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C CTra
M ns-Cal Motocross series, Round 4
(Left) Jeff Wllloh won the 125ec and 250Cc Pro
cl asses at the fourth round of the CMC Trans Cal Motocro ss Series. held at Los Angeles
Coun ty Raceway.
(Above) Billy Payne flew his Kawasaki to wins In
the 125cc and 250cc Int ennedlate cl asses.
wit ho ut one or both of these riders ma king a mis take, and it ha ppene d w hen
Young h it a kicke r a nd ju mped h is
Honda right in front of Shimp.
"I hit this bump and it shot me right
into Shimp's line in midair," Yo ung
said. "He hi t my foo t and then bo th of
m y fee t ca me o ff (the pegs), a nd m y
wrist got locked with the th ro ttle wide
open an d I couldn't tu rn it off."
Young was dragged through a few
more moguls that shot him up and ove r
the face of a large berm and into orbit in
a wild crash.
"He cross-ju mped me and I hit him,"
Shi m p said abo u t th e inci de nt. " I
thou ght I mig ht go down since I hit him
with my front tire, but I sav ed it a nd he
crashed bad ."
Shimp went on for the mo to vic tory
while Young got it together to salvage
fourth, behind Chris Tocco, Levi Reid
and Team Yamaha's Shimp.
You ng return ed to wi n the second
moto, while Shim p played it sma rt and
finished seco nd and pos ted the overa ll
w in . Reid , Tocco a nd AXO /Smi thbacked Justin Mace rounded out the top
five.
Shimp re tu rn ed for a d ouble mo to
victory in the BOec (14-16) class , where
he topped Brian Hulsey, David Boothe
and Jahner Fau lkner in two runa w ay
victories.
t -:\
Los Angele s County Raceway
Palmdale, California
Results: October 12, 1997
.50 14--6): 1. Ja cob Bvelna ( Le m l: 2 . H avde n
Comnw n.. (KTM); 3. Kyko Smith ("'
IM); 4. SNwn Butler
(Act ); 5. Branden Dull (KTM).
SO (1-9): 1_Cole St-t.-Iy (Act); 2. William Balle..tero
(KT M); 3. Mr l~ N{l1I (Cub ); 4. Lance Cou ry (K1'M); 5.
Eri k Ste ns ho (](T M).
.
50 MO D: 1. Trent Pugm ire ( K1'M ); 2. Bryet" Terz ian
(KTM); 3. Tan ner Langham (KTM).
60 (O
·8): 1. Edwa rd Herrin g (Kew): 2. Jeff A le~~i
(Kaw ); 3. Weston Pcick (Kaw); 4. [cnathan Ara l\d (Kaw);
5. [ared Pa rtri dge (Ko:J w ).
60 (9-11) : 1. Mike Al es si ( K o1 W); 2. Pa u l Pearcy
(K.1w); 3. Ryan Roybal (Ka w); 4. Buck Gu lley (Ko:J w); 5.
Roht.-rt M..-moIi (l(.Jw) .
By Tony Ales s i
PALMDALE, CA, OCT. 12
eff Willoh wo rked the competition
in the Pro ranks by posting wi ns in
three ou t of four o f the motos
entered en route to both I2Sec- and
250cc Pro-class victori es during round
four of the CMC Trans-Cal Motocro ss
Seri es, held a t Los Angeles County
Raceway.
Team Kawasa ki's Damon Hu ffma n
stopped by to sign au tographs for the
Trans-Cal locals an d hang out for most
of the da y, and he had a chance to check
out WilIo h, who had a somewhat easy
time in the 125cc Pro class. In fact, it
pretty much turned into a cakewalk as
Willoh pulled away for a set of uncontested moto wins. Pat Foster was seco nd
in th e first mot o after he put for th a
respectabl e charge from a mid pack start.
The second moto was a rep eat per·
forma nee for Willoh, while Foster and
Brian Roth duked it out for second. In
the end, both Roth and Foste r took each
o ther ou t halfway in to the race a n d
hand ed se cond to Dusti n Eva ns, who
held on tight for the eventual runner:up
spot.
Sp ea kin g of Eva ns, th e you ng Pr o
found his way into the wi nner' s circle in
the firs t 250cc Pro moto a fte r lea di ng
almos t every lap of the moto. Willoh
came from off the pace to record second,
while Billy Joe Mercier an d Tony Sulek
fought long and h ard for third, with
Simi Valley Kawasaki's Mercier ge tting
the nod at the finis h.
Th e seco nd moto sa w Willoh gra b
the advantage an d go on for an un contested moto victor y in fro nt of Foster,
g
Mercier and first-mote winner Dustin
Eva ns, who seemed to be struggling in
the w in dy conditions.
W h il e Wi lloh was being labeled
"king" of the Pro dass on this day, Billy
Payne wa s making his own stat ement as
the "prince" of the Intermediate ranks
b y post ing a th ree-out-o f-four m oto
sweep of the I2Sec and 250cc Intermediate classes. Even though Pa y ne wa s
clearly the dominant Intermediate racer,
he did, from time to time, find the going
a bit bum py - as was the case in the first
125cc Intermediate rnoto, when Chris
Gosselaar stepped up to the plate to
cha llen ge Payne. Gosselaar, who ha s
been s teady in his quest for the Tra nsCal title, fou nd himself right at home at
this parti cular race track.
"I liv e d ose to here and I like th is
track," Gosselaar said. "I felt faster than
Billy in the beginning and I made some
passes, but he passed me back. He wa s
faster in the mid dle of the race when I
made some mist akes, but I was faster at
the end. "
Even though Gosselaar was quite
imp ressive and d id indee d execu te
m ore th an one pa ss on Pa yne, in th e
end Payne came out the wi nner by coming back with the moves tha t coun ted
most.
Payn e retu rned for a convincing win
in moto two after Sou th African Michael
Constanti no u flew over the ba rs while
ridi ng slightly ove r his head in a cha llenging rocker sectio n, injuring his wrist
and recording a DN F in the process.
Gosse laar was again runner-up, but was
well off of the eye-watering pa ce set by
Payne. A surprise th ird went to Ch ris
Neitzel on a new KTM 125SX. .
"We ju st got this KTM and it's real
fast ," Nei tzel said. "We are working on
suspension. The forks a re soft and the
s h ock is s tiff, bu t th e mo tor is awesome."
At 16 years of age, Neitzel looks like
an other up-and-comer as he outba ttled
Emitt Kling, Chris Cooley and Travis
Smith for the final spot on the podium.
The 250ec Intermediates saw the first
crack de velop in Payne's armor as Con stantino u chased d own and pressu red
Payne into making a mistake. Payne
entered a slick tum an d washed ou t the
front end of his KX during the final lap
of the first moto and forfeited the win to
Constantinou.
Like a cham pion, Payne dug deep in
the all-im po rtant second moto and blew
away the field wi th a wi re-to-wire victory. Cons tantinou ba ttled Ron Gilbert for
mos t of the race for second and secu red
the position in the last s traightaway of
the race by pulling off a somewhat star'
tling pass over the bridge jump. Neitzel
was fourt h on the d ay, while Cool ey,
Mi ke Gibson an d Kenny Terraccia no
rounded out the top seven .
.
•
Jonathan Shimp seems to have found
his next level of speed by posting overall
wins in the BOcc (14-16) and Supermin i
divisions on his Answer-bac ked Yamaha 's for the second straight week. Shim p
had a spectacular bat tle earl y in th e
Supermini race wi th FMF support rider
Micha el Young . Th e two mini warriors
battled tooth and nail early in the race,
as they bu m pe d , shoved and s mas he d
into one another from tum to tum, each
tryin g to prove to the other tha t he was
the rightful leader . Th er e was no wa y
that an entire moto could be run like this
80 BEG : 1. Sam Sc.anlon (Hon ); 2. Alvino Cuci.a
(Yam); 3 . S teve Shea (Ya m); 4. Kyle Foltz (Ka w); S.
Andrew PM"" (Kaw).
80 (7-11) : 1. Kyle Pa rt r id ge (Suz) ; 2. Scutt Si mo n
(Suz ); 3. Chris Nihan (Suz); 4. Vinet" Rllll