Calculated Move

If Ezra Lusk could win in Supercross elsewhere the way he does in California, the quiet Georgian might well take the coveted No. 1 plate away from six-time champion Jeremy McGrath.

Lusk, who recently moved from Bainbridge, Ga., to Lake Elsinore to be closer to Honda’s training track, raced four times in California last year--and won four times. Three races were in the AMA national series, two of them at Anaheim’s Edison Field and one in San Diego. The fourth was in the United States round of the World Championships at the Rose Bowl.

Unfortunately for Lusk, they weren’t enough. He finished second to McGrath in the nationals and seventh in the world championship standings.

Tonight, on a kidney-jarring course of twists and jumps laid out in Edison Field, Lusk will open his 2000 bid for his first Supercross championship against an international field that includes not only McGrath but newly crowned world champion David Vuillemin of France, national 250cc outdoor champion Greg Albertyn of South Africa, and Jeff Emig, the only rider other than McGrath to win the Supercross title in the last seven years.

Surprisingly, Lusk is not necessarily aiming for victory in tonight’s opening event of a grueling 16-race season.

“I’m not looking to set the world on fire [tonight],” he said earlier in the week. “I just want a podium [top three] finish, leave with some points and have something to build on.”

That is just how his bosses at Honda want him to feel.

“If Ezra, or anyone else, expects to beat Jeremy McGrath over the long haul, he must be on the podium, or at least in the top five, every race of the season,” said Jeff Stanton, a former three-time Supercross champion who is a team advisor for Honda’s Red Rider team.

“If the opportunity is there to win, Ezra should take it. But if it comes to winning or falling down trying, he has to stay up front. Last year he won five races, but he had DNFs [did not finish] two weeks in a row and two other poor finishes right after winning at Anaheim and San Diego. Supercross has become so competitive that you can’t DNF one week and expect to win the championship.”

Also on the Honda team are Sebastien Tortelli of France, winner of the 1998 Coliseum Supercross; Kevin Windham of Baton Rouge, La., winner of the U. S. 250cc Grand Prix last year at Budds Creek, Md.; and Mike LaRocco of South Bend, Ind., who races as an independent with Honda support.

“It would be kind of weird if I won Anaheim again, but it wouldn’t surprise me because I always seem to be focused when I’m in California,” Lusk said. “That is one reason I bought a house here, so I can keep myself in a winning groove.”

Lusk also hopes that a new model bike, the 2000 CR250R, which he rode in winning last month in the Rose Bowl, will help him in his championship quest. Perhaps not tonight, but definitely over the long haul.

“It’s a different bike from the ground up,” he said. “It’s much easier to ride. I think it will be competitive, over every terrain, at every track, but the most important thing is that it is easier on the body. The front of the bike does a better job of soaking up big jolts. In a season as long as ours, that can be very important.”

There is little letup in the Supercross-motocross season. From tonight’s opener to the final stadium race May 6 in Las Vegas, there are only two free weekends. One week after Las Vegas, the outdoor season opens in San Bernardino at Glen Helen Park.

Lusk is 24 and has been riding since he was 5, about the time he acquired the nickname “Yogi,” from the Yogi Bear cartoon character.

“Folks called me Yogi when I was really little, and it just stuck,” he said. “My dad built a little track in the backyard with a few jumps and I started riding my minibike right away. Before long, we were racing all over the country. I remember when I was about 8, we came to Saddleback [a motorcycle park near Lake Irvine that is now closed] and I finished second in a World Minibike Grand Prix.”

Lusk gained national attention when he was 15 and won all eight motos he entered, and won the 125cc and 250cc championships in both stock and modified classes at the Mini Grand Nationals in Ponca City, Okla.

That earned him a factory ride with Suzuki in 1992. Only 16, he dropped out of school to become a professional racer, but later earned his high school diploma.

In his second season, Lusk won the eastern regional 125cc Supercross crown and moved up to the 250cc feature class with high expectations. He is still looking for his first title, but after finishing third in 1996 and ’97 and second in 1998 and ‘99, Honda figures this is the time.

“Yogi is a super motivated guy, a hard worker--maybe too hard sometimes--but no one will be trying any harder,” Stanton said. “If he has a fault, it’s that sometimes he tends to be a little too hard on himself. When he feels that way, he works a little harder, and that isn’t always the thing to do because if you overdo, it makes you tired for the weekend.”

Lusk rode a Kawasaki as an amateur, then rode for Suzuki and Yamaha before joining Honda two years ago.

“I always wanted to be on the Honda team because the riders I looked up to when I was just starting out were David Bailey and Jean-Michael Bayle and they both rode Hondas,” he said.

“Obviously, over the past 10 or 15 years, they have to have done something right.”

Honda has won 12 Supercross championships since 1982 with McGrath, who now rides a Chaparral Yamaha, Stanton, Bayle, Rick Johnson, Johnny O’Mara, Bailey and Donnie Hansen.

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AMA Supercross

* What: AMA Supercross, first race of 16-race series.

* Where: Edison International Field, Anaheim.

* When: Today. Practice, 12:30 p.m. Opening ceremonies, 7.

* Defending series champion: Jeremy McGrath, Chaparral Yamaha.

* Defending Anaheim winner: Ezra Lusk, Honda (won both 1999 races).

* Tickets: Edison Field box office, Ticketmaster, participating Yamaha dealers.

* Prices: Adults, $75, $40 and $25. Children, $10.