Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Su zuki- mou nted Larry Ward , Grea t Lakes Airlines-backed Heath Voss, Ballzee/ FMF/ Hu saberg-backed Jim Neese, Albertyn and Windham. Ho nda's Lusk was back in about 20th , though still bet ter off than th e unlucky LaRocco , who got caught up in a second- turn pile -up and started dead last. Henry ma de a few frantic att empts at passing Emig on the first lap and br iefly suc ceed ed, on ly to h a ve Em ig s trike rig ht back on lap tw o in th e sweep ing corner that follows the Du nlop Doub les. Emig di ved to the inside of the Yamaha in the air and pus hed the Yamaha ou t, effecting his first pass for the lead of any ra ce in th e 1998 AMA Na tio n a l MX Series. "I felt like I neede d to ride hard and fast from the start, and that meant staying ou t front," said Emig of his ag gre ss ive ea rly pa ce . "I wa nted to ride m y own race, eve n if th a t m eant sh ow ing everyo ne else my lines early on. I can' t afford to be pa tient anymore." So off Em ig wen t with the lead for the first time since the op en ing mo to of the outd oor series back in San Bernard ino, Californ ia, cutting 2:44 lap tim es and lookin g lik e h e u s ed to. H enry hung tou gh in seco nd, follow ed by Wa rd , Wind ham, Albertyn and Pichon . N ext came a grou p of p rivateers led by Voss and rising Canad ian s tar [ean-Sebastien 'Roy; then came Lusk and then LaRocco, 'w ho had al rea dy suffered his se cond bad br eak of the day wh en he ran into a rid er he w as passin g and sna p pe d his shift lever off, leaving him to finish the 'rest of the moto stuck in third gear. , Over the course of the next few laps , Emig seeme d to be easing away from ' Henry u n til a biza rre d ouble m ish ap nearly cha nged eve ry thi ng but ended u p meanin g nothin g. Emig stalled his Kaw asak i in a d eep berm a nd h ad a h ard time restarting hi s m oto rcycle, - w hich op en ed the. do or w ide for .Henry to reta ke th e lead . But wh en H enry dived inside to make the pass, he in turn ' fell ov er and s ta lle d hi s bike. Ein ig's bi ke refired , a n d h e t o ok o ff be fore H enry could do likewise. And once he did, the ga p between the tw o remained almost exactly the same. "I was just sitting ther e and my bike w ould n't s tart fo r fiv e or s ix ki ck s, " recalled Emig of the momentary pause in his ra ce for the w in . "Th en Dou g comes in under me and just-falls over. 1 think he was looking at me and lost his concentra tion or some thing ." "Th a t w as hilari ou s! " s a id the a lways -s m ili ng H enry . " I w a s li ke , 'There he is! I go t him : and then I fell 'over on my own. He ge ts goi ng and it' s l ike n oth ing h app en ed a t a ll . If yo u we re on the other sid e of the track, you n e v er wo u ld h a v e kn o wn it h a p 'pened ." l By thi s tim e Ward w as goi ng b ackward wh ile his teammate Alb ertyn wa s 'moving up. They sw itched the third and ' fou rth positions, leaving Albertyn to tJchase after the leaders, while Ward con' tinued his slow fade to sixth. Albertyn 's J p ace carried right up to H enry' s back ~ bu m per, and with 10 minutes to go, he ) finally made a pass. Henry battled right 1 back, and the two began engaging in a "d uel that would allow Emig to get away 'with the race win and would end with "both of them on the ground. "Doug tried to make a pretty aggress ive pass on me on t he ou tside, in a place where there reall y wasn't room," exp la ined Albertyn la ter . "I wasn' t ':expecting it all. He hit me in the shoul'd er so hard I cou ld feel it pop out an d ~ we both we n t down ." ; "I tried to get by hi m in a few places (Above) Doug Henry (19) grabs the holeshot in th e fi rst 250cc mota over Emig (1), Larry Ward (4), Heath Voss (46), GregAlbertyn (7) and th e rest of the pack. Henry wen t on to finish second over all with a 2-3 and st ill maintains th e series po in ts lead over Albertyn, 243-209. (Left) Suzuki's Mic kael Pichon rode we ll and took third overall with a 3-5. (Below) Pichon's teammate Greg Albertyn is still in the hunt for the title and finished f ourt h overall (3-5). and that was really my last good chanc e, so I had to take it: ' explained Henry. At a ny rate, H enry got up off th e gro u nd first and mana ged to cross the finish line with a runner-up finish - his sixth straig ht moto on the po di um da ting back to the second moto of the High Poin t Nation als. Albe r ty n ro lled over the lin e in th ird , follow ed by a lat echargi ng Pichon and a somewhat ou t-ofsy n c Windha m . Ward wa s sixth, follow ed by the ca ut ious Lusk , KTM 250-mounted La nce Sm a il, Ro y a n d LaRocco. MOTO TWO To thE!'surprise of almos t everyone in the park, the fear less Lusk rocketed int o the lead to start the second 250cc rnoto, broken arm and all. Emig and Pichon tucked in cl os e , foll o w ed by Ward , Henry and LaRocco. For half a lap, Lusk held the le a d on th e n u m be r- th ree Ho nda befor e he arrived a t Lakocco's Leap . At that point, he ro lled up on the left to double and allowed Emig to go overhead whe n he did the triple. By the end of th e lap, Emig w'lls in co n tro l again on th e n u mbe r- o ne Kawasak i; th e n ca m e Lusk, Pichon , Wa r d, He nry, LaRocco, Wi ndham, a poo r-starting Albe rty n, Nee se an d Voss . Lus k ma de a few sta bs at retaking the lea d fro m Emig, but in do ing so he ju nked th e fast, bu mped approach to the

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