Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

SUPERCROSS U . OPEN OF SUPERCROSS .S (Left) Larry Ward (4) lead s Ricky Carmichael, who was mak in g hi s 250cc debut. He r ode well b ut bad sta rts bot h nights go t the best of hi m. (Above) The U.S. Ope n o f Supercross was sold out bot h n ig ht s. Huffm an a n d Hughes r a n 1-2-3 th e w h o le, wa y, w h ile Sm a il h el d d ow n fourth pla ce for th e firs t se ve n lap s before crash ing an d dropping to eighth. Dowd sp en t those firs t seven laps try ing to get aro und Smail, but he had noluck until the KTM rider we n t down. LaRocco a lso m oved up a sp ot w hen Smail bail ed, but he wo u ld spe n d the res t of the race in Dow d' 5 roo st whil e holding down fifth . N eith er. Carmi ch a el n or McG r a th could d o mu ch after their poor starts. Bot h Ca rmic h ael a n d M cG r a th go t around Roncada ear ly on bu t strugg led to get aro und Sellards , who was holding d own seventh p lace. Carm ichael eventually slipped by him on the fourth lap, b ut it to ok a nother fo u r lap s fo r McGrath to get around Sellards . "It took me forever to get aro u nd him (Sellards )," a fru strated McGrath said . By the halfway poi nt , Reyn ard had op ened u p a co m fo r tab le lea d o ve r Hu ffman , Hu g h es, Dowd , La Ro cco, Ca rmichae l, McGra th a nd Sm ail , w ho had picked up his fallen KTM in front of Sellards. The ra ce might as w ell have ended righ t there, as the top eight ride rs rod e in single file around the super- tight track for the res t of the race - but there wa s one excep tion. With th e ch e cke red fl a g in s ig h t, La Rocco for ced h is way u nd ern ea th Dowd ' s Yam aha through the last tu rn and ru ined the Yam aha rid er's momentum to attempt th e fini sh -line dou ble ju m p . La Roc co so m eh ow cleared th e jump (but not by much), while Dowd sing led it, and LaRocco ended up taking the checkered flag jus t inches ahead of Dowd for fourth place. Ron cada, wh o had just passed Sellards, loo ked to have ninth place sew n u p, but he went down three laps fro m the finis h. Sellards inher ited Ron cad a's old sp ot, w hile Ward an d Ly tle each mo ved up a position. , Wa rd w as ano th er vic tim of a bad star t. He round ed 'the first la p in 11th and wo uld improve on that by only on e positi on before all was said and done. Fini shi ng behi nd Lytl e in 12th w as Roncada, follow ed by Roy and Brown, w ho, like Roncada, lost a cou ple of spots late in the race wh en he went d own. Lawren ce, who had crashe d on the fi rs t lap a nd was fo rced to pit to stra igh ten out his ben t Kawasaki, finishe d 15th . Koikeda pulled up the rear after ge tting off to a 13th-place start. "I' m feeling really good right now," winner Reynard said after the race, which took him just eight minutes and 21.14 seconds to complete, averaging 33.409 seconds per lap. "It' s real imp ortan t to get a good start ou t there. I practiced a bunch last week on starts, and that helped me ou t qui te a bit. My bike pulls out good on the starts - nice and straight. Briefly.~---'---,---,--'.. "I jus t wan ted to try and pull away the fir st 'cou p le of laps, be smart a nd , keep myself breathing," Reynard said of hi s s tra tegy a fter getting away ou t in fro n t. "In m y qualifier, I w as hold in g m y br eat h an d gett ing real ten se . I' m rea l nervous ou t ther e - ju st bein g m y first rid e a 250 and stuff." After wi nning the first "mota," Reyna rd was finding it d ifficult to avoid thinking abo u t th e $100,000 w hich, a t that point, was almo st his. "I h a v e be en try ing n o t to th ink ab out it," Reyn ar d said . "I'rn tryi ng to ha ve fun, tryin g to keep m yself busy du ring the day; fool arou nd, trying not to think abo ut it." Seco nd -placed H u ffman, however , co ul d n ' t put the $100,000 ou t of h is mind eve n if he wan ted to. "Everybody's telling me, 'I' m puttin g money on yo u, yo u' re going to do it, you ' re go ing to wi n a hundred grand ,' bu t I' m tr yi ng to forg et abou t all tha t s tu ff. If th ey' r e bettin g on me, tha t' s cool, bu t it really doesn' t make a differ en ce to me . This race has so much hype on it tha t I jus t tried to go out and ride and do the best I cou ld do. Hon estly, I . did a little b etter th an I ex pected to," Huffman admitted, "bu t I'm not too surprised ; I'v e b ee n ridi n g a lo t. Ryn o (Hug hes) came u p on me a lillie at one point ; I was going to the out sid e before the whoo ps, the insid e I figured ou t was a lot qu icker and I moved to the insid e, and that m ade a little d ifference between me and Ryno. But I think Reynard was definit ely, in the corners, a lot bett er, and right now that's the only par t of my riding that I don't feel totally back (u p to speed in ), is my cornering. It'll come . I've im proved a lot since I broke my leg ." Ca rmicha el was coming to terms wit h his disappoin ting sixth-p lace fin. ~h . "I rode good, and I think I'm one of the fastest guys out there," Ca rmichael reasoned . "I mean, look at Jere my : He's th e su percro ss cha m p and he couldn' t do any thing . The track is one-lined . It's all in the start." "There' 5 not a d amn thi ng you can d o," M cGra t h s a id o f hi s b a d start. "Hey, I know I' m riding fine , and I'm okay wit h that. If you d on't ge t the start, you' re no t going to win." SUNDAY The first heat race on Su nday pr etty much picked up where Satu rday's ma in left off: with Reyn ard out in fro n t. He jum ped in to the early lead, follow ed by Washi n gton ' s Ja son McC o rm ick, McGra th, Ward and Carmichael. Before lon g, McGr ath had moved int o second and enga ged Reyna rd in a battle for the lead , bu t Reynard was u p to the challenge. He dod ged ever ything McGra th threw at hi m and actua lly pulled away slightly before takin g th e w in . At this point , he cou ld taste the $100,000. M cGra t h fini sh ed se co n d, while ' Carmichael, again su ffering a bad start, cli m bed u p to fini sh a d is ta nt third . Wa rd looked to have four th place in t.he : Other not able no-sh ow s inc luded 250cc Na 't ionai MX cha;" p. , or perhaps two riders to the team, A possible teammate for Ferry D ouq Henry and Greg Albertyn . w ho is c urrently vacationing at might beoCanadian Jean-Seba stien Roy. " W e also 'might add 'a 125cc rider," Ferry said. ' . . home in South Afric~ with his new bride. . At the , last mom ent. a decision was made to trim the 250cc .Ya;"aha-Illoun ted' Jo';a t han ,S h imp ' SCOred the ove rall ,win in ',-I' m prob ably more arnped 'to ride t han anybody, else because ,I the 80cc port ion of the U.S. Open of Supercro ss. Shimp finished missed all summe r. - Jeremy McGrath said following Satur- ' final s from 20' laps to 15. T he mains had to be shortened to fit seco nd to Yamaha rider Billy Laninovich in Saturday night' s day' s, practice session . "l' rn having fun. Ttie trac k is qood - a little , into the TV time slots ,' as the finals were being broadcast 'live on small. but I feel fast. The start is going to be the key, for sure, ' Speedvision and Fox Sports N et. final but came backto win Sunday' s main for the overall. Lani· novich's 1~3 total s gav e him second 'overall, Lanmovlch . however. W e 've got a new bike now , a '99 Yamaha YZ250 , and it 's fast and Si nger/ son gwr it er Lyle Lovett made a .surprlse appe arance crashed on the finish-line jump on the last lap of Sunday 's final I'm feeling real good.": As far as the event itself was concerned. M cGrath thought it was great: " it 's the hype that makes it fun,' , Sun day wh en he, accompanie d by a ce llis t. sang the' nat ion al ' and br.. ke his ankle: Third overall wentto Adam Mennenga : w ho rode his Ka';"asaki to 5-2 finishes. Rounding out the top five M cGrath said, " Everybody's Iike. ·Whoa, whoa. whoa. a hundred ' anthe m. Lovett is a lonq tirne mot ocro ss' and off-road enthusiast .' grand', - I could get used to that. that's fo r sure. It (the venue) is overall we re Suzuki rider S h a n e Bess and Yamaha rider R y an M o rai s . Cycle News w ill have co mplete race resu lts in next ' kind of neat, kind of -small.: but I really love Vegas: They co uld Yamaha VZ40 0F Cider Spud WaiterS : an 'alternate for the race, wee k's. issue . , I have this race in a 'parking lot and I wo uld love it. lt 'scool and it 's said of the event': " I thinks it' s good - the track's real soft. but on , diffe rent. II' s still a go od ,idea," M cGrath added that his injured a .400 it might be a litt le bitof a disadvantage because it is so , The i~aug~ral U'.S. 'Open of Sup ercros s bo rrowed the AMA'~ , wrist. which,forced him to mis s most of the AM A outdoo r 250c 6 tight. w ith the deep sand and the who op s. The track is a littl e hard s upercross qualifying format for the Las Vegas race , but slightly Nationals, is com pletelyhealed.' "The .w rist is 100 pe rcen t : no to pass-en , but tha t 's one 'good thing 'about being on the four- . pain - a little sca r. but no pain . I have full mobility . too . I go t , stroke .. 1 might get a good start . There 'definitely will be a lot of modified it to seat 'only 16 riders for the main' event rather than . . . slamming going on because that's the only way to pass. All in all. ' the usualZf). The to tal points of both Saturday' s and Sund ay' s ' lucky." ,~ i t' s fun and rt' s great. and I'm glad to be a part of h istory . " finals were used to determine the overall winner. In case of a tie. ' ," the secon d day's best results would be used to break the tie. In ' It I~oks as thoug h the F~ctory Connection/ J ack i n th'e B;',, ' Honda team .will go with another one-man eff ort for 1999. Last Fo rmer Sup erc ro ss and N at ion al M o toc ros s ' C h~mpi ~ n Rick all.,30 riders were invited to co mpete in the .U.S. Open of Supercross, including Jeff Emig. Ezra Lusk. 250cc 'W orid MX Champion mon th, the team was talking about adding another rider to join , Johnson . alo ng wi t h Lar ry N as to n, .help ed wlt h t he floor ' 'Sebastien Tortelh, M ickael Pichon and Kevin Windham. These rid- ' M ike LaR oc co , but th e Ho nda fac t ory -su pp o rted tea m has .' announcing et .the MGM G rand Garden Arena. "It's a crapshoot. " Johnson said of tight supercros s tracks like this one. " It took me ' ers. how ever, could not co mpete due to inj uries : Emig is still changed its collective mind and will 'rely solely on laRocco in the recovermq from. ligament damage in ·his wrist : l.usk was ' spec tat- , 250cc Superc ros s. a n~ outdcorNational ~ X Series. : " four years to win t he Paris Supercross (a race similar to the Las , .vegas race) , Anyt hing can happen. " Johnson was pleased with ' ' ing with a cast on his broken arm: Tort ellils back home in France with a broken foot; Pichon is also resting at home in France after Tim Ferry , theri der w ho had' been a top choice for the job openthe ove rall Las Vega s event. : I think it' s a great thing. W e need havinq the pin in his leg removed after' compe ting in the MX ,des, ing at the Factory Co nnectio n/Jac k in the Box Honda team, will something like this to look forward to every year.. . . Nations: and W indham is s till .recovering from a bro ken leg (not to .instead stay with Team Noleen for 1999 : Ferry repo rts that ' the .mention also being' involved in a co ntract dispute with Yamaha). team will step up to a full-slzed semi-tr uck next year and add one D espite the small arena, most at.the riders :-ere plea~eci with the

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