Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Round 6: Red Bud Track 'N' Trail .. . By Davey Coombs Photos by Kinney Jones BUCHANAN, MICHJGAN, JULY 4 " !!Ii :Iii il! U :iii 1&1 Q '" 8l ::F ~ 3' ..., 10 . ad it no t been for Kevin Windham, Am erican race fans wo uld have watched a pair of foreign ers take top honors at t h e Re d Bu d Track 'N' Trail Nationa l MX on a day o n which Americans celebra te their country's birthday. But Win dham, on h is A lley Sema r-t u ned, fac to ry-backed Honda, showed up in a big way on this Fourth of July holid ay weeke nd; earning his second consecutive 250cc National wi n and his th ird of the first six races of the series. He d id it with a so lid 1-2 outing in sco rching weath er . " It m a v have been fu n, bu t it sure wasn' t," sa id a n exhaus ted Wi ndha m after his fa nt as tic effort in nea rly 100d egree heat. "I hope this quiets all of the peo ple out th e r e saying I'm n ot in shape, be ca u s e that's jus t a bo u t the toughest race I eve r rod e in." It was only fitting tha t Windham put toget her one of the best ri d es of his young career o n Ind epend e n ce Day agains t a pa ir of fast foreign ch ar gers. Sou t h Africa's G reg Albertyn and French ma n Sebastien Tortelli, w ho both have Wo rld MX tit les on th eir lists of ac hievemen ts, co n tin ued to shine o n American so il as each as pires to become the first foreigne r to w in an AMA outdoor Nationa l Cha mpionship since Jean Mi ch e l Bay le in 1991. Suzu ki-ba cked Albe rtyn was"'ll soli d second overall by virtue of hi s 3- 1 tall y, whil e Honda' s Tort elli sal vaged third overall followi ng his us ua l co meb ack rid es from p oo r starts . He netted 4-5 moto finis hes. "I d on 't mean to sound cocky or arroga nt or anyth in g like tha t, but I truly believe that this cha m pio nsh ip is mine," said Albertyn. Albertyn battled with Win dham and his Ho nda teammat e Ezra Lusk through the en tire frantic first moto, only to lose sight of the two Hondas in lap ped traffic wi th two laps to go . "Al bee " came ou t eve n fas ter in th e second moto a nd scored the mo ta win to snap Windham 's pe rsonal m ota wi n streak at three - the longest of the season. Tortelli agai n s truggled with bad sta rts and a lack of track tim e. "I' m starting to ge t used to not ridi ng the tracks very much, but the bad starts a re rea ll y hurting m e," said To rtelli, w ho has not won a mot a since he swep t the se ries ope ne r back in May bu t still leads the points chase. "I have to ride hard in practi ce a nd tr y to fin d good lines right away, because I ha ve to look for p laces to p ass as well as the best lin es. When yo u on ly ge t a few short sess ions like we have, it's hard to figure out." Rega rdl es s of Windham 's effo rts, To rte lli and Albertyn now occupy the top two positions in the 250cc point stand ings at the halfway mark of the 12race series. Tortelli owns 223 tota l poi nts to Albertyn's 221. Thi rd in the latest ran kings after an up-and-d own day at Red Bud was Lusk. Th e Ho nd a-m ounted rid er s tarted out th e afte rn oo n seco nd in th e 'po in ts to To rtelli, but a fter a terrific la te-m o to cha rge th at netted hi m a clos e runner up finish to Windham in the first moto, Lusk and Tortell i we n t in to hea t tw o tied for th e se ries lead . Unfo rtu na tely for Lusk, a pai r of firs t-lap falls left him at the back of the pack early in the race, and he could only reach nin th place by mote's end for fourth overall on the day. "That was a bad seco nd mo to and it rea lly hu rt me in th e po ints," said a disappointed Lusk. "This cham pionship is goi ng to have to be tak en race by race, mo ta by m ot o - th at was m y p lan a ll along . You can' t ge t bad starts or make mistakes like I did in th at seco nd mota." Fifth overa ll wen t to Yama ha's 33year-old ve teran, John Dow d, w ho said afterwards that he's finally feeling like he's getling back up to 100 pe rcen t after a shoulder inju ry . "My sho ulde r is comi ng around, and I' m d efin itely a lot stronger th an I was when the series sta rted, bu t I still have some work to d o," sai d Do w d. " I ' rn pretty ha ppy th at I ha ve a little more fight left in me than I did, especially in the seco nd m oto, so that's so me thi ng to work off of here in the second half of the se ries." Finishing a disappo inting sixth -overa ll was Team Ka w a s a ki ' s Jeff Emig. Em ig had hoped to use Red Bud as the jumpi ng-off poin t to a better season, much like he d id las t year w he n he busted out of a severe slump and wen! on to win th ree of the nex t fou r races. A cras h on the seco nd lap of the first mo to, however, lef t Emig struggling to break th e top 10. Undaunte d, Emig came back in the second mo ta and put in o ne of his best rid es of the season, finishing third . "Eve ry th ing clicked better that second mota , but I reall y wis h I coul d've go tten u p there the first tim e ou t," said Em ig . "I' m tr ying to get back o n, and we'v e been working reall y hard to figure this thin g ou t, bu t I'm kind of frus trated wit h ho w tod a y w en t. I really expe cted more ." • A no ther di sappointed rid er o n th e aftern oo n was Facto ry Co nnectionlJack in th e Box/O'Nea l/ Ho nda rid er Mike La Rocco, w ho was hoping to fi na lly sco re his first 250cc Na tio nal vic to ry si n ce A ug us t ' 96 a t hi s ' h om e tra ck . Un fortunat ely for him, LaRocco ended up ha vin g a med ioc re da y th at was plag u ed by bad sta rts a nd a few acci dents. His 5-6 sco re was on ly goo d for seven th overall. Yama ha's Jim m y Bu tto n was eighth with a 7-7 showing, followed by the 8-8 tally of Ch ap arral Yama ha rider Tim Fer ry. Rounding out the top 10 overa ll was Kawasaki's Damon H uf fma n, w ho con tin ues to struggle this season. Hu ffm an co u ld o nly mus te r 11-1 1 scores afte r bad sta rts in bo th mot as that left him pla ying ca tch-up all day long . MOTOONE "W hat can I say? Th is Ho nda mot orcycle and th ese Du nlo p tires ge t me to the first turn fast," said Windham in his bes t N ASCAR-speak about the massive h ol e s h ot he p ulled to s tar t th e fi rs t mota . Lusk. Do wd , Albe rtyn, Suzuki's Larry Ward and Yamaha's Doug Henry filled in the top positions, w hile pre-race favorites TorteIIi and LaRocco suffere d their traditi onal bad sta rts. By the end of the firs t la p, LaRocco was ninth , fol lowed by Emig and Tortelli. Tortelli passed Emig and tried to ge t right afte r laRocco, but before he did he inad ve rte ntly p u t Em ig's Kawasaki on the ground. "I came up righ t behind him in the Sturns and he cut across in front of me," said Emig . "I ha d to eithe r shu t off or hi t hi s w heel, so I gun ned it a nd tried to spi n him a ro und . Instead I end ed up going down . I wa s like, 'Oh no - this is not supposed to be happening like this : I only lost a few spo ts, but it staye d in my head the rest of the moto."

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