McGrath Has a Fresh Perspective

After clinching his sixth Supercross championship last April, Jeremy McGrath took nearly six months off. Now he’s back, eager to add more glory to his unparalleled riding career.

“It was nice not having to get ready for a race every week, but after a while I began to get kind of bored,” said McGrath, who turned 28 Friday. “I can’t remember when I’ve felt so much like racing as I do right now.”

Today he will ride in the World Supercross Championships in the Rose Bowl, a competition he won in 1992 and 1995. It is the second round of a three-event series bringing together the best riders from Europe and the United States.

Against many of the same riders he will race today, McGrath rode last weekend in the three-day Paris-Bercy Supercross and won eight of nine motos. He lost only when his bike’s chain slipped.

“I’ve been testing my Chaparral Yamaha on my training track, and I have been faster than I was at this time last year,” he said. “There’s no reason I can’t come out and win.”

Winning has been McGrath’s trademark since bursting onto the scene as a teenager from Murrieta in the spring of 1991. His record of 60 national Supercross victories is more than double that of runner-up Rick Johnson, who retired with 28. In 1996, he won a record 13 consecutive motos.

After running only two events in the national 250cc outdoor series during the summer, McGrath tuned up for the Supercross season in a number of foreign races.

In the first World Supercross race last month, on a muddy track in Paris, McGrath was racing with the leaders when he fell with eight laps left and finished 16th. He also crashed out in a race at Milan, Italy, but since then has won motos in Sheffield, England, and Santiago, Chile, besides his impressive showing at Paris-Bercy.

“Jeremy is definitely the one to beat, but he’s beatable,” said Ezra Lusk, a winner of five Supercross events last year on a Honda and series runner-up to McGrath the last two seasons.

David Vuillemin, one of several French riders among the world’s best, rates no worse than co-favorite after winning the first world Supercross event on a Yamaha. He also finished third in the world 250cc championship series.

Riverside’s Jeff Emig, the 1997 U.S. Supercross champion, is coming off a win in the U.S. Open at Las Vegas on Oct. 9-10, an event that paid $100,000 to win.

“I do pretty well in those $100,000 races, maybe I can do it again,” Emig said.

The World Supercross payoff is $100,000 from the three races. Emig finished third, the first American, in Paris.

Emig won the 1997 championship on a Kawasaki, but after a wild weekend last August in Lake Havasu City, Ariz., where he was arrested for public consumption of alcohol and possession of marijuana, he was dropped by the factory. Emig bought a Yamaha and formed his own team.

“No more drinking, no more carousing for me,” he said. “And no more having to share my winnings with a boss. I’m my own boss now, and so far I like it that way.”

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Supercross Facts

* What: Second round of World Supercross Championships.

* Where: Rose Bowl.

* When: Today. Gates open 12:30 p.m., first race 2:30.

* Defending champion: Robbie Reynard, Norman, Okla.

* Situation: First race won by David Vuillemin of France on Oct. 2 in Paris. Final race Nov. 27 in Leipzig, Germany. Overall winner receives $100,000.