Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

(Above) Ironically, the man often accused of being a machine was held back by his machine in San Diego. After bending his brake rotor in a first-tum tussle, Jeremy McGrath rode a calculated race for a points-lead-conserving fourth place. (Right) This guy's for real. Second in San Diego despite a fall, Mike laRocco is the only rider to have finished all of the first three races on the podium. [jj]@o[fJ@ @D&J~DD tdl0@@@ @[JfJ@OnrmO[Ji)@ Jeremy McGrath's heat-two win was over two seconds quicker than the heat-one win of David Vuillemin, but it wasn't handed to him, as the champ got shut out in turn one and found himseif trailing the entire Chevy Trucks/Kawasaki team of Larry Ward, John Dowd and Ricky Carmichael (right). Dowd slipped off the pace immediately, leaving McGrath just two green meanies with which to contend. The first was Carmichael, whom the champ stuffed with uncharacteristic brutality in the last tum of lap twi>. "The only reason I did it was because he did it to me earlier," said McGrath, apparently referring to his turn-one squeeze-out. "I don't like to ride like that; it's kind of lame." "I don't know, we had kind of a battle going there - just a little bit of racing," said Carmichael, who preferred not to comment further on the incident. McGrath, who would express his displeasure to Carmichael directly after the race, rapidly consumed the gap between himself and Ward, moving up beside the veteran in a whoop section and zapping him on the inside of the following turn. Safely in front, the Yamaha rider utilized a big triple to look out at the crowd and hold out his left hand as if to ask, What are these guys thinking? He went on to win, and asked the crowd to pray for a speedy recovery for Jimmy Button, one of his best friends (see "Button Injured" sidebar). Ward and Carmichael were next, with Kevin Windham taking the heat's last transfer spot. Vuillemin's earlier heat win had been comparatively uneventful, with Mike LaRocco, Damon Huffman and Planet Honda's Jean Sebastien Roy being the other riders to transfer directly to the main. The semi winners were both apologetic, with Mazda/Chaparral Yamaha's Tim ferry begging pardon for "riding a little bit like a squid" in his heat, and fMf/Honda's Brock Sellards (who left the stadium without talking on the podium) belatedly offering the following: "I've never won a semi before, so I didn't know if I got interviewed or not." Ferry was trailed by Sebastien Tortelli, Kyle Lewis, Heath Voss and Dustin Nelson, and Sellards was followed by Nick Wey, Dowd. Tyler Evans and KTM thumper pilot Shayne King (it was King's first-ever AMA Supercross transfer), . The LCO went to Yamaha of Troy's Stephane Roncada, while Greg Albertyn had to recover from a first-tum pile-up to take the night's final transfer spot. "It was a long night," said the 250cc National MX Champion. "I got my money's worth." stances, and he was fortunate to be aided by some of his competition. Team Chevy Trucks/ Kawasaki's Ricky Carmichael, for example, went down on the third lap when he tried a different technique through a rhythm section. "lover-jumped it," said Carmichael, "and kind of just pogoed myself up and laid it over. I wasn't able to do the triple, and everybody went by me." in second and was doing his best to simultaneously fend off LaRocco and chase down Vuillemin. The task proved overwhelming, and on lap three, his rear wheel clipped the landing on the pre-hairpin triple, sending him over the handlebar and straight onto his head. Ward started to get up, then fell back down in the middle of the turn, leaving the bulk of the pack to dodge him. "I didn't know where I was at for a couple minutes," said Ward. "When I was laying there, I could see my hand, but I couldn't feel it. My whole Another rider to unintentionally help out McGrath was Carmichael's teammate Larry Ward, who had gated In the first seconds of Saturday's final 250cc practice session, Team Yamaha's Jimmy Button (right) suffered a seemingly run-of-the-mill, slow-speed crash that nonetheless turned out to be quite serious. By most accounts, Button simply dropped his front wheel into a whoop-de-doo trough and rotated over the bars in an inverted sitting position, then drove the front of his helmet into the ground without using his hands to break the fall. Immediately following the accident, Button had no feeling in his body and was unable to move his limbs. Practice was red-fiagged, and Button was loaded onto a stretcher and transported to Sharp's Medical Center, accompanied by his parents, his aunt, his girlfriend, his trainer, race minister Steve Hudson and several other people. According to Yamaha team manager Keith McCarty, several tests were performed on Button, revealing no broken' vertebrae and no damaged discs. A spinal cord bruise was detected on the third cervical vertebrae, which was a major concern since breathing can be affected by trauma so high on the column. Button was administered sterOids, and was reported to be breathing on his own. He also began moving his lower extremeties, but as of Saturday evening, was unable to move or feel the area from his elbows to his hands. A call to McCarty on Monday morning revealed that Button had movement in his arms and legs, and feeling all the way down to his groin. "It's not what you'd call lightning speed, and it's not full range, but what I just keep telling myself is that it's a lot better than it looked when they took him out of there," said McCarty. "He keeps wanting to get up, but they're slowing him down." cue' e n e ~ s FEBRUARY 2,2000 7

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