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/128000
(Left) Consistency once again paid off for Mike laRocco on the Factory Connection/Jack In the Box Honda. He flogged his Honda to second overall via 3-5 moto finishes. (Above) Suzuki's Greg Albertyn kept himself in the series points hunt with strong finishes, going 6-3 for third overall. (Below) Larry Ward of Team Suzuki barely made it through the first moto after suffering a number of problems, but he came back strong in the second moto, finishing second to Windham. Rounding out the top five overall was Yamaha's John Dowd, who ran third for much of the first moto before giving way to LaRocco and finishing fourth. Dowd gated around 10th in the second moto and picked off a few riders before finishing sixth. .After enduring a miserable first moto, where he suffered through a broken footpeg, a damaged front brake, an overheated engine and a couple of crashes to finish 16th, Team Suzuki's Larry Ward bounced back to finish second in the second moto, giving him seventh overall. "Anything can happen," said Ward, who throughout his career has posted top finishes in the mud, but he never gets too overly confident in the wet stuff. "In the second moto, [ followed Kevin (Windham) around; then he got a big lead. At that point, [ just decided to be easy on the bike." Eighth overall went to Honda rider Jean-Sebastien Roy, who put together one of his best rides of his career with a fifth-place finish in the first moto. The Canadian backed that up with 12th in the second moto. Team Honda's Ezra Lusk was plagued by bad starts in both motos, ending up ninth overall via 11-7 finishes. As a result, Lusk, who had moved into the series points lead following his double wins the previous week at Southwick, slipped back into second, handing the top po ition back to his teammate Tortelli. Rounding out the top 10 was Team Ka wasaki' s Jeff Ernig, followed by Big Valley Honda/GTeat Lake Aviation's Heath Voss, Yamaha Japan's Takeshi Koikeda, Suzuki's Robbie Reynard, Kamesports' Mike Katin, Kawasaki's Damon Huffman, Davey Yezek and Bruce Stratton, Scott Davis, Yamaha's Jimmy Button (who suffered a mechanical-related DNF in the second mota), and Austin Squires, who completed the top 20 overall. As mentioned, Tortelli moves back into the series lead, but by only four poinlS over Lusk, 189-185. Albertyn is third with 176, followed by LaRocco and Windham, who are even wi th 162 points. MOTOONE Riders, and especially mechanics, knew when they arrived at the track Sunday morning that they were in for a long day. It had already sprinkled during the night, and the day's forecast was not good: More rain was on the way. And it really started making its presence known during the morning qualifying sessions. By the time the first 125cc moto got under way, the track was a quagmire of brown mud, and things didn't get any better by the time the gate dropped for the first 250cc mota. Although the rain did let up slightly, a heavy mist would never go away. One main line had formed around the long and hilly track, and 40 riders in the 250cc class aU wanted to be in it first. Apparently, Windham wanted it the most. Starting from the far outside, Windham shot his Honda into the lead, and by the second turn, every rider - except Windham - was completely covered in mud. Some had already tossed their goggles, including Damon Huffman. "There was a wave of mud," Huffman said of the first turn. "Mud covered my goggles and I had to pull them off before the second turn." Huffman would later pull over for a new pair, but the damage was already done, as he would spend the rest of the moto struggling midpack. By the end of the first lap, the riders were nearly unidentifiable, their numbers hidden behind the brown goop except for Windham's number-14 Honda, which was leading the way. But not too far behind him was Tortelli, followed by Dowd, LaRocco, Roy and Katin. The field soon became fairly strung out, but Windham could never put more than a few seconds between himself and Tortelli. As the two riders ran away from the rest of the pack, Tortelli inched closer to the leader and began threatening. Late in the race, Tortelli actually put the move on Windham, passing him for the lead, but Windham quickly retaliated. "He blew by me right before we caught up to a lapper," Windham said. "He went low around the lapper, and [ didn't have much time to decide, so I went to fhe inside and got him back. It just kind of worked out." '1 made a mistake and went off the line and Kevin got me," Tortelli said. A turn and a straightaway later, however, Tortelli slipped in the mud 23