Jeremy McGrath vs. Jeff Emig: The Numbers

Jeremy McGrath vs. Jeff Emig is a memory now. The animosity that fueled the hatred, and made for juicy Cycle News copy, died with the distance cleaved by time.

McGrath and Emig have been husbands and fathers twice as long as they battled head to head in Supercross and motocross. It’s funny how detestation can morph into appreciation. In the mid-1990s, these two abhorred each other.

Now they’re co-producing a documentary and autographing an art collaboration.

Between 1989-1999 McGrath and Emig faced off 198 times in AMA 125 and 250 SX+MX competition. MC bested Fro 127 times and Emig topped McGrath in 71 races.

McGrath vs. Emig: Who Bested Whom?

They finished 1-2 (or 2-1) in 28 of those races and slammed into each other along the way an incalculable numbers of times.

At the peak of their rivalry, in 1996, MC and Fro went 1-2 or 2-1 in 13 (half!) of the Pro Motocross motos.

Championships? They went head to head in 15 different championship points series and–combined–won 12 of them!

Jeremy McGrath and Jeff Emig: Head to Head Championships

RIVALS! ARTWORK

When the cover sheet was pulled away, McGrath was pleased to see his handlebars in front of Jeff Emig’s. Emig, however, held the inside line, a familiar sight in many Supercross and motocross races where they faced off.

“This situation right here, this happened a lot,” McGrath said while pondering the print in the home office where he keeps his memorabilia and championship #1 plates. “Not my favorite because it was kind of a pain in the ass sometimes, racing him. But he made me better, so it’s not a lot I can say bad about it.”

Emig has similar sentiments when he first saw the print and smiled wide.

“A couple decades ago, I would have looked at this picture a lot different than what I look at it now,” he said. “Rivalries are difficult and certainly Jeremy’s and my relationship was pretty contentious. That fueled us both to ride to the level and do what we did as racers. Now I appreciate that I was able to live that life and had that challenge put in front of me.”

Autographed art! Only 100 prints!

“This happened a lot all that year, right?” McGrath said of the 1996-themed imagery. “We were together a lot. I think some of my favorite races against Emig were outdoor because he was so good and I was not good for so long and I finally cracked the code on how to beat him and some of my favorite wins were when I was behind him and I’d beat him and go 1-1.

“Those days winning a national, winning two national motos on the same day, you just felt like you got ran over by a truck when you were done. So they always felt so accomplished and Jeff was so good at it. I had enough discipline and enough drive to go get that done because for the longest time, I wasn’t willing to put in the effort.”

The memories are getting fuzzy for Emig and he’s recently spent a lot of time reacquainting himself with his career while working on the Moto Nineties documentary with The Hammer Factory.

“I’ve done interviews talking about races and I’ll go back and watch the race and it’s not at all like I remember,” Emig said. “And I’ve already been on record with interviews talking about it happening this way. And then I watch the race back and I go, uh, that’s not at all how I remember it.”

There are two races, however, where he needs no help: The 1996 St. Louis Supercross and the 1996 Steel City Pro Motocross. The former was the race that ended McGrath’s 13 race Supercross win streak. The latter was the one where he took McGrath’s Pro Motocross crown.

“Steel City 1996 was, that was a good one,” Emig said. “McGrath even passed me the first lap and I just passed him right back and was like, ‘Not this time.’”

But the day didn’t start off well. Emig came into the race with a slim two-point lead, essentially, a winner-take-all situation and Emig spooked himself in the morning warm-up.

“I’m chasing Jeremy in the second practice, and I come out of a turn and I get the front wheel up, looped out and ripped off my rear fender. That’s second practice. So that’s how I ended my preparation for the race. I came back and told J-Bone (Jeremy Albrecht) that the throttle stuck or something. I don’t know what happened (laughs).”

The rivalry peaked that day. In 1997, Emig won both the Supercross and Motocross titles while McGrath struggled for success following an 11th hour switch from Honda to Suzuki. In 1998, Emig didn’t find the winner’s circle until the back half of Pro Motocross; McGrath, who reclaimed the Supercross title, was recuperating from a wrist injury.

It all ended as unceremoniously as it began at the 1989 Anaheim Supercross when a Team Green kid from Missouri hit the track with a BMX racer from Sun City, Calif. They finished 10th and 11th, respectively in the 125 class.

Ten years and scores of wins later, they raced against each other for the final time. It was the 1999 Washougal Pro Motocross, a rather inglorious day for both of them. McGrath was on a come-as-he-pleases program and Emig only scored one top 5 overall all summer.

• Fro (37-11) for 17th
• MC (5-9) for 8th

“We each needed that,” McGrath said of the rivalry. “It helped me be smarter, it helped me be faster and more determined and if the whole thing was easy over those years, then maybe I wouldn’t have lasted as long, you know? There was always something to shoot for.”