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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127953
MOTOCROSS AMAlMAZDATRUCK NATIONAL CHAMPIONS HIP 250cc M XSERIES Round 7: Unadilla Valley Sports Center J ~. the firs t mo to and finished eigh t . A m u ch- ins pi red Wa rd came back and near ly pulled off a d ramatic come-from-behind wi n in the second moto. Mike LaRocco, on th e Facto ry Conn e ctio n /] a ck In The Bo x H on d a , matched Ward on points for the day but was credited for fou rt h overall wi th a 63 tally. Rounding ou t the top five overall was Henr y, who we nt 3-6, After placing' a well-earned seco nd in the first moto, a bad start and a sma ll cras h ended Lusk's hopes of a wi n and CDSt him any points he had gai ned by finis hing ahead of series lead er Henry in the first m o to, Despite having a rock fly up and hi t Lusk in the same arm that he broke four wee ks agD, Lusk said that the felt good an d di d not bo ther him at Unad illa. A pa ir of fif th-p lace fini shes gave Greg A lberty n seven th overa ll, w hile tw o sevent h-p lace rides gave Mickael Pichon eigh th . Rounding ou t the top 10 overall wer e Kawasak i's Ryan Hughes 0 0-9) - in wh at was his firs t ride back sin ce injuring his kn ee last Ma y - and Canadian [ean -Sebastien Roy (9-11). Fairport, Ne w York's Bru ce Stra tton rode hi s C ol d Spo rt Cycl e Suzu ki to 11t h o vera ll, via 12-10 moto finishes, whil e Brockton Cycle Centers Keith Johnson gr abbed 12th overall with 14-13 arm By K it Pa lmer Photos by Ka rl Oc ke rt NEW BERLIN, NY, JULY 19 ea m Kawasa ki's Jeff Emig, on his Je r em y A lbrecht-tuned KX250, beca me o nly th e seco nd rider to pos t more than one 250cc National victory this season, following what was, without a doubt, another lege ndary battle on the legend ary Unadilla motocross track. After finishing fourth in the opening moto, Emig had little hope of taki ng his seco nd 250cc Na tional win in a row , or his second straight success a t Unadilla for tha t matt er, bu t he knew tha t if he was to have a cha nce at all, he wo ul d have to w in the second moto and simply hope that everything else would fall his way. It did , Emig's fou rth-place rid e in the firs t mot o w as overs hadowed b y a noth er strong rid e turned in by Team Yam aha's Ke vin W indham , w ho was s im p ly unto uchable in the first moto , Windham jumped ou t to an ear ly lead in the opening mot o and rode to victo ry unchallenged. While running all alon e ou t in front , Windham avoid ed a large , sixrid er sw apfest for positions two through seven, which kept the large, 13,OOD-plus Undadilla crowd on its feet throughout the 3D-minut e-p lus-two-lap moto. Team H o nd a ' s Ezra Lusk pushed and shoved h is way thro ugh th e lon g line of riders to eve ntually finish second and gain a few precious points on series po ints leader Doug Henry, who finished out the moto in third. Emig too k fourth, ahead of Team Suzuki's Greg Albertyn a n d M ickael Pichon , whil e an other T 18 (Above) A large Unadill a crowd saw Team Kawasa ki's Jeff Emig (1) squ eak out a second-mota win over larry Ward . Emig went 4-1 lor the ove rall wi n. (Right ) Yamaha's Kevin Windham was unbeata ble in the l irst 250cc mota, but a cr ash while ch all eng ing Emig lor t he lead in the secon d mota ended his hopes 01 a Unad ill a sweep. Instead , Windham went 14 l or second overall . Suzuki team ride r, Larry Ward, finis hed well off the pace in eighth. Emig, however, came DUt swinging in the second moto and had control Df the lead by the en d of the firs t lap , while Windh am m o ved in to seco nd pl ace . . Pre tty soon, Ernig - rid in g w ith a SDre sho u lder that he injured w hile practicing earlier in the week - and Windham w ere a t eac h ot her' s throat s, as th ey diced for th e lead , w hich bo th ri d ers desperatel y wanted . Windham , perhaps wanting it a littl e too mu ch , e v e ntu al y lo s t th e front wheel o f hi s Yamaha a n d cras he d , dropping to fourth and han ding Emig a bi g lead and what sh ould 've been an easy w in Ior the Ka w a s ak i r ider. In stead , Ward , who had fi na lly ha d enough of watching all the fu n in front o f him, ch ased Emig d own and was wi thi n striking distan ce by the time the . tw o-lap board came out. • The moto win and overall was on the line for Emig, just like it was last year at Una d illa, w he n Yam aha' s John Dowd cha llenged Emig at th e end . And just like la st yea r , Emig held o n to wi n barely. Sore shoulder and all. Emig a nd Win d h a m tra d ed 1-4 sco res , with Emig getting th e nod by way of his better mot o placing in the tiebr eaking second moto. "I' m really s to ke d," Emig sa id . "I was so mad after the first moto, because I felt I could 've won that moto. It fired me up an d wh en it came time to rid e the se con d mot o, I was ready. Bu t in the middle (of the mot o) I rea lly lagged . I got a little too relaxed . "I'd d o a 2:10 one lap and a 2:14 the next. I wa s also worried , after the firs t mo to, that I di d n't thi nk my shoulder was going to hold up." Finishing on the podium in th ird place was Ward , who just cou ld n' t catch the draft of the lead group of riders in mot o finis hes. Ton y Ama radio (13-16), Heath Voss (15-15) and Jeff Dem ent (1137) rounded ou t the top 15. Despite finis hing fifth ove ra ll, none of Henry' s closes t rival s in th e se ries points stand ings fared mu ch better than him , thus allowing him to mainta ining his comfortable points lead . Now, seven ro unds in to the 12-race se ries, Hen ry holds on to a he althy 37-po in t advantage over Albertyn , 278-241. Five poi nts behind Albertyn is Pic ho n, with 236, and two points behind the Frenchman is laRocco with 231. Windham is next in line with 229 poi nts, followed by Lusk with 224 and Emig with 212.