Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

(Left) McGrath was on his way to chasing down Lusk for the lead when bike problems slowed him down. The defending champ still managed second place, but more importantly, he moved into the points lead. (Below) Lusk garnered the win in Anaheim via a pictureperfect holeshot. McGrath/Button scuffle. Still turning in a great ride, LaRocco's fourth place dropped hinl from first in points to second behind McGrath, but by just one point, 100-101. Lusk sits in third with 90. "I know 1 got fourth and that isn't horrible, but I felt like I rode tense and I'm just not real happy about it:' LaRocco said. Finishing fifth behind LaRocco and coming off a win in Seattle last weekend, Team Suzuki's Larry Ward started a strong seventh, moved his way up to fifth rather quickly, and even challenged laRocco for a while. Improving his starts from past rounds and finishing sixth in Anaheim was Team Kawasaki's Damon Huffman. Behind Huffman was YZ250-mounted David Vuillemin, while eighth went to fellow Frenchman Sebastien Tortelli, who finished one spot ahead of Honda teammate Mickael Pichon. Pichon came out of the gate in second place and stayed in the top five until giving way to LaRocco on lap nine, and 10th went to oleen Motorsport/ PirelU /Thor /Wiseco-backed YZ250 pilot Tim Ferry, who has so far put in a rather successful true privateer effort. Kawasaki's Jeff Emig once again suffered poor starts to finish in 11 th, followed by Yamaha's John Dowd, who finished on the podium in third a week earlier in Seattle. Team Suzuki's Greg AIbertyn ran as high as seventh a tone point before crashing and falling back to finish 13th, ahead of Honda's Kevin Windham, who was battling the flu. CR250-mounted Heath Voss, Suzuki's Kyle Lewis, and RM250 jockey Ryan Terlecki finished 15th through 17th. Mazda/Fox/Chaparral Yamaha's Steve Lamson had a less-than-stellar night, finishing an uncharacteristic 18th, which was mostly due to a late-race fall. Team Suzuki's Robbie Reynard finished a disappointing 19th, willie Kawasaki of Mexico/PG Racing's Pedro Gonzales completed the 20-rider field. HEATS McGrath grabbed the holes hot and ran away with the win in the first heat race. Behind McGrath wa a tight scuffle for second place. On the second lap, Tortelli was holding up second, ahead of the hard-charging group of Lamson, Windham, Voss and Albertyn. As the race for second wound down, however, Tortelli was the first to drop out. "I tried to triple this small thing," said Tortelli. "It was a ta bletop and then a triple after that, but I cased it and killed my engine. I went back to sixth after that and could not pass anyone." With Tortelli out, Lamson moved into the second spot, but not for long. Despite being sick, Windham was able to get around Lamson just before the white-flag lap. Albertyn grabbed the final qualifying position, finishing Jourth. "My heat race was killer; I couldn't have ridden it better," McGrath said. "It was a textbook race." Heat two provided a little more action from the drop of the gate to the fir t turn. Lu k actually grabbed the holeshot, but before he could get ou t of the first turn, he, Button and Huffman were all picking up their bikes from the ground. Reynard wasted little time in getting his Suzuki out fron t. LaRocco fell in behind Reynard, followed .by Gonzales, Dowd, Ferry and Vuillemin. Lu k remounted and set out for the final transfer spot - fourth - but in the end he could only muster a sixth-place finish. Up front, Reynard and LaRocco checked out, claiming first and second. Dowd cruised comfortably around in third, while the race for fourth between Ferry and Vuillemin heated up to the very end. As the two Yamaha riders came around for the checkered flag, Ferry held on, sending Vuillemin to the semis. SEMIS A hard-charging Pat Foster grabbed the holeshot of the first semi aboard his Tom Morgan Racing-backed YZ250. As quickly as Foster got off the gate, he also hit the ground in a whoop section on the first lap, handing the lead over to Ward. Ryan Terlecki moved his RM into econd, behind Ward, but he could not hold off Emig, who moved into the runner-up spot before the race was two laps old. Pichon and Voss also found their way around Terlecki, but the resident of Salem, Oregon, held on to claim the final qualifying position ahead of sixth- place finisher Tortelli, who had to go to the last-ehance qualifier with the rest of the field. It was Lusk with another holeshot at the start of semi two, with Huffman right Ot:l his side. Just as the two made the right-hander into the first double jump, Button shot by and squeezed between Huffman and Lusk to momentarily take the lead. Obviously caught by surprise, Lusk fough t back on the fir t lap, but just before the start of lap 7

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