showed. In front of another strong supercross crowd of more than 56,000 at the PACE Mo tor Sports-promoted even t, McGrath came out swinging in his heat race, scoring a big win ah ead of Cha parra l teammate Jimmy Button. In the ma in eve nt, McGrath again found hi mself d icing with Button for the lead early on before breaking away and cruising to his first victory of the yea r, the first on his new Chaparral/Yamaha team, and the first for his tuner, Randy Lawrence. "I was pr etty mad this week becau se I didn't win last week, " McGrath said. "I came ou t wanting to accep t nothin g less. I'm pumped." The win wa s d efinit ely a confide nce builder for McGrath, but he wa s Slightly ta ke n aback w he n h e first hea rd the news that Team Honda's Ezra Lusk had fin is hed sec ond, Wh y? To th e best of McGrath's knowled ge, Lus k had cras hed early in the race - after crossing swo rds with defending cha m p Jeff Emig while Round 4: Kingdome (Above) Jeremy M cGrath gave his ChaparraVYamaha Team its first victory, at the Seatt le Supercross. (Below) After crash ing on the se cond lap, Ezra Lus k (3), here dicing with Tim Ferry (22) In a heat race, came Irom way back to finish second: running fifth - and was running near the , back of the pack. The four-time champ, s u p er c ro ss McGra th, had hig h hopes of ga ini ng extra point s on Lusk, thin king Lusk would no t di m b as h igh as he d id . As it tu rned o ut, McGra th wou ld only gather back in poi nts what he had lost to Lusk the previous week a t Phoenix. But he'll happily take it. Lusk , the winner of th e la st two supercro ss round s; put on another come-from-behind clinic in an incredible charge to th e front. O n the final lap, Lusk mad e his last pass of the night - on Button - for second place. "I fou nd myself on the ground after collidi ng w ith a Kawasaki with a num ber-one plate on it," Lusk sa id of h is race and the seco nd encounter he'd had wi th Emig du rin g t h e cou r,se of the n ight . "I had my wo rk cut ou t for me once ag ain . I sa w McGrath inc h ing away; I ga ve it all I had for 20 laps and I'm pr etty happy how I ended up. I "I was at least 17th or 18th (after the cras h)," Lus k ad d ed . " I sawa ll th ose gu ys up there, and I knew what kind of lines I wanted to run, and I kne w wha t I had to do. I did the best I could ." Button had a n impres sive n ight finall y. After thr ee disappointin g races, Button put things tog et h er in Seattle, nearly winning his heat rac e and coming w it hi n half a lap of taking seco nd pla ce in the main . Button led the fir st, four laps of the main and held second until things go t a little too hectic on the' last lap. Lusk go t aro und him, and then, Butto n ta n gl e d with Te am Su zuki' s Larry Ward . As a result, Button ran off the tra ck a n d Team Ya ma ha's Dou g Hen ry, on the YZ400F four-stro ke, rod e by them both. Ward did manage to keep Kawasaki's Dam on Huffman from pass'ing him , but Button wasn't as lucky. The Yamaha rider ended up finishing sixth. It w as a tough endi ng to what should have been a happy conclus ion to Button's nig ht. " I had 27 and th ree-quarters good la p s, wit h the h ea t races and eve rything," Button reasoned. "I jus t kind of locked up a little bit; I just wanted it so bad . I w ant ed to b e o n th e p odium , especially with Jeremy. It was looking so good for so long, I just wanted it too bad and just blew myself up." Henry found himself in the right spot at the right time and took third, for his