It All Rides on Him

The illuminated billboard alongside the freeway outside Edison Field said it all about supercross--and about its rock style superstar, Jeremy McGrath:

TONIGHT’S EVENT SOLD OUT

Wherever supercross goes, usually in NFL stadiums, it sells out or comes close. It has been that way since McGrath came riding and jumping out of Riverside County to become the greatest, most flamboyant rider in the sport’s three decades.

He might also be the most dominating figure in sports, even more so than golf’s Tiger Woods, and, like Woods, it is McGrath’s aura attracting record crowds almost every Saturday night.

When “Showtime” was introduced before the first event at Edison Field two weeks ago, the noise was deafening as the spectators among the capacity crowd of 45,050 tried to out-scream one another for their hero. Earlier, more than an hour before he was scheduled for an autograph session in the pits, fans began to line up next to the Mazda Yamaha compound.

“There is no question that Jeremy’s impact on supercross has been substantial,” says Roy Janson, vice president of operations for SFX Motor Sports Group, promoters of the EA Sports Supercross series.

“For one, he dominated the series for the decade of the ‘90s, but more than that, he has been a really wonderful image for the sport. His professionalism, his accessibility, has been remarkable. Comparable to folks in his earning bracket in motor sports who are difficult to get close to, he always makes himself available for autographs and chatting with fans.”

On the track, McGrath’s record is unparalleled in motor sports. He has won seven of the last eight 250cc supercross championships. His 71 victories are almost triple those of runner-up Rick Johnson’s 28. Last season, McGrath won 10 of 16 events. In 1996, he won 14 of 15 finals.

Since 1993, when his career started with a stunning rookie win at Anaheim, he has won 71 of 126 events, a remarkable 56%.

Before that, even though he rode for only two years as a teenager in the 125cc support class, his 13 wins still stand as the record.

Last Saturday night, at San Diego’s Qualcomm Stadium, which McGrath calls his hometown stadium, the attendance was 61,368. Only once in eight NFL games last year did the Chargers draw that many.

“Jeremy is the type of superstar I envisioned when I originally developed supercross,” said Michael Goodwin, who moved European-style outdoor motocross into a stadium setting in 1972 when he produced the Superbowl of Motocross in the Coliseum. “He fills the seats.”

Goodwin is now an independent business consultant in Dana Point whose association with his old sport is limited to watching.

“This year, Jeremy fulfilled another of the visions I had, which was getting outside team sponsorship, like the NASCAR people do. I wanted to create a circuit where outside sponsors would come in and supplant, or assist, manufacturers. I thought it would come 10 years ago because it is what the sport needed to get wider popular support.”

Mazda, specifically its line of trucks, is McGrath’s title sponsor this season.

Starting in 1993, McGrath won four supercross championships as a factory Honda rider, then finished second on a Suzuki in 1997 and followed that with three titles on a Chaparral-owned Yamaha.

This year he is going it alone, riding his own Team Mazda Yamaha, managed by longtime associate Larry Brooks. Returning to the team is tuner Skip Norfolk, who’d retired in 1996 after tuning McGrath’s championship Hondas.

“I want to be the first rider-owner to win a supercross championship,” McGrath said. “The level of support for my team has grown, with Mazda and Yamaha staying with me and Hot Wheels joining us.”

Mazda has been an associate sponsor since 1997, but this year stepped into the No. 1 spot.

“We see a lot of connection between motocross and our trucks,” said Jack Stavana, a Mazda spokesman. “We want our truck to be viewed as high-performance, agile and athletic, and those are attributes of Jeremy. He is the icon of a very demanding sport, the Michael Jordan of supercross.”

Brooks, a former motocross rider who has run McGrath’s team for four years, credits two things for his rider’s domination--inner drive and intelligence.

“Jeremy’s drive to succeed is something you can’t teach, it’s inherent, something you’re born with. You either have it or you don’t,” Brooks said.

“And he is so smart, so intelligent, in thinking things out before he attacks. I don’t mean book intelligence, I mean rider intelligence. He sees the bigger picture better than other riders.”

That is most apparent in his negotiation of the “whoop-de-dos,” a series of tightly spaced bumps, similar to moguls in skiing, featured on every stadium track.

Riders often lose control as the bone-jarring bumps literally shake the bike from their grip, but McGrath appears to lightly skim over the top, barely touching the tips of the bumps in an amazing display of throttle control and bike balance.

“It’s technique, but it’s also his thinking,” Brooks said. “Watch closely and you’ll see he takes different lines than other riders. He is so quick in responding to changing track conditions that he thinks [the whoops] through before he gets there and that can sometimes be only a fraction of a second.”

The team is based in Murrieta, where McGrath grew up and where he started his career by riding BMX, a bicycle version of motocross, on a track built by his father, Jack. However, Jeremy lives in Encinitas, close to the No Fear apparel company of which he is part owner.

In a time of two-rider teams, McGrath is enthusiastically going it alone.

“I’m the lone ranger,” he said. “I’m full of enthusiasm, I have my old trainer back and Skip is back with me too. I had a pretty good off-season racing in Europe. I’m definitely pumped.”

McGrath, who skipped almost all of the national outdoor 250cc season, won races in France, England and Germany, among them the final round of the World Supercross Series in Leipzig, Germany.

Mike LaRocco, who finished second in Leipzig, won the championship. McGrath, who had a series of crashes in earlier rounds, finished fourth, also behind national 250cc champion Greg Albertyn and French supercross champion Thierry Bethys.

Although he won the 1995 outdoor nationals and has won 15 national events, McGrath said he will not run any national outdoor races this season--not even the opener at Glen Helen in San Bernardino.

“The season’s long enough with 16 supercross and the foreign races, which I enjoy riding,” he said. “I want to come into the supercross season full of enthusiasm. If I ride the outdoor motos, I don’t have any time to relax. When you’re young you can do that, but I’m 29 now and need time to have a life.”

Ricky Carmichael, 21, is one of the young riders who can do both. He won the outdoor season title and upset McGrath last Saturday night in San Diego in what many observers call one of the most exciting handlebar-to-handlebar races in supercross history.

McGrath and Carmichael passed and repassed one another at least a dozen times before McGrath spun on the eighth lap and the 5-foot-4 Carmichael jumped in front to stay.

“That was really fun, that’s what racing is all about,” said McGrath, who promised, “I’ll be back next week, for sure. I love racing at Anaheim.”

He should. In nine races on man-made tracks inside Edison Field, he has won seven times, twice as a 125 rider and five times on a 250.

“It’s getting harder all the time to win,” he said. “Every season, it seems some new young guy is coming along to challenge me. This year it’s Ricky and Travis [Pastrana]. Before that, it was David Vuillemin and Kevin Windham. Before them, it was Mickael Pichon and Damon Huffman.

“There’s always someone, but that doesn’t concern me. I don’t care who’s coming along. I go out there with only one plan and that’s to win.”

But he’s also planning ahead.

One major reason for owning his own team is to prepare for the day when he gives up the race-to-race pounding and hires another rider.

“Starting my own team is a big step, but I want to make it work because I want to remain in this sport after I give up riding,” he said. “That could be next year, or a few years from now, but one day it will happen. When it does, I want the team to be the best.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Supercross Facts

* What: Third round of 16-event EA Sports Supercross season.

* Where: Edison Field, Anaheim.

* When: 7:30 tonight. Gates open at 12:30 p.m. for practice.

* Main events: 20 laps for 250cc final, 15 laps for 125cc support class.

* Defending 250cc series and race champion: Jeremy McGrath.

* Promoter: SFX Motor Sports Group, sanctioned by American Motorcyclist Assn.

* Tickets: $75, $40 and $25. For 12 and under: $10. Available at TicketMaster and Edison Field box office.

* Web site information: https://www.pacesupercross.com.