Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

CMC SunStar Golden State Nationals Pacific Northwest Round 1: Exposition Arena [}{] (lJ] 1I1IDTITI @] ITO g Ilrn@]CI:Ou Bv CLAV UGHT SALEM, OR, JAN. 16 fiil ound one of the Pacific Northwest Wregion's CMC SunStar Golden State Nationals featured many heavy hitters, but the re-emergence of Oregon's Ryan Huffman and the continuing domination of Ryan Leach were the hot topics at the Exposition Arena at the Oregon State Fairgrounds. Huffman, the former Suzuki and Honda factory support rider, scored a win in the 125cc Pro class aboard his brand-new Kawasaki with 2-1 placings, an amazing feat for the rider from Roseburg, Oregon, who suffered four traumatic injuries last season and hadn't ridden since August. "I felt better with every moto," said the Hillsboro Motorcycles/Scott/ Shoei/Answer/Kawasaki Motorsports of Canada-backed Huffman, who this year carries the National number 75. "Last year was such a bad year for me, so I haven't ridden at all in about five months, and I'm feeling pretty good about this win." Trailing Huffman in the overall standings were Coeur d'Alene, Idaho's Chaun McAlister, who beat Huffman to the finish in the first moto, and Washington's Dan Moore, who earned third via 3-3 placings. This season, Leach has dominated the indoor action in the 250cc Pro class. He hammered the competition in this round as well, although Suzukimounted Tony Graves gave Leach all he could handle for much of both motos before the Herb's Cycletown/ Gran Prix Cycle/White Brothers/Performance NW-supported Leach dusted the competition, leading Graves (2-2) and the ever-present McAlister to the finish. McAlister logged four top-three finishes, his best being a win in the Over 30 Pro class, ahead of Moore, and he also placed second to Graves in the Vet (Over 25) Pro class. Graves rallied to lead the first of the four Professional classes, the Vet Pro class, chased by McAlister, Don Bisceglia, Moore, Mike Hamness and Gary Terlecki. Bisceglia moved up to challenge Graves, but Graves narrowly nabbed the win, followed by Bisceglia and McAlister. Bisceglia was within striking distance of Graves in moto two when Bis- ceglia took a nasty get-off, ending his promising day on a sour note. Amid all of the chaos, McAlister slipped into the lead, and he finished there, pressured by Graves at the finish. Graves' 1-2 finishes netted the Eugene area resident an overall win for the powerful Herb's Cycletown team, his best finish of the day in his three-class quest. McAlister (3-1) netted second, ahead of Moore (5-3), Hamness (4-4) and Terlecki (6-5). The largest assembly of Professional riders of the season gathered to contest the 250cc Pro class. McAlister nabbed the holeshot laurels in the first moto, but Leach and Graves put a stranglehold on the first and second positions, which they would hold to the finish. Huffman, who charged through traffic after a poor start, shoved a wheel under McAlister late in the moto, but McAlister retaliated to finish third, ahead of Hamness, who in the mayhem also slipped past Huffman, the fifth-placed finisher. Graves led Moore and McAlister off the line in moto two. Leach was buried midpack at the start, but he rallied to take the lead from Graves on lap two after getting around both Moore and McAlister in one swoop. Graves then nursed his poorly running RM in the number-two spot to the finish, trailing Leach but finishing ahead of McAlister, Huffman and Salem's Ryan Hageman, who shoved his way past Moore and Hamness for fifth at moto's end. Leach (l-I), Graves (2-2), McAlister (3-3), Huffman (5-4) and Hamness, the former National number-99 plate holder, filled out the top five overaH. "My moto-two start wasn't so great," said Leach, "but I cut to the inside and picked up a bunch of positions to catch up to Tony [Graves]. Then I just waited for an opening. I knew that he was having bike problems." The fast-starting McAlister, who earned holeshot awards in nearly every moto he entered, put his Motion Sports/Fox/FMF/Arai-sponsored RM into the point position in the first 125cc Pro moto, pushed by Graves and Honda-mounted Mike Storm. Graves took control a lap later, although his day of frustrating mechanical problems continued, and he fell back through the field. Storm's fine ride, running second to McAlister after Graves' demise, was Ryan Leach (611) dominated the 250cc Pro class with a 1-1 sweep at the opening round of the CMC SunStar Golden Sta1e Nationals Pacific Northwest. thwarted when a stream of banners clogged his rear wheel. Meanwhile, Huffman smeHed victory; after another poor start, he had caught McAlister, who had a huge lead. McAlister, though, took advantage of lappers to seal the victory, ahead of Huffman, Moore, Storm and Washington riders RusseH Chace and Nick Hansen. McAlister was back in his familiar position in moto two, but this time Huffman, who got off to a secondplace start, aggressively attacked the whooped-out course and motored past McAlister for the lead, holding it to the finish to claim his first victory of the new year. McAlister clung to second for second overall, ahead of Moore (3-3), Storm (4-4) and Hansen (6-5). Yamaha rider Sean Connaghan topped one of the day's largest classes - the 17 -rider 125cc Intermediate class - with impressive I -J moto victories, leading fellow YZ pilot Chris Church (4-2), Todd Blanchard (3-4), Matt Williams (9-3) and Bart McAlister (7-5) into the top five. Church stormed back to impressively win the Before The Hill Intermediate class over Washington's Shane Blood and Tracy Johnson. He then also beat first-moto winner Raym Conkey in the second 250cc Intermediate moto for his second overaH win of the day, ahead of Conkey and Hondamounted Jon Kauffman. Diminutive speedsters Tyler Fick and David Rose went head to head in the 80cc (14-16) and Supermini classes. The always-tough Fick won out in the 80cc war, but Rose showed Fick he still had something left by beating Fick, the winner of moto one, to the finish in the second Supermini moto for the overall class win. Ryan Villopoto, who had earlier won the 80cc (7-11) class, finished third with a 3-3 tally, ahead of Adam Metzler (5-4) and Sam Deatley (4-5). eN 50 (7-9): 1. Matt Deatley (Cob); 2. N;ck Gubser (KTM); 3. Thomas Nichols (Cob); 4. Glenn Prestholt (Cob): 5. Brent Cord;e (Hus). 50 OPEN: I. Tommy Weeck (Cob); 2. Matt Deatley (Cob); 3. Nick Gubser (KTM); 3. Thomas Nichols (Cob); 5. Austln Ullrich (Hon). 60 BEG: 1. Bradley Hillman (KTM); 2. Nathan Teel (Kaw); 3. Tyler McClinton (Kaw); 4. Houston Keane (Kaw); 5. Thomas Nichols (Kaw). 60 (6-8): 1. Matt Deatley (Kaw); 2. Jared wood (Kaw): 3. Tommy Weeck (Kaw). 60 (9-11): 1. Shown Haberlock (Kow); 2. Ryan Villopoto (Kaw); 3. Ajay Olinger (KTM); 4. Tyler Villopoto (Kaw); 5. Travis McClinton (Kaw). 80 BEG: t. Ricky Wuori (Hon); 2. Will Brown (Kaw); 3. John Duran (Kaw); 4. Jesse Wuori (Hon); 5. Nick Randklev (Hon). 80 (7-11): 1. Ryon VHlopoto (Vom); 2. Sam Deatley (Kaw); 3. Ajay Olinger (SU1): 4. Travis McMackin (Yam): 5. Danny Gubser (Kaw). 80 (12-13): 1. Adom Metzler (Suz); 2. Ross Johnson (Yam); 3. Brock Chappelle (Yam). 80 (14-16): I. Tyler F;ck (Kaw); 2. Dov;d Rose (Kaw); 3. Alex Hill (Hon). S/MINI: 1. David Rose (Kaw); 2. Tyler Fick (Kaw); 3. Ryan Villopoto (Yam); 4. Adam Metzler (Suz): 5. Sam Deotley (Kaw). 125 BEG: 1. Sean Light (Kaw); 2. Jeremy McLain (Yam): 3. Joel Wamicke (Hon); 4. Erik Rhine (Hon); 5. Shayne Strigle (Hon). 125 JR: I. Jason Loomis (Suz); 2. Bryan Thibedeau (Suz); 3. Matt Crawford (Suz): 4. Cody Buyas (Suz): 5. Austin Gettel (Kaw). 125 (NT: 1. Sean Connaghan (Yam): 2. Chris Church (Yam); 3. Todd Blanchard (Kaw): 4. Matt Williams (Yam): 5. Bart McAlister (Suz). 125 PRO: 1. Ryan Huffman (Kaw); 2. Chllun McAlister (Suz): 3. Dan Moore (Suz); 4. Mike Stonn (Hon); 5. Nick Hansen (Suz). 250 BEG: 1. Tom Miltenberger (Kaw): 2. Shawn Huege (Hon): 3. Jason Lewis (Kaw): 4. Eric Turk (Kaw); 5. Tyler Shepard (Hon). 250 JR: 1. Mike Cosgrove (Kaw): 2. Brian Granberg (Suz); 3. Linc Linebaugh (Hon); 4. Lucas Buyes (Suz); 5. Dave Schmid (Suz). 250 INT: I. Chris Church (Yam); 2. Raym Conkey (Yam); 3. Jon Kauffman (Han); 4. Bryan Clevenger (Hon); 5. Todd Blanchard (Kaw). 250 PRO: 1. Ryan Leach (Yam); 2. Tony Graves (Suz): 3. Chaun McAlister (Suz); 4. Ryan Huffman (Kaw); 4. Terry Hamness (Kaw). 8TH JR: 1. Bryan Thibedeau (Suz); 2. Jason Loomis (Suz); 3. Austin Gettel (Kaw); 4. Matt Crawford (Suz): 5. Tim Ricketts (Hon). 8TH INT: 1. Chris Church (Yam); 2. Tyson Blood (Suz); 3. Tracy Johnson (Yam); 4. Marc Miller-Jones (Sm); 5. Sean Connaghan (Yam). VET PRO: I. Tony Graves (Suz); 2. Chaun McAlister (Suz); 3. Dan Moore (Suz): 4. Terry Hamness (Kaw); 5. Gary Terlecki (Suz).

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