Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
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AMAlEA Sports Supercross Series Round 1 : Edison International Field of Anaheim By KIT PALMER PHOTOS BY JOE BONNELLO ANAHEIM, CA, JAN. 6 T he last time Jeremy McGrath and his tuner Skip Norfolk joined forces, they were nearly unbeatable, winning all but one round of the 1996 Supercross series. Following that magical season, the two good friends parted company, but McGrath still went on to win three more titles. Four years later, they're together again and that same McGrath/Norfolk magic appears to be back as well. Even though McGrath has never really lost his supernatural talent of riding a motorcycle around a Supercross track since the duo split up, his confidence level was certainly raised a notch when Norfolk came aboard the McGrath-owned Mazda Yamaha Team. And that was the last thing the competition needed - McGrath having even more confidence, and that selfassurance was obviously evident during McGrath's seemingly easy win in front of a sellout crowd of 45,050 at Edison International Field of Anaheim for the opening round of the Speed Stick-presented 2001 AMA/EA Sports Supercross Series. McGrath was typically dominant - if not especially so - on the challenging Anaheim track. After a brief tussle with Chevy Trucks Kawasaki's Stephane Roncada in the early going, McGrath 6 JANUARY 17, 2001 • cue. e pulled out a small lead and gradually built it up to eight seconds over Ezra Lusk, who took second place from Roncada on the fourth lap and kept his Mike Gosselaar-tuned Honda CR250 there the whole way, but never really got close enough to mount a serious challenge on the leader. Despite winning the series opener and having his trusted tuner by his side again, McGrath is not really expecting another run like he and Norfolk had in 1996. "By no means," McGrath said from his new Mazda Yamaha team trailer afterward. "This is just the first race; a lot is going on, and there are the first-race jitters, so this race is not really a good judge [of things to come]. I mean, I felt great tonight, but I know it's going to get harder than this. That [win] was relatively easy, a little too easy." The win was probably easier for McGrath than for Norfolk, who woke up on race day with a full-fledged cold and was apprehensive about his first race back. But it all turned out in the end. "It's pretty cool," a sniffling Norfolk said afterward. "I wrote 'thanks' on the pit board when he rode by [after McGrath won], for getting me back into this - it's the coolest thing in the world, and the fact that my son is up in the stands watching it happen, it's just so cool. Hopefully, we n e .. s can pick right back up where we left off four years ago." After winning the first 250cc heat race of the night - and the season for that matter - Lusk proved to everyone that he is indeed back after a shoulder injury, which he suffered one year ago at the Anaheim opener, and which sidelined the Georgian for the entire 2000 Supercross series. Lusk turned a lot of heads by jumping right into the heat of battle and pulling off a strong second-place finish. "I did awesome," an obviously relieved and happy Lusk said. "I mean; I knew 1 was ready, but 1 hadn't raced in forever. I just knew something was going to go wrong, but I didn't make a handful of mistakes all night." Lusk was put to the test throughout the 20-lap main event, though, (Above) Mazda Yamaha team owner/rider Jeremy McGrath (1) recorded his seventh Anaheim Supercross victory, and he had little trouble getting his latest. (Below) In his first AMA Supercross in about a year and a half, Team Honda's Ezra Lusk announced that he is back and is as strong as ever with a second-place finish.