Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Round 3: Bank One Ballpark TOYOTA TRUCKSiTHORIPARTS UNLIMITED AMA SUPERCROSS SERIES (Left) For the third time in as many weeks, LaRocco finished in third place. laRocco and Pichon are now tied for second place in the point standings, just one point behind new series leader McGrath. (Above) The points leader going into the Phoenix Supercross, Ezra Lusk had 8 tough night, finishing 16th after crashing a couple of times. Here, Lusk leads Suzukl jockey Greg Albertyn. LAST-CHANCE QUAUFIER Both Kyle Lewis and Goodman missed out on transferring to the main by one position in their respective semis, but they finally earned a trip to the fe~ ture via strong rides in the last-chance qualifier. Lewis came out on top, with Goodman sneaking into the main with a second-place finish. Finishing one spot out of a tra'risfer in third was KTM's Lance Smail. I :Iii 1M !Ii IIii III ~ • ii Q 8 MAIN EVENT Just as he had hoped for, McGrath nailed the all-important holeshot in the 20-lap feature. "The starts are so important," McGrath said. "That was my second holeshot of the night, and I'm stoked with that. We've been working hard on tarts all week - we've done orne things. We mellowed out the motor a little bit - kind of detuned it - went to a more rounded tire and ran more air pressure. These things really helped. It takes your confidence away if you can't get the tarts." Still, Pichon tucked in right behind McGrath and was hoping to mount a challenge before the Yamaha rider could get away. But just before the end of the first lap, Pichon clipped a couple of bales that were lining the track. His slight miscue disrupted his momentum just enough to let McGrath get a firm grip on the lead. LaRocco, meanwhile, settled into third, followed by Huffman, Dowd, Ward, Emig, Lu k, Albertyn and Windharn. Ward quickly made his move and slipped by poth Dowd and Huffman; then Lusk got Emig, as did Reynard. By the fourth lap, a. three-way dogfight had developed - involving Dowd, Lusk and Reynard - with the trio sandwiched between Kawasaki's Huffman and Emig. A couple of laps later, things got a little too close when Dowd and Lusk got together. Both riders went down, with Lusk taking the brunt of the impact - as was evidenced by the black tire marks on his Honda's right side panel and the large dent in the exhaust pipe. (Lusk would say later that the damaged exhaust pipe did not seriou ly affect his motorcycle's performance.) "1 shut down and cut to the inside (of the turn), and 1 guess John wasn't prepared and jumped into me:' Lusk aid of the incident. "It rang my bell pretty good." Lu k would get right back up, but he didn't have his hand firmly on the clutch lever and dropped his bike again, losing even more time. Moments after re-entering the race, Lusk went down a third time. "I got up too quick and was not over the first crash:' Lusk said. "I was a little bit short over a double and 10 t the front end." By this point, all Lusk could do was circulate the track and try to salvage as many points as he could. He eventually finished 16th. Despite his performance, Lusk didn't let the night get him down. He shrugged his shoulders afterward and said, "The e things are going to happen, but... this will never happen again." Meanwhile, McGrath continued to lead the way - unaware of what had happened to Lusk. He eventually saw the Honda rider up al,ead and was surprised to lap his adversary. "[ really didn't know who was in second, but I knew it was a Honda rider:' McGrath s.aid. "When I saw it (the lapped rider ahead of him) was Ezra, I thought, 'That's Lusk!' There are only a few guys who can go 20 hard laps, so I was surprised to see him, but I was relieved." With Lusk out of the picture, McGrath was now able to relax a little bit more and he easily threaded his way through and around slower traffic as the race neared its conclu ion. Once into' lapped traffic, McGrath all but cemented his victory as he put riders between himself and Pichon, who maintained his lead over LaRocco. McGrath went on to take the win with a comfortable five-second margin over Pichon, followed by LaRocco a few seconds back. Reynard, meanwhile, broke away from the pack just past the halfway point to finish a lonely fourth. An exciting finish it was not. But well back in fifth battled Ht.t,ffman and Ward, the pair spending the last five laps in close company. In the end, Huffman managed to hold back the Suzuki rider. After a short gap cam a closely bunched group of riders led by seventh-placed Windham, followed by Emig, Tortelli and Lamson. One notable rider finishing well back in the pack in 17th was Button, who was right in the thick of things, mixing it up with Lusk, Dowd, Emig and Windham early in the race, when he stalled hi four-stroke Yamaha coming out of a tum. But the man of the h ur was McGrath, who scored a popular win with the Phoenix fans. "I just feel great," McGrath said. "With the ·track being kind of easy, it was important to get a good start, push; but not push too hard and make a mistake. I was really looking forward to thi weekend, but 1was disappointed to find the track to be so ea y, but it turned out all right. 1 would be very happy if the tracks were more difficult." Another happy rider was fifth-placed Huffman. "Decent:' Huffman said. "That's the best word to describe my ride - I just rode tonight, that was about it. I made no mistakes, so I'm happy with fifth. Things are beginning to come together." ~ Bank One Ballpark Phoenix, Arizona Results; January 23, 1999 (Round 3 of 16) 2SO HEAT 1 (8 laps, 1-' transfer to nuin): 1. Robbie Reynard (Suz); 2. Jeff Emig (Kaw); 3. Larry Ward (Suz); 4. Mike LaRocco Scb3Stien TortcUi Pedro Gonzalez Takeshi Koikeda (Hon); 5. Mickael Pichon (Hon); 6. (Hon); 7. Kevin Windham (Hor\); 8. (Kaw); 9. Lance Smail (KTM); 10. (Yam); 11. Akira arita (Hon); 12 Grayson Goodman (Han); 13. Pat Foster (Yam); 14. Espen Blikstad (Suu; 15. Jason McCormick (Hon); 16. Kelly Smith (KTM); 17. Ryan Terlecki (Suz); 18. James POyolny Jr. (Yam); 19. Brock Sellards (Hon); 20. DaVid VuilJemin (Yam). Ti.me: 6:34.660. 2SO HEAT 2 (8 laps, 14 transfer to main): 1. Jeremy McGrath (Yam); 2. Ezra Lusk (Han); 3. Greg Albcrtyn (Suz); 4. Damon Huffman (!

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