Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

AMAlEA SPOI""tS Supercross Series Round 7: Georgia Dome started leaning too much. I fell over and lost a bunch of spots. I kicked like three kicks. Not that bad. I got it cranked, I just tried to stay relaxed because I knew if I got real rushed it might take me five or six kicks to get it cranked." Ferry was also involved in an incident with American Honda's Sebastien Tortelli. TortelH rode into the same rut that Ferry was in and smashed into him, the pipe on TortelIi's CR250 crushing into Ferry's rear sprocket. Tortelli rode slowly for one lap before dropping out. "I thought maybe it was a smashed brake pedal or footpeg," Tortelli's mechanic Shane Drew said. "I was going to snap it off if I had to." Drew said that, before he dropped out, Tortelli was turning lap times fast enough to finish second. By the time Ferry got going, Lusk was well alone in third. At that point LaRocco was back in seventh having gained four spots in the first four laps after his miserable start. "I didn't get a very good jump and that was a long start and once you're behind there you're pretty much waiting,' LaRocco said. "And I got pinched up high in the second turn and, I mean I was waiting, waiting for the thing to clear out before I could get going, and I was way back.' A record Atlanta crowd of over 85,000 filled the Georgia Dome. As LaRocco closed in on Lusk in the final few laps he hit a patch of lappers, and they'd make the difference. "I had Ezra and then we got into a pack of four and he squeezed by them and they just walked right in front of me,' LaRocco said. "I had a roller section and it just killed me again.' "I didn't know who it was," Lusk said of the charging LaRocco. "But I [l)@f1 §@~rJ (J@f? []j]@@f?@f1[}LJ af?J@@@@ @{}f)fi]051l;z5[]D@» Jeremy McGrath crashed. That was the story of the first heat race, which McGrath was well on his way to winning. Landing badly off a jump early in the fifth lap, the Mazda Yamaha team rider went down and watched as his pursuers suddenly became the pursued. "I went around the comer and went over that jump and kind of fumbled it a little bit and hit a rut, and the bike shot off to the right and I had to jump off. There was no way I could have pulled that one off," McGrath said. When he tried to catch the leaders, he discovered his handlebars were tweaked. "When I got up, I went, 'Okay, get up and go.' But when I got up, my bars were really twisted," he said. "And I tried to ride, but I would go through the whoops, and I would have automatic left tum on. I just kind of cruised and took it easy.' McGrath was up in sixth place, but he'd finish the race in seventh, eaming a trip to the semis Off the start McGrath had wheelied up the center of the start chute to take the lead when the 20-rider field hit the left-hand, stepup jumps. He and Reynard Modifications' Robbie Reynard were quickly away, while American Honda's Sebastien Tortelli was leading a pack of four, fighting over third_ The order remained constant for the first half of the eight-lap race, then it changed dramatically with McGrath's spill. Reynard inherited the lead, with Tortelli closing fast in second. Team Chevy Trucks Kawasaki's Stephane Roncada was holding off Yamaha's David Vuillemin, who was trying to stay ahead of Amsoil/Doc Martens/Competition Accessories Honda's Mike LaRocco for the final direct transfer spot. Tortelli began attacking Reynard on the sixth lap, ending it side by side, when he asserted himself in the hairpin right after the finish sequence. From there he was gone, the Frenchman showing his shoulder injury to be completely healed, as he sped to win by just over two seconds. Reynard was second but under pressure. laRocco had passed Roncada on the final lap and the pair then went a.fter Reynard. Reynard had just enough, and the top four were in. Vuillemin was fifth, TheEdgeSports.com's Casey Johnson was sixth, and McGrath was seventh. Team Chevy Trucks Kawasaki's Ricky Carmichael and American Honda's Ezra Lusk had a drag race to the first tum in the second 8 MARCH 7, 2001 • a U a • • n • _ s really wasn't focused on the guy behind me. The way I rode the last few weeks I was really focused on trying to go forward. I saw Jeremy up there so I was trying always to try to catch him. That's all I was worried about the whole time - racing forward, trying to catch Jeremy. [With] the ruts and everything, the guy who made the least amount of mistakes heat, Lusk taking the lead, Carmichael soon to take it back for good. "I went in too hot in the first tum," Carmichael said of the mistake, which allowed Lusk to dive under him. "Ezra went around the outside of me on the whoops. I had the inside advantage and was able to get by him.' From then on, it was all Carmichael, the championship leader pulling away in a hurry. Halfway into the eight-lap race, he had over three seconds and finished with close to eight. Lusk was an equally secure second, holding about seven seconds on Team Suzuki's Kevin Windham. Yamaha's Tim Ferry was fourth; he moved there on the third lap, making it four brands and four southerners in the top four: Florida's Carmichael, Georgia's Lusk, Mississippi's Windham, and Florida's Ferry. Carmichael's heat win was exactly six seconds faster than the first heat. McGrath didn't make it easy on himself in his semi. Vuillemin got the jump and held him off through the first sequence of tums, leading the first of the six laps. In nearly the same spot where he fell in his heat, McGrath bobbled again, though not as badly. "I slid out right there and then Casey Johnson almost ran into me," McGrath said. "I think I came in a little hot there and braked and hit the gas and spun out a little." The top five would transfer and McGrath would be among them, though it did nothing for his pick of spots for the starting gate in the main. Vuillemin went on to win by about six seconds, McGrath took second, then Casey Johnson, who spent the entire race holding off Fast by Ferracci Husqvarna's Steve Lamson, took third. The final transfer went to Blackfoot/Honda Canada's Jean-Sebastien Roy, whose race-long pursuit of James Povolny paid off with a last-lap pass. TheEdgeSports.com's Michael Byme got a short-lived jump on the second semi field, as Great Lakes Aviations' Heath Voss shot to the front within a few whoops. Byme went into second, and Planet Honda's Michael Craig settled into third. The top two got away, Craig keeping them within sight, while Pro Source's Thomas Hofrnaster and Moto XXX's Kyle Lewis held on to the final two transfers. On the fourth of six laps, Byrne made his way into the lead, with Voss soon passing him. But Voss ended up falling on the fifth lap. That gave Byrne a pass to the winner's circle, with Craig also moving past Into second, and Voss landing in third. The final two transfers went to Lewis and Damon Huffman. Povolny made it into the main with a nearly gate-to-flag win in the Last Chance Qualifier. Fast by Ferracci/Husqvarna's Jason Thomas forged past on the third lap, only to lose the spot a few jumps later. After that, Povolny held a steady, but not commanding, lead, good enough to advance. Thomas was second with Nicholson Yamaha's Jimmy Wilson third. would win the race, and I guess Ricky did it." The difference in the air at the finish line was about half a bike length. "I'm excited about my last 10 laps of the race,' Lusk said. "I rode strong, I kept focused, I didn't make hardly any mistakes. My speed wasn't quite there, but I think the track was just totally slowing down. I think the ruts were really picking up and the track was getting real tough and I think that's why everybody's lap times dropped down as bad as they did. The track was just deteriorating." Well back in fifth, where he spent most of the race, was Roncada. After finishing as the runner-up in last year's 125cc National MX Championship, the Frenchman is experiencing his first full 250cc Supercross campaign and finding it more physically demanding than the smaller bike class was. "It was a tough race, it was really tough," Roncada said. "The track, it was a very tiring track, especially because of the rhythm section after the start, and the whoop section after the double at the end, and the next rhythm section. Everything was pretty rutty and it was very, very tiring so we had to go pretty high in the rhythm section, and then flat. The whole time it was pretty tiring." Once Roncada settled into fifth for good, on the 10th lap, he had a mostly solitary race. "I was fifth and I never turn around, but I could see the guys behind me," Roncada said. "Whoa, where is everybody? The fourth place was like five, six seconds in front. The other guys were like way back. I didn't really get what happened.' If he had looked back, Roncada would have seen Yamaha's David Vuillemin trying to make up for a horrible start.

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