Supercross Sensation
SUPERCROSS SENSATION
RACE WATCH
WHEN JEREMY MCGRATH CROSSED the finish line at the Pasadena Rose Bowl, not only did he take his ninth victory of the season, he clinched the 1993 AMA Camel Supercross series. It was the first time a rookie rider had won motocross's most prestigious title. Three weeks later at the following round in San Jose, California, 21-year-old McGrath took another win, again etching his name in the record books for the most wins in a single season, taking the record from Yamaha's Damon Bradshaw. And if that weren't enough, he also holds the record for the most consecutive wins for a rookie rider-four in a row.
With unstoppable potency, the kid from Murrieta, California, has crushed the competition on the supercross circuit. No rider has so thoroughly dominated the supercross series in its 20-year history.
Jeremy McGrath didn't just win. He dominated.
Jimmy Lewis
McGrath calmly explains, “My goal, the dream in my life, was to win supercross.” It took a lot more than dreaming for McGrath to accomplish the feat. Bicycle motocross is where the young racer honed his skills, and he soon was good enough to ride in BMX nationals. When bicycles started to become old hat, motorcycles proved to be the cure for pedal-pushing burnout. Midway through 1986, McGrath raced a Yamaha YZ80 at California’s Perris Raceway. He quickly progressed through the ranks, making it to the Expert class by 1989 with support from a local Honda shop. He was noticed by Team Green, Kawasaki’s amateur support program. Team Manager Mark Johnson says, “We pretty much had a lock on the Mickey Thompson Ultracross series except for this one kid. He was a thorn in our side. We approached him about giving him some help and had excellent results right off the bat.”
With Team Green help, McGrath went to all the big amateur races, and by 1990 had won the National Minicycle Association overall championship in the full-size motorcycle classes.
For the 1991 season, McGrath jumped to the newly formed Peak Pro Circuit team, riding Honda 125s with backdoor support from the factory. Partially responsible for the move was former supercross champion Rick Johnson. “I thought, this kid is going to be something; he has a real smooth style and he was strong at the finish. At the time, I may have been overstepping my bounds, but I had heard that Honda was looking to put together a support team and I thought he’d be a good addition. To sweeten the deal, I told him if he ever needed any help,
I’d give him a hand, but I never really had to do anything,” says Johnson.
Things went exceptionally well for McGrath as he capped off his first full I25cc season with the Western Regional Supercross Championship, winning five of the ten events. A year later, he successfully defended his I25cc championship, notching wins in seven of eight races. Per AMA rules, a rider must move out of the I25cc class after winning a championship twice, so McGrath packed his gearbag in preparation for the jump to the big-time 250 class, where he’d be up against established supercross veterans such as Jeff Stanton, Mike Kiedrowski and Damon Bradshaw. McGrath had already raced some 250cc races that didn’t conflict with the West Coast I25cc series, and was placing in the fifthto eighth-place range-good but not overly impressive.
Former motocross whiz kid and now ESPN supercross commentator Bob Hannah was far from overwhelmed with the rookie: “He had told me in interviews that he was going to win some 250 races,” recalls Hannah. “I didn’t say anything to him, but I really doubted it. I knew that he was a good 125 rider, but he had a lot to learn when it came to riding with Bradshaw and Stanton.”
McGrath’s big break came when he landed a full factory Honda ride for the 1993 season. Honda has won the past five straight SX titles, and nine of the last 11. “I was pumped to be on Team Honda, the bikes are great and they make champions,” says McGrath.
Dave Arnold, team manager for Honda, was optimistic from the start. “Traditionally, it takes some time for a top 125 guy to make the transition to the top of the 250 class. I felt that Jeremy would be somewhat of an exception to that, but no one expected him to do what he did,” says Arnold.
No one, perhaps, except for Skip Norfolk, McGrath’s mechanic. They met during the Team Green days, when Norfolk worked one of the support vans. By coincidence, Norfolk had joined the Peak Pro Circuit team in 1991, where he was assigned to tune for McGrath. When McGrath signed with Team Honda, Norfolk came with him. Over the years, their friendship has grown strong.
“He’s my best friend,” says Norfolk. “It’s kind of unique, even though some of the other riders and mechanics are that way. When we get some time off, he’ll say, ‘Hey, let’s go to the river.’” Norfolk knows the propellant that drives McGrath. “He has a unique way of looking at life in general. He looks at something and says, ‘I can do that,’ and then goes out and tries it ’til he can. Plus, being very athletic with that type of attitude and confidence, well, things happen.”
As the ’93 season got started, a fourth at Orlando, Florida, and a fifth at Houston, Texas, were a little above the expectations for the ïookie rider. A win at the Anaheim SX, where he got the holeshot and ran away from the field-now a McGrath trademark-alerted race-watchers. Heads really turned when McGrath took his second win at round four in Seattle, Washington, and from there it was McGrath the Supercross Steamroller, as he gained confidence with each victory.
“He wants to be the best, maybe the best of all time,” says Norfolk. “I think that’s his next motivation. Some people do it for the money, and that’s a big factor, but he’s young and he does it ’cause it’s fun and he likes it.” Indeed, a good attitude seems to be the biggest thing going for McGrath. He doesn’t waste his time complaining, and head-trips seem to be nonexistent. Where most other riders become increasingly tense as race time creeps closer, McGrath stays loose, talking to friends in the Honda pit confines. When problems arise, McGrath deals with them instead of letting them get in the way.
As Rick Johnson sees it, “He’s purpose-built. When he goes out he thinks about winning; he doesn’t pussyfoot around. He goes out to win the race.”
1992 Supercross Champion Jeff Stanton had a front-row view of his teammate’s success: “Jeremy raised the level up a notch, as Bradshaw did a couple of years ago. It’s not that he’s any younger or we’re older; he just has a lot of natural talent.”
To be the best-ever in the sport, McGrath, raised on rough-and-tumble, jump-intensive, supercross-style tracks, will have to prove himself in outdoor motocross. At the first outdoor national of the year, McGrath again proved doubters wrong by taking a victory in the 125cc class with 1-2 moto scores on the tough Gainesville, Florida track. “It showed that I can win outdoors, too,” he says. “My next goal is to do well in the outdoor nationals.”
Today, Bob Hannah, himself a candidate for the title of the sport’s bestever, sees McGrath as a different breed of rider. “He’s weird,” says the once-skeptical Hannah. “He doesn’t let pressure get to him. The normal rider gets bothered by everything. Not McGrath. I’m sure glad I don’t have to race against him.” □
Graham lookin' good in Camel Pro Series
Two-time Grand National Champion Ricky Graham lived up to his “Mr. Springfield” nickname in grand fashion by winning the Springfield Mile, the first of two mile events scheduled for the Illinois State Fairgrounds this year. The victory was Graham’s eighth at that venue, and the 27th national win of his career.
The weekend was a total runaway for Graham, who besides winning the 883 event, rode the Johnny Goadtuned RS750 Honda to victories in his heat race, the $5000 Camel Challenge and the 25-lap national. Despite having to restart from the fourth row due to a penalty for jumping the start, Graham bolted to the front of the pack on lap three and stayed there.
“Our bike is really fast this year,” Graham said afterwards, “Johnny’s done a good job with it. We can run with anyone.” >
The expected challenge from reigning Grand National champ Chris Carr and Harley-Davidson factory teammate Scotty Parker never materialized at Springfield, with Parker finishing third and Carr finishing fourth. Harley-mounted Mike Hale finished in second position.
Carr, who won rounds three and four at Sacramento and Pomona, said afterward, “That’s the hardest I’ve ever ridden to get fourth.”
Things didn’t get any better for Carr at the next race, the Parkersburg Half Mile, in Mineral Wells, West Virginia. There, Kevin Atherton scored the win by taking advantage of a racing line above the quickly deteriorating cushion. Carr began squaringoff Turns l and 2, but still couldn’t match the leader’s speed, finishing fourth behind second-place Graham and third-place Parker.
At presstime, after six of 21 rounds, Carr sits atop the Grand National Championship points standings by a scant five points, with Graham just behind him with 80 points, and Parker third with 78 points. With 15 events remaining, the 1993 title remains very much up for grabs, but with Ricky Graham and his Honda now fully up to speed, there’s no reason to think the ’93 season will be an all-Harley affair.
Albertyn leads 250cc MX world championship
South African Greg Albertyn, the 1992 125cc world motocross champion, has fashioned a solid lead for himself in this year’s 250cc motocross world championship series by winning three of the eight opening races. Honda-mounted Albertyn won the ’93 opener in Italy, and followed that up with victories at rounds three and four in Holland and Switzerland. Right behind him is Suzuki-mounted Stefan Everts of Belgium, who DNFed in two of the three motos in the most recent event in Lommel, Belgium. That dropped him a whopping 75 points behind the leader.
Defending 250cc world champ Donny Schmit of the U.S. started well, but then faded a bit. Following the Belgium race-round eight in the 15race series-he had fallen to third place in the points standings in spite of wins aboard the Chesterfield Yamaha in Spain, France and Hungary.
Former 125 and 250 MX World Champion Trampas Parker has even bigger problems. After colliding with Everts in the Belgian event, he was sidelined with a broken wrist and looks to be out of action for up to six weeks, with his return set for the U.S. MX GP at Budds Creek, Maryland.
How to win an AMA Superbike race: be Doug Polen
Two-time World Superbike Champion Doug Polen is doing exactly what he set out to do in this year’s AMA Superbike series: win everything in sight. With the exception of Eddie Lawson’s dramatic win in this year’s Daytona 200, Fast By Ferracci Ducati’s Polen has won every Superbike national of the 1993 season. He followed his season-opening win in Phoenix with victories at Laguna Seca in April, Charlotte, North Carolina, in May, and at Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, in June.
Polen’s Laguna Seca win was a streetfight, with defending Superbike champ Scott Russell and Miguel DuHamel, both on Muzzy Kawasakis, disputing the lead for the majority of the race. The Charlotte round was marred by crashes, red flags and injuries. Team Commonwealth/Camel Honda’s Tom Kipp, who’d earned his first-ever pole in qualifying, crashed hard, breaking his femur. On the restart, Polen passed early leader Colin Edwards on the Vance & Hines Yamaha on lap number two and proceeded to run away. Edwards finished second, his best Superbike finish to date, with Team Mirage Kawasaki rider Dale Quarterley rounding out the top three.
The Road America event was classic Polen. He got off to a slow start, stalked and passed the competition, and won. The one surprise at Elkhart Lake was that Edwards, aboard the Vance & Hines Yamaha YZF750SPwhich for the first time replaced the team’s OW01 -smoked his way to pole position, beating Polen’s Ducati for the spot by a squeaky-tight .004 second. In the race itself, Edwards had the rest of the field worried as he rocketed out to a 10-second lead, looking for his first-ever Superbike victory. In the closing laps of the race, though, both Polen and his Ducati teammate Pascal Picotte closed in, with Polen barging past for first place on the next-to-last lap. Edwards and Picotte crashed out while racing for second place, leaving the door open for DuHamel to grab that spot.
After five of 11 events, Polen leads the Superbike standings with 168 points. DuHamel, who crashed at Charlotte and scored no points, is second, with 130 points, and privateer Dale Quarterley is third, with 126 points. □
