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/127867
SUPERCROSS W RLD S PERCROSS S R S O U E IE Rounds 2, 3, 4: Paris Supercross (Right) France's David Vulllemin swept the 125cc ranks by tak ing the overall in each of the three rounds. (Below) J immy Button turned in a great perfonnance Saturday night. taking a moto win In style - he passed both Emig and McGrath - and getting third overall on the nighL out of the race. Huffman capitalized on the situa tion and shot past Demari a and Emig for the lead and the win. " I th ink this is rea ll y a n in te nse, tough race," sa id Huffman, who also won a mai n eve nt here in 1996. "The track's always gna rly and the best guys are always here, so I'm really stoked tha t I was able to win tonight." 25Dec SATURDAY (Above) Damon Huffma n sta rt ed off with the o verall win on Fri day. but It w ent downhill fro m the re as the Kawasaki rider lailed to break Into the top three overall lor the rest 01the w eekend. Brieflv.. ~ In the 125cc divis ion , the promoters shipped in Americans Scott S h e a k of the FMF/Hon'da team a nd Nathan R am sey of the Pr o Circuit/Kawasaki squad to battle local heroes David Vuitlemin, S tep hane I ' Roncada a'nd the , rest of the young Gauls , and the Americans were outclassed . Vui llemin. who will co mpete in the '98 125cc Westem Region SX series , dcmmcted the proceedings by -grabbing the overa ll win 011 three nights to easily clinch the "Prince of Bercy " crown. Vuillemin Won a to tal of five races of th e nine total main events , CThe 125 s did three main even ts per night.> Barnsey and Sheek n~ver seemed comfortable o n the equipment they were loaned for the race . end each w~s only able to secure one race w in apiece. Ro ncada 'also got one wi n, as did you ng Frenchman Nicholas C harlier. 1'-. 0\ 0\ When Jeremy McGrath failed to qualify for Friday night's motos '!J qualify for the last-chance q~lifier. However, the promoters' knew they had to give McGrath a shot at qualifying, so they let him in the LCQ anyAfter doing so , they were hit with a lendsbde of complaints from the other 'riders who didn' t qualify fO:' the LCQ. The result? If .they we re gomg ' ... QJ .0 E QJ ::a Z 14 season. Whtln the promoters of the Paris -Bercy Supercross started doing the event 15 years ago. the only riders they brought over were Broc Glover and Rick John90n . They only needed one minivan and two hotel rooms. Over the years. the number of riders has gone up and do....vn. but the size of the American entourage has steadily increased. This year there were on ly 10 riders fro m the United States in Paris. but the entourage was so big, the promoters were forc ed to get a large to ur bus in which to haul them around instead of the three miniva~s that showed up' at the air: port. In past years. the opening ceremoni e s et Bercy have bee n leqe ndery . They have dropped full-sized airplanes from the ce iling . They have built giant robotic hands that would open . reveabnq the riders previously co n: cealed in the ir grasp . They brought in cowboys and Indians from Euro DisThe on ly guy who migh t have been able to keep D avid Vu illemin from neyiand. They have even built spaceships on the floo r of the Bercy stadisweeping all th ree 125cc wins was sitting in the stands at the Parts-Be rcy .• um. This year, the sho w was Q little morc wat ered down. Inst ead of using Stadium . N e w ly c row ned 125cc' Nationa l MX Champion Ricky a theme as in the past, the promoters opted to go with a simpler format Cannichael was on hand as a guest of Oakley and the event promotto open the sbow. The highlight of the ceremony came when the. top rid ers; - I ta lked it over with M itch Payton Cof Pro CircuiO and we decided ers from France and Ameri~ were lowered from the ceiling at opposing that I would spend the off-season trai!1inQ at home in Rorida or testing out ends of the stadi um. The only problem with' the pion was the smoke from in California,'" said Carmichael, who turns 18 next week. ·This was just a the fireworks that were taped to the platforms; the smoke gagged the little vacation to check out the racing and visit some of the guys. unsuspecting riders on the platforms. "lt was bad up in the platform dur o ,. ing the opening ceremonies. · said Damon Huffman. ·We' were laying on D a v i d P ingree mus t have bee n suffering h-om some serious jet lag by the floor, literally choking. trying to breathe through our jerseys. I couldn 't the time Sunday ro lled aroun d: Pingree overslept and missed Sunday 's believe it . It was horrib le, You would take a breath and you could feel the timed practice. He did show up for his heat race. but he failed to qualify smoke suck In. I didn' t even realize we were 200 feet up and they we re for the motos. After that. he decided.net to go to the last-chance qualifier. lowering us. It didn't even dawn on me that we could fall and dle . it was Insl ead. he opted to go back to the hotel and rest . more like. 'I'm going to pass out and die"· ...... N off-season travel rigors. By the end o f the year . Everts will have been to Australia. Brazil. Japan and the Uruted States. settIng up deals for his '98 through hts heat race and pulled 011 the track, he hnished too far back to way. to letMcGrath ride.. they had to let everyone ride. The LeQ on Friday night had two rows of racers On the sta rting line. M cGrath joined the back row and fail~ to qual.ify· again. . , Stefa n Everts 'w as absent from the competition grid at Bercy. bu t he did show up tospectete on Scndey . Even though Evert s isn't riding th~ W cirld Supercros s Se nes . dcn ' t t~in k' for a ,:"oment he has escape d the How impOrtant has supercrcss become to the French? Expect no less than a half-dOzen frenChmen to enter the first few -rounds of the AMA Supercro'S'S Serie s in January '9 8 . Suzuki's 2S0ct; SX contender. M,ckael Pcbon. W1!1 be lempornrily joined by 250cc GP heroes Sebastien TortellL and Frederic Solley in the 2SOcc class, while 125cc.threats D avid Vuillemin CFMFlYamaha) and Stephane Bc nce daGi oed a of Troy) are expected to contend fo r regional crowns ~ Sever al o ther lesser-known ' . . Frenchmen arc a1 so _ ~xpectcd to join the minj .I~v3Sion . Speaking of Seba stien Tort.lli. the 18-year -old Kawasaki fact ory pilot is stiU on the 'mend fro m back injury suffer ed in Ve nezuela this 'summer and IS no t expected to begi n competing again 'un!il the Los Ang eles SX opener, .. . a On the second nig ht in Paris, Emig got the holeshot in the first moto of the evening and took it all the way for the win. McGrath was able to qualify for the second night of racing and did battle with Hu ffman for most of the firs. moto. Hu ffma n, however, came out on top in tha t b attle, leaving McG rath with a third-place finish in moto one. In the second moto of t h e evening, the ever-read y-to- holeshot Emig once agai n got the lead ea rly in the race, and it looked as though this wou ld be a repea t of the first moto - but McGrath had other p lans for the nig ht. McGrath passed Emig for the lead on the second lap, much 10 Ihe delight of the crowd, but before the cheering died down, Button ca me from ou t of nowher e to pa ss both Emig and McGrath with in a lap of each other to take the lead and eventually the win. "I don't know what happened to me ou t there: ' Button said . "Something just popped in to me. I wa s stoked I got a go od start, a nd all of a su dden all my line s jus t sta rted w or king perfectly. I was carrying so much speed through the first turn, over the jumps and in to the tu rn before the finish line. Ever y lap I was picking u p a second a lap. The bike was working good . I haven 't ridden like that since 1994. Once I passed Jeremy, it was weird being in the lead. It's been a while." Emig's third-place finish in the moto was good enough to "give him the overall for the night. "It feels very , very good to finally get the overall win here: ' said an elated Emig. "I knew I had to stay right w it h McGrath to ge t th e w in . Butt un rod e a n incred ib le race - we' ve never seen anyt hing like that from Button! He looked more like McGrath than himself. Maybe they switched gea r." 250cc SUNDAY By the third day at Paris, everybody had had eno ug h. Three da ys of racing puts a lot of stra in on the rid ers. They were tired . They were jet-lagged. They we re done. But they had one night of racing left. Right ou t of the gate in the first moro, Emig finally got a ba d sta r t and was squeezed off, which forced him to make