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/127930
no menal rig ht now an d I think I'm p retty close, but he's jus t ge tting rad starts. Hopefully, I can just keep on going." Making it a complete Yamaha sweep of the podiu m, Tea m Yama ha's Windha m held on for third, a position he held from start to fini sh of the 20-lap race, w hich al s o d id mu ch fo r hi s wa ni ng confi dence. "I've bee n try in g to take so me ba by . steps and toni gh t it paid off," Wind ha m explai ned . "Co mi ng ou t of the 125cc class, I' m no t ex pecti ng it to happen overn ight, bu t I know I can do it. I jus t need to ta ke m y time and go throu gh the steps, w hich I think I'm d oing with a great team . Ton ight was great. Yama ha pretty m uch swep t th e w hole ni ght, hea ts and everything in bo th classes, so all th e hard work is starti ng to pay off for these guys - not only for the rid ers, but th e guys behind the scenes. I ca n' t beli eve it. It's a goal and I can' t expec t to jus t jump ou t there and do it right away. A podium was my goal for th e n ight and I accomplishe d it. I just wan t to be consistent and would be happy with a top five in the class." Team Jack in the Box/Honda /Factory Connection ' s Mike LaRocco matched his best finish of the year with a fourt hplace fin ish a fter having to qu ali fy for the m ain o u t of a semi. Li k e m o s t, LaRocco is still coming to terms with th e . m ental sid e of racing. "My team is good and has the stuff to win," laRocco said. "I' ve just been struggling a little bit with my min d and getting out front. As soo n as I get that, things are going to tum around for me. On the East Coast, I always see m to perform better with those tracks, so I'm ready to get out fron t and get on that podium." Ta king one step back in position this week was Team Su zuki' s Lar ry Ward , w ho was invo lved in another heated excha nge between foes at the end of the main event. Again, he held tough to finish fifth. "I got into a really heated battl e those las t five or six laps with (Ryan) Hughes, LaRocco and (Mickael) Pichon, and it was a reall y clean battle," Wa rd exp lained. "No one slammed anybody. It was probably one of the g narliest ba ttles I've been in in a lo ng time. LaRocco en ded up getting the best of it, but I've finis hed in the top five for the last two weeks in a row. I think I'm ge tting comfo rta ble w it h m y Suzuki and if 1 ca n kee p finishing in the top five, slowly the podiu m w ill co me a nd a w in's right around the comer. " Team Suz uk i's Mickael Pichon ended up s ix th, T eam Kawasaki 's Damon H uffman worked u p to seven th after ta ng ling w it h tea mmate Se bas tie n To rtelli in the first comer and starti ng n ear last, and d efending cham p Jeff Emig end ed up eight h after a bad sta rt and a lackluster rid e. Round ing ou t the top 10 o vera ll we re Tea m Ya m a ha's Dou g Henry, w ho ran as high as fourt h before throwing it away in the wh oops, and Team Ho nda of Troy's Mik e Brown. Not only did McGrath w in , but he also saw his closest rival thu s far in the se ries, Ezra Lusk, have problems. Lusk was run ni ng fou rth w hen a hay-bale cover go t caugh t in h is front wheel, dropping him to an eventual 11tho W ith the wi n and Lusk 's I l th, McGrath has extended his poi nts lead to 27 poin ts ov er the Team Honda rider, 114-87. Emig sits in third with 80, Win d ham is four th wi th 79, and LaRocco ho lds down fifth with 71 points. HEATS Em ig blasted out to th e holeshot in the opening heat, with Honda of Troy's (Left) After missing the podium last week, Jimmy Button was not about to be denied and finished second behind his teammate McGrath. (Above) Team Yamaha 's Kevin Windham turned in his best performance of '98 by finish ing on the podium in th ird. (Below) McGrath (2) leads Windham (8), Albertyn (7), Ward (4), laRocco (5) and Hughes (10) at the start of the second heat. Michael Craig , Hen ry, Tortelli and the pa ck in tow. By th e middle of th e firs t lap, Henry had leaped into the lead , followed by Emig, Craig, Hu ffman , Tortelli an d Lusk. Henry im mediately pu lled away, tak ing an ins urmou ntable lead to the finish. Lusk mo ved up qu ickl y o n Emig and the two went back and fo rth in an excit ing duel before Lusk pulled away on th e las t lap to tak e second. Cra ig immedi at ely began to hound Emig, bu t se ttled for the final transfer spot in fourth. Goi ng to th e semi we re Brown, Pic ho n, Reynard (af te r an early crash) and th e dueling H uffman and To rtelli , among ot hers. The second heat was a sign of things to come as McGrath pulled a monumental holesho t (having a bike length on the field after traveling only approximately four b ike lengths out of th e ga te) and never even thought abou t looking back . He took the checkered flag with about five seconds to spare. "I got a really good start," McGrath said . " M y Brid g esto n e Ya ma ha was putting me right out in fron t every time . It was su pe r-fas t and hooked up every tim e. Th e dirt w as really sticky so I kept the rprns up really high and wo rked the clutch, and it wo rked out great. Everything just went perfect." Wind ham went a t it with Su zuki's Greg Albertyn before the youngster go t aw a y fro m the th ree-tim e World MX Champion early on. "My he at went good ," Windham said. "All of my heats have gone rea lly well this yea r. I haven' t gone to a semi ye t, knock on wood." Late in th e race, H ughes ba ttle d by Ward to get into fourth and nearly go t Albe rtyn at the checkers . Ward, LaRocLamson, Team Kawasaki . co , Mexico /Teca te /Thor's Phil Lawrence, Noleen /Thor / K2-ba cked Tim Ferry, and Button finished fifth th rough 'l Oth, respectively, and went on to semi number two. battled ov er seco n d until thin g s settl ed dow n, with Brown taking second, Huffth ird and m an To rtell i fou r t h , th e la tt er bl o w ing it w hen h e came up s ho rt o n a tri p le ju m p r ig h t o u t of a corner. Reyn ard d ispa tched Roy to ea rn fift h, sen ding the Ca nad ia n to t he LCQ. La mson wan te d th e second-semi wi n, but Button wan ted it more and took Lamson's line away with a b lock-pass in the second co rner - and that was all s he w ro te . Larry Wa rd deposed Lamson and pressured Bu tton for the lead midrace un til se ttli ng into seco nd. Ferry soo n put the injured Lam son back ano ther spot and th e two finishe d third and fourth, respectively. The bes t effort of the race came fro m LaRocco. Th e Ind iana na tive went down on the first lap and started near the back of the pack. Wi th th r ee laps to go , LaRocco began to work o n Yama ha of Japan /Holley Racing's Takeshi Koiked a for the final transfer spot. Th e Japanese rid er held his grou nd befo re LaRocco shoved hi s way b y on the las t lap. Law rence finis he d sevent h and went to the LCQ. LAST-CHANCE QUALIFIER Corey Keeney nailed the start of the LCQ on his FMF/Xtreme-sponsored YZ with Voss , Roy and Lawrence looking to ad vance. Roy made the first move to the front and th en Lawren ce leap-frogged him, and the two held formation to the checkered flag - taking the final two picks on the main-event ga te. SEMIS MAIN EVENT Huffman go t the jump off the ga te in the fir st semi, bu t Pichon had his own plan an d had the lead after the slick first turn. Brown, Tortelli and FMF /Pire llibacked Jea n-Sebastien Roy ga ve chase. While Pichon pulled away to a fairly easy win, Tortelli, Brown and Huf fma n The re was no doubt as to who got into the comer first in the m ain event McGrath wa s gone aga in. Althou gh Craig did ma nage to run his front whee l d own the right side of McG rath's back exiting the first rh ythm section , the Califo rnia n s till crep t away, w ith Henry, Craig, Wi nd ha m , Lamso n , Lu sk a nd Hu g h es givi ng chase . Em ig ca me arou nd in abou t 15th, w hile hi s teamm ates To r te lli an d Huffma n ca m e together again in the first tu m and were left in the mud . Th e action was defi nitely hot a nd heavy behind McGra th, but he si mply pulled away on his Randy Lawrencetu ned YZ250, winning with so me 11 seconds on second place. "Our hea t race wa s like four seco nd s faster, so I was really confiden t going in ," McG ra th said about th e ma in . "I still was a little nervous, just like always at th e beginnin g of races. I just nailed the start a nd ca me around th e co rner, and Craig kind of landed on me . But it was no problem; it wa s jus t the firs t-turn mess there. After that I just charged really hard and gotaway from everyone . Th e ra ce w e nt pretty mu ch flaw less except I almost cras hed once in that first corn er . I almost swapped out." Behind McG rath, a war broke out involving teammates Henry and Windham, Albertyn, Lusk, Hughes, Bu tton and Craig. Henr y and Windha m wen t back a nd forth on the first lap, but Henry eventually got a littl e breathing room. Then Lusk bagged Albertyn for fou rth as Button started his ma rch forwar d . Soon after, A1bertyn we nt d own, dropping to the back of the field . On lap seven , disaster struck Lu sk 7