Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

tired that I couldn ' t go any further. I tried to run with them and hope something would happen but it didn 't " "I got a good start and I was out the re where I wanted but I couldn't catch Sh au n for the mo to win," sa id Bogard, thrilled to have the cha nce to play the spoiler for his rival Partridge. "Tod ay wo rked out well because some people were talking about who was faster , me or Jason . I think this kind of proved that I can outrun Jason - now I got to get after Shaun," Te am Green/Fox/MTD / Rentha l/ Shoei-backed Partridge rebo unded to claim the 125cc Mod ified (12-15) titl e with fellow Kawasaki rider Caleb Leath second with a 1-6-4 to tal. Bogard was thi rd with an 8-3-1 coun t. While Win dha m's amateur farewe ll domina ted th e bu lk of th e pit talk a t Loretta Lynn ' s, th e performa nce of Carmichael d id no t go completely unnoticed . The super fast minicycle prodigy was unstoppable th is year, earning the fifth and sixth titles of his caree r. "I keep all these champagne bottles in m y room and this one makes six," sa id Carmichael of the vic tory circle bubbly awarded to every Loretta Lynn's winner. "I practiced really hard getting ready this summer and I guess it's paid off. Shae (Bentley) has been riding really well and I had to work hard to get even a small lead on him. But the track 's kind of rough r igh t no w . I like it better smooth but I'll take it rough or smooth. Other peo ple get tired when the track is rough; that works in my fav o r." Carmichael lists his sponsors as Team Gree n, Fox, Dunl op, Renthal , CTi, Shoei, Mike Taylor Designs, Oakley, Tsubaki, Bel-Ray and N-Style Numbers. "That race went alright bu t I didn't get th e sta rt I hoped for," said Team Green/Fox/Scott/ Barr's/FMF-backed Bentley, w ho w a s th e runner-up to Carmichael in all th ree races. " It never hurts to come back up throu gh the pack and that's wha t I had to do. My arms got a lit tle pumped up bu t I d id all I could to ca tch Ricky. He's fast - that's why he carries that number-on e plate. And he's going to keep carrying it until someone goes out there and beats him. " Nobody ca me t h ro u gh to beat Carmichael in the Stock version of Senior Mini racing, either. He ran 1-1-1 agains t the 2-3-4 of Yamaha-mounted Josh Tarantino and the 4-6-3 of Hon da mo un ted Mark Burkhart. Bentley was second- place in each of the final two motos bu t a 15th-place in race one left him out of the top five overall. The battle for the 85cc Mod ified (913) title was su p posed to be between Michigan 's N icho las Weyand Ne w Mexico's Justin Buckelew. Wey wo n the first two mo tos outright a nd need ed only to follow Buckelew across the line to clinch the title. But when Buckelew went down on the first lap after the sta rt it was clea r sailing for the Team Green/Fox/ NGK/Pro-Circuit/Renthalbacked Wey. He rode to a cautious second behind California's Billy Payne in the final heat to clinch his first of two titles. "I had a bad start and Billy was riding a strong race," explained Wey of his lone loss in this class. "I had a problem on the parade lap and fell, then 1 messed up on the first lap when I tried to go on the inside of the 'Ten Commandments: 1 slid off the side of the jum p and lost a bunch of spots." Pay ne's last moto win cou ld o nly push him up to sixth overall with an 1110-1 score. Buckelew 's third-mote 14th ga ve him fourth over al l. The secondand th ird -p lace trophies in this clas s were awarded to Mary land's Tra vis Pas- (Right) Nicholas Wey was a double class winner at Loretta Lynn's, topping both the 85cc Stock and Modified 12-13 classes. (Be low right) Cindy Cole (3) an d Dee Wood (2) light off In the Women's class. Cole recorded her first title, while Wood suffered a knee Injury. trana (6-4-3) and Oklahoma's Jacob Martin (7-3-6). Wey's second championship came in the 85 Stock 112-13) class, where he ran 1-1-1 in th ree 20-minute-Iong motos. Georgia's Matt Walke r was second ove rall via his 4-5-3 score; Yamaha- moun ted Californian Jerry Aleman was third with a 3-4-6 tally. Fellow Kawasaki rid er Payne was the runner-up to Wey in each of the firs t two mot os but a last moto DNF d ropped him back to 12th overall. Pastra na, th e 10-year-old Suzukibacked Mini hero, dominated the 85cc Stock (7-11) class with three-straight moto wins. Pastrana's primary rival Yamaha-mounted Johnny Marle y - was the runner-up in the first two motos but crashed himself a lap back in the finale. He re-en tered the race close to Pastrana and the two engaged in some on-track scu ffling which, in classic Mini-dad fashion, sp illed over to the mechanic's area. Pastrana's fellow RM80 rid er Brandon [essernan, fr om Pennsyl vania , en ded up sec o nd ov erall w ith th ree threes thr o ugh the w eek. Flo ri da's Rob er t Farnell, runner-up in the final moto, was third overall. The 65cc Stock class featu red the considerable jumping skills of 10-yea r-old Cal iforn ian Bobby Bon ds , who consisten tly cleared many of the dou ble and ste p-up ju m p s on the busy Lore tt a Lynn's track. But after winning the first two motos Bonds went in to a crashing frenz y on the first lap of the finale and fell ove r thr ee times. His early tro uble op ened the door for po p ular Floridian Jam es "Bubba" Stewart to take the title by wi nning the final moto. However, Bonds got some unexpected help fro m South Carolina's Joshua Summey, who took the lead early in the finale and held off the hard-eharging Stewart all the way to the checkered flag . The ove rall tally saw Bonds on top with a 1-1-4, Stewart (3-2-2) second and Summey (2-6-1) third . "After that last kid fell in fron t of me I think I was back in about 30th," said Bonds aft er his co meback rid e for the title. "I didn't know how far up I had to go so I jus t rode as hard as I could:' As expected, the 51cc Stock class for 7- to 8-yea r-olds and 4- to 6-year-olds were filled wi th protests and controversy. The presenc e of the peculiar Cobra minicycles an gered many partici pants who complained that the tricked-out bike w as not mad e readily available across the country, a violation of AMA rules. There was also a question of overall length regarding both the Cobra and the equally trick L.E.M. bikes. Each measured beyond the 55-inch limit from fender tip-to-fender tip, though the rulebook was not clear on how exactly "overall length" should be determined. In the end, the standard-issue Yamaha's won five of six motos, including two apiece by Florida's defend ing 7-8 champ Stewart and newly crowned 4-6 champ Andrew Matusek. But Stewart was disqualified from the first mot o when his father crossed the track to help him with a badly cou ghing motor . Ohio' s Bret t Maimone, the winner of the first rnoto, clinched the overall with a 1-4-2 sco re. Indiana ' s Bradley Rip ple was second wi th a 3-3-3 score while North Carolina's Steph en Martin finished third with a 6-5-4 count. . Matusek wo n the younger version of the 51cc class a nd had to undergo a series .of failed protests concerning the legality of his Yam aha. Th e Geo rgia n proved to have a clean bike each time and his father collected nearly $500 in tear-down fees. Finishing second in the class was New Jersey's Jason Lawrence (2-2-1) wi th Ohio's Kyle McKenzie scoring third on his KTM with a 3-3-4. Throughout the week Vet class fans expected to see the rise of seven-time number-o ne Kevin Foley to the top of the leaderboard. But the soft-spoken amateur star never found his form this week and relinquished both his Junior 25+ and Vet A 30+ titles. "I' ve been preoccupied all summer long with moving and changing jobs and some other stuff," said Foley, whose ever-p resent father Bill could not make the tri p d ue to an illness. " I' ve only raced a few times and I'm just no t comfortable ou t the re. There's a lot of new gu ys here who are going fast, anyway. I jus t need to regroup and get back to basics next year:' Foley finished third in the Vet A class and fifth in the Juni ors. The new arrivals to Vet class racing that Foley spoke of were Texan Honda pilo t Billy Whitley and Pennsylvaniabased Pro-Am Jeff G lass. Whitley topped the Juniors w ith a 1-1-4 score, losing the last moto to long-time Loretta Lynn's favorite Tommy Martin. The col- orful and controversial Glass topped the 3Q-something class wi th two moto wins in thr ee outings . "I h a ve n 't bee n he re si nce 1983," ad mitted MSR /Sm ith /Renthal/FMF/ AIl-Sport Dynamics-backed Whitley, who has had a long, nomadic Pro-Am career in the U.5., Central and South America. "I work for Kristy Shealey as her full-time trainer and mechanic and I decided that instead of sitting around and watchin g this year I would enter myself in the 25+ class. I figured those guys wouldn't be so serious but I soon found out different!" Martin ended up second overall via his 52-1 score. Glass ran 2-4-2 for third in this class but returned to clinch the Vet A 30+ class with a 2-1-1. He celebrated his title in the winner's circle with a cigar and champagne. " It feels great to be thirty and not too old to race," said Glass, who has been a Pro-A m pilot for the last decade. "I'v e w a it ed 30 years to w in th is kind of championshi p. I go t second here way back in '83 but then I did the pro circuit after that. Th is place is a lot different than a pro race. It really feels good to be ba ck ." Finishi ng second in class wa s pure rookie Jon Nelson of Cal ifornia, who wo n the opening mo to but could not ma tch Glass for the rest of the week. Foley, a last-mi n ute entry, finished a disappointing third overall.

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