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Round 5: Edison International Field
THOR/PARTS UNLIMITED AMA SUPERCROSS SERIES
Finishing
third, Jimmy
Button got
good starts
all night en
route to his
first podium
finish of the
series.
to 13th when he and Tortelli had a runin on .the back side of a jump.
"Tortelli got next to me on a triple,
and I came over to the next turn and he
hit me in the back wheel and that just
kind of pitched me over," explained
Albertyn. "It was not intentional, but it
was enough to make me go down. That
kind of cost me for the finish."
Having no problem at all, Lusk took
the checkers with time to spare, gaining
the edge for the triple crown competition. McGrath actually pulled away
from Button in the final laps, and
LaRocco came one spot.away from
upholding the points lead, finishing
fourth, ahead of Ward, who rounded
out the top five.
Lusk's flawless ride moved him from
a tight point position of fourth to a comfortable third-place spot.
"It was slippery, but tacky, technical," said Lusk. "It was all of the above,
and it took a real good, smart race to
CII
corne out on top."
Edison International Field
Anaheim, California
Results: February 6,1999 (Round 5 of 16)
250 HEAT 1 (8 laps, 1-4 transfer to m.1in): 1. Jeremy
McGrath (Yam); 2. Kevjn Windham (Hon); 3. Steve
Lamson (Yam); 4. Greg Albcrtyn (Suz); 5. Heath Voss
(Hon); 6. Sebastien Tortelli (Hon); 7. Jeff Emig (Kaw); 8.
two, Button started to pull away. Meanwhile, Vuillemin worked his way
around Huffman to claim third. The top
four finished in that order. The final
transfer spot went to Pedro Gonzales,
who held off attempts from Moto
XXX/Pro Circuit/Thor-ba~ked Phil
Lawrence.
LAST·CHANCE QUALIFIER
In the LCQ, Honda-mounted Naoki
Serizawa blasted into the first turn with
the lead, followed closely by .J>yle
Lewis, Tortelli, Grayson Goodman and
Phil Lawrence. At the end of lap one,
5erizawa faded back and Lewis took
over the lead, as Tortelli bobbled and
fell back to fifth, three spots out of a
transfer. Goodman took the opportunity
to pressure Lewis. By the third lap of the
four-lap affair, Tortelli was on fire, first
passing Lawrence back and then getting
Goodman, who was till a threat to
Lewis, before getting passed.
When the checkered flag came out, it
was Lewis and Tortelli going to the
main and Goodman and Lawrence
heading for the showers.
MAIN EVENT
Lusk's start in the main event was
the exact opposite of his first-turn pileup one week earlier in Seattle. When:the
gate dropped, Lusk came from the far
outside and shot across the long starting
grid with more than a bike length on the
field before braking for the first turn.
When he did hit the brakes to make the
turn, Pichon, Button, McGrath, LaRocco,
Ward and Reynard }cVere the nearest rid-·
ers to Lusk's rear fender. Back in the
pack, the victims of a poor start included Albertyn, Huffma n, Lamson,
Vuillernin and Emig, the latter of whom
has suffered from bad starts all year.
"I feel great on the bike riding and
everything, but my starts are at an alltime low," Emig said. "It's very discouraging to go out - especially in front of
the hometown guys - and have the
worst starts of my career. I think I've
only had one start in the top 10 this year
in the main. In the past six years, I
would only have one start out of the top
10 all year long. I'm just not working
right with the bike. Obviously I need to
go test. The bike works great on the
track. I'm more than happy with it. I'm
happy with my riding, my conditioning
and my mental state. I'm even having a
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good time racing, but I'm not getting off
the gate, and the tracks are just to the
point where everyboo.y rides the same
pace."
. Dowd was also feeling the effects of a
bad start.
"1 kind of got beat up on the start,"
he said. "1 was midpack going into the
first turn and got bounced around there
with some other riders. I bent my dutch
lever down. 1 was trying to straighten it
back out before I got going and I 10 t a
couple of seconds there. I started in 19th
the first few laps. It's pretty tough out
there. You get a bad start and it's just
hard to make up ground. There's so
many guys out there that go fast. Last
week I got a good start and it made a
big difference for me."
Heading into the whoops on the fir t
lap, Lusk had already begun to open up
a lead, but McGrath was making a bid
to take second place away from Pichon.
The pass finally carne on the second lap,
and for the next five laps McGrath
began to reel in Lusk, who had already
created quite a sizable lead (especially
as it was so early in the race).
Button, LaRocco, Ward and Huffman
were the next riders to get around
Pichon, as the Honda rider started his
downward spiral from second to ninth
by the end of the race.
"Pichon was hard to pass," Ward
said. "1 tried staying wi th LaRocco. I
caugh t up right behind Mike when we
were behind Pichon, and he (LaRocco)
got by Pichon about two laps quicker
than 1 did, and he got about two seconds ahead. We stayed the same after
that. I couldn't pull any and he couldn't
pull me."
Huffman turned a bad start into a
fairly decent ride.
"I ran in a little deep at the start, and
1 flew off the track," Huffman said.
"Overall, I thought I rode good. I r de
strong to sixth all the way to the end. 1
passed Pichon, Reynard, Lamson and
Vuillemin. 1 think I was 12th at one
time. I would have liked to start top
three. That's what it takes out there
right now."
As Huffman was working his way
through the pack, McGrath was starting
to feel the ill effects of his missing
engine mounts. His pace slowed way
down, and Button eventually caught his
one-time teammate and made the pass
on lap 12 over a triple. Button and
McGrath went back and forth for the
next three laps.
"When it first started to happen, I
thought, 'Okay - well, it might be my
rear wheel: but then I figured that I
didn't have a flat," said McGrath about
his bike. "Then I thought it was the
headset, but I looked down on a jump.
We wire our headsets, and J saw that
the wire was still there, so I knew it
wasn't that. 50 then I thought it was the
cylinder; then it wasn't that, because it
was running good. it took me a few laps
to figure out what it wa , so 1 figured
hopefully I could run it the whole race
and i~ wouldn't cause me to get hurt. I
kind of thought Button would get a little
tired. He hasn't been up there much
lately. I figured I'd keep the pressure on
him, and I'd still come away with second. I feel like I rode really well tonight.
It was just a freak thing. n
With McGrath holding on to second,
Button was relegated to third, where he
would finish.
"1 reeled in Jeremy and passed him:'
Button said. "Then Heatl1 Voss got the
blue flag two or three times and he just
didn't move out of the way, and he
threw me off a couple times and Jeremy
caught back up. 1 made a mistake as I
was lapping Heath (Voss), and Jeremy
was able to get back by me. It kind of
screwed me up, and 1 rode pretty tight
the next few laps."
While Button and McGrath were
going at it, some riders dropped out of
competition or just ran out of steam.
"I knew I just didn't have it in me to
make it 20 lap with this flu in me and
stuff," said Windham, who finished
14th. "The start was just really important. Obviously, when you're 15th and
you get tired, you go back to last, but
when you. are first and you get tired,
you can maybe manage a top-five (finish) or even a podium."
Unlike Windham, Lamson felt that
he was riding well - the best he has ridden all year - until he suffered a get-off
and fell back to 18th.
"1 got up to seventl1 and 1 got a little
arm pump and then I crashed on the
step-on/step-off:' said Lamson. "It was
pretty hard and I was doing it all night,
every lap perfect. There was a turn after
it and 1 overjumped it and couldn't
make the turn, so I went over. It
knocked the wind out of me."
Albertyn also fell back from seventh
Mickael Pichon (Hon); 9. Takcshi Koikcda (Yam); 10.
Doug Dubach (Yam); 11. Kyle Lewis (Suz); 12. JeanSebastien Roy (Hon); 13. Larry Ward (Suz); 14, Ryan
Terlecki (5uz); IS. Espen BWc.tad (Suz); 16. Jeff Hedden
(J(TM); 17. Akira Na.rita (Hon); 18. Pat Foster {Yam); 19.
Scott Davis (Suz); 20. Mark Workentine (Suz).
Time: 7 min., 35.310 5(.>C•
250 HEAT 2 (Slaps, 1-4 transfer to main); 1. Robbie
Reynard (Suz); 2. Mike laRocco (Hon); 3. John Dowd
(Yam); 4. Timmy Ferry (Yam); 5. David Vuillemin
(Yam); 6. Ezra Lusk (Hon); 7. Pedro Gonzales O