Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127980
Round 4: Seattle Kingdome TOYOTA TRUCKSt7HORIPARTS UNLIMITED AMA SUPERCROSS SERIES , Dowd and Great Lakes Aviation's Heath Voss. Windham took the early lead in the second heat race, but McGrath took it away from him before the first lap was over. Settling into third was Lusk, who was cha ed by Reynard, Lamson and Lawrence. McGrath opened up a comfortable lead, while Lu k slipped by his teammate Windham for second and set out after the leader. For the next couple of laps, though, Lusk could not make a dent in McGrath's modest lead, but he eventually started creeping closer as the two leaders started encountering lapped traffic. Suddenly, McGrath went down when he collided with a lapped rider who had gotten out of shape in the whoops. McGrath remounted in fifth and was trying to pass his teammate Lamson when he went down again. This time he wasn't happy. "Right when I left the jump to pass Lamson, [ saw one of those bales laying right in the middle of the track, and there were no flags," McGrath said. "1 cartwheeled myself. I was so pissed." Lusk went on to win the moto, followed by Windham, Reynard, Lamson, Lawrence and Emig. McGrath headed to the semis. SEMIS An aggres ive Dowd put his Yamaha into the lead after passing Tortelli and Albertyn during the first lap of the first semi, and he kept it there all six laps. However, the factory Yamaha rider could never relax after Ward put his Suzuki into second and kept him honest the whole way. Albertyn ended up third, followed by Tortelli, Ferry and Voss. Emig nailed the holeshot in the second emi, but before the first lap was over, McGrath had pulled up alongside the Kawasaki rider in a section of whoops and, without much of a fight, moved into the lead. From there, McGrath steadily pulled away for an easy win. Emig cruised around all alone in second and finished there, while Vuillemin did the same in third. Further back, the racing was closer, with Lawrence, Takeshi Koikeda and Pedro Gonzalez mixing it up. When it was all over, Lawrence finished a close fourth, followed by Gonzalez, who edged out Koikeda for a ticket to the main. (Above) The start 01 the 250cc main: Ward nails the holeshot and a bunch 01 riders are about to go down. (Below) The aftermath: Jell Emig (11) rides over SebaS1ien Tortelli's bike, while Jeremy McGrath (1), Jimmy Button (10), Mickael Pichon (5), Ezra Lusk (4) and Robbie Reynard (17) pick up the' pieces. LAST-eHANCE QUALIFIER The 20-fap main event got off to an ugly start, with at least seven riders going down in the first turn. McGrath looked to have the holeshot but was suddenly taken down from behind, and some of those crashing with him were Emig, Reynard, Button and three-quarters of the factory Honda team: Lu k, Tortelli and Pichon. "Jeremy was in the middle," Pichon said. "He had a great jump. 1 had to slow down (for the turn) and Button came to the inside and could not stop and he hit me and Jeremy." "I don't really know what happened," Lusk said. "1 just got tagged from behind." Sweeping around the outside and avoiding the crash zone, Ward put his Suzuki into the lead, followed by Windham, Dowd, Lawrence, Lamson, ROY, Albertyn, Vuillemin, Voss and Roy. McGrath came around the first lap in 15th, Lusk in 16th, Pichon in 17th, Emig in 18th, and Button in 19th. Lawrence's hope of a top fini h ended on the second lap when he clipped a bale and cartwheeled to the ground. At that point, he called it a night. Meanwhile, Ward continued to lead the way but he couldn't shake Windham, who seemed to be sizing up the Suzuki for the kill. Windham had some obviously faster line than Ward and was patiently waiting for that right moment to make his move, which finally came on the ninth lap. At Ule'end of a series of jumps, Windham dived to the inside of Ward in a tum and snatched the lead away from the Suzuki rider. Windham then proceeded to put a few bike lengths on Ward, and it appeared Windham would run off with his first win of the year. Instead, Windham started losing ground to Ward and was soon fighting for his life. Ward, seeing a second chance, pounced right away and retook the lead on the 11 th lap. It was a three-rider shootout in the LCQ, where only the top two riders transfer to the main. KTM rider Kelly Smith took the early lead and held it for three laps until Jean-Sebastien Roy passed him over the fini h-line double jump. Roy quickly pulled away, leaving Smith and Voss to argue it out over the last transfer position of the night. For Smith, the race was one lap too long, as Voss cu\ to the inside of the KTM rider to grab runner-up honors. MAIN EVENT