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Supercross AMA Easl/West 125cc Shoolout . sam Boyd Stadium Ramsey divine In Sin City By Matt Freeman Photos by Kinney Jones LAS VEGAS, NY, MAY 1 all it divine interventi.on, call it , Lady Luck, but 125cc Western Regional Supercross champion Nathan Ramsey may have gotten help from both when he won the East vs. West 125cc Shootout in Las Vegas. Some C N ~ ~ :::!E 12 37,512 spectators flocked to the Nevada desert to see which region would reign supreme when all the cards were laid out on the ta ble. Billed as a Na than Ramsey-vs.-Ernesto Fonseca (the 125cc Eastern Region Supercross champion) showdown, both champions struggled throughout the night, but after the 15lap main event )'Vas over, it was SplitFire/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki's Ramsey standing dead center on the podium. The victory, however, as well as the West Coast bragging rights, did not come easily for Ramsey by any means. While leading his heat race, Ramsey came up short on a jump and he was sent to the stadium floor. The crash put him out of contention for a transfer spot to the main event. In the Western region last-chance qualifier, Ramsey did not get the start that he was looking for, and for five laps it appeared that the Las Vegas crowd was not going to see the muchhyped Ramsey /Fonseca showdown. Then, near the end of the LCQ, Ramsey while running in fourth place, two spots out of the final transfer position - and the rest of the crowd saw a miracle (Right) Nathan' Ramsey (1w) passed Travis Preston and several other riders in a come-frombehind win at the 125cc EastlWest Shootout. (Below) AIter winning his heat . race David Pingree (60) led the main event briefly before crashing and taking Nick Wey (23) with him. The duo fell out of the top five, but Wey still managed a third-place finish as Pingree ended up fifth. unfold. Second- and third-place riders Keith Johnson and Andy Harrington tangled, and both landed rubber side up. Ramsey rode right on by them both, finlshinK second to claim a spot in the main. From there, however, it did not get much easier for Ramsey, who gated 11th in the main. But when he slipped into the lead on lap eight, he was there to stay. Controlling second place for most of the main was Suzuki-mounted Tyler Evans, who proved to be a threat for the win right from -the drop of the gate to the point when Ramsey moved into the lead. Evans finished runner-up, eight seconds back. It w'!s his second podium finish in a row. The final podium position belonged to Ramsey's teammate Nick Wey. Wey grabbed the holeshot in the main and led for the first two laps before letting Primal Impulse/Bill's Pipes/Suzuki. mounted David Pingree around him on lap three. Pingree's lead was short-lived, as he crashed in the whoops right in Wey's path. Unable to get around Pingree's bike, Wey dropped as far back as seventh in the middle of the race before putting on a late-race rally to gain third in the overall standings. Fonseca had a diffiCtllt night as weJl. After crashing in the first turn during his heat race and then again in the main, the Yamaha of Iroy pilot made a valiant effort, working his way up to fourth, never really getting to roll the dice against Ramsey all night. "I crashed in the first corner and 1 kind of rode a little off the pace," said Fonseca about his night. "You can't win all the time. It's all right. I'm still happy with my main event. 1 think 1 rode good and 1 came up a lot of places. 1 made a lot of time on those guys. 1 still felt good and strong." After winning his heat race, Pingree went out and got a great start and even led at one point, but he crashed and fell back to eighth on lap 10. By the whiteflag lap, Pingree had climbed back up the ladder to fifth, where he finished out the night. "It was my race to win," said Pingree. "I wanted to pull a little lead as quick as 1 ·could. I wanted to work real hard for a few laps and then put it on cruise control. 1 pushed a little too hard in the whoops and 1 caught one of them· about halfway through that had a rut in it, and it just threw me right into a hay bale." Filing in behind Pingree was the Moto XXX Suzuki of TraVIS Preston in sixth place and seventh-placed Brock Sellards, who took his FMF Honda to the East LCQ win earlier in the night. Eighth went to Team Moto Planet Yamaha rider Robbie Horton, and ninth went to a disappointed Casey Lytle, who led laps three through seven. ."1 started getting tight," said Yamaha of Troy's Lytle, who has battled that problem all season. "It's kind of magnified because we had so many weeks off. Trying to come back and do this was hard. 1was kind of off the whole night." Rounding out the top 10 was Excel Motorsports Yamaha's Josh Demuth. HEATS FMF Honda's Danny Smith grabbed the holeshot in the first heat race and never looked back. Making up the lead pack in the 18-rider field behind Smith at the start were his teammate Sellards, Wey, KIM-mounted Joseph Oehlhof and Horton. Down in the first turn was Fonseca, who got up quickly and was in seventh by the end of the first lap. Before Sellards could make a bid for the lead, he and Yamaha-mounted James Povolny and Suzuki pilot Robbie Skaggs all tangled together on the opening lap. None of the parties involved got up quickly enough· to earn a ninth-place (or better) finish that would qualify them for the main event. All three headed for the LCQ as Smith headed for the checkered flag. Wey moved into second after the Sellards crash. "I made a couple passes and got into second, behind Danny Smith," said Wey of his runner-up showing in the heat. "He was pretty far gone, so I just kind of checked some lines out. I ended up second, which is all right. It set me up for a good gate pick for the main." Finishing behind Wey was Horton, who came dangerously close to giving up third to the hard-charging Fonseca. Oehlhof, Planet Honda's Jason McCormick, KIM's Kelly Smith, Yamaha of Excel Motorsports' Jason Thomas and Demuth all headed for the main event via top-nine finishes. The second heat race was more dramatic than the first, as Primal Impulse/Bill's Pipes/Suzuki's Michael Brandes snagged the holeshot, with Evans, Ramsey, Pingree, Preston and Yamaha rider Isaiah Johnson in tow. Before the lap was over, Evans moved his Suzuki into the lead in front of Brandes, but Ramsey was hungry and riding like a man possessed. "I moved into the lead and I was feeling a little bit nervous, trying to loosen up," said Ramsey about passing Evans for the lead on lap three of the eight-lap heat. "I came up short on a jump and just kind of miscued a little bit. 1 went over the bars. 1 got back on the bike real fast but the front end was so out of alignment and the handlebars were so ben t. there was no use of me trying to corne back, so 1 hurried back to the pits to get the bike ready for the last-chance qualifier." Pingree also made it around Evans not long after Ramsey did, and while running in second, Pingree saw the entire Ramsey.crash unfold. "I was just kind of playing it smart and riding really smooth and calm," said Pingree. "I saw Ramsey was really squirrelly. I was kind of ~eeping my distance from him. He passed Evans,. 1 passed Evans, and then (Rams.ey) blew up that next lap and crashed real hard. Then I just put it on cruise controL" Pingree capitalized on Ramsey's crash to take the win. Evans moved back up a spot as well to finish second, followed by Brandes, Preston and Johnson, who rounded out the top five. Kawasaki rider Ryan Clark, SplitFire/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki's Billy Payne, Lytle, and Kawasaki of Mexico's Erick Vallejo finished sixth through ninth, all earning spots in the main.