Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

(Opp osi te pa ge) Greg Al bertyn (8) and Kevin Windh am (14) squared off in the secon d 250cc moto , with Albe rty n coming out on top . But it was Windham 's da y, his 1-2 besting Albe rty n's 3-1 at Mic hi gan's Red Bud Tr ack 'N ' Trail. (Above) Windham (14) con ti nued his recent string of holesh ots at Red Bud. Here he' s chased by Hond a teammate Ezra Lusk (4), Jo hn Dowd (behind Lusk), Jimmy Button (10), Jeff Emig (11), Larry Ward (7) and th e rest ,of the 40-rider 250cc Nati ona l fie ld. (Right) Sebas t ien Tortelli launches his factory-backed Honda ove r one of Red Bud 's spacious doubles. His third-overail fi ni sh (4-5) was enough to keep him in the series points lead• .. , W h il e LaRoc co a n d T orte lli r o se throu gh the pack, Wind ham continue d to carry the pace ou t front, with Lusk on his heels. Albertyn ju m ped up to third , and th e th ree of th em began pullin g away as a group. Albert yn also pass ed Lu s k a n d , appear ed r ead y to m ake a move on Windham for the lead. Going into the tight off-cambered turn, Wind ham left th e d oor 'open fo r th e South Africa n, bu t Albertyn hesitated . " I d idn 't w ant to put h im on th e grou nd, because I never wa nt to ride a dirty race," sai d Alberty n after passing ' up a per fect chance to torp ed o one of the Hondas. "I don' t like to ride like that and I don't wa nt to ride like that. I jus t fig ured I wo ul d wai t a nd see w hat opened u p later." As it turned out, no thing opened up for the Suz uki rid er . In fact, in the late stages of the moto, lapped traffic cost Albe rtyn seco n d place , le t alo n e a cha nce for the win. "There w as a pack of guys together righ t a fter the tw o-lap card ca me out and they ju st all rode right over in front of.me, " said Albertyn. "Lusk blew past me and that was it. My arm was hurting from casing a big triple in pra ctice, and I really ha d to just back it down ra th er than risk a cras h at that point." ' Th e la te-charging Tortelli w as also com ing, bu t Albertyn had enoug h time . and strength to hold the position . "It was ju st so one- li ne d out th ere tha t w hen I got behind the lap p ers, I couldn' t go anywhere," added the frustra ted Alberty n . "My hand ju st w en t tot all y nu m b and I was s trugg ling to hold on." Lusk kept th e ga s on af ter passing th e Suzuki rid er and went aft er Win dham with what little time wa s left. The tw o Ho ndas put on a grea t show for the IS,O O-plus Red Bud faithful, bu t nothO in g cha nged before the checker ed flag. Windham took first and Lusk second , " It was ho t out ther e and everybody was r id ing re a ll y fas t, so I' m really happy to have wo n a mo to like that," sa id Windham w hile cooling off in the p las ti c Ho n da p oo l. "T he next o ne is going to be even tou gher - I hop e I hav e enough left." "You always want to win, sure, but when you don 't , 'you at leas t wa nt your teamm a te to w in, " sai d Lusk. " I wo u ld 've loved to have had those three mo re points for the championsh ip, bu t it wasn' t me ant to be." LaRocco w as a qu iet fift h behi nd To rtelli. Then came th e Yama h a s of Dowd , Bu t t'on an d Ferr y . Emig and Damon Huffman round ed out the top 10. MOTOTWO Dowd appeared to have the second moto holeshot all locked up, but Windham, had a bet ter drive ou t of the corne r and snagged his fourth ho les ho t in' a row . AIbe rtyn, Button , Steve La mson and the num ber-o ne Yama ha of Henry fill ed in the ea rly order . A t the b ack once again was Tortelli, only thi s time he was joined by Lus k. "I go t a pretty good start but then Emig cam e in and go t my whee lan the off-ca m ber and d o wn I w en t," sa id Lusk. '1 go t back u p as fas t as I could, but then I was too eager an d fell again, to make ma tters eve n worse." At that poi nt Lusk was ou tside th e top 30. As for Tor telli, he also go t caug ht up w it h Lusk af ter h is tea m mate fell. He com pleted the first hip in 13th p lace. With h is jersey a lr ea dy u ntucked, Albertyn we nt right to wo rk on the lead . He passed Wind ham quickly and cleanly and then point ed the nu mb er-eigh t Suzuki away from everyone . Windham kept the gap to o close fo r th e So u th African to let up, bu t at the same time he wasn't pushing like he had in the first mota . "I was pretty wo rked after the firs t moto, but I wastold that the othe r gu ys were pretty wo rked, too ," said Albertyn of the heat. "I kn ow that I' m st ronger than those gu ys, so this tim e I played things different and we nt righ t at them . I've worked ha rd, paid m y dues, and wi th the Lord willing, I am going to wi n this cha m pionship ," "I kne w Ezra was w ay beh in d me and Greg had a third the first time, so I dec ided to play it smart, take seco nd for the rna to and the o vera ll win," sai d Windham in the winner's circle, "I think I proved to everyone that I'm in sha pe, and I' m obviously getting good starts, so the rest of this series should be interesting. I've just abo u t made up all the poi nts I lost at the first race, so it' s like a whole new series now." The most in terestin g battle on th e track in th e seco nd hot mot a was the rise of Emig . Hop ing to catch fire here aga in li ke he did in ' 9S, the pop u la r "Fro" moved around all of the Yamahas but Dow d ' s, w ho was runni ng a solid third well into th e seco nd h a lf of the moto . A t th e sa me tim e, Tortelli wa s en . en coming up beh ind Emig. en "I cou ld see Dowdy, and I actu ally tho ug ht he was in seco nd , so I pu t my head d own and wen t after hi m ," sai d Emig of the battle. " I just kept p us h ing a nd p u shin g, 11 ~

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