Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

SUPERCROSS THORIJ'ARTS UNUlllTED AliA SUPERCROSS SERIES jumped up on the pia;e~u:~'~a when 1 went to jump off it, the thing just bucked me completely over the bars," Button said of his first crash. "1 had to jump away from the bike and landed on my feet really hard. I'm not feeling too good right now. My arches are pretty sore. Henry was the first to make a move, passing both Lusk and Craig and putting his Yamaha into second. That, however, would not last for long, as McGrath began a charge of his own, taking control of second by the third lap. McGrath then stalked Emig and closed to within a bike length or two. The two riders opened a small lead over the rest of the pack as they circulated the rough and loamy track. McGrath seemed to be sizing up the Kawasaki rider and, on the seventh lap, he made his move. "Jeff was riding really good this weekend, much better than he has the last few weeks," McGrath said. "1 was behind him for a while but couldn't get by him. I'm like, 'Shoot, man, I need to push harder, be meaner, stronger: and that's what I kept telling myself." McGrath cut to the inside of Emig in a turn, encountering little resistance as he raced past the defending champ. Once into the lead, McGrath opened up a small lead on Emig but could not pull clear of the Ka wasaki rider. Emig never let McGrath out of his sight. At one point, McGrath opened up a six-second lead, but Emig would chop that distance in half as the race wore on. Emig got as close as two seconds on the leader with a couple of laps to go, but lapped riders halted his late-race advances, with McGrath taking the checkered flag I}early five seconds ahead of Emig. "1 was seven seconds in the lead for a while," McGrath said. "Then a few lappers got in my way, and it was cut down to about four seconds; then I pulled out to five seconds after that. "The track was pretty tough:' McGrath added., "My bike wasn't working that g!JOCl in the heat race. I wasn't real comfortable - my arms were tight. Round 9: Daytona International Speedway and being very strong - today I was having just a hard time riding. I wasn't racing." f~ Daytona International Speedway Daytona Beach, Florida Results: March 7, ~998 (Round 9 of 16) 2SO HEAT 1 (8 laps, 1-5 transfer to main); 1. Larry Ward (Suz); 2. Miche.l Pichon (Suz); 3. Ezra Lusk 1I John R. changed my suspension after the race. We watched the video, talked about it, and got my bike working really good. I had some really fast lines. I just put my head down. It was a long race, and I knew I had the strength to do it. Here you just need to push for 20 laps." Despite a stiff upper back, Emig charged hard right to the finish. "I really thought I could get him (McGrath) at the end, but I caught some lappers on a couple of the triple jumps and lost tons of times:' Emig said. '1 felt great; the bike was great." Finishing a distant third was Lusk. Earlier in the race, after passing Henry for third, Lusk challenged Emig for second, but a near crash over a triple jum p stalled his momentum and he would never get it back. Lusk ran third, all alone, for the rest of the race. "I felt really good early on:' Lusk said. "I've had a couple of problems the last few weeks. I'm just struggling with a little tenderness in my arms, and I think it's just because that thing I had a few weeks ago caused me to get tight. I'm just having a little problem holding Team Yamaha's Doug Henry ran as high as second before settling for fifth. on - that's the problem right now. It'll definitely work itself out." Fourth-place finisher Albertyn held down fifth for much of the race before passing Henry six laps from the end. Henry settled for fifth, followed a long way back by Pichon, who worked his way up from a 12th-place start. He was trailed closely across the finish line by Dowd, while Hughes, who spent much of his race dicing with Windham, took eighth. Windham got ninth, just ahead of Huffman. After winning last week in Tampa, Ward was disappointed with his 14thplace showing at Daytona. "I don't know what was wrong:' Ward said. "1 won my heat race, I felt okay, but in the main I could never get going, Guys would pass me, and I couldn't jump the obstacles, and more guys would pass me, I don't know - go horne, regroup and hopefully be a lot better next week. It's frustrating, five weeks in a row in the top four or five , Cup Champion won the Daytona 500 a few' weeks back1. Florida ~ative Ricky' Carmichael' exited the Daytona track after winning the 125cc mai.n and rode his SplitFire/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki up and along thl' 18· degree asphalt banking of the tri-oval area and'saluted the adoring hometown crowd, Fonowing Carmichael's lead, Jeremy McGrath performed the A big rumor that swept the pas in Daytona was that after 28 consecutive ~ame crowd-pleasing stunt (sans helmeO after winning the 250cc mairi. years, the 1999 edition of the Daytona Supercross may be held at a ditterent location. While there are number of factors involved, there's a Speaking of the Dayton/! tri-oval area, what does Nascar overlord Bill chance that next year's race will be held on the 2.5-mile Nascar Winston France Jr. think of an army of 125cc and 250cc motocross bikes tearCup circuit's back-stretch area. for which a massive section of granding up his green infield? "Bill's a big motorcycle fan, as is his brother Jim stands was built to hold the ever-increasing number of Nascar fans who France, who is the driving force behind Bike Week," said Daytona event attend each year's Daytona 500 and Pepsi 400, "It's a possibility," said director Gary Van Voorhis. "Back in the early 1970s, Bill Jr. and Jim track builder Gary Bailey. "There would be a lot of logistics involved, but got together, got'a hold of Gary Bailey, and asked him, 'Can we do someDaytona is looking to increase attendance for the event. and there's just thing at Daytona with this new sport of motocross?' The three of them not enough seating with the current setup. We'll have to see what haplooked it over and said, 'Let's try it: The rest, as they say, is history." pens." Brieflv... - The injured Scott Sheek of the FMF/Honda team was on hand in Daytona. Although not yet ready to return to the fray, Sheak, who tore his Achilles' tendon in half and did some severe bone damage to his leg in a Califomia Winter Serie,s race back in January, was upbeat about returning to the·circuit soon. "I hope to be back for the Nationals." Sheak said. "I've been training in a swimming pool twice a day and hope to jump on a bike and be able to go trail riding. when I get back to California. I have not been on a motorcycle since I injured myself. My goal is to get back for the Glen Helen National in May." Team Kawasaki manager Bruce Stjemstrom and technician Jeremy Albrecht gave the impression trat they had reached the end of a long, hard road following the 250cc main in Daytona. "One more spot would hav.e been better," said Albrecht in regard to Jeff Emlg's second-place finish, "but this is the light at the end of the tunnel. He was in contention the -entire race and was aclJJally beginning to reel McGrath in towards the eod of the race. This was a real step forward for us. Jeff charged and rode hard the entire raee. It's been a good week for him. and he felt real comfortable coming into Daytona." Stjemstrom added: "This will really help him. People are so fickle in this sport. You can be huge, and then if you don't win, you're yesterday's news. The fans don't come around, no one wants to interview you, and no one is bugging you for ticketi., and Jeff's had to deal with that. For us, this is the first race of the second half of the season. " ' Judging by the team's big win in Tampa last week, and the very respectable fourth- and sixth·place finishes of Greg Albertyn and MickaI'I F;'ichon, respectively, at Daytona on 'Saturday, the Suzuki factory outfit seems t,o be back on form and clicking like a well·oiled machine, "Mitch Payton at Pro Circuit has helped us out." said the team's manager, Roger DeCoster, "We had not worked with Mitch thus far in '98. but he told us a few weeks ago that he had fixed a few things on the RM motors recently, and we tried them during the ,wee.k, The riders thought they were pret· ty good and we ran them at Tampa. " According to team manager Paul Lindsey, Team Tecate/Kawasaki of Mexico's Ryan Clark, who was fifth in the AMA 125cc East Region points chase heading into Daytona Beach. broke his wrist at the event and will b€ out indefinitely. In the Dale Eamhardt celebration mold (the seven-til1)e Nascar Winston Eric John_,n (Han); 4. Greg Albertyn (Suz); 5. Mike Craig (Han); 6. Keith Johnson O

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