Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

• MOTOCROSS ~; . ~~~t:Ifg:~~~NSHIP ,~ Round 10: Spring Creek Motocross Park 250cc MX SERIES By Kit Pa lmer Photos by Kin ney Jones A 8 ~ ~ MILLVILLE, MN, AUG. 16 hat if. T hes e tw o w ord s mu st b e \ [ [ } haunting Team Kawasaki's Jeff Emig right abou t now , especi a lly af ter posting a pair of wins in front of 15,175 s p ec ta tors a t th e Sp ri ng Cree k 250cc Nati onal Motocross in Minn esota. With jus t tw o round s le ft to go in th e AMA / Maz da Tru ck Nationa l Cha mpio ns h ip 250cc MX Series, Emig , th e defending 250cc cha mp, has moved into second place in the series poin ts chase but is still trailing lead er Doug Hen ry by 50 poi nts. This is the sa me am ou nt of poi nts - or therea bo ut - he could have had in his possession had it no t bee n for a couple of DNFs earlie r in the year. So, what if he had not DN Fed those races? Well, at the very least, he wo uld be rig ht in the thick of a title race - pe rhaps even lead in g it. As it s ta nds now , th oug h , Em ig' s chances of a se cond 250cc titl e this yea r ar e slim. Pretty mu ch all he can do now is hope to win the rem aining fou r moto s in the series and hope even harder tha t' someth ing bad happens to Henry ; p erhaps so me th ing lik e what happened to h im se lf - a coup le of mechanica l failures - wou ld be nice . But, for now, Emig will have to settle fo r his fourth w in of th e season af te r post ing a pair of solid w ins at the scenic Spring Creek MX Pa rk, a plac e tha t has trea ted him well as of late. His latest win wa s Emig's third straight victo ry at the Johnny Ma rti n-ow ned facility. In the firs t rno to, Emig passed Henry on th e first la p and rod e off to victo ry, but in the second moto he had to work a little harder , having to pass both Henry and (Abov e) Doug Henry (19) pulled the holeshot in bot h moto s on his fact ory Yamaha thumper. Here, he leads Jeff Emig (1), Ezra l usk (3), l arry Ward (4) and Mike Kat in (56) th rough the first turn in the second mot o. Henry ended up going 3-2 for second overall . (Right ) Emig not ched his fourth win of the year at Spring Creek. Team Honda's Ezra Lusk before pulling away o ~ h is Je re m y A lb rec h t- tu n ed Kawasak i KX250 for his seco nd win of the day. "My bike wor ked really well tod ay, I rod e real strong, and I felt good, " Emig said . Fini s hi ng second ove ra ll a t Sp rin g Creek was Henry , w ho simply neve r ga ve up, even when things were looking a litt le gri m . Afte r getti ng passed by Emig in the first rnoto, Hen ry dropped off the pace ever so sligh tly but foun d a second wi nd near the middle of the race. He caug h t back up to the rider he hopes to dethrone as the Nationa l Ch ampion, but tw o minor bobbl es in one lap on two of th e tra ck' s mon st rou s d o wnhi ll s turn ed th e hunter int o th e hunt ed . Heriry eventually gave way to Kawa saki's Ryan Hu ghes and had to settl e for third . In th e se cond moto, Henry s lip ped back to fou rth afte r taking the holeshot and he was in d an ger of being relega ted to fifth, un til a seri es of events - mostly other riders crashing - helped position him back int o second . His 3-2 mot o finishes ga ve him runner-up hon ors for the d ay. Hu gh es surprised a number of people by chasing down and passin g Henry for se co nd p lace in tha t firs t moto . It

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