Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

(Left) Emig prevented a Kawasaki shutout by putting his machine on the podium for the first time all year. He finished third. (Above) Suzuki's Larry Ward (7) ran third for a while before a determined Emig got him on the 13th lap. (Right) Team Suzuki's Robbie Reynard struggled in the heats but came alive in the main, finishing fifth after an 181h-place start. lead until Albertyn finally got the upper hand and led Henry across t.he finish line fol" the win. Despite taking an off-track excursion early in the race, Button recovered to take a distant third. Antunez finished all alone in fourth, while Craig held off a charging Reynard to take the final transfer in fifth. Lamson scored a wire-to-wire win in the second semi race, showing Emig the fast way around the track. Emig kept a close eye on Lamson the whole race but never got close enough to be a serious threat. . Both Lamson and Emig finished well ahead of third-place finisher Voss, who worked his way up from sixth. Fourth went to Lawrence, who was followed closely by Evans. LAST-CHANCE QUALIFIER Roy, Akira Narita, Reynard and Gonzalez led a four-rider breakaway at the start of the LCQ. The Canadian - Roy set the early pace, while Gonzalez clawed and scratched his way into second and then passed Roy for the lead. Shortly thereafter, both Narita and Reynard got around Roy. Then Reynard charged pastNarita.• Reynard set his sights on Gonzalez and nearly passed him when the Kawasaki rider bobbled in 'the whoops on the last lap. Gonzalez, however, maintained his composure and held Reynard back for the win. 10 MAIN EVENT Lusk put his Mike Gosselaar-tuned CR250 into the lead at the start of the 20lap main event, but it wouldn't stay there for long, as McGrath squeezed his Yamaha past Lusk before the first lap was over. At this point, the race promised to be a good one between McGrath and Lusk - the long-awaited duel - but things started going badly for Lusk when he nearly got pitched off his bike entering a long and extremely diffi- cult whoop section on the second lap. The bobble allowed Ward into second and gave McGrath a chance to break away from Lusk. "It was getting really blue-grooved and just lost a lot of traction," Lusk said of the bobble. "1 almost went on my head." By the third lap, Lusk had gotten back around Ward, only to discover that McGrath had already put more than four seconds between first and second. And that gap would only get bigger. Lap after lap, McGrath stretched out his lead. By the fourth lap, McGrath had five seconds on Lusk, then six seconds, seven, eight, and So on. McGrath was inp-easing his lead by about a second per lap, and he would eventually take the checkered flag some 20 seconds ahead of Lusk. "I just felt great out there," McGrath said when the trouncing was over. "We got out of the ga te together and 1 thought it was going to be a good race, but I just pulled away. I don't mean to talk any smack, but he said every time we start together, he beats me. He's got a few (wins), I've got a few, but not tonight (for Lusk)." "I was ready for it," Lusk said of the Lusk/McGrath duel that never really materialized. "I was really motivated, ready to race Jeremy. It was like, 'It's on,' me and Jeremy together, racing again. But 1 made a lot of mistakes and he started getting away from me. 1 just let him go. My riding was obviously terrible; I didn't even worry about it. 1 just tried to stay on two wheels." By the halfway point, both McGrath and Lusk were way out in front, both Carmichael and LaRocco had already crashed, Button had veered off the track, Reynard had begun his charge to the front, and the only real question left was whether or not Emig could catch thirdplaced Ward and put his Kawasaki on the podilm'l for the first time. Despite finding it difficult to find his rhythm early in the race, the answer would be yes, as he slipped his Jeremy Albrechttuned KX250 underneath Ward's Suzuki in a turn on the 13th lap. Emig admitted to having problems in his early la ps. "My best section, I messed up like five times," Emig said. "I totally messed it. 1 was losing some time, but... 1 hate whoops. Man, I hate those damn things. If they didn't have them on the track, I'd probably be winning a lot more supercrosses. Anyway, 1 was thinking, 'Be patient, take Larry (Ward) at the opportune time and get that Kawasaki on the -Podium.' I stayed behind him. I knew I was turning faster times, but I was uncomfortable with the whoops. I've just got some sort of mental block there I'm such a mental rider." Emig's plans now were to get away from Ward, but it didn't pan out. "I thought that once 1 got past him, 1 would drop him a little bit," Emig said, "but he was really strong and stayed right there." Both Emig and Ward caught Lusk, who was purposefully' backing off the last few laps. Reynard, who rounded the first lap in 18th place, was a man on the move the whole race. Almost unnoticeably, he crept up through the pack until he had caught his teammate Albertyn on the 15th lap. Then they diced for a while until Reynard got the former World MX champ two laps from the finish. Reynard's ride was nearly as impressive as McGrath's. Finishing behind Albertyn was Huffman, who was followed by Voss, lamson and Henry. Henry was never really much of a factor to the leaders after getting'off to a sixth-place start. At one point, he rap as high as fifth before slipping back. "I tried to ride steady," Henry said afterward. "A couple of guys went down - I saw Ricky (Carmichael); man, I felt so bad for him, 'cause he fell in the Time: 8 min., 1'3.440 sec. 250 HEAT 2 (8 laps, 1-4 transfer to main): 1. Jeremy McGrath (Yam); 2. Tim Ferry (Yam); 3. Larry Ward (Suz); 4. Mickael Pichon (Hon); 5. Steve Lmnson (Yam); 6. Jeff Emig (Kaw); 7. He

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