McGrath Might Be Riding, but He’s Not Returning

If you see Jeremy McGrath riding at racing speeds on Honda’s supercross training track in Corona, don’t read too much into it.

The greatest supercross rider in history is not coming out of his year-old retirement, much to the disappointment of his legion of fans. He has rejoined Honda, the manufacturer for whom he won four of his seven supercross championships, but in the role of test rider and coach.

“Believe it or not, and it has sort of surprised me, but I am not itchy to race,” McGrath said Thursday as he prepared for another book signing of his autobiography, “Wide Open: A Life in Motocross.”

“I still love riding and working with the Honda riders and testing some new equipment keeps me at it. When I’m out there with Ernesto [Fonseca] and Kevin [Windham] and [Mike] LaRocco, I definitely put in some hot laps.”

Not hot enough, though, to change his mind about returning to racing. He was only 30 when he announced his retirement -- a decision prompted by a horrendous crash while practicing on a new KTM on Sept. 22, 2002. It was while recuperating that he decided it was time to call it quits.

In 16 years of racing, he had 89 victories, 10 national and two world championships and had been the catalyst in supercross’ becoming second only to NASCAR in motorsports popularity.

And it was his trademark nac-nac -- in which he took his right foot off the peg in midair and swung it behind him as if he were getting off in flight, and at the last second kicked his leg back around and got back on the bike -- that spawned freestyle motocross, so popular in the X Games.

“You might think it sounds funny, but after a couple hours of signing books and posing for pictures, I’m as tired as I was after a supercross,” he said with a laugh.

McGrath will be signing books at 4 p.m. Saturday at the Thor transporter in the pits at Angel Stadium before the fifth event of the AMA THQ supercross season. He will also be at B. Dalton in San Bernardino Feb. 5 at 6:30 p.m. and at Wal-Mart in Murrieta on Feb. 8 at 1 p.m.

Supercross attendance has been down slightly from previous years, although it still is larger than for any other motorcycle event.

“It seems like supercross took a hit this year when Travis Pastrana decided not to race, Bubba Stewart is not racing on the West Coast, Ricky [Carmichael] got hurt and I retired,” McGrath said. “It seemed like all the big stars, at least ones the public wants to see, are missing.”

Chad Reed, who has won three of the four races this season on a Yamaha, is an Australian who has not yet developed a following, although he seems to be the best of the lot.

“I think Windham will be right there,” McGrath said of the only rider who has beaten Reed this year. “He disappointed himself at the first round, but he’s been on the gas ever since. Two weeks ago, he and Chad battled handlebar-to-handlebar for 10 laps and last week they went at it for 14 laps before Reed wore him down.

“I don’t know if he can beat Chad Saturday, but he’ll win again before long. Don’t forget, he was out for two years and is just getting back into racing shape.”

Windham suffered a broken leg in a racing crash on Feb. 24, 2002, but when his injury healed, his wife was having a difficult pregnancy, so he took off the rest of the season to remain with her at their home in Centreville, Miss., until the baby girl, Madeline, was born.

“I’m a little surprised that Stewart isn’t riding the 250s, but on the other hand, he’s still a kid and has a lot of years left,” McGrath said.

Stewart, the Kawasaki phenom from Florida, has decided to ride only the eastern regional 125cc SX series this year, electing to wait until the outdoor season to move up to the 250cc class.

Carmichael, with three consecutive titles, injured his knee in training and will miss the season.

The latest injured rider, Fonseca, missed last week’s race in San Diego because of a damaged knee. The Costa Rica youngster will have surgery Monday and will sit out the rest of the season.

Windham is fourth in the standings, but only because he was docked 10 (of 25) points for rough riding in winning at Phoenix. He and David Vuillemin tangled on the first lap and Windham was penalized.

“I have seen tapes of the spill and I don’t think what the AMA ruled was fair,” McGrath said. “It looks like they just ran into each other. To me, it was just a bad call, but the AMA has a new guy in charge and I guess he wanted to make an example of someone.”

Windham’s appeal will be heard Feb. 10.

Champ Car World Series

Much of racing society is saluting the new owners of Champ Car World Series, formerly known as CART, for their success in not letting Tony George and his Indianapolis Motor Speedway bully them into submission.

Not only have Paul Gentilozzi, Kevin Kalkhoven and Jerry Forsythe prevailed in a court fight with George, but Gentilozzi’s feisty attitude might become contagious. For instance, as when he said:

“Tony has a funny way of demonstrating his commitment to open-wheel racing. His willingness to split from CART several years ago to form the IRL is largely responsible for the tenuous state of open-wheel racing today. His only commitment [was] to buy the assets to keep Champ Car from racing. Our commitment is to rebuild what he, in essence, has destroyed.”

Stay tuned. But most important, the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach is on for April 18, the premier event of the Champ Car World Series. And colorful Paul Tracy will be there to defend his race and series titles.

Free Racing

For the first time in 19 years -- since Riverside International Raceway closed -- the Cal Club will conduct races this weekend in Southern California at which spectators are welcome -- free.

Six regional Sports Car Club of America championship races Saturday and five national races Sunday are scheduled at California Speedway.

“Our goal is to generate enough interest again in amateur racing to hold two weekend events a year at Fontana to supplement our regular schedule at Buttonwillow,” said Johnnie Crean, newly named Cal Club president.

After Riverside closed, the club was left without a home and the only answer seemed to be to build its own track. The closest site available was Buttonwillow, about 150 miles north of Los Angeles on I-5, where the club now owns a racing facility.

“To finance the project, we put a surcharge on racing and last year we decided we had enough support to try and race at California Speedway,” Crean said. “It was a non-spectator event that went so well we decided to buy insurance this year and invite spectators, in hopes of attracting new members.”

The current membership is around 2,500, but Crean said he hoped to double that number. The Cal Club is a regional member of the SCCA, which has 65,000 members and conducts more than 2,000 events a year.

Enthusiasm is high for racing on the 21-turn, 2.8-mile California Speedway road course, which utilizes portions of the two-mile oval. There are 212 cars entered Saturday and 141 Sunday.

“It’s a rare chance for fans,” said Crean, a Cal Club member for 33 years. “They can park free, walk in free, stroll through the pits close enough to touch the cars and enjoy some really good racing.”

Passings

Bill Finefrock, former motor racing journalist and car collector, died Jan. 22 of burns suffered in a garage fire at his home in Auburn, Calif. A former editor of AutoWeek and Competition Press, he was 73.