Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Time was on Young's side because his wheel held up long enough to fight off several pass attempts by Liles ,for second place. When it was finally over Young finished nearly 30 seconds behind Smail with only half his spokes still in tact. While Liles settled for third, his teammate Fowler was not happy settling for fifth. Fowler diced with Waiters, who got a flat tire about halfway through the moto. Rat tire and all, Waiters kept up a blistering pace, not allowing Fowler around until the last few laps. Despite excellent second-moto finishes Liles' and Fowler's poor outings in moto one were not good enough to move Walters out of a third overall finish behind Young and Small. Roth's 6-6 moto tally earned him fourth overall ahead of Dirks'consistent 7-7 tally for fifth. Consistency seemed to be the name of the game at Mammoth as Smail and Young proved. The next round of the series is in Boise, Idaho, on July 21, where Smail plans to close the six-point gap-that Young stiU holds over him. I':" Smail's away By Matt Freeman Photos by Kinney Jones MAMMOTIl LAKES, CA, JUNE 28' ound five of the AMA Western National Four-Stroke Motocross Series made its way into the hustle and bustle of the 29th annual Mathmoth Mountain Motocross. Due to the jampacked Mammoth racing schedule the bigfoots of moto thundered through the pine trees of Mammoth on Friday instead of the usual Sunday ou ting. When it was all over KTM's Lance Smail proved he could ride any day of the week by running away with the wins in bothmotos. Smail's nearest rival for the day was Husaberg's Mike Ypung, who ended up with two second-place moto finishes. Coming into round five Young, who won the last two rounds, led the series by 17 points ahead of Smail who won the first two rounds. The rest of the field at Mammoth was an avalanche of talented riders, but even the likes of Ty Davis, Spud Walters, and Billy Liles could not pull it together to run with Smail and Young. Third overall of the day went to the White Brother's Honda XR400-mounted Spud Walters. Walters rode as well as he has all series, keeping his smaller stroker ahead of most of the bigger ones. Despite missing the opening round, Walters worked his way up to third place in the series points standings coming into Mammoth and used his thirdplace finish to widen the gap in points himself and Dave Coupe, who is in fourth with 114 points. When the gate dropped for the first moto it was Young who grabbed the holeshot and the lead at the first turn followed by Smail, Davis, Walters, Brian Roth, and Scott Myers. Other series favorites such as Brian Manley, Gordon Ward, Billy Liles, Micky Dymond, Drey Dirks, and Terry Fowler all got pinched off at the first tum, leaving them all in the middle of the pack to battle it out among themselves. By the second lap of the 25-minuteplus-two-lap moto Young, Smail, and Davis pulled away from the rest of the pack, staging a battle of their own. Smail worked on Young time and time again trying to make a pass, but the Husaberg rider would not let him by. Davis stayed a few seconds behind battle lines, waiting for the two riders to take each other out or slow each other down. While Young and Smail remained on the track, many other riders took themselves out. Husaberg's Dymond pulled off on lap ·two with a flat tire, Liles broke a rocker arm on his CCM, and Fowler's CCM broke a front wheel, taking all three riders out of moto one. Despite the middle of the pack thinning out with mechanical failures, the racing was still fierce. KTM-mounted Roth diced all moto with various riders.. ATK's Myers, Dirks, and Fowler all were unable to make a pass stick around Roth. The only bike to get around Roth after the start was Ward on his CCM. Ward charged hard from 12th-place all the way up to finish fifth followed by Roth. Halfway through the moto Davis fell off the lead pace of Young and Smail, giving them a little more room to breath. Davis stayed in third all the way to the R AMA Western National Four-Stroke Motocross Series Mammoth Lakes, California Results: June 28, 1996 (Round 5 of 8) 4-STRK PRO MOTO 1 (25 minutes + 2 laps): 1. Lance Smail (Jo,.

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