Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128095
AMAlEA SpOI"'tS 1 25cc Esstel"'n Regionsl Supel"'Cl"'oss Sel"'ies Round 3: Supel"'dome By CHRIS JONNUM PHOTOS BY STEVE BRUHN NEW ORLEAJIIS, LA, MAR. 3 ith a resounding, 15-second Travis Pastrana victory at the Superdome and a crash-induced third-place Nathan Ramsey finish, it would be easy for Pastrana's legion of enthusiastic fans to get sanguine about its hero's chances for a title this season. Surely the outlook was better now for the young Suzuki rider's faithful followers than it had been following the previous round in Atlanta, where a start-straight auger and subsequent bent-bike ride transformed the series from what many assumed would be a Pastrana benefit into a high-stakes math exam. (With a 15-point deficit to YZ250F-armed W 12 MARCH 14,2001 • cue •• riv.al Ramsey and a relatively short seven-race series, Pastrana would have to win all of the remaining five rounds in order to tie the Yamaha of Troy rider and take the crown based on number of wins - assuming Ramsey were second each time out.) Yes, things are now technically more optimistic for Pastrana, who is five points and two positions closer to his goal, but the only thing different is that Pastrana now has one less race to win. As for the extra points gained by the third-place result of his rival, all they really mean is that AMA officials won't have to utilize the tiebreaker rule should the aforementioned scenario transpire. In other words, Pastrana still must win all of the remaining rounds (again, assum- n • _ lIS ing Ramsey finishes second from here on out). "Ramsey's just flying; he's got every holeshot," said Pastrana, who was followed in second by Pro Circuit/Kawasaki/SplitFire's impressive Mike Brown. "I know I need to win every race. I'm a man on a mission." If those sound like the words of a confident person, there's a reason, and if anyone doubts that the Annapolis, Maryland, resident can pull this off, they obviously weren't paying attention to Pastrana's comefrom-behind, down-to-the-wire performance in last year's 125cc outdoor series, when the kid prevailed against apparently impossible odds in the final moto of the final round. Pastrana - at 17, already an exemplary college student - has no problems with consequential arithmetic, and "close" is exactly the way he likes it. MAIN Buoyed by the confidence gained from a main-event win last week and another win in his New Orleans heat race, Ramsey shot across the turnone chalk line in first, keeping his holeshot record in the series at a perfect three for three. He was ahead of Erick Vallejo and Pastrana, who quickly dispatched the South Bay Motorsports rider for second, setting up what many hoped would be an exciting showdown between the class' two stars. That's the way it started, with Pastrana climbing all over Ramsey over the first two laps,