Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

"I di dn't ha ve the fastest lap time, but a majority of my times were faste r than anyone else's," sa id Ernig, which exp lained h o w h e was able to move from ou tside th e top 10 as quickly as he d id . "Es pe cia lly in th e mi d dle of each rn ot o . I r eall y s h owe d goo d s peed tod ay. The seco nd m ot o I was cu tti ng through the pack and I really heated up tow ard the end and I was a little bit disappo inted at the end, bu t overall considering where I s ta rted I think th a t we made ga ins:" My starts are at a career lo w . Eve r since I firs t s ta rted racing, w hen I was seven years old, I never got starts this bad. My style of riding is to get up front, rid e easy and ride fast. This whole yea r has been different for me beca use I've had to ride from the back . I d on ' t' like it, mainly because the finis hes and w ha t not. If yo u cou ld come from 18th and win every m oto you 'd be th e hero . It's just so competitive, especially w it h th e fa ct that six g uys have won now ." Kevin Windham is one of the six riders that Emig was speaking of. In fac t, Windham has the most 1999 se ries wins, with a total of three, but sevent h overa ll w a s the best that Windh am co u ld muster at Tro y. Th e factory Honda rid er ran sec o nd for mu ch of th e first mot o before fallin g back to fou rth. In the seco nd m ot o , afte r overs hooting the first turn by a few feet while battling Henry and Lusk for the holesh ot , Windham fell back to eig hth with little explanation for himself. " I jus t kind of faded again . 1 need to regroup I guess," said Win dham after the final m oto, " It was just one of those days." With his seventh -p lace finish, Windham fell from seco nd in points to third a n d h e n o w t rails LaRocco by two po ints. Everyone foug ht the ro ugh co nditions at Troy, inclu ding heat, d ust and h u m id it y , b u t it turned ou t to be rou gh er for so me tha n for ot hers. After two good starts Yam ah a's Jim my Button had problems early on, but like so many others, by the tim e he got things sorted . out it was too late. "I was having a hard time seei ng out the re," sai d Bu tto n, who finis he d eig hth via a 8-9 score . "I actua llv wasn't real happy at all with it. I got'real hot, real quick. I heated up really fast. I was all by myself all day long . I think maybe if I we re up with so me guys I would have been ab le to rid e a li ttle better. I saw those guys up ahead of me eve ry single lap. I' d come through the w hoops an d see them o n th e o ther section of th e track in the sa me place every sing le lap, but I could n' t make an y tim e. I couldn't make none; I cou ld n't lose none. 1 was just kind of there. 1 think a couple guys . we re really charging forward - ma yb e laRocco and Fro (Emig) but it's kind of fru stratin g just s it ting th ere and n o t being able to ga in any time on them and you're working yo ur ass off." in th w ent to Ma z d a / ChaparralYamaha ' s Tim Ferry , w ho, like 10thplace finisher John Dowd, fought to stay in the top 10 all d ay. Ferry actu ally finished 11th in first mot o, but im proved to seventh in the seco nd . Yama ha's Dowd went 9-10. " It could have been better, it co uld hav e bee n w o rse," explained Do w d . "Fo r so me reason I ne ver seem to do well here. I don't know what it is. 'I felt ' like I rode pretty well tod ay. I was kind of rig ht th ere wi th th e fast g uy s in th e pack, but unfortunately I was at the tail end of th e p ack . It seemed like every tim e I tri ed to m ak e a decision it was kind of the w ro ng one. I go t passed in th is one certain spot one la p. Someone cut me off on the inside and the next time 1 was right behind someone I tried to d o the same maneuver to tha t guy and I ended up getting passed by someone else. It was just that kind of day. It's a fun tra ck, it's just ha rd for me to ma ke , any ground on this tra ck for so me reaso n." Tea m Suzu ki's Robbie Reyn ard (lOl l ) had a day much like Mazda/Chaparra l-Yama ha's Steve Lamson (12-12) , Tea m Kawasaki 's Damon Huffman (15B), and Pla net Honda/Pro Grip's JeanSebastien Roy's (14-14) . Together, the group finis hed 11th through 14th, posting less than full luster res u lts in both outings. " I go t caught in a second-eorner pileup," said Reynard about the incident in th e first mot o tha t se t the stage for his day. Takesh i Koikeda swap ped in fron t of me and I end ed up on top of hi m. I was under my bike for a little bit and by the time I go t up everyone was go ne. 1 had to work my way up. It's dusty out th ere. Hol y s mokes, yo u ca n' t see th e ruts, you can't see not hing." Lamson suffered a loss due to Reyna rd 's get off as we ll. " I came ou t pretty go od and th en I go t sn a gged up o n tha t p il e u p with Reyna rd ," La mson said. "Actua lly, I thin k I ran o ver Reyn ard. It felt like it..1 at least got a foot peg on him. I cou ldn' t ge t out of th at. Then once 1 did an d settled into a pa ce, I go t pum ped up." Huffman's day went no better th an that of Reyn ard and Lamson's. " I ' rn kind o f fighting mys elf ri ght now," said 13th-pla ced Huffman. "Last week, w hen I crashed at Unadilla, I kind of bruised m y thi gh o n th e leg that I brok e last year and it' s kind of botherin g me in every rig ht handed or rutted corner . It's a probl em for me." Finishing 15th behind Roy was YZ250m ounted A nthony A ma ra dio (13- 16), DGY Suzuki's Tyler Evans (16-15), nearby F&S Su zuki's Da vey Yezek (17-17), th e KX250 of Ryan Terlecki (19-18), Kawasaki of Mexico-backed Pedro Gonzalez (18-33) and RM250-mounted Mike Katin Jr. MOT01 . Henry had no prob lem bringing his YZ400 d own th e lo ng sta rting grid in the lead to grab th e ho les ho t, wi th the KX250 of ScottDavis and Ya ma ha of Japan's Takeshi Koi ke da runni ng secon d and third , res pecti vely. But before Koikeda could completely get out of the (Above) Extending his po ints lead to a healthy 30, Team Suzuki's Greg Albertyn put in two impressi ve fin ishes (2-3) to claim second overall on the day. (Below, left to right) Factory Connection/Jack in the Box-backed Mike laRocco (3) suff ered bad starts in both motos. Here, he follows Kev in Windham (14), Albertyn (8) and Henry (1) out of the gate at the start of moto two. laRocco charged on to cla im t hird via come-frombeh ind 3-4 finishes. Windham went 4-8 for seventh. first turn, he we nt d own , tak ing a sm all gr oup with him . Koiked a posted 39th at m ote' s end out of the 40-m an field . Battered a nd bruised , he didn't ta ke th e . starti ng gate for m oto two. On lap two, a s the field began to spread o ut, Henry was still in the lead w ith Lusk, Ward, Wind ha m, Albertyn and Button following closely in th e lead pack. Dowd and La Rocco held d o wn seventh an d eighth and Emig was even fu rther bac k in 10th. Lusk soo n joi ned them, giving up seco nd befo re the lap was over and ultimately falling back to seven th. "I fell twice; little fron t-end washes," exp lained Lusk. " I gu ess I was trying to ch ar ge too ha rd and not being smooth enoug h ." With Lu sk fallin g d own and faci ng ba ck, W ar d m o v ed in to seco nd a n d briefly cha lle nged Henry for the lea d . Wind ham also joined in on the fight. "I got into second and go t alongsi de Henry the re for a minute, bu t my luck ran out and Windham and Greg (Albe rtyn) both go t bac k by me," sai d Wa rd. Mea nwhi le, the freig h t tra in of laRocco and Emig wo rked their way up to th e tail end of the now fourth-place War d . The tw o passed Lusk and Button in the process, leavin g Button cau ght up in their d ust. " I had a littl e bit of a vision problem going into the bright light in and ou t of the sha de," said Button. "I was wearing clea r lenses and everybody had actually switched to yellow lenses and I d id n' t do it. It kind of cos t me a bit." With Henry in front of him, Albertyn on his rear fender and a hard-ch ar ging laRocco catching up to their three-m an battle, Win dham co m m it ted to a pass for the lead tha t went sou r. " I went to pass Henry and ran into a pole on the inside of a tu rn ," said Wind, ham. "W e bumped and it ac tu ally put my bike into n eutra l. Tha t's wh en Albertyn go t by me . The top three was that close. After that a couple things in the middle of the race happen ed and I started to lose some ground. 1 picked up in the end, but they already had a litt le lead on me." '" '" '" 7

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