Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Lusk nabbed the holeshot in the 250Cc main, and David Vuillemin hung tough throughout the race. Not exactly stoked was McGrath, but he knew things could've been a lot worse after getting off to a ninthplace start, so he was remarkably upbeat afterwards. "I was left napping on the start," McGrath said. "Then the first five laps I was more worried about somebody not hitting me and not taking myself out than anything else. That was more important. Once I got clear, I felt that I could come up [through the pack] no problem, but it was just one of those things; you can't let Carmichael get out in front like that. I did the best I could for the position I was in in the beginning." Joining Carmichael and McGrath on the Phoenix podium was Mike LaRocco on the Amsoil/Dr. Martens/Competition Accessories Honda. LaRocco completed the first lap in sixth and slowly worked his way up, passing such riders as Lusk and David Vuillemin along the way. As always, LaRocco did the most damage in the last half of the race when he was just getting warmed up. Lusk ended up fourth after holding down second place for the first 14 laps. By that point, the Team Honda rider, who suffered a nasty get-off during his heat race, began feeling tight and was passed by both McGrath and LaRocco. "It was pretty obvious I was making a lot of mistakes," Lusk said. "I just wasn't feeling real good. I had a pretty good heat-race crash, [and] I was a little shaken up from that. I just kind of wanted to get through the main event; I mean, I wanted to win, obviously, but I was just a little tense." Team Yamaha's David Vuillemin had one of his best rides of the season, despite ending up fifth. Vuillemin, who's been bothered by cracked ribs since San Diego, ran in third place for most of the race, try- ing everything in the book to get around Lusk before both McGrath and LaRocco caught up. Vuillemin eventually backed off late in the race. Seventh place went to Team Suzuki's Kevin Windham, who had a quiet night. He qualified for the main via a third-place finish in his heat race, then had a hard time improving on his 10th-place start. Windham finished ahead of Yamaha of Troy's have to pass anybody in my heat race, so I was just going to wait and see where I could go. I was feeling pretty good in the whoops all year, so I came out of that tum into the second set of whoops, got a good drive, got past him, made a little move to the inside, he overshot the berm and I passed him. And that was It. [After that] I was out there just trying to pull away." McGrath, on the other hand, was swallowed up by the pack. "It seemed like to me that they held the gate a long time, so I was looking at the gate and my eyes went into a trance," McGrath said. "So when the gate moved I was like still sleeping." McGrath tried to make up for his mistake right away, through the first turn. "Actually, I had a pretty good move going in the first corner," McGrath said. "I ducked inside of [Mike] Craig and Carmichael there, and 1 thought I was going to come out all right, but I started sliding and it didn't work out." McGrath suddenly found himself in ninth place, and instead of thinking about winning the race, he went into survival mode. "I kept seeing him [Carmichael] when I was over the triple," McGrath said. "I could see him, he had a clear track and he was riding great, and I had about five other guys around me, and 1 had to worry about catching up. Those first few laps were pretty slow going; it's really important you don't make a mistake and crash out [early in the race]." Carmichael quickly opened up a significant lead, and it soon became obvious that McGrath had too many riders in front of him and too much ground to make up to catch the flying Kawasaki rider. The big question left was, how far could McGrath climb up through the field? He eventually got to second, but the going was tough and slow. McGrath finally got there on the 14th lap after passing Lusk. But by that time Carmichael had indeed "checked out." "I thought it was impossible to catch up to Ricky," McGrath said. "I knew, I could see him way out in front. At that point, 1 was, 'Okay, let's get it together and get second. That's about it. The tracks are really fast nowadays; they seem that they're relatively easy and they get a little bumpy, so it's sort of a sprint, so if you don't get a good start, it's really, really hard to catch up." But, for Carmichael, the fast track was just fine. "I loved the track," Carmichael said. "It makes for good racing, and 1 felt comfortable. I got a good start and that's all it took. At the halfway mark, when 1 started pulling away, I banged up his already sore shoulder by casing a double jump. After four rounds of the series, you can't get much closer in the points standings - at least for the top two riders. Both Carmichael and McGrath have two wins and are tied for the series lead with 92, and they're slowly pulling away from the rest of the pack. LaRocco is currently third with 78 points, followed by Lusk with 67 and Windham with 63. Lusk ran second for a long time, but ended up fourth. Nick Wey, followed by Great Lake Aviation's Heath Voss, who had a much better night than his ninthplace finish would indicate. The Honda rider held down fourth place for the first seven laps, doing an admirable job of keeping both LaRocco and McGrath behind him as lon'g as he did. Rounding out the top 10 was Team Honda's Sebastien Tortelli, who MAIN As it turned out, this race was won and lost through the first couple of turns. Lusk nailed the SFX $1000 holeshot, but before the first lap was completed, Carmichael was leading and was already puUing away. "Ezra got the holeshot and I was following him," Carmichael said. "I didn't really know where I was going to pass anybody, because I didn't cue •• n e _ S • FEBRUARY 7, 2001 7

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