Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

• "I fought through traffic that whole race," LaRocco said, "except for the last two laps. By that time, he [McGrath] was playing. I've got work to do on my starts - I'll get it figured out." Ricky Carmichael, on the Chevy Trucks-backed factory Kawasaki, made a nice rebound after his first-toeighth skid in the main the previous week. This time, Carmichael jumped out to a fourth-place start, rode well and stayed tough the whole way to finish fourth, despite mixing it up throughout the race with such riders as Kevin Windham, Tim Ferry, McGrath and LaRocco. "What a way to turn it around," a very enthusiastic Carmichael said. "I messed up the whoops the last six laps, and LaRocco got by me, but for me, it was a solid ride compared to last week. My stamina was a lot better. I just wish I could've got in there behind Jeremy and Vuillemin a little bit closer and tried to run their pace. I've just got to get a better start." Rounding out the top five was McGrath's Mazda/Chaparral/Yamaha teammate Tim Ferry, who struggled a bit in qualifying but turned it on in the main. Ferry gated fifth, climbed to as high as third when he passed Carmichael, and then made a mistake and dropped back to fifth. "I nailed a good start from the outside, passed Ricky, passed Windham and was third," Ferry said. "Then the track got kind of slick from the moisture coming up, and I did a full doughnut. Ricky got by me and that set LaRocco to come right up on me. LaRocco was riding good. I tried to hang in there for a minute, but he got around me." W@\!i!l 71[}LJ@[j @]@71 71[}LJ@[?@ ~fd@@@@ (fj(J[]fi)05W;5[JiJ@j) Kevin Windham was in a class all his own in the first 250cc heat race, but Mike laRocco showed some class as well. Windham led from start to finish, while laRocco fought his way to the front after gating just inside the top 10. LaRocco clawed and scratched his way through the pack, slipping into second place after scrapping with John Dowd for a while. LaRocco even put a dent into Windham's lead before it was all over, finishing a few seconds behind the former 125cc SX champ. Third place went to Dowd, while Stephane Roncada slipped into the main via a fourthplace ride. Greg Albertyn, Jimmy Button and Strategic 3's Phil Lawrence were all at one time or another in transfer positions before crashes - all separate incidents knocked them out of contention. Two of the main stars at the previous Anaheim race - Jeremy McGrath and Ricky Carmichael were on the line in the second heat race, but the anticipated match-up never materialized. Carmichael Instead went down in the whoops on the first lap, while McGrath sprinted away for the win. Larry Ward kept McGrath honest for a while until deciding to let the champ go around the third lap. Ward ended up outdueling Damon Huffman to take second, while Brock Sellards got a ticket to the main for the second week in a row. Sebastien Tortelli finished one spot out of a transfer, while other notable riders, such as David Vuillemin and Tim Ferry, were victims of solo crashes. In the first semi, Jimmy Button chased down AJbertyn, passed him, and pulled away for an impressive win. Albertyn hung on to second, with breathing room over Tyler Evans, Heath Voss and Grayson Goodman, who survived a last-tum attack by Lawrence. Vuillemin breezed to victory in the second semi, while Carmichael climbed up from fifth to finish second. A tough battie for third through fifth kept everyone's attention all race long, with Jean-Sebastian Roy edging out Ferry, Tortelli and Nick Wey. Wey finished way ahead of everybody in the LCQ, while Goodman finished all alone in second. Finishing one spot out of a transfer in third was Shayne King. Crashes ended the transfer chances for Kyle Lewis, Kelly Smith and Phil Lawrence - the last of whom suffered a spectacular endo in the whoops. Finishing about five seconds behind Ferry in sixth was Kawasaki's Larry Ward, who started the race in the same position, while a thoroughly frustrated Jimmy Button, on the factory four-stroke Yamaha, finished seventh. After easily winning his semi and running as high as fifth in the main, Button had high hopes of a podium finish. But when he cased a David Vuillemln 19341 took the holeshot over McGrath 111. Kevin Windham 1141 and Tim Ferry 1151 In the 250cc main. Vuillemin mixed it up with McGrath for a while before settling into a second-place groove. double jump in the heat of battle with Carmichael and Windham, it resulted in a stalled motor, and those hopes Lusk would be lost for much of the Supercross Series (see "Briefly ... "), and witnessing the team's remaining two riders - Windham and Sebastien Tortelli - struggle to eighth- and ninth-place finishes, respectively, the mood was somber. pits when the racing was done. After learning earlier in the week that Ezra were quickly whisked away. Button was furious with his results and was unavailable for comment. There were no parties in the Honda There's a lot of new stuff going on in supercross these days, but that cool-Iook.ing over-under bridge set up in the middle of Anaheim II's racecourse wasn't one of them. Though no one we talked to was absolutely positive as to the last time such an obstacle had been used, track builder Rich Winkler, of Dirt The over-and-under is back. Wurx, said the last he could remember was '89. Actually, the structure is entirely different than the old-school unit, which was built with old timbers for crosspieces and huge dirt piles for its ramps. There were actually three such structures that were used in different parts of the country, but they became so old and ri.ckety that they couldn't support the weight of tractors. That, along with the fact that track design had advanced and become more effiCient (the dirt-pile ramps spilled so much soil off to the sides that they actually cost space), prompted builders to get rid of the over-under bridge. So why was it brought back? "It gives us a bunch of options on how to use the floor space, when you can figure-eight," said Winkler. "in a big stadium like this, obviously, it gives you a bunch of choices, but even in some of the smaller stadiums that are only football size, it really gives you a freedom of movement that you didn't have before." The bridge - built right in Anaheim by motorcycle enthusiast Bill Macintyre - is much more advanced than the old unit. It can be set up and broken down with normal equipment such as forklifts, and can be folded up and transported on a single semi. While at least one fan complained of getting confused when watching the action at that part of the track (since riders were going in two directions), most liked the bridge. Kevin Windham expressed the opinion of most 'riders, saying, "It's pretty cool; I'm glad they brought it back." In addition to Anaheim II, the bridge will be used at Pontiac (where the track won't go into the stands this year) and Minneapolis. Next year, it will probably be used in more dties, and if not, at least different ones. Chris Jonnum cue' e n e vv s JANUARY 26. 2000 7

• Cover