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/127934
"My shoulder blade and stuff are just traumatized," Emig said while getting a rubdown after the race. "I'm so stiff I couldn't lift my bike off the stand. I don't know what happened; I think I slept on it wrong, and all day it just got worse. I'm dying; I can barely take off my jersey. But it felt really good to be running up front again, I'll tell you that much." Finishing third and moving back into second place in the series point standings was Team Honda's Ezra Lusk, who is still riding with a sore left hand, the same hand he injured almost a month ago at the Indianapolis Supercross. Lusk had his opportunely to challenge both Emig and McGrath but never really got going, especially after nearly crashing while pursuing Emig for econd. That miscue knocked the wind aut of his sails and he was never again able to mount a serious challenge. For the second week in a row, Team Suzuki's Greg Albertyn finished fourth, this time advancing three positions after getting off to a seventh-place start. 'T m pretty happy - two fourths in a row," Albertyn said. "This is where I should be - and higher - every weekend. I've got my head screwed on again and I need to put my RM250 at the front. We've come up with a new development (with the bike) and we're really happy." Taking the checkered flag after Albertyn was Doug Henry on the factory Yamaha YZ400F. Henry ran as high as second in the early stages before surrendering to both Lusk and Albertyn. After coming from 19th to seventh in the previous week's mudfest at Tampa, Team Suzuki's Mickael Pichon climbed through the pack again. At Daytona, Pichon rounded the first lap in 12th place and chopped that number in half, claiming sixth before it was aU over. "It's my starts and my first two laps," Pichon said. "That's my problem. I'm not very strong in the beginning, but at the end I came back pretty good. I'm happy for my first Daytona on a 250. It's' tough - 20 laps. I won here in '96 on a 125; that was way easier, way easier to win on a 125 than a 250 here." Yamaha's John Dowd had a somewhat quiet ride, finishing seventh, fol- lowed by Kawasaki's Ryan Hughes, teammate Kevin Windham, Kawasaki's Damon Huffman and Honda of Troy's Mike Craig. Finishing a disappointing 12th was Mike LaRocco on the Factory Connection/Jack in the Box Honda. LaRocco was running sixth and closing when he was struck down by a flat rear tire and debris wrapped up his rear wheel. LaRocco still managed to hold off Honda's Steve Lamson, previous week's winner Larry Ward, and Kawasaki of Mexico/Tecate's Phil Lawrence. Rounding out the top 20 were Canadian JeanSebastien Roy, Honda of Troy's Mike Brown, Dirt Squirt's Tony Amaradio, KTM's Lance Smail, and Brockton 'Cycle Center's Keith Johnson. McGrath's win at Daytona further extended his lead in the series point standings to 56 points over Lusk, 202146. Dropping back to third after his somewhat disappointing eighth-place finish is Windham with 143. Emig is currently fourth with 136, followed by Ward with 134. Despite qualifying for the main event, Chaparral/Yamaha's Jimmy Button failed to score any points on the day after a couple of crashes left him in 23rd place. (Points are paid back only to 20th place.) Button is now eighth in points with 110. HEATS Albertyn grabbed the holeshot in the first race of Daytona:s three-heat-race forma t (where 30 - instead of the usual 20 - riders are accepted into the mam), but it wasn't long before his teammate Ward started challenging him for the lead. The two Suzuki riders ran side by . side for nearly all of the first lap before Ward claimed the top spot for himself. Ward then opened up a small lead while Lusk moved in on Albertyn. Albertyn and Lusk started going at it for a while until Lusk went to the inside of Albertyn, drifted wide and knocked Albertyn off the track and onto the ground. "It was my fault," Lusk said of taking Qut Albertyn. "It wasn't intentional, but I started to slide Sideways, kept sliding and hit him. He held me up." Albertyn had no hard feeling . '1t wasn't anybody's fault," he said. "His rear wheel hit a rock, slid out and caught under my frame. I went down pretty hard, but that's all part of racing." When Albertyn and Lusk hit, Pichon sneaked by them both and took sale possession of second. Albertyn got back up in fifth place, a little ways behind Craig. Ward went on to win, while Pichon rode td a second-place finish about three seconds behind his teammate. Lusk finished a distant third, followed by Albertyn, who passed Craig two laps from the end. The second heat was all Windham's. He passed LaRocco on the first lap and quickly pulled out to a six-second lead. LaRocco, however, came back and. closed the gap on Windham late in the race, but time ran out and Windham took the win. Kawasaki's Huffman ran third for a while before getting passed by his teammate Hughes, who went on to finish in that spot. Huffman took a close fourth, followed by B,own and Smail, one spot out of a transfer. Henry won the third heat race, but it wasn't easy. Elnig shot into the lead in front of McGrath, Button, Dowd, Lawrence and the eventual winner, Henry. Emig pulled away from McGrath, who began feeling some serious heat from his teammate Button. On the third lap, McGrath bobbled and Button got by. Shortly thereafter, Button ran off the track but still held on to second. A turn later, however, he lost the front wheel and went down. McGrath found himself in second again, but Henry had muscled his way up to third and started challenging the four-time champ. Henry finally railed the outside of a turn and passed McGrath for second.ยท Their battle had carried them up to Emig and, on the last lap, Henry cut underneath the Kawa aki rider in a turn and took the lead. Henry held on to take the popular win, followed by Emig, McGrath, Button, Lawrence and Dowd. SEMIS Gaulding's Kawasaki rider Kevin Crine scored an uneventful win in the (Above left) Team Honda's Ezra Lusk took third, sore hand and all. (Above) For the second consecutive week, Team Suzuki's Greg Albertyn finished fourth. first semi. He led from start to finish, while Johnson followed a few seconds behind him the whole way. It was a closer ba ttle from third place on back involving Billy Binckley, Ryan Terlecki, Tom Welch and Cory Bauder. When their race was over, Terlecki got by Binckley on the last lap to take third. Fifth went to Weich, and he was followed by Smail and Bauder. powd won the second semi but not withou t some resistance from Brown. Dowd jumped out to an early lead, but Brown passed him before the first lap was over. Brown looked as though he would run away with the win, but Dowd 'ran him down, passed him at the halfway point, and held on for the win. Third place went to Amaradio, followed by Roy and Kames Sport's Mike Kalin. LAST-CHANCE QUALIFIER Bauder sprinted. into the lead at the start of the LCQ and rode away to victory, but always had to keep an eye on Kawasaki rider Cory Hart. Hart, however, had Honda rider Heath Voss to deal with, as they battled to the finish. Bauder hung on for the win, while Hart finished just ahead of Vass. MAIN Just as he had done in his earlier heat race, Emig exploded out of the start gate, snaring himself a gigantic holeshot. After the first long lap, Emig still led, with Craig settling into second, followed by Lusk, Henry, Ward, McGrath and Albertyn. Way back in the pack after crashing was BuHon, who was making a move on the leaders when he crashed hard over a jump. Button got back up quickly but had to pull into the pit area to fix a jammed throttle. A couple of lap later, Button crashed again, and this put him out of contention once and for all. "I think I was in fourth behind Ezra and came around the first corner,