Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

laps now, get it better, have the whole race come to me," Lusk said. "And it is, it's coming. This weekend was a big step." After LaRocco came Kawasaki's Stephane Roncada in his best Supercross finish yet. The young Frenchman rode much of the race by himself, well behind fourth, but with no one close to challenging him. Behind him came the Yamaha's of David Vuillemin and Tim Ferry. Vuillemin got mixed up in an incident just after the start that pushed him back to 15th. Getting by slower riders on the demanding Atlanta track was a night's work for Vuillemin. Ferry had lost touch with the leaders when he fell over in a tight right on the ninth lap. Steve Ll!lmson gave the Fast by Ferracci Husqvarna its best supercross finish with an eighth. "The bike's getting a little bit better each week," Lamson said. "I dug deeper when I needed to." Suzuki's Kevin Windham was back in ninth with MotoworldRacing.com's Damon Huffman 10th. as steadily edging away, and McGrath found he couldn't make up any ground. He'd made quick work of Ferry, but couldn't put a dent in Carmichael's advantage. "It seemed like right in the beginning, when I was behind Ferry, I tried to get around him as fast as I could, and when I got into second, he [Carmichael] was like three seconds, and then I made a few mistakes and then he got a little bit away and then we hit lappers," McGrath said. Having ridden - and not particularly well. - in both the heat and semi, McGrath was pleased at the progress he'd made over the course of the night. "After what happened in those two races I think I turned around pretty good for the final," McGrl!lth said. Despite four wins in a row, Carmichael understands how quickly it could all change. "We're going one-two every weekend and it's hard as heck to make up points when you're doing it that way," the Floridian said. "I just need to keep doing what I'm doing, not change nothing and see what happens." McGrath dropped Ferry to third on the second lap and on the third Lusk got by Ferry as well. Later on, Ferry would tip over and drop to eighth before recovering one spot. "It felt really good the first three or four laps and it even felt pretty good by the time Jeremy and Ezra got by me," Ferry said. "I was just coming around one of the rutted corners, and 1 don't know what happened, I think I MAIN "I had a bad gate pick and I just had to drive it in deep into the first comer," McGrath said of his start. "I don't know how I got the holeshot money - kind of amazing." The holeshot award went to the rider crossing a chalk line across the gO-degree left at the end of the start chute. McGrath led across the stripe, but Carmichael had the better line and his momentum carried him into a lead he would never surrender. "It needed to be a good start," Carmichael said of the rapidly changing Georgia track. "I'll tell you, this track was really physically demanding." Carmichael's lead was never in question, only the size of his lead was. He wasn't so much disappearing Todd Jendro can move mountains. It's his job. As the Director of Supercross Operations for SFX, he does it every race week, rain or shine, and this week it rained. Thunderstorms in the Atlanta area on Wednesday night created complications in moving the 500 truckloads of red clay that Rich Winkler's Dirt Wurx crew would use to fashion the track on the floor of Atlanta's Georgia Dome. Part of the stockpile of dirt was underwater, and the dump trucks being used to move the dirt were sinking into the ground. The trucks, which did manage to carry a load, were dripping wet, there was red clay on the streets and the city was hesitant, so the operation was called off. Jendro said that SFX has stockpiles of dirt in every city where they hold events. TIle one in Atlanta is about half a mile away from the Georgia Dome on property SFX owns, but Jendro said they like to keep it on stadium property or close by. At Anaheim, for instance, the same dirt is used for the three Supercrosses, two or three monster truck shows, and an off-road race. Depending on the size of the stadium floor, it takes anywhere from 5600 to 7000 cubic yards of dirt. A normal operation begins on Tuesday and finishes by Friday at 10:00 a.m. Because there was a convention in the Georgia Dome, the team couldn't begin to move in until late Tuesday night, early Wednesday moming. Then the weather hit on Wednesday night and the construction was delayed. It wasn't until Thursday after 2:00 p.m. that they could continue hauling in the dirt. Once the dirt was moved in, it had to be shaped and groomed, Tuff Blocks and hay bales had to be installed, and various structures. including the finish towers and starting gate, had to be built. The construction finished late on Friday aftemoon, too late to allow practice to be held. "We were still trying, hoping to get Friday practice in, but there was no chance that would happen," Jendro said. Because the clay was so wet, hot lime was added to the mix. "Ume heats up the moisture and boils the water out of the dirt," Jendro explained. The work seemed to have paid off. Though most of the riders said the track was rutty. they were happy with the layout, especially after the Indy SX, which some referred to as a freeway, and saw the Georgia Dome track as a fair test. "It was gnarly out there for sure," Team Chevy Trucks Kawasaki's Ricky Carmichael said. "It was really, really rutty. They made it hard on me, for sure." "The track was good, considering how soft it was when they brought the dirt in," Yamaha's Tim Ferry said. "It was killer. They had a good rhythm section, a pretty tough set of whoops, and another set. I thought overall it was really good for Atlanta, because Atlanta has really soft dirt most of the time and it usually gets really rutty, but this year they did a really good job with the track." cue I • n e _ S • MARCH 7. 2001 7

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