Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Supercross (Above) Larry Ward made his Kawasaki debu t at the Toyo ta Wor ld supereress, and he did well . Ward chased Lusk to the end and fin ished a close second. (Below ) McGrath coul d not recover fr om a sixt h-pl ace start, but he did top out In thi rd. "The track was a such a slow-pacetime track that if yo u got a good start you were good, if you di dn't , you weren' t good: ' McG rath reasoned . "I thi nk tha t even Ezra, when he got out in fron t, was riding the track as hard as he could. I gained on him a little bit in the middle there , but an y harde r, it would've been dangerous. I had a few good la ps, but the way the track was tod ay, I d on' t think it [the ou tcome) was a very good gauge [for next yea r], bu t we' ll see." McGrath described the first few laps. "I was slickin g right behind Larry Ward, and he go t pa st Emig a little quicker than I d id: ' McGrath said . " It took me about two la ps to ge t by h im . I passed hi m through the w hoops , and the n he go t me, and then I passed him aga in. All in all, I' m n ot mad at th e way I rode . I kn ow, right now, that I'm rid ing really go od. If we sta rte d tomorrow [in th e AMA Supercross Series ] I'd be read y." Perhaps the one rid er that the Rose Bow l Supercross meant most to was the rid er w ho fin ishe d fou rth, Vu ilIe mi n . Now r id ing fo r Tea m Ya ma ha USA, Vu ilIe mi n ke p t his Su perc ross Wor ld Cha m pio nship Series points lead int act w it h a so lid fin ish, and w it h just one ro u nd left in the series a week lat er in Ge rmany, Vui lle m in enjoys a mod est seven-point lead over "Jeff Emig . Th e winner of the series gets to pocket the largest portion of the $1 mill ion purse tha t comes with being the World Supercross Champion. Vuillemin, the winner of the opening round in Fra nce, started the race off in fifth, moved into fourth on the fifth lap and stayed there the rest of the wa y, finis hing mo re than a fu ll s traightaway behind McGrath. "Actua lly, I was jus t happy to rid e tod ay," VuilIemin said . "I had a problem w ith m y k nee o n Thursd a y . I mi ssed th e kickstarter [lever] when I wen t to s tart my bike and I pok ed my knee real bad. I wen t to see the do ctor yes terd ay to ta ke th e fluid ou t oL m y kne e . I w a s wo rried Th u rs day that I coul d n' t ride. " Bu t in th e m ain , it went w ell: ' Vuillemin went on to say. "Off the start I was second to Ezra and I just mad e a big mi stake on th e firs t lap and Ward a n d Emig p a s s ed m e , then Jeremy passed me . I th en p assed Emig easy, w hic h w as kind of a surp rise because Emig is usu ally hard to pass. I followed Jere my for a while, but I just mad e some mistakes. Maybe I chose a tire too so ft. I just w a sn 't good on this tra ck . Ezra, Larry an d Je re my were rid in g re ally fast, and to beat these gu ys you have to L1J surprisingly low turnout of riders dramatically altered the day' s raci ng sched ule . Only 18 250cc rid ers signed up to do battle, which techni cally wasn't enough riders to necessitate elimination hea t races. But, as they say, the show must go on, so the standard two- heat, two-semi an d one Last Chance Qualifier format was modified to jus t one heat and one semi . which ultimately cut ou t three races from the original sched ule. The first hea t race automatically sea ted the firs t four rid ers, wh ile the rema ining 14 riders would ra ce for sta rting picks in the semi. (All rid ers wou ld trans fer.) Unm r tu na tely, thi s change in format resulted in two major drawbacks: hea t races that were for the most part meaningless and lacked intensity, and too mu ch down time during the day' s program. From the beginning of opening cere monies to the wave of the checkered flag. about (1 three-hou r span· fans saw roughly an ho ur's worth of racing. and tha t was including the 12Scc support races. so. des!"te the fact ood -n ra mp was set p,

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