Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

career and his fourth in Atlanta. "I was putting a lot of pressure on my elf to get a holeshot that time, and it worked." John Dowd made it a 1-2 Yamaha finish with his dogged pursuit and eventual conquest of Suzuki's Ward. In the top five from the start, Dowd pounced when Ward slowed at the end. The 33year-old Massachusetts native finished 4.009 seconds behind McGrath. "I got a good tart and managed to hang in there," Dowd said. "1 thought 1 had something for Jeremy, but he's a smart, mart racer," Ward said. "That's why he's a five-time champ. He made the jump, and about halfway he started going. 1 tried to hang with him; 1just couldn't do it tonight." Blaming himself for not being aggressive enough at the start, hometown favorite Ezra Lusk finished fourth on his factory Honda CR250. "1 was in a good position to win the race," said Lusk, whose helmet was painted in the colors of the Super Bowllosing Atlanta Falcons. "I just didn't make aggressi ve passes like 1 should have:' Lusk also refused to blame his performance on the pressure of riding before his fellow Georgians. "I just didn't make aggressive passes, and I should have," he said. Kawasaki's Jeff Emig was a very happy fifth, his best finish of the year. "I think 1 just got my head turned around," said Emig, who has been truggIing this year. '1 got passed a couple of times, but only when 1 made mistakes. [would ay I was running the speed of the pack with a good tart. That' how everybOdy has had good finishes this year." Along with Lusk, Emig was part of a pack of five riders just outside the top three. The racing was close and physical - too c10 e, according to sixth-place finisher Mike LaRocco on the Factory Connection/Jack in the Box Honda. LaRocco had been taken out in his heat race, and he didn't do well in his semi. This r:'eant he had a bad pick in his starting spot for the main. That put him ill 13th a t the end of lap one, and he steadily worked his way up. "1 actually felt good riding until [ caught up to Emig (on the 13th.lap) and then he did his usual block-and-cut-youoff-and-slice-you-in-the-air-type stuff, and 1 ended up getting stuck behind him and it stopped my drive," LaRocco said. ''I'm not happy about that. There was a whole group right there and Iwas stuck at the back behind Emig, and I thought for sure 1 could've gotten third from what 1 could see was going on. He ju t kept running me off the track and 1 just lost my momentum, but [ ended up getting around him." Another of the riders in the pack was Honda's Mickael Pichon. The Frenchman noticed that the pack wa running at a pace that was detrimental to their collective progress. They slowed each other down, allowing the leaders to get away and their pursuers to catch up. "And also, it's hard ttl pa ,because you make a lot of mistakes because you can't see very far in front of you, so you try differeLlt lines - sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't work," the seven th-place finisher said. "It's pretty tough. For sure, it's so much easier to start out in front." Toward the end of the race, Pichon was also slowed when his forearms pumped up. The fastest rider on the track may have been eighth-place finisher Kevin Windham. The factory Honda rider was away well at the start but was victimized by an incident just in front of him tyn, was SplitFire/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki's Nathan Ramsey. With the win, McGrath continued his assault on a sixth title. After even of 16 races, he leads LaRocco by 1 point, 148-130. Lusk is third with 128. HEATS (Above) Larry Ward put his Suzuki on the podium for the second time this year. (Below) Mickael Pichon squeezes his Honda through the first tum in a heat race. Pichon went on to finish seventh in the main. It was clear from the start that the Dirt Wurx-designed track was one of the toughest of the year. A section of 13 whoops, just before a 180 that led to the finish-line jump, separated the men from the boys and the boy from their bikes. Getting through there wa crucial, and losing momentum meant having to slow down and, inevitably, getting passed. There was more than one line to it and more than one approach, but getting through the whoops cleanly was the essential ingredient for success. Mazda/Chaparral/Yamaha's Steve Lamson got the jump on the field in the first of the eight-lap heats, taking LaRocco with him. Soon they were joined by Ward and Lusk. LaRocco ran into trouble in the whoops on the second lap and Ward scooted by to c10 e on Lamson. Front to back, there was a five-rider pack heading thepoml On the fourth lap, Ward took the lead from Lanlson, who would soon fall victim to the whoops. He had company, as LaRocco also went down, though he was able to continue. Lamson's seat came off, ending his race and sending him to the semis. Ward kept the point, with Lusk pres ing to the end and taking the lead through the air over a triple jump. Ward came back at him in the next series of jump , setting up the final run through the whoops. Lusk took the irLside line, I i! III on the second lap that dropped him to dead last in the field of 20. From there, he made constant progress before landing in eighth - in sight of Pichon. "That was probably, next to my Tampa race, my best ride of the season," Windham said. "1 was happy, 1 was strong. 1came up to eighth." Chasing Windham at the end was Suzuki's Greg Albertyn. The South African had won the second heat race, beating McGrath in the process, and he looked like a contender. But just after the heat he felt sick to his stomach, and he threw up just before the final. "I just felt like 1 didn't quite have as much energy as I should've," Albertyn said, adding that he didn't know what caused the stomach problem. Finishing 10th, in pursuit of Alber- ~ cut the hard left to tl,e finish jump, and :ii took the very popular win. Q "Nothing like a little bit of Southern • boys' racing," Lusk said of the fight §! with South Carolina resident Ward. ~ Windham moved away from the C">~ pack early in the second heat, with .c ~ Albertyn chasing and Kawasaki's Ricky ... Carmichael a close third, in front of ~ Pichon and McGrath. 9

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