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/127259
~ M orDeROSS 19th Annual KawasakilNMA World Mini Grand Prix ~ Joel Albrecht (72) racked up three out of four 125 and 250cc Intermediate Class wins. Dana Wiggins took the other victory. Lusk, Huffman claim Vegas gold By Ken Faught HEi\DERSOX, xv, APR. 20-22 eorgia's Ezra Lu sk and Cal ifornia 's Dam on Huffman made the most of their journey to Las Vegas Int ernational Raceway by topping the fastest mini riders in the world at the 19th Annua l NMA World Mini GP. American Suzuki- backed Lu sk did his dama ge in th e 80cc Stock and Mod ified Expert classes wh ere he used a pair of 1-2 moto fini shes to capture th e gold ah ead of former Kawasaki T eam Green teammate Jeff Dement. Huffman made hi s presence known in the Super Mini cla ss wh ere he too used a 1-2 tall y to claim th e class champions h ip. Huffman als o won the prestigious Kawasaki Rate of Champions wh ere he topped two out of three motos for the win. A total of 1102 en tra nts com peted for a sho t at any of over 30 individual titl es and $50,000 in con tingencies. The th ree-day event was witnessed by more than 5000 spectat or s. T he Las Vegas course is a hi gh- speed sand track that is brok en up by several supercross-style jumps. The start is approxima tely 250 yards long, and is fai r 10 all rid ers. Man y classes with lar ge numbers of entrants req u ired qualifiers to thin the fiel d for si ng le moto run -offs 10 determi ne class champio ns . Riders earn poin ts from their overa ll finish in the division that are carried over into the final wh ere the to p 30 rid ers go head- to-hea d to determine the overa ll class title. Classes wi th fewer riders were not sp li t into di visions and overall winners were determined by the traditional two-mote scoring method. Lu sk started th ing s rolling in th e 80cc Stock Expert class by getting a good sta rt in th e fir st moto and eventually parl ayin g it into a win . Dem ent fought Huffman for second, but Huffman managed to hold th e R&D Suzuki rider a t bay for the runnerup position. Round two saw a similiar situation but thi s time Dem ent was the one who G Ezra Lu sk (298kshown here being chased by Craig Decker, was the big winner in the 80cc ra nks after topp ing both the Stock an d Modified Exp ert classes. Race of Cha mp ions ri ders (top, fro m left-to-right) Damon Huffma n , Steve Olson, Pat McMullen, Shawn Morgan, Chris Cooksey an d Spud Walters, (bottom, left to right) Ezra Lusk, Greg Rand, Jason Buzzee, Cal Nowicki an d Craig Decker. gr eeted the chec kers first. Lu sk led for a sho rt time bu t fell 10 fourt h and had to cont inue to work his way up to where he eventually finished second. Huffman dropped to third with Craig Decker and Grego ry Rand putting in consistent rides fo r fourth and fifth , respect ively, in each mota. The first moto of the 80cc Modified Expert class was very sim ilar 10 th e first 80cc Stock moto. Ameri can Suzuki/ Scott/HiPoint/Be ll /P J I /Dun lop / Tsubaki/ Power Mist- sponsored Lusk led most of th e race and again edged out Huffman at the finish line. Dement returned to the third pl ace position that almost guaranteed that he would ha ve a tough time winning th e class cham p io nsh ip . Dement tri ed hi s hardest in the second moto and scored the win over Lusk. Dement 's 3-1 mota score, however, wasn't eno ug h to beat Lusk's I2, a nd the T exan had to settle for the runner-up slot. J esse J am es wa s th ird wi th a pair of fourth place fin ishes whil e Huffm an (2-6) a n d St eve Andrich (5-5) ro u nded ou t the top five. In the Super Min i class that a ttracted over 30 riders, Huffman showed that he is more adep t at riding the big-wh eel 105cc machines and powe red away with th e ea rly lead . Deck er gave chase through out most of the race, but wasn 't able to overtake hi s fellow Californian . Danny Nelson collected third ahead of Lusk, who now had littl e, if any, cha nce at winni ng th is class. Shawn Morgan was a distant fifth . Round two sa w Lu sk get a much better start and lead th e pack througho ut most of th e race. Huffman ran in th e number two slot for quite some tim e as Decker ga ve chase close beh ind. The two riders played foll ow-th elead er for the second half of the event a nd that dog fight would event ually determine the overall winner. Huffman maintained second at the finish whi ch gave him the class championshi p ahead of Lusk's 4-1 score and Decker's 2-3. Nelson was fourth with