McGrath Still Hasn’t Learned to Play Coliseum Crowd

Maybe it’s not in the cards for Jeremy McGrath to win a Supercross at the Coliseum.

After giving a clinic on how to ride stadium motocross for most of Saturday night, the six-time Supercross champion fell on lap 14 of the 16-lap final of the Summercross and his Team Chaparral Yamaha teammate, Tim Ferry, held off a frantic finish by McGrath to win the $20,000 first prize in front of a screaming 33,500 spectators.

Riding with the confidence of a man who has won 60 stadium main events, McGrath won everything in sight in setting the stage for the final, in which he was expected to win for the first time in the Coliseum, where the Superbowl of Motocross was first held in the summer of 1972.

“I made a little mistake getting over a jump, landed off balance and went down,” said McGrath, who finished second, his best Coliseum finish. Pedro Gonzalez, the Mexican motocross champion, was third.

Saturday’s race wasn’t a sanctioned American Motorcyclist Assn. event, which accounts for why there were few ranked riders on hand, but it was still a championship-like evening of racing around a treacherous three-quarter miles of dirt on the floor of the Coliseum.

“The course was different from past years, more technical, more the way I like it,” said McGrath, whose best finish in three previous Coliseum 250cc Supercross events had been third. In 1992 he won a western regional 125cc support race, but never a major event.

“There weren’t those long straightaways we had when the track ran over the old running track, It is much tighter, but there are plenty of jumps for the fans. That’s what they like.”

McGrath gave them what they came for.

In addition to riding effortless over the triple jumps, hairpin turns and whoop-de-doos--motorized versions of ski moguls--he did his patented midair trick, the Nac-Nac, in which he swings one leg over the bike as if he were dismounting.

McGrath, the fastest qualifier in afternoon runs, ran away with the first five-lap heat race, beating Yamaha teammate Tim Ferry of Largo, Fla., and Kawasaki’s Mike Craig of Lakeside. His time of 5 minutes 51 seconds was more than 12 seconds faster than the other two heat winners, Tyler Evans of Salinas and Kyle Lewis of Simi Valley, both on Suzukis.

In a special Dash for Cash, paying $10,000 to the winner, McGrath got a hole-shot and survived having his rear wheel clipped going through a berm, but he won handily. By the time he came flying off the 80-foot high peristyle jump, McGrath was safely in front. Evans chased him home in second, with Ferry third.

The first eight-lap semifinal round was won by Ferry, followed by Yamaha’s Takeshi Koikeda of Chatsworth and Craig. Gonzalez won the second semi on a Kawasaki, with three-time Arenacross champion Buddy Antunez of Moreno Valley second on a Suzuki and Bobby Bonds of Maricopa third on a Yamaha.

Suzuki’s David Pingree of Menifee was an easy winner in the 12-lap 125cc support class, and also won the $3,000 Dash for Cash and one of the heats. Second in the main event was Kawasaki’s Greg Schnell of Rancho Cucamonga, who also won the second heat. Andy Harrington of El Cajon, on a Yamaha, was third. Yamaha rider John Serfeika of Norco won the semifinal.

Factory riders in the national outdoor 250cc championship series, now underway, were missing because of the possibility of suffering injuries in a non-points race.

Steve McLaughlin, Summercross promoter, said before the event that he needed about 39,000 to break even in his venture. The paid attendance was 28,300.

“It was a little disappointing, but we expected as much when we found the national riders wouldn’t be here, but maybe we can get it back next week,” he said.

McLaughlin is promoting a monster truck show next Saturday night, making use of the more than 6,000 tons of dirt he had hauled in to build the track.

“I still think the Coliseum is the perfect setting for Supercross, by whatever name. The peristyle jump is legendary all over the world as a racing hazard.” McGrath said he planned to continue vacationing. His next race is not expected to be until September when the European Supercross season starts.