Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127986
the duo to finish sixth, leaving Ward back in seventh. Tjm Ferry rode very strong once again, finishing as top privateer and garnering eighth ahead of Mazda/ Chaparral/Yamaha' Steve Lamson, who rode well all night until crashes in his heat and in the main slowed him down. Beginning with Team Honda's Mickael Pichon, who finished 10th, there finished a sea of Hondas in the overall results. Sebastien Tortelli, Heath Voss, Jean-Sebastien Roy and Mike Craig finished 11th through 14th, with Craig's placing no doubt the most impressive. This was Craig's first race since breaking his femur last year. . "My leg is pretty good, but I was kind of using my good leg to take all the weight," said Planet Honda/Pro Grip/FMF-backed Craig. "The second lap in the first practice today, I cased the triple and ptJ.lled my ankle in my good leg. My bad leg is the right one, and then I jammed my.left ankle. I've been out for eight months, so in the main event, I struggled. My legs just gave out. It ju t beat me up. This whole weekend it's been gnarly. I wen t through it, I made it and I'm happy." Insane Terrain Racmg's Ryan Terlecki won the last-chance qualifier to get into the main event, where he finished 15th, ahead of Plano Honda's Grayson Goodman and Kawasaki-mounted Doug Stone. Brian Stone competed in both the 250cc and 125cc classes aboard his arsenal of KXs. He qualified for the 250cc premier, where he finished 18th. Moto XXX's Phil Lawrence took his Suzuki to 19th, ahead of Billy Binckley's Yarnahas. HEATS The starting line for the first heat looked more like a Honda benefit race, as Lusk, Windham, Craig and LaRocco led the pack into the narrow first turn. The first non-red bike belonged to Albertyn, as he followed the pack closely. As the field began to spread out, Windham used his long legs to power past leader Lusk in a long section of whoops. And that was the last anyone saw of Windham until the main event. "The heat race went awesome," Windham said. "Yogi (Lusk) was a little sore this weekend. He hung in there good, but r got the lead and Honda went one-two, SO that was good." Lusk chased Windham, a Craig,. LaRocco, Albertyn and Vo s all ba ttied for the final two transfer spots. LaRocco wasted little time in disposing of Craig's third-place position. Then, by the third lap, it appeared as though the hardcharging LaRocco had a chance at second. '1 made a mistake in the second corner and Windham and Lusk kind of got away," LaRocco said. "I caught Lusk a little bit." LaRocco settled for third, behind Lusk. Craig looked to have fourth in the bag, but, while trying to make a stand on lap five, he let Albertyn and Voss by him and was relegated to the semis. "r wasn't doing one section in the middle, which, if I would've done it, I would've qualified out of the first heat," Craig said. "r wasn't jumping this threethree thing, and they were killing me on it - probably three seconds a lap." Albertyn finished off the race in fourth, behind LaRocco, and went back to the pits to get ready for the main. Fifth-place finisher Voss, however, along with Craig, headed back to the semis. The second hea t belonged to McGrath from the get-go. The defending supercross champ grabbed the holeshot, with teammate Lamson, Ward, Pichon, Huffman, Tortelli and the rest of the pack in tow. In the first three laps of the eight-lap race, Ward and Pichon pressured second-placed Lamson, as Huffman and Tortelli argued back and forth over fifth place. It was not long before they would all move up a spot when Lam on bailed. "I was second in the start, but about halfway through, I threw it away," said Lamson, who picked the bike up and got going again in seventh, behind Ferry. "In that rhythm section, when you triple-triple, I kind of got a little bit to the right and I clipped the top of the third one on the second set. I threw it away pretty good, but luckily I felt fine and kept going." With Lamson on the ground and Ward beginning to slow down, Pichon moved up to second place, where he would eventually finish. Meanwhile, everyone - including Huffman, TortelIi, Ferry and Lamson - got around Ward, who faded back to seventh. With only ·two laps remaining, Huffman fought off Tortelli for third, but by the white-flag lap, Tortelli was more interested in holding off fifth-placed Ferry in order to secure himseIf a spot in the main. He did just that and finished fourth behind McGrath, Pichon and Huffman. Ferry, Lamson and Ward went back to the pits to prep-are for the semis, from which the top five. finishers transfer to the" main event. . SEMIS Voss grabbed the holeshot in the first semi, but it was the tired legs of Craig that led the charge through the first lap. Opting for a different line in the whoops a lap later, Voss passed Craig back and led for one lap. Unwilling to give up, Craig chased Voss and pulled alongside him in the same whoop section that had slowed him down the previous lap. In a turn that saw many aggressive passes throughout the night, Craig cut to the inside of Voss, executed a brake-slide and moved back into the lead. Voss was forced to back off to avoid hitting (Above) Kevin Windham led for nine laps before falling victim to McGrath. (Below) With the weight of the Triple Crown series on his shoulders Ezra Lusk returned to racing after a horrible crash in Daytona and posted strong results, placing third in the main event.