Kawasaki/Racer X Race Report
"I'm all right," said Jeremy McGrath, slumped on a Honda scooter inside a tunnel of the Home Depot Center. A few moments earlier, McGrath had gotten off hard during a qualifying session for his new race "the Jeremy McGrath Invitational Supercross” now here he was trying to pull it together. "You know what? I'm not all right," he added after a long pause. "I took the whole crash on my neck and head and my hand is numb. I can't believe it happened. What a bad time for it to happen." McGrath looked spooked, and very dejected, for not only was he in pain, he was bummed his race had gotten off to, in his eyes, a bad note.
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Arguably the best race of the entire evening was the grudge match of death between Kevin Windham and Heat Voss. "People don't know it, but I've been riding back in Texas with Travis Pastrana for three weeks and we've been practicing these bracket racing things. Travis has taught me quite a bit." And it showed. Voss, on a new Honda CRF450R, both led and fought Windham to the bitter end. So close was the race that at one point, David Vuillemin screamed, "Show me the money!" It was funny stuff. Speaking of Pastrana, he likely would have won his bracket race, but he decided to do a backflip along the way and that was that (it certainly shocked the crowd, though, as nobody was expecting it). "Even with the backflip I thought I could win," reasoned Travis after his defeat. "Oh well, I think I have to get ready for the freestyle demo," he added with a gleam in his eye, probably betraying what part of the evening meant the most to him.
The backflip demonstration that followed was, arguably, the greatest motorcycle thrill show ever performed. Riders like Nate Adams, Travis Pastrana, Adam Jones, Ox Kargola, Ronnie Faisst and Mike Mason absolutely blew minds with every conceivable freestyle trick and backflip variation possible. And not only did they display just how far the sport of FMX has come, all the guys looked like they were having a hell of a good time doing it and had to be almost pulled off the stadium floor. The fans were sorry to see them go. Although it's an old Vaudeville cliche, the FMX show alone was worth the price of admission. (Oh, and Nate Adams and Travis Pastrana's side-by-side backflip was just astonishing.)
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The 16-lap main event was, for all intents and purposes, a Josh Grant and Kevin Windham show. Windham grabbed the holeshot, checked out at the front, and stayed there. Grant experienced a midpack start, but within a few laps was in second and trying to chip away at his teammate's lead. When it was over, it was Windham with the big win, Grant second, Nick Wey third, David Vuillemin fourth and Heath Voss was fifth (that's five Hondas). "I'm really happy to go 2/2 tonight to my teammate here," smiled Grant. "This whole thing was a lot of fun. It was like you never knew what to expect. I really enjoyed the format and trying something new. I'm excited to race again tomorrow."
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