Despite a title in hand, McGrath won’t hold back

Friday, April 30, 1999 | 10:58 a.m.

Although he clinched his record sixth PACE Supercross Series championship two weeks ago, Jeremy McGrath has plenty of motivation heading into Saturday's season finale at Sam Boyd Stadium.

"I want to win," McGrath said. "My motivation is winning ... there is no better feeling than winning."

And winning is something McGrath has almost perfected during his seven-year career in the stadium series. He has won seven of 15 races this season and is the winningest rider in the sport's history with 60 career victories.

While McGrath is quick to point out that "winning is never boring," he does admit that it soon may be time for him to seek a new challenge -- perhaps following in the footsteps of former two-time Supercross champion Jeff Ward and trading in two wheels for four.

"There are always thoughts of that but as of right now I still want to win so I think that right there enables me to keep my focus and keep riding and keep being able to win," McGrath said. "I think about doing other stuff all the time but I still love what I do.

"I am looking into the avenues of doing some car stuff -- NASCAR or open-wheel ... but I figure in order for me to be dominant or to be able to win in (Supercross), I can't really get too involved in anything else until I've really made up my mind that I want to stop racing motorcycles. I love driving my go-kart and stuff like that, so (auto racing) is always a thought."

McGrath, 27, said he isn't worried about changing racing disciplines -- even one as drastic as moving from motorcycles to cars.

"I'm pretty secure in my life financially so if I did make a move, I wouldn't be struggling for my life or anything like that so that kind of would ease the pressure, I would assume," he said. "I think once a racer, always a racer and I want to win, so I think that right there would help me excel in car racing.

"I don't know how much different it would be, it would just take time. But I'm not the kind of person that's not going to accept not winning right away; I realize that there would be a learning curve. It would be a new challenge."

For now, however, McGrath said he is concentrating on only one thing: Saturday's race at Sam Boyd Stadium and finishing his second season with Team Mazda Chaparral Yamaha on a strong note.

After clinching the championship on April 18 with a second-place finish in New Orleans, McGrath was involved in a first-lap pileup that took him out of last weekend's event in Indianapolis.

"I'm very relaxed," McGrath said. "I was pretty bummed last week because I fell down at the start and I'm up for winning still -- I haven't taken a break yet. This is the last race and I want to go out and make them think about it for the summer."

McGrath, a native Californian, said the track at Sam Boyd Stadium sets up well for him.

"It's going to be hard-packed, which is what I'm kind of used to," he said. "Southern California has really hard ground all the time and it's dry and dusty and that's kind of what the Vegas track is like.

"It kind of changes a little bit from year to year but basically it's the same layout. Las Vegas is always kind of a tight track because the Sam Boyd Silver Bowl is pretty small."