Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Supercross Los Angeles, CA (Left) Primal Imp ulse Suzuki's David Pingree (47) dominated the 125cc class, winning hi s hea t ra ce, Das h Fo r Cash , and t he 125 cc ma in event. Greg Schne ll took runner, up honors. (Right) With the w in , Ferry pocketed $20 ,000 of t he $103,000 p urs e. (Bel ow) Kyle Lew is to ok l ime out from racing In Japan to compete at t he Summercross. He won his heat race but faltered In the ma in . SEM IS Wit h the wi nners of the heats alread y into the final, it was up to Ferry to show if he had in fact recov ered from his Saturda y adventure. He proved that he wa s oka y with a win ahead of Koikeda, Craig, Tay lor and Dost al. " I fel t okay, " Fe r ry sa id . " It wa s im po rta n t to not make any mistakes. Th e track is a little sli ppery and if you make a m istak e on th is track, it's di fficult to get your place back. " The seco nd semi went to Gonzalez, ahead of An tunez, Bond s, Povoln v and W h ite Bro the rs Yama ha fo u r-s 'troke r ide r Spu d Walte rs . Go nza le z was happy with his win. . "I 'm thinking abou t the money in the final ," Gonzalez la ughed . " I can get a top-three place for sure. The track is not difficult, so we all have a chance to win so mething ." FINAL en en en 22 Thi s was the race everyone had been waiting for. Th e rid ers were hungry for the lar ge purse, and th e claimed 33,000 sp ec ta to rs want ed to see if Mc Grath cou ld cap tu re his firs t w in o n th e legend arv L.A. Co liseu m track. o,{t of the start, it wa s Gonzalez w ho took th e earl y lead , a lth o ug h h is mom ent ou t in front las ted jus t 20 feet bef ore McGrath burst o u t of th e fir st corne r and into the lead . "I had an inside line," Go nza lez said . "Everyo ne we nt wid e, and I we nt up the inside. Then, going ov er th e first jump just a fter the first co rne r - McGrath came by me like a rocket." McGrath wa s no t abou t to give hi s riv als any cha nces and he qu ickly took ad va ntage of the situation. "I drifted wid e - in fac t, just abo u t eve ryo ne did ," McGrath sa id . "Then, once I got by Gonzalez, I really tried to ge t some tim e on the others ." Back in the pack came Taylor, Cra ig, Ferry , Ko ik ed a , Antun e z , Pov ol n y , Skaggs and Evans, in that order. McG rath' s strategy was working as plann ed , as h e pu sh ed hi s Ma zd a / Chaparral Yam ah a YZ250 into a co mm anding lead. A t one poin t, McGrath held five seco nd s over Go nza lez, w ho was starting to feel so me pressure from Ferry . " I felt good in seco nd place," Gonzalez sa id. "Fe rry w a s rid in g ha rd . He end ed up ge tting by o n a short stra ight. From th en on, I just wanted third place." On ce into seco nd pla ce, Ferry sta rted to make some time on McGrat h . " I wa s riding the fast lines - without a doubt," Ferrv said. "I cou ld see Jeremy up ah ead of m e, and I figured if I just stayed o n my own pace, I could at leas t stav with him." . McGrath see med sure, thou gh , to get the win, Then with just two laps rem aining, it all went wr ong for him . " I was riding not too hard and taking so me good lines," McGrath said . 'Then I ca me over a sma ll jump a nd la nded into a rut. It just spit me off. 1 tried to ge t up qu ickl y, but Tim was already onto m e. 1 then pu sh ed really hard to get him back. He was rid in g fast , th ou gh , a nd wh ile I did ge t close, I co ul d not get him ." Ferry, on the o the r han d, was feeling th e press ure fro m b ehin d , an d w ith $20,000 going to th e wi nne r, th e new Cha pa rral team ride r was getting excited . · . "Whe n I sa w Jerem y go down , I real ly sta rted thinking about the cha nce to wi n this thing," Ferry said . "I was riding the good , fast lines and kne w if I kept d oing th at, he cou ld not pass me. Thi s . track was slippery and really on e-lined , so I just kept my own pac e for the win." McGrath rod e across the finis h line in second, followed by Gonzalez, Craig and former Loretta Lynn's 60cc Minicycl e . . . The promo tlo nal sid e 0.1 th e S ummercr o ss event ended up in the red. The event was hoping to draw at least 39 .000 spectators to break even. but with 'o nly 28 .000 paying custo mers. th e race lost mon ey . The 'eve nt ' s pr om ot er . Visiting Jeremy McG rath during the Summer cross was act or Matt Le B lanc of the televi- . Steve McLaugh lin . howe ver .. will also be pro moting a Monster Truck event the following sia n series ' Friends. ' The tw o c hatte d for w eek end at the Col iseum and is ho ping to about an hour prior to the night' s racing action . make a recovery off that event. ' I hope to get and then they pos ed fo r pict ures and signed the loss bac k at that ," McLaughlin said. " I autog raphs for the crowd. must say . though, the Summercross is.here to Jeremy McGrath (below) will not race' any · stay - you can cou nt on that. " more events until the Fastcross in Italy. Sep tember 19. " ' will only do races in Europe' and ' Doug D ubach pulled out of the Summerthe two supercrosses in the United St ates, in . cross after injuring his ankle while practicing on the Yamaha supercross practice track earlier in O ct ober and November," he said . M cG rath' 5 the wee k. Dubach hopes to be back in action 'schedule is like this: Following the Fastcross, in ttrna tc defend his Worl d Ve teran Champihe'll compete at the Sheffield Supercross on onship title later on in Nove mber. . October 16: the U.S . Open in Las Vega s on Briefl • •• O c to be r 10 : and t hen the World S upe r c ro s s Se r ie s rou nds , wh ich includes t he . Pasadena (Ca liforn ia) rou nd on November 20 . He' ll als o attend seve ra l o t her maj or Europea n Supercross events . in clud ing the B e rc y SX i n Paris. in November . Sebasti en Tortelli will race the Luxembourg 250cc GP on Aug ust 8 , accord ing' to sources in France. The French rider will line up against Stefan Evert s and M ic kael Pich o n, 'both of whom will be making their first appear, ances of the series. Evert s has been out of action due to injury, and Pichon will be making. his '99 debut WIth Suzuki afte r starting off the year wi th Honda in_America . Jeremy McGrath says he's s t ill bring ing in t he buc ks d espit e cut t ing back on his racing . ' You know , I'm really excited to ra ce , ' M cG r at h sa id . " I' m making more money, though, not racing. If I wa s winning every rou nd o f ' I the outdoor Nationals. I w ould . still be short of what I can earn ] d oing o t he r s tuff . ' W hat ·McGrath is talking about is his involvement wi th his new computer game, his so o n-to -be released adve rt ise men t wi th M ountain.Dew . and. of course. his involvemen t wit h M azda. " It' s taken me a lot of hard wor k to get where I can do that." McGrath said . " I can tell ya, though, that I haven't had too much . time to party while I've been out of racing."

• Cover