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/1174582
VOLUME 56 ISSUE 40 OCTOBER 8, 2019 P81 defeat Hartranft to take the overall Straight Rhythm win for the first time on a two-stroke. "I mean, it's awesome and sketchy at the same time," Roczen said of racing a 250cc two-stroke. "Obviously, we're all on four- strokes now with fuel-injection and everything, and then you come here and everybody's scrambling, and people have bogs and sput- ters and everything [because of jetting issues], so we're trying to get rid of that. We hit things really hard, too. But this is such an epic event! It's frickin' cool, whether it's a privateer thing or a team, everybody puts in so much effort. I didn't know what to expect, re- ally, but the fact that some people came as, you know, Nathan Ramsey back in the day, or who- ever. It's been really frickin' cool. I'm just glad everybody got this done without wrecking anything, because those bikes are just a little bit more sketchy than what we're on right now." cause I thought it'd be cool, and I'd done it a couple times before, but then that set me up to go like Mach 9 into the wall jump, and I just wasn't prepared for the ruts and stuff at the bottom." TRAVIS CATANZARO AJ Catanzaro would've definitely won "best costume" at the 2019 Red Bull Straight Rhythm, had that been a thing, but it's not quite Hal- loween yet. Catanzaro was Travis Pastrana from 20 years ago, with a little help from his friends. "Steve Matthes at PulpMX had the chest protector and sent it to me in the mail, and then [Michael] Leib and Chuck Carruthers at Canvas MX custom-made the gear," Catanzaro said. "It couldn't have worked any better. A lot of people probably saw it, but maybe some people didn't realize I was actually on a KTM that was custom-painted yellow tonight. So, I had a custom-painted helmet and custom-painted plastics! It was a lot of work, but just like last year, well worth it." Catanzaro finished third in the 125cc class, and could've won if not for the save of the night. It turns out he embodied more than just Pastrana's look; he embodied the attitude as well. VOHLAND CRASHES OUT There were a lot of legendary rac- ers who went out early in the brack- ets at the Straight Rhythm, many losing to up-and-coming amateur racers, and in hindsight, it's likely because people like current 450cc SX champ Cooper Webb were not willing to completely hang it out while the youngsters are always willing to do that. But this bit young Max Vohland in the 125cc bracket, when he went over the bars in the whoops just before the finish line as he tried to make up for an earlier mistake against Michael Leib. Voh- land got up favoring his left shoul- der and exited the event, but he was the only person who crashed out during the night program. BRAND NEW THING FOR WEBB It's easy to forget, but current 450cc SX champ, Cooper Webb, hasn't spent any time on two- strokes since he was on 85s. In the Supermini class, he raced CRF150R four-strokes before graduating to a YZ250F in the pros. "I'd never even ridden a 250cc two-stroke before last Monday," Webb said. "It's kind of sketchy, for sure, but we got it comfortable, and all the controls are in the same place!" Webb—on one of three Jer- emy McGrath-tribute machines in the event—went out in the second round, though. Briefly... Joey Crown dominated the 125cc class