Cycle News

VOL. 51 ISSUE 10 MARCH 11, 2014 P111 ers were beaten before they even took to the track. But something was burning inside Emig. Every ounce of focus he had was going towards beating McGrath and doing it at St. Louis, not too far from where he grew up with plenty of family and friends in attendance, it would be the storybook ending. Unlike many of the rest of the field, Emig knew he was capable of winning. "I feel like there were three races before St. Lou- is that I should have won," Emig explains. "From my perspective Jeremy's win streak was something that should have never happened. But I made mis- takes on my own and gave those races up. Now you're going to talk to the rider on the other end and he's going to have a different story. That's just the way we are, but I think I lost those earlier races because I was trying too hard. It sounds strange, but I came to St. Louis and I was very relaxed – al- most as if there was a sense of destiny that I was going to win the race." It wasn't just the fact that Emig did indeed go on to win the race that night; it was also the way he did it. He faced tough challenges from both Mike LaRocco and McGrath all through the sec- ond half of the race and held strong. In fact "Iron Mike" made pretty good contact with Emig in one pass attempt, but Emig stayed on the gas and it was LaRocco who got thrown for a loop and lost touch with the leaders. And then McGrath actually edged ahead at one point in the closing laps, but Emig responded and came right back at the series leader to earn back the top spot. On the final lap Emig said it was almost an out-of- body experience. He had an incredible phenom- enon of heightened senses. "As I took the white flag I could feel the energy of the crowd," he said of the partisan throng of 37,000 who stood and cheered him on. "I could clearly hear the bikes around me. When I did the 180 turns I was using my peripheral vision to see where McGrath was, where's LaRocco, now that he's in third. Is he a threat? Am I worried about one guy, am I worried about two guys? Then I was try- ing to focus on my own lines and there's a real rhythm to it. Okay focus, now execute that, okay you landed that perfect now execute this, so there's a sequence to it all. "But when I made that final turn - and I'm getting goose bumps right now just thinking about it – I made that final turn and there was a little double jump and I knew there was very little chance of a mistake. From that jump to the finish-line takeoff, that's where you get a real rush of emotions and elation for the accomplishment." McGrath downplayed the loss after the race, but the disappointment on his face didn't lie. He really wanted that undefeated season. "What's that saying, 'You can't win 'em all?' " McGrath said on the podium. "I can't say enough for Jeff [Emig]. He rode a great race. I think I got some momentum toward the end and passed [Mike] LaRocco, but Jeff slammed me and that kind of took the wind out of me. But I wasn't go- ing down without a fight. I wanted to win bad - real bad. It was just one of those things where I rode the very best race I could ride and that's just how it turned out." As for Emig... he was ecstatic "It feels so good to be the guy to end that streak. I've wanted to do this for so long." To this day Emig and McGrath, who often work together in the TV broadcast booth, don't speak much, if at all, about that night in St. Louis. "We've all grown up and are adults now," Emig says. "But I think it's best between us if we just leave it alone. As great as that night was for me, I'm sure it's still a tough memory for Jeremy." McGrath went on to win the final race of 1996 to make it 14 wins in 15 races, but Emig fed off the St. Louis victory and that gave him the confi- dence to go on and defeat McGrath for in a hard- fought '96 AMA 250 Motocross title and the 1997 AMA Supercross Championship. CN ST. LOUIS STREAK BUSTER Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives

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