Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
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Round 3: Bank One Ballpark TOYOTA TRUCKSiTHORIPARTS UNLIMITED AMA SUPERCROSS SERIES By Kit Palmer Photos by Kinney Jones PHOENIX, AZ. JAN. 23 n one fell swoop, Jeremy McGrath not only scored his first supercross win of the year, but he moved into the series points lead after posting a start-to-finish win in front of a sellout crowd of 48,702 at the new Bank One Ballpark in downtown Phoenix. It was vintage McGrath all over again as he put his Randy Lawrence10 tuned, Mazda/ 0 Fear/1-800-COLLECT/Chaparral Yamaha YZ250 out in front of the 20-rider pack right off the start. He then sprinted out to a modest but comfortable lead and simply let III whatever happened behind him hapI!II pen. Luckily for him, things couldn't U have gone any better. McGrath went on iii to capture his 53rd career supercross Q win while his main series rival thus far • Team Honda's Ezra Lusk, who won the 8l opening two races of the season - was ~ shot down in flames with a couple of Mcrashes that led to a disastrous 16th~ place finish. ~ McGrath now holds the series lead, albeit by one point, with 61 points over u.. Team Honda's Mickael Pichon and Fac6 tory ConnectionlJack in the Box/ I I II! .g 0' eal/Honda's Mike LaRocco, who are tied with 60 points. Pichon and LaRocco finished second and third, respectively, in Phoenix. "You know, it's always quite an ' experience when you get that first win of the year," said McGrath, a five-lime AMA Supercross Champion. "You just never know when or where it's going to happen, and, when you do get it, it's a big relief. I feel I"m getting stronger 7-2-1 in the last three races. I couldn't be happier." As mentioned, Pichon and LaRocco filled out the second and third steps on the podium in what was for all intents and purposes a fairly uneventful main event - there were no position changes among the top three throughout the 20lap race. Even McGrath jokingly apologized to the huge crowd from the podium for it being a "boring" race. Pichon did, however, manage to keep McGrath honest during the opening laps before settling back to remain steady at three to five seconds behind. McGrath locked up the contest late in the race when he got through lapped traffic a little quicker than Pichon. "I wi\s trying to stay with Jeremy:' Pichon said, "but he was too fast tonight. I made a couple of mistakes and decided to stay with second, e pecially towards the end, with the lapped traffic. But I'm very happy; I'm happy to be consistent, and that is what's important right now." This was Pichon's second podium appearance of the three-race-young series. As for LaRocco, it was his third traight visit to the podium in three races - and all three times he's been third. 0 one else thus far has been as consistent as the veteran racer. In Phoenix, LaRocco got an unusually good (for him) third-place start, and he didn't let it go to waste. He never really got close enough to riously challenge Pichon for second, but, on the other hand, no one really got close enough to rattle him, either, and he rode to an unchallenged third. But all wasn't as wonderful a it appeared for the former AMA 250 and 500cc ational Champion. "I actually felt a little stiff out there not real spunky," LaRocco admitted while showing off the rea on for his being "not lively" on the track: a nastylooking, deep bruise in the knee area of his right leg. "I got this last week (when he collided with another rider at the San Diego SX) and it (the leg) just felt stiff all night. I'm kind of urprised how things turned out." The Phoenix Supercross pretty much ended the same way it started: with Jeremy McGrath (1) oul in front, followed by Mickael Pichon (5) and Mike laRocco (3). . Unlike the top three, Team Suzuki's Robbie Reynard had a, exciting night. He started off in 11 th but worked his way up to fourth - all before the fifth lap. Reynard then stayed there for the rest of the race, but he could never really relax, because fifth-place finisher Damon Huffman wa never too far behind. It was Huffman's best finish flUs year. Reynard's Suzuki teammate Larry Ward, who was shaking off the effects of the tail end of a bout with the flu and was still feeling a little sore following a run-in with another rider the previous week in San Diego, sta rted off in sixth, climbed to fourth at one point early in the race, and then dropped back to eventually finish sixth. Team Honda's Kevin Windham, who admitted he's still developing his technique on his new Honda CR250, ended up seventh after a 10th-place start. After working his way up, Windham was passed by 16th-place starter and team-