Troy Dog
June 14-16 is QUICKLY approaching! In fact as of today, WE are two weeks away from the Vurbapalooza stop of our Vurbmoto Shred Tour, featuring Jeff Emig’s Fro400 event. You can learn more information about the event here AND PRE-REGISTER HERE. It’s going to be a great time at a beautiful facility.
If you guys know me, you should know that I have two riders who I could ramble on and on about forever. Those riders are of course James Stewart and Jeff Emig. Since the Fro400 is less than two weeks away I figured we should check out another legendary moment from the legendary career of Emig.
We all remember our first Supercross win, right? What about our second in St. Louis 1996? Well, let’s dive into one that you may not remember as well. Emig’s third 250SX win happened in Tempe, AZ on January 25, 1997. Tempe was round 3 that season and Fro was coming off of 6-14 finishes from the back-to-back Los Angeles rounds.
Emig won his heat race and got a patented holeshot in the Main Event. A good portion of the race was spent on Jeremy McGrath and how it had been two rounds and hadn’t won a race. McGrath would battle with Greg Albertyn, who was riding like peak Stew on this night, especially in the whoops. MC would go on to wash the rear end in the sand and Ryan Hughes would pressure him for second on the final lap. Emig was never touched and motored away to his third 250SX win.
I loved watching this race as a kid and can recite most of Art Eckman’s and David Bailey’s dialogue, Marty Reid’s pit reporting is great stuff that I never really picked up on as a kid. He asked great questions on the podium and added personality.
Emig would go onto win six races in 1997 on his way to his first and only Supercross Championship.
Also note: this track had 75 whoops in the section and none of the riders complained about it. Man, were the 1990s the greatest times ever?!
