Champion Rider Makes Local Stop

Motorcycle racer Jeremy McGrath wound up his seventh Supercross championship season last week with a victory, but if his fans want to see him riding in the AMA Chevy Trucks national motocross series, it will have to be today at Glen Helen Raceway Park.

As he did last year, McGrath will skip the outdoor season so he will be fresh for overseas races in the fall and the 2001 Supercross season.

“You can tell from the way I rode [in Supercross] this year that it helped,” he said. “I was fresh and anxious to get going when the season started last January in Anaheim. If you race both series, it means 40 weeks of racing and I found that too much.”

McGrath had one of his best Supercross seasons, winning 10 of the 16 races on his Mazda/Chaparral Yamaha.

“I’m riding at Glen Helen because my sponsor, Chaparral, is located in San Bernardino and I sort of consider Glen Helen my home course,” said McGrath, who learned to ride in his parents’ backyard in Murrieta. “I’ve won there before [1996], and I’d like to do it again.”

The 12-race U.S. 125/250 motocross series opener, the Ocelot Helmets National, will be held on Glen Helen’s hillside course, which showcases a 400-foot incline.

Honda rider Ezra Lusk is doing the opposite of McGrath. He was injured while warming up for the opening Supercross at Anaheim, remained out of competition and has been preparing for the outdoor season. Lusk won the U.S. round of the 1999 World Championships at the Rose Bowl last November.

Defending 250cc champion Greg Albertyn, a South African who lives in Corona, sat out the second half of the Supercross season, and, like Lusk, has been training for the outdoor series.

Ricky Carmichael, undefeated in three 125cc events at Glen Helen, is making his debut in the 250cc class. He is also a three-time national 125cc champion.

With Carmichael no longer riding in the 125cc class, the favorite’s role falls to Suzuki’s Travis Pastrana.

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James Weston of Goleta held off a late-charging Todd Burns on the final lap to win the 50-lap NASCAR Late Model race in front of 5,601 at Irwindale Speedway on Saturday night.

Jeff Green of Long Beach grabbed the lead from T.K. Karvasek on the 20th lap and eventually pulled away for the victory in the 40-lap NASCAR Super Stock race. Kenny Smith of El Monte took the lead on lap 10 and won the 40-lap MSRA Pro-4 Modifieds race.

Correspondent Mark Peinado contributed to this story.