Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Casey Lytle kept the fans on their feet during saturday night's main events at Arenocross ' 97 In the Reno livestock Events Center. Lytle doubled up. winning both the 125 and 250cc main events. r-, 0\ 0\ ...... a ...... .... Q) ..0 E ~ Q) c 20 th e runn in g o rder q u ickly sa w man y cha nges. At the finish-line step-up, HoIlan d too k the lead from Johnson, but on ly briefly, as Johnson gained mumentum after th e tripl e jump; the crowd was go ing wild for the Kawasa ki rivals. Terlecki had mo ved in to th ird fro m fift h an d wa s riding flawlessly . Matson battled Lytle, wi th Lytle th e victor on th e fifth lap. O ut fro nt, Joh nson and Holland pu t on a show , s wji p p i n g po sitions in almos t every tum. Ticarney and Evans we re running back in the pack after sufferin g nea r-crashes, but they were moving up. John son styled over the triple for the crowd, with Holland gro wing more frustrated with e ve r y turn. Holland needed the win to take over the points lead and grab the bonus check, bu t he wou ld have to settle fo r seco nd p lace again toni ght, as Johnson took the win . Terlecki was the spoiler in the field and gracious ly accepted third for his efforts. Fourth went to Lytle, with fifth p lace belongin g to Matson. The track was cha ng ed a little for the Saturday show, as the prom oters added another tricky whoop section before the set of big double-d oubles, making th e trac k even more chall enging. Some riders were tryin g to dou ble the new set of jumps but were finding themselves on th e ground . Even the best opted to single in o rde r to keep m omentum and stay on two wheels. In Saturday' s 125cc main, th e lon e Honda of Lytle would ge t the jump and be in th e first tum a ll alone. Holl and, Matson, Jo hnson a nd Ramsey would fight for positions. The battle continued a t th e hal fway point, but Holland suffer ed a crash that would d rop h im to fourth a nd pu t Ramse y in to second . Johnson was having somewhat of an off night and cou ld n' t get around Ramsey to catch Lytle. Willoh rem ained in fifth, and Terlecki and Evan s set tled into sixth and se venth, The techn ical track su ited Lytl e ju st fine , a s he looked mo re rela xed and con fid ent o n his mach in e, w h ic h was fu rn is he d b y Big Valle y Honda. The lead er pulled out a comfo rtable lead with no threat from Ramsey or Johnso n. Wh en th e white fla g flew, it w as a su re thing for Lytle as he styled for the local Honda crowd . Ramsey settled for seco nd, ahead of Johnson , Holland and Will o h . Cou ld he beat them aga in? Accord ing to his plan , Lytle wou ld give it his all in the 250cc class. Th e intermission ju mp co ntes t wa s won by yo ung Aaron Cheselske, wit h a close secon d by Kris Rourke. The radi cal tricks o ve r th e trip le jump had th e crowd cha nting for more. Th e 250cc main event wou ld separate the strong from th e w ea ry. Holland grabbed th e holeshot, a head of Lytl e, Matson and Terlecki. Johnson was on the g rou nd in the first tum and remounted slowly. He appeared to be okay, and was making up some time by the second lap. The battl e heated up, as Holland protected his lines, but the large set of doubl es wo uld foil him as Lytle made the inside pass wh en Holland bo bb led s lightly. One mi stake on thi s trac k would cos t any rider g rea tly . Lytle pulled a slig h t lead now and se t his pace. Th e cro wd was cheering for Lytle, but they closely watched the Kawa sakis of Holland and Johnson. Joh nson was down again and now in last place. Then Holland fell on the seventh lap in the back section of the track, handing second pl a ce to Terlecki. Third pl ace now would belong to the vetera n Ton y G raves, w ho was unst o ppa bl e a t the Cow Palace. Willoh was running a cons is te n t fifth a nd loo ke d fr u stra te d . Things were going fro m bad to worse , as Johnso n crashed agai n a nd p ulled into th e pits. Mat son blew a turn a nd laid it down before the finish-line tabl etop , se nd ing him to the p its with bent bars. Things we re go ing just fine for the young warri or on the Honda, how ever" as Lytl e wa ved to th e crowd a nd signa led the number o ne . The white flag w a s o u t, and a h ap p y Terle cki w a s determined more tha n eve r to keep Holland behind him. Holland put in anothe r g rea t rac e, finishing third. Graves would cross in fourth and Willoh fifth . Lytle had a s:rin fro m ea r to ear as he a ccepted h is tr ophies and proved to ever yon e just how badly he wa n ted tu win. He sa id he defini tely wo uld like to come back next yea r. ." Reno Livestock Events Center Reno,Nevada Results: November 14-15, 1997 Frid .. y u s: 1. N athan Ra m~y (KdW); 2. Ru" ty Hol land (Ka w ); 3. Aaron Chesels ke (Kaw); 4. Tyler Evans (Suz); 5. Ca~y johreon (Kaw). 250: 1. Cese y Ionn son (Kaw) ; 2. I{U5t y Hollan d (Kaw ): 3. Ryan T{'rl«ki (Suz); 4. Casey Lylll' (Hon); 5. Dea n M,lMn (Suz) , S.;Iturd.;lY 125: 1. Ca sey Lytle (Hon ), 2. Na than R.l1llM'Y (Kaw ); 3. DM..Y }ohnSl. n (Kaw ), 4, Rusty Holla nd (Ka w ); 5. Jeff ' ) Willoh cYam). 250; I. Casey Lyne (Hon ); 2. Ryan Tt.'Th.di (Suz); 3. Ru-e y Holland (Kol W); 4. Tony G ra ves (Ya m) ; 5. J~{f Wilk,h (Sl.IL). KPromotions Arenacross Series, Rounds 1&2 Bachman blazes at Kearney Arenacross By Matt Draper KEARNEY, NE, NOV. fl.9 torm Lake Honda's Tra cy Bachman won two of th e w ee kend' s four main events to tak e home the lion 's s ha re of the $4000 ·pro purse during S ro u nds o ne a nd tw o of th e K Pr om otions Arenacross Series. Bachman used consis tency to score th e two victo ries, a long w ith th ird - a n d second- place showi ngs . Nearl y equa l to th e task was Budke Mot ors-ba ck ed Trent Hansen, w ho also ma de th e podium in all fou r main events, winning the 250cc feature o n Sa tu r day night. Ba chma n and Hansen engaged in very close , exciting racing th at had th e cro w d o n its feet much of the time. FRIDAY In the 125cc main even t, Bachm an laun ch ed h is Pro Circu it -po wered CR125 to a holesh ot , a hea d of Ha nsen and IT Racing-sponsored Cory Francis. T he tr io checked o u t ea r ly, se tti ng a , pace th at could no t be matched by the Ramer Motors-bac ked YZ1 25 of Billy Schroeder and Kawa saki-mounted Lane Sw ink, who we re running in fourth and fifth, respec tively. Francis p u t h is Suzu ki in fro n t of Hansen on lap thr ee a nd se t his sights o n Ba chma n , w hile Schro ed er was doi ng his bes t to wa rd off th e pesky Sw ink . Ba chman a nd Fran ci s ba ttled fiercely for the lead, and in doing so let Hansen ca tch up and pass them both for the lead . Moments later , a t the end of lap nin e, the race was halted due to a bad cras h in the whoops su ffere d by Swink. "We red-flagged it in th e in terest of safet y - no hesitat ion whatsoever," rem a;ked co-promoter Ken LiJe. Th e ra ce wa s restarted Sing le- file, with H a nsen, Fr ancis, Ba chman an d Sch roe der th e top four. Hansen maintamed his lead o ver Francis after the rest art, but Bachman was caught nappin g a nd got za pped by Schroeder o n th e ins ide of the sweeper. O n the sa me lap, Francis and Hansen ca me together before th e whoops, and Fra ncis came away with the lead . Bachm an soo n re cov ered to overtak e Schroed e r fo r third, a n d th e o rde r stay ed the sa me until th e finish . Francis took his o nly victo ry of the w eekend , foll owed by Hansen, Bachman, Schroeder and Todd Fletcher, who took fifth aft er Swink' s misfortune. . In the 250cc feature, Bachman agam got the jump on the field , nailing th e holeshot ahead of Hansen a nd Hasting Honda's Mark e yre . Cyre s tayed low through the rhythm section tu take second from Hansen on lap one. Irnmediatel y after th at pa ss, Hansen bobbled , letting Fletcher and KX-mounted Stuart Rafos get by. Still o n la p o ne, Ha nsen recover ed and shot by Rafos in the wh oo ps. Obviou sly faster, Hansen wa s held up for a few laps by Fletcher, but made the pass by clea ring the lar ge infield trip le from th e inside. The momentum gained by Hansen ca rried ov er into th e whoops w here the pa ss wa s completed. Meanwhile, Bachman wa s on cru ise co n tro l, ma intain ing a co mfo r ta ble cus hion o ve r Cy re . In typ ical a rena cros s fa sh ion, la p ped tr af fic was a factor earl y in the race, and by lap five Bachman wa s winding his wa y around th e backma rkers w hile Hansen was all over Cyr e . Hansen went ba ck to the well o ne more time and p as sed Cy re the sa me way he had go tten by R etcher: tr ipli ng a nd then hammering th e wh oops. By th e halfway point, Hansen had narrowed the ga p from six seconds to three, apparently settin g up a dramatic fin ish . Unfo r tu na tely , a confrontation with a lapper ended Hansen's hopes of catching Bachman . Whil e running sixth, Rock y Johnson went d own i n th e I

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