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MOTOCROSS Round 8: Ward Creek MX
AMA WESTERN NATIONAL
FOUR·STROKE M
XSERIES
Tea m Hus a ber g ce lebrates its
first AMA Western Nation~1 MX
Series championship, thanks to
Lance Smail's do ub le mota
wins at Ward Creek in
Was hington. Pictured (from left)
a re Russ Fletche r, Smail and
Chuck Sun.
By Mark Kariya
40
R
AYMOND, WA, AUG. 23
lVJ wo- t i m e and defe ndi ng A MA
~
Wes tern Nation a l Fou r-Stroke MX
' e r ies C ha mpio n Lance Smail
rebound ed from a rare loss a t the previous ro und to scorch both mo tos of rou nd
eigh t at the bea u tifu l, Bob Klemp-prepped
Ward Creek MX site on his Russ Fletcherp r e pare d H u s a b erg FC 501. H e a lso
clinc hed his third consecutive serie s title
i n the proc ess . Cl aimingthe ch a m p ions hip w ith one even t remaining in the
series g ives the Was hington resident the
o ption of hit ting the fi nale of th e
AMA / Ma z da T r u ck 250cc Na tio na l
Cha mpio ns hi p M X Series , w here th e
KTM 250 SX rid er is cu rre ntly 15th in
po ints .
As usua l, Sm ail se t the tempo for the
d ay from the moment the gate dropped
for moto one, riding what was essentially
a brand -new bik e - a precau tion after a
m a in-bearing failure while leading the
secon d m oto at Alba n y, Oregon , two
wee ks befo re.
" W e did everything on the bike, "
Smail said a fte r morning practice . "We
fi~u red we'd be tter have a new bike for
this race , because there is a cha nce of winning the championship tod ay if things go
wel l. We wa nt everyth ing to go righ t, 50
w e wa n ted every thi n g new a nd rea d y.
I'm just going to go ou t and ta ke each
m ot o one s tep at a tim e and try to w in
them bo th a nd see w here everyo ne 's sitting after tha t."
- All the action too k place behind him in
bot h m otos. Scott Myers, on a Th e Racer's
Edge-backed YZ400F, held the ru nner-up
sp o t for much o f m o to one be fo re su ccum bing to Motoworld of EI Cajon (Californ ia l-sponsorcd Dustin Nelso n - th e
win ner a t Albany .
"I jus t got a good start," Myer s sa id .
"T he roo st is so b ad h ere, so I d idn't
w ant to g e t ro osted . I tried to sta y u p
th er e (in seco nd ) a nd just keep a good
p ace a n d a t least tr y to keep Smail in
sight. Th at's re ally all I was trying to d o;
I was jus t having fun, and the bike wa s
working awesome. Bu t I kind of ma de a
few litt le du mb mistakes, and (Du stin )
Ne lson go t by me."
He rb's Cycle town racer Brad Hagseth
(w h o cla ime d ru n ner-up a t Al b a n y)
worked hi" way u p fro m a misera ble start
to latch on to the lead pack.
"I saw tha t I was gaining on Myers and
lelson," he said. "I gained on them p retty
qu ic k, and I th ought that as soon as I
ca ug h t th em , [ cou ld g o right arou n d
them ."
Nelso n re p a sse d him , th ou gh , a n d
Hagseth admitted , "As soon as Nelson got
me back, he kind of put a good move on
m e; I just d id n 't have enoug h
ene rgy left to stu ff him back." So
Hagseth settled for fourth, while
Nathan Woods rou nd ed ou t th e
top five.
Smail got the ho les hot again
in m ot o two a nd left the p ack
to so rt through firs t-tu rn carnage that cla imed severa l r id ers, inclu d ing M yers and elson, who would remount a nd
c h a rge back up to eighth by
the end of the 35-m inu te m ot o.
Motowo r ld of EI Cajo n's
Greg Schnell, cu rre n tly a safe
second in series points, fou nd
the going much easier than in
the first moto when he finished
a ba ttered sixth.
" I usuall y don 't wear a
c hest protecto r, and I didn't
the first moto and [ paid for it, "
Schnell said . " I never wear one anv where else, and I' m fine. Here. ma n: I
guess ' the uphills and down hill" ius t kill
y o u . The second mot J got a better
start, a nd I ac tually pu t so me card boa rd
on my ches t and stomach . Tha t helped
out a lot. I thin k that wa s my key rig h t
then' - the cardboard ."
With Sm a il roug hly th re e seconds
per la p faster than a nyon~ e lse 111 the
. field , Schnell had little roos t to co ntend
wi th wh ile ru nning seco nd , g ivi ng him
third overa ll.
.
Riding only his third fou r-stroke race,
recent co llege g ra d a nd 250cc Na tional
Brad Hagseth (95) took seco nd overa ll for the second race in a
row.
Brie"/
••••
racer Ha gse th im p ro ved to third, giving
him second overall for the second se ries
race in a row. Behind them, Tod d Downs
of Corpus Christi (Texas ) Motorsports put
in his best performance o f the series with
a strong fourth , bettering his eighth in
motoone.
Afterwa rd, he was clea rlv excited .
"I battled Rich Taylor, ~nd I've never
battled with Rich Tavlor befo re," Downs
said . "He's a legendin the sport, pretty
much in a lot of people's eyes - he's jus t a
real talented rider. I was just so ha ppy to
be u p there batt ling with hi m . 1 mea n ,
ru n ning u p fron t in the top five - which [
haven't done all season - mad e mv d av.
It's jus t a grea t day."
His fi n is hes a lso va u lted h im fro m
nin th to seve nt h in poin ts.
Th e Racer's Edge rid er Taylor DNFed
th e first m oto b u t fo u n d a b etter s ta r t
h el ped immensely as he ran four th for
much of the seco nd moto, succu mbing to
Downs la te in the race wh en he beg an to
cram p. Af ter th at , h e reported , "I w as
done."
. And, after the m oto, so was Sma il - but
in a d ifferen t wa y a fter wrappi ng u p the
cha mp ions hip.
"I feIt real good ," Smail said . "It
re m ind ed me of a few ot he r races th is
yea r w here everything jus t we nt right. I
di d n' t even reall y have to fight anybody. I
jus t charged ha rd at th e beginning.
Schnell put up a good first few laps and
sta yed p retty close, bu t o nce I s ta r ted
p uIlin g on him, I knew 1 could relax and
s tar! shifting it up and cruise around the
track . It worked real well ."
n
Ward Creek MX
Raymond, Washington
Res ults: August 23. 1998 (Round 8 of 9)
O /A : L Lance Sm.li1 (H bg l; 2. Brad H.l~1h (Yam); 3.
Greg Sch nell (Ya rn): 4. Sco t! Mvcr s ' Ya m); 5. Du stin
Ne lso n (Yam): t>. Tod d 0..1 w 1\ ... (Yam ); 7. Bill Bincklev
(Yam); 8. Grav-on Hart (Yam); Q , lason Mathews (Yamj:
10. Rich Ta vlor (Ya m); 11. Tom York (Yam); 12, Nathan
Woods (Ya m ); 13. Joel Howard (Ya m ); 14 C hris Dineen
(Yarru, 15. And v A n.1y<1 (V.1m ); 16. Rod Ta pia (KTM); 17.
Beau Baron (Y.lm); l K jeremiah Brown