by Denny HartwigJeff Emig's storied career came with some breaks. He left his first major indoor motocross race inside Houston's Astrodome in 1980 with a broken collar bone and cashed in on $100,000 at the last race of his career inside Las Vegas' MGM Grand Garden Arena in 1999.
Prior to winning the second annual U.S. Open, Emig, was released from factory Kawasaki. Without a ride, Emig showed up at the final motocross race of the year at Steel City to save face.
The Rockstar lifestyle that has surrounded Emig came to a screeching halt. The flashy clothes, the tour bus and media attention were strands of a different life Emig would leave behind. Emig joined forces with friend Tony Stangio and bus driver Tim Dixon and went racing.
FMF provided a brand new Yamaha YZ250 motorcycle and furnished the team with additional support.
"Preparing for the U.S. Open was nuts," said Emig. "I was like, we are going to beat these guys. I had a lot of confidence. It was Dixon and I building the bike in my garage. Tony Strangio, who was pulling together parts and sponsorship money, went out and got the Edgesports.com to be our title sponsor. We really threw it together. I actually tightened the bolts on the bike I raced. I felt like I was 10-years-old again."
Upon leaving he even had to rent a van to drive the bike to Las Vegas. Amazingly, Emig won the first night's main event as a 15-1 odds-on favorite.
"I was the underdog and went there and got focused," said Emig. "I went out and won my heat race. Then, man, when I won the first night, it was just insane. It was such a great feeling. I was in awe. That night I was really calm and confident. I was starting to believe in myself again. The next day I said to myself, 'I am going to go out and do this.'"
The second night's main event couldn't have started any better for Emig as he pulled the early holeshot. A small mistake by Emig allowed Suzuki's Greg Albertyn to move into the lead where he eventually scored the win. That didn't matter to Emig.
Said Emig on the pass: "When he (Albertyn) passed me, I said, 'Go ahead, I am going to bank the $100,000 and the trophy.' What an unbelievable, storybook-type event. To throw a bike and team together and rent a van and win the richest motorcycle race in the world was completely unbelievable."
The win was a sign of the new times for Emig.
"It feels a whole lot better being up on the podium than it does being in jail," Emig quipped.
The breaks didn't end at the U.S. Open for Emig and his newly formed Strategic 3 square of himself, Strangio and Dixon.
While preparing for the up-coming AMA Supercross Series Emig crashed, breaking both wrists and placing his 2000 campaign on hold.
"I was riding the fastest supercross that I ever had in my life," said Emig. "I went to the first race in Anaheim and watched the team I created compete there. I said to myself at that race, 'I'm going to do it again - I am going to go after it again. I was clean and sober and started riding again."
After rehabbing his wrists Emig put his head down and made one last dash at pursuing his dreams. Hopes of claiming his third AMA Motocross title were erased the week before the season opener.
"I was at Glen Helen to do some testing and on the fourth lap of practice came out of the turn right before the infield tabletop and the throttle stuck and I just launched," remembers Emig of that painful day. "Right when I took off, I separated from the bike and thought to myself, 'This is not going to be good.' I just had that feeling. I hit the ground and at first couldn't feel my legs. While laying there in the mud and water, I was thinking to myself, 'I don't believe this, I just got paralyzed. A few seconds later I started to feel a little bit of pain in my legs and then was able to move them a little bit. Despite the pain, that was a big relief. I said to the people around me, 'I just broke my back and my leg, nobody move me.' That's it. I don't want to go through this again. I'm not making another comeback."
Today Emig provides color commentator Amp'd Mobile Supercross on SPEED and CBS.
Source: LiveNation