Supercross title in Emig's grasp

When four-time reigning champion Jeremy McGrath shocked the Supercross world by skipping out on powerful Team Honda just two weeks prior to the start of the 1997 season, Jeff Emig saw it as a chance to finally get his foot in the championship door.

Buoyed by a season-high five victories (to McGrath's two), Emig can barge right through it Saturday, when the American Motorcycle Association stages its Supercross season finale at Sam Boyd Stadium.

Given McGrath's domination of the sport, Supercross observers consider that development every bit as stunning as ... well, Ann-Margret on the back of a Harley.

Emig must finish only eighth or better aboard his Kawasaki in the 250cc main event to clinch his first points championship and deny McGrath an unprecedented fifth in a row. It also would mark the first time since 1987, when Jeff Ward (now driving Indy cars) won on a Kawasaki, that a bike other than Honda carried its rider to the coveted No. 1 plate.

Not bad for a guy who started 1997 with the most modest of goals.

"All I wanted to do is win some races," said Emig.

Before McGrath aligned with Suzuki (pretty much a backmarker in recent seasons), winning some races might not have been a realistic objective -- not when McGrath won 14 of 15 main events last year, including 13 in a row. (It was Emig who finally halted the string in the next-to-last race, at St. Louis).

But now it's Emig in command. Given he has finished worse than eighth only once all season, Emig basically only needs to keep his bike upright Saturday to clinch the title.

But that doesn't mean he won't be riding hard.

"I'm going to focus on winning the race, because that's the best way to win the championship," said the personable 26-year-old Riverside, Calif., native. "That's what got me here and that's what's going to take me through."

And he said McGrath's trading places won't make the title any less sweeter -- provided he goes on to nail it down, that is.

"You know McGrath is going to win races. He's strong no matter what type of bike he has," Emig said. "He's the best supercross rider ever. So what's cool for me (in leading the championship) is that he still is at his best."

Emig, considered one of Supercross' nicest guys, came into his own last year, when he finished second behind McGrath in the stadium and captured both the 250cc Motocross (when an injury slowed McGrath) and FIM World Supercross crowns.

But it was the race here two years ago that primed him for success. Emig scored the first victory of his Supercross career in the 1995 season finale in Las Vegas, although there was a big asterisk attached.

When a power failure darkened the stadium, several top riders -- including McGrath -- elected to boycott the main event, citing various frustrations with the AMA and race promoters.

"Some of the riders wanted to make a stand against the promoters," Emig recalled. "But I felt it wasn't the right time to do it. I was more than happy to ride ... and give the fans what they came to see."

But Emig said the boycott might have opened some eyes.

"I think it had a little bit of impact," he said. "It made the promoters think and they got their (act) together, basically."

The Supercross riders did not compete here last year. And this year's race originally was headed for Las Vegas Motor Speedway before logistics moved it back across town to the familiar confines of Boyd Stadium.

That's fine with Emig.

"I'm glad we're not racing at a superspeedway," he said. "We race at Charlotte and Daytona and they have a little bit of trouble making the track ... fit Supercross. Our track fits a (stadium) grandstand better than a superspeedway."