Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

(Left) Ezra Lusk put his Honda into second place. (Above) Team Suzuki's Robbie Reynard made It to the podium for the first time with a third-place finish. "I've been sick for the last three weeks," Pichon said. '1t's actually more than the £Iu - it's my lungs. And I've been on antibiotics for two weeks. It happened to me before, two or three years ago, and I've got to do something else to get away from that, because it gives me asthma and I can't breathe very good. Today 1 was really out of breath. I was doing it, but 1 couldn't hold on. I couldn't breathe very good, and I was riding tight." Pichon's fellow Frenchman and Honda teammate Sebastien Tortelli was ninth, with Noleen Motorsports' Tim Ferry the first privateer in 10th. HEATS Huf£man nailed the start of the first eight-lap heat race but was quickly .passed by Reynard and Ward. The yellow Suzukis quickly gapped the field, and by the fourth lap Reynard had three seconds on his teammate on his way to what would be the faster of the two heat-race wins of the night. "I feel really good out there," Reynard said. "The track's pretty difficult. Sort of separates a lot of riders. That one straightaway (a series of whoops and jumps along the eastern edge of the Silverdome £Ioor) is really hard to get down and do it lap after lap. So that's what it's going to take in the main: doing everything every lap right." Ward held on to second in what was mostly a processional race at the front. LaRocco took third after passing Mazda/Chaparral/Yamaha's Steve Lamson at the end of the east-side obstacles. Lamson held on to fourth and the last direct transfer to the main, in front of Suzuki's Greg Albertyn and then Huffman, who tired at the end and faded well back to sixth. McGrath owned the second heat once he got to the front. It would take a few laps - three, to be exact - for him to pass Carmichael in a left-hand turn after a tabletop jump. He couldn't really shake Carmichael, but he had enough in reserve to ensure the win, though he knew there was no room for error. '1t's nice to see Ricky observing a little bit," McGrath said. "He's a great rider he's been riding great all year - he's just not looking around. He's trying to explode too fast. I was watching him a little bit and made my move. 1 need to get a little bit better start in the main event." SEMIS Huffman repeated his holeshot performance from his heat, jumping to the front before being quickly reeled in. But. ton was in front before the whoop section, with Albertyn getting by just after the whoops. Kawasaki of Mexico's Pedro Gonzalez slotted himself into fourth on the first lap, and the order wouldn't change. Button and Albertyn took off, with Button commanding the race and Albertyn settling for second. Huffman was third, at some distance, with Gonzalez even further back. Lusk owned the second six-lap semi and Simply blew away the competition, holding nearly a four-second lead after the first lap. There was a race for second, but Lusk wanted no part of it. "I wouldn't say I was not up to 100 percent," Lusk said. "I w~)Uld just say that it's been a little while since I've been able to run up front. I've had some problems. Nothing's going to hold me back. I'm going as hard as I can and I'm working as hard as I can to get back up top. Honda' doing as much as they can to the bike - it's awesome. We're going to get it back up there." The race for second was quite hardfought and went down to the final lap. Suzuki rider Tyler Evans looked like he was sewing up the spot early on, but he was caught by a group from behind, with Honda's Sebastien Tortelli emerging from the pack to challenge on the final lap. The pair tangled in one. of the final two lefts before the finish jump, with Evans getting the better of it, though Tortelli certainly had a chance. Great Lakes Aviation/Big Valley Honda's Heath Voss passed Insane Terrain Racing's Ryan Terlecki on the final lap to take fifth, the final transfer from this semi to the main. LAST-CHANCE QUALIFIER Two riders would make the main from the LCQ, and one of them would be Planet Honda's Jean-Sebastien Roy. He made sure of that on the second of Six laps. After following Kawasaki of Mis ouri's Brian Stone for a lap, Roy moved by Stone and took flight. His was a comfortable win. The same could not be said of the battle for second place. Sto)1e faded early in the heat, with Moto XXX's Phil Lawrence taking over second, but he slowed when he' caught a piece of trackside banner in his rear wheel. Plano Honda's Grayson Goodman was on the move, and he £lew by Lawrence after he crested the finish-line jump, setting up a furious fina I two la ps. Lawrence held the margin close and waited until there were only a few turns left to make his move. It came after he pulled even with Goodman in the whoop section, then tried the inside in the series of three right-hand turns before the £inaI two lefts leading to the finish line. The move worked, and Lawrence was in the main; Goodman was third, and Kawasaki of Missouri's Brian Stone was fourth. MAIN The start chute was particularly short, leading to a quick 90-degree left and the difficult, technical section of jumps and ruts along the stadium's east side. McGrath got the jump, taking Reynard with him; the pair set off as the pack behind them settled in for the long haul. Lap after lap, Reynard dogged McGrath, though he wasn't able to mount enough of a charge to make a serious run. By the ninth lap they were in traffic, and Reynard closed in. Watching McGra th, it seemed like he'd gotten a wake-up call, because ending the 10th lap, he had a three-second lead, a gap that he would keep constant for a few laps befQre adding several to it. Reynard had no answer. '1 actually felt like I could get past him, because I still had some speed," Reynard said. '1 feel that 1 could've gone a little bit faster, but I had a good pace and [was being smooth. 1 didn't want to make any mistakes, and that's what was going to win the race. I just went out there and was trying to be smooth and should have made it, but I didn't." "Robbie was riding a great race tonight," McGrath said. "He won his heat race and was looking great there. It's a long race. The track's kind of rutted, and there're some big technical jumps. I knew he was fast, but I didn't know if he could last the whole time. 1 didn't try to push it extra-special when 1 was in front of him. I just tried to race the track my own way, and he started to drop off a little bit. I was letting him make his own mistakes." With six laps to go, McGrath had a six-second lead, but now it was Lusk in second, having passed Reynard on the 13th lap. Lusk looked to have too much ground to make up, but he felt he had a shot. '1 reaJJy wasn't that far back," Lusk said. '1 was up front, and I knew it was going to be a long race, and the track was getting reaJJy, really treacherous. My record I've had the last two weeks, I figUIed I'd play it strong early on. I knew I'd be strong at the end. There's no question about it. And I just tried to wick it up there at the end, tried to catch up with Jeremy. But I feel like he's kind of gotten away, and Jeremy really never did slack off. "From where I was," Lusk added, '1 was happy with the start I got. I wasn't happy with the first half of the race. I knew I was going to be strong, no question about that. 1 just wanted to have a good, smart race, and that's what I had. I want to find that consistency and the strength that takes you through a whole year on the podium. That's just what I'm looking for right now." Three riders fought over third for much of the race: Ward, Pichon and LaRocco. LaRocco had gated badly, away 10th on the first lap before moving up to sixth on the sixth lap. He kept the pressure on and went by Ward on the 12th lap. Then he and Ward both pa sed the fading Pichon on the 15th lap. By then, there wasn't enough time for LaRocco to continue his advance, and he settled into fourth, about seven seconds in front of Ward. "It was tough out there, and when the ruts got bad in tha t section after the first turn, it was real difficult to be consistent on," LaRocco aid. "I struggled out there a little bit, but not as bad as the guys I went through and passed. I'm not overly pleased with how I rode today." Considering the trauma he'd been through in his episode with poison ivy, Ward, who knew Button was charging from behind, wasn't that displeased with fifth. Considering that this was Button's second race back, and that he'd improved his position from St. Louis by two spots, he wasn't displeased, either. "I made quite a few mistakes in the main - not really mental, just plain made some mistakes," Button said. "The track was a little bit rutted, pretty technical; I just made a couple of mistakes and that's where they got away." Button had passed Pichon on the 18th lap, and Huffman got by the gasping Frenchman soon after. '1 had a couple of good starts, like in . 0> 0> 0> ~ ;:: 0. < 9

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