2000 Houston 250cc Main (Jeremy McGrath's Response to David Vuillemin's Win at Phoenix)

This is the 250cc Main from the 2000 Houston Supercross at the Astrodome in Houston, TX.

In 2000, Mazda Chaparral Yamaha's Jeremy McGrath was in the driver's seat for his 7th Supercross title in 8 years. However, Jeremy was proven human in the past 2 races. His Team Yamaha teammate #934 David Vuillemin of France, won the prior 2 races at San Diego and Phoenix. At San Diego, McGrath lost a front brake and could only salvage a 4th place finish from a 10th place start; at Phoenix, McGrath started out in 5th and moved around his Chaparral Yamaha teammate Tim Ferry #15 into the lead on lap 13. David Vuillemin started out in 6th and pushed forward to challenge the 6-time champ. Vuillemin passed McGrath on lap 18, and Jeremy had virtually no answer. To go along with that, David Vuillemin also took away Jeremy's chance at the $500,000 Vans Triple Crown with the win at Phoenix. In his 2nd place interview, McGrath repeatedly said, "I had no idea David was even there." Finishing 3rd was Team Kawasaki's Ricky Carmichael #4. It was Ricky's first podium of his 250cc career.

McGrath was visibly upset about the loss. Randy Lawrence, his mechanic, did not notify him of Vuillemin's presence. Jeremy responded back the very next week at Houston with a dominating heat race win. In the main, Jeremy concentrated on the start and nailed his first holeshot of the young 2000 season. Ricky Carmichael snuck to the inside to come out in 2nd. McGrath would have none of it and ran away from Carmichael. David Vuillemin, who started out around 6th or 7th again, could only get up to 3rd by the end of the race. McGrath was long gone and ran away with his 3rd win of the 2000 season -- win #63 in his long career. Carmichael went virtually unchallenged and finished 2nd -- one position better than his 3rd place at Phoenix.

As for Jeremy, Houston was the beginning of a 4-race win streak where he led all 80 laps in those 4 wins. Vuillemin stayed close in his rookie 250cc season with two 3rds at Houston and Indianapolis, and a 2nd at Atlanta, but a 6th at Pontiac 1 forced him to take a step back. At the end of the Houston race, McGrath was ahead by 7 points over Vuilllemin, but after Atlanta, Jeremy was ahead by 25 points -- the equivalent of one full race.

In the end, Vuillemin and McGrath battled all season long. Between the two of them, Yamaha saw the winner's circle a total of 14 times in the 16 races (Vuillemin 4, McGrath 10). Yamaha's only losses came at Daytona to Ricky Carmichael, and at Dallas to Team Honda's Kevin Windham #14. In the end, Jeremy McGrath wrapped up his 7th Supercross title at the 15th round in Chicago with a win to Vuillemin's 2nd place; McGrath made it 10 wins at Las Vegas -- matching his win number from 1995.

Enjoy.

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