Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128196
(Above) Tim Feny had a horrible start but worked his way through the main-event camage well. Here, he passes Stephane Roncada on his way to as high as second. (Below) Carmichael passed Feny late in the main event for second, but Reed was long gone. down in the whoops and was again second and began pressuring him, but it seemed Pastrana was being slammed into by Pastrana, who extra careful around the former out- unfortunately had nowhere to go but door champ, who had his wrist bro- into LaRocco's thigh. an "I'm a little sore," LaRocco said. "It encounter with the Suzuki rider last was a whoop-off thing, and I tried year. Then, on lap five, LaRocco went shifting to third, and I didn't quite get ken Weeble Wobble: Ricky Carmichael and Travis Pastrana had this gettogether in their heat race. Pastrana hit Carmichael, fell, and then Carmichael was rewarded with the heatrace win and persistent boos from the Anaheim crowd. by Pastrana following It doesn't seem like it takes a whole lot to get the booing started toward Ricky Carmichael. It's funny, in a way, because Carmichael was warmly received during opening ceremonies, yet a little contact with Travis Pastrana in their heat race got the crowd riled. From the podium after the race, Carmichael appeared angry and pleaded his case. "Travis was riding really good, you know," said the champ. "He was behind me, he put it in on me there, then he got me, but I had him on the inside there, and he ran into the back of me. You know, I could've ran into him back there, but..." Then came the replay, and at least to the folks in the Press Box, it looked like Carmichael was accurate in his recount, but the crowd booed even louder than before. Carmichael had to yell much of the rest of his podium interview over the boos of the audience. "What no one understands is that I don't want to take myself out, or anyone else. Why would I want to jeopardize my heat race? But he can't win, so it's no big deal." Pastrana made it up to the podium after winning his semi, and he brought it up immediately......Man that first qualifier was awesome. (To the crowd) What do you guys think about the first qualifier tonight?" The fans cheered. "Well, I kind of wanted to go to the semi a little bit - I wasn't feeling too great out there, but my Suzuki's running great," Pastrana continued. "But I really want to say, Ricky is a Weeble Wobble. You can knock him, but he doesn't fall down at all. He came into the comer, he tried to brake-check, and I swore to pretty much everybody if he ever stopped and looked at me in a comer to be like 'Hey, I'm good' ... Well, I wheelied, and it didn't work. It worked out for him." So it seems Pastrana admitted he was trying to knock Carmichael down with the wheelie with his Weeble Wobble comparison. And their stories concur as to who ran into whom. The booing had a surprising effect on Carmichael, though. "I mean, Ibooing] always gets to you a little bit, but when they do that, it makes me want to win even more," Carmichael said. "I think that's the best retaliation you could ever have. I feel that I'm pretty strong mentally, and it does bother me, but I can block it out. Every negative I try to tum it into a positive. It just kind of feeds me to do a little bit better. "I was just fed up. At Indy I don't think it was my fault, and tonight I don't think it was my fault. When he came in on me, I hit the brakes and waited for him to get in front of me. When I passed him, it's not like I went in there and hit the crap out of him - I didn't hit him like I hit Windham at Vegas in '97 - I went in there, slowed down so he wouldn't tuck underneath me, and then he gassed it and hit my back tire. He got a little overanxious and it made me look like the bad guy." cue I e n e .... os • JANUARY 15, 2003 9