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SUPERCROSS TOYOTAfTHORlPARTS UNLIMITED AMA SUPERCROSS SERIES By Kit Palmer Photos by Kinney Jones LOS ANGELES, CA,JAN. 10 u re, it was su rp rising tha t French ma n Seb astien Tortelli won the opening round of the AMA Sup ercross Ser ies a t the Los Ang eles Memoria l Coliseum, but what was even more ama zing was the fashio n in which he d id it : Tortell i simply smoked th e best su pe rcross racers in the world in front of 61,855 wi tnesses. Tortelli, wh o is currentl y scheduled to rid e only the first seve n rounds of the AMA Supercross Series to pr epare himself fo r t he upcoming 250c c Wo rld Championshi p Ser ies, was clea rly th e fas tes t rid e r o n the tra ck wh en th e checkered flag came out after 21 laps of racing on a one -line d , rain -saturat ed Colise um track. Tortelli end ed the first lap in 12th place on his Craig Montytun ed / O xbo w-back ed Ka wasa ki yet s tead ily wo rked his way th ro ugh th e pack - passi ng such notables as Yamaha's Kevin Wind ha m, Jeremy McGrath , defend ing cha mp Jeff Emig and , finally, on the next-to-last lap, Dou g Henry to win the first major Ll.S,' supercross race of his career in what was his first try. "I fee l so happy," sa id the lik able Frenchm an, wh o was all grins after the race. "That's my first race and win in the United Stat es, and I was not expecting to do that good . I'm just so hap py today. I was tr yin g m y best to ca tch ev e ry rider, and that happened." On e of those rid er s, as m en tioned , was Henry, wh o suffered a heartbreak- B B ~ ~ 6 ing defeat. The facto ry-back ed Yama ha rid er, aboard a now-p rod uction-based YZ400F four-stroke, led the firs t 19 laps - only to have Tortelli za p him a t th e end. And to ma ke matters wo rse, Henry d idn't even end up fin ish in g second . Wh ile running behind Tortelli on the fina l lap, Henry mad e a mistake - a big mistake - w hich result ed in a crash and a s talled mot or . While he d es pe ra tely tried to get his sizzling-hot thump er runn ing again, ther e was noth in g he could do about the riders motoring past him as he su nk deeper and deeper into the field . By the time he got going again, about half the pack had ridden past and Henry was left with a 10lh-place finish ha rdly a reward for such a strong performance. You wo uld have thought that Henry would be punching holes in walls in d isgus t after his blu nder, but that wa sn't th e case. Rat he r th an dwell on wha t might have bee n, Hen ry saw the positives in his ride and was actually somewhat pleased afterward. " I' m rea l ha ppy (wi t h) the wa y things we nt," Henry sai d. "I wanted a good sta rt and I got that. I felt pretty comfortable through most of the race, but had some problems there at the end - I was pretty tired from the ruts. I had to wo rk a little bit and got a little wo re ou t. The bike was working really good, hookin g up real good." Bu t what about the crash ? "I was pretty upset about tha t, but 1 realize that those things happen," Henry said, "bu t it's been a while since 1 really raced . We've been wo rk ing with the (Right) The winner • Sebastien Tortelll. The French GP rider went from 12th to first to win in his first AMA supercross. Luckily for his competitors, Tortelll Is currently sch edu led to ride ju st the first seven rounds before returning to Europe. (Below) Afte r 18 sparkling laps , th ings bega n failing apart for Team Yamaha' s Doug HenryTort elll passed him for the lead, then Henry (shown here with Jeff Emig pass ing him) fell on the last lap and dropped to 10th. ne w bi ke , and 1 jus t ca n' t co m p la in about the first 19 1/2 laps. They were great laps." Another rider w ho was just as happy as Hen ry was d efending cham p Emig, who rod e a strong bu t conservative race a nd w as reimbursed w ith a seco ndpl ace fi nis h. Na tu ra lly, a wi n wo u ld ha ve been nice, but , conside ring the conditi on s of the tr ack a nd the fact th at Emig has a hist ory of getting off to slow sta rts in the supercross series, a second was almos t just as good as a win. "I' m extremely ha p py, " Emig said. "Of course, the thou ght of winning was alw ays th ere. 1 was sec ond the wh ole time and was just really usin g my head. 1 go t to w here 1 was dra gging my feet a little in the grooves, and 1 knew that 1 was n't riding perfect, so I didn' t p ush it. I've go t tons of energy left; 1 d idn' t really ex e r t a lo t o f e nergy . Se bas tien (Tor telli) was really charging and, on the other hand , J wasn' t. J think where I was resting, he was on the gas. He rod e

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