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/128003
Lu sk and Kev in Windham w ere not expected to rid e, as they are all locked up tight in a po ints battle for the 250cc AMA ou td oor ational Ch ampion ship, yet the fact that so me of the nonchampionship contenders did not enter had eve n McGrath wondering. "I' m not s u re what the riders are thinking," McGrath said. "Th is race will brin g in extra dollars for the competitors, a nd it' s a free w eekend fro m th e Nationa ls. Th is is a big race, no d oubt about it." Of cou rse, the situation of teams claiming there are too ma ny races in this year's supercross an d mo tocross championships most likely had so meth ing to do with the poor turnout of a tio na lcaliber riders. HEATS The Su mmercross format was slightly different than that of trad itio n a l supercross events held at the Co liseum as of late . Four heat races were ru n, with just the winner ad vancing straight to the main event. Following the heat races were two semis, from which the top six riders transFerred to the final, making it a 16-rider fie ld for the 20-lap main event. The night's raci ng commenced with McGrath taking the wi n in t he first 250cc heat race. McGra th showed everyone just why he is a five-time supercross champion, as he rode to the fron t of the pack going in to the first comer and just took off from his rivals. "I did no t need to do too much," McGrath said . " It (the track) is not too d ifficult out there, and it's better that way. If it was too difficult, it wo u ld only be good for me. Now we all can race on it, it makes it much more even." In second place was Ferry, who finished ahea d of Kawasaki-mo u nted Mike Craig, Ryan Oark and [iri Dos tal. Ferr y, w ho had crashed in Friday's practice session, was happy to ge t past his hea t race. "I was sore from the crash yes terday, so the extra laps in the semi will help me ou t," Ferry said. " I was p rett y sore. I hu rt m y b ack and ne ck and ankle . I crashed on the trip le. It was reall y big yes terday, and I tried to get over it and ran too har d into the next section after the triple an d cras hed . I'll be okay for the semi, though ." The second of the 250cc heats went to Ty ler Evans, who finished ahead of Takesh i Koikeda, Robbie Skaggs, Rich Taylor and Jeff Pestana. Evans looked sharp with his win , and later in the night he wou ld even give McG rath so me concern. Kyle Lew is powered h is Suzu ki machine in to the lead in the third 250cc heat race, winning hand ily over Bud dy Antunez, Bobby Bonds, Ped ro Gonza lez a n d former Grand Prix rider Mike Healy, who had at one point in the race led for quite some time. Lewis said he felt good on the Coliseum track. " I just we nt wide on the first comer and Healy got und er me," Lewis said . "I then slid into him for the pass . I don't like doi ng that, so I'm sorry for that. The track is very narrow, not a lot of rhythm to it. On this track, you don't want to make a mistake. Everyone is equal on this track." The fourth and last heat race for the 250cc machines wen t to Shau n Perolio, who fi n ished ahead of Ji m Povo ln y , Donald Upton , Travis H o d g e s a n d Shane Tri ttler. '" '" '" ~ 21