Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Steady Mike LaRocco snared a rare strong start and notched a third-place result In the main. He's a solid third In the points standings. "We were just battling," Ferry said. "He went on the far inside a couple laps before that, and I just squared it up and came back past him. So it was smart of him to make it stick that lost in testing, and put myself at a disadvantage for a while now." Placing third was Mike LaRocco, who for once didn't have to climb through the pack to post the result. The Amsoil/Dr. Martens/Joumeys/Competition Accessories rider garnered a strong start this time around, though he did have to hold off a persistent challenge from Team Suzuki's Kevin Windham, the eventual fourth-place finisher. Placing fifth was Team Yamaha's Tim Ferry. time." While all this had been going on, Vuillemin took a tumble while riding strong in second, flipping over a berm and onto another portion of the track. In fact, the leading Carmichael had to thread his Kawasaki by the remounting Frenchman, who refired his YZ and rode a slow half-lap before stopping by Dr. John Bodnar, pointing to his shoulder, and dropping out of the race (see "Briefly"). Now by Ferry (and with Vuillemin out of the picture), McGrath and Lusk continued to go at it over second place. Lusk powered by the champ through the whoop section on lap seven, while Ferry slowed a bit and fell victim first to LaRocco and then a charging Windham, who had completed lap one in eighth. "After riding the semi, I was finding some pretty good lines - especially through the whoops," Lusk said. "That's where I was passing all the guys. Once I got into second, I started catching myself up to Ricky." Unfortunately, Lusk then got out of shape in the whoops on lap 12, and although he managed to stay upright, he came to a dead stop when his bike's rear end lifted and pivoted 90 degrees to the side. "He had a fast line in the whoops," McGrath said, "But the whoops were big tonight, and it got him." Overtaken by McGrath, LaRocco and Windham, Lusk refired his CR and took off after the group, only to go down hard through a timing section before a triple on the following lap. "I lost too many positions on the same lap, and totally had a brainfade," Lusk said. Windham's charge had brought him to laRocco's rear fender, where he stayed for much of the race. Lap after lap, the two circulated the track nose-to-tail, and the battle eventually brought them to within striking distance of McGrath, now second. "Everyone knows he's hard to pass," Windham said of LaRocco. "I felt like I could have run it in on him a couple of times. To be honest with you, I felt like we had a great pace probably one that I think at times was catching McGrath, and probably staying pretty even with Ricky. I felt like, if I would have passed him, he and I would have got into a pretty heated bar-banging session, which ain't bad, but I figured we were making good time, and I didn't know if McGrath was out of our reach or not. So I figured if I do something like that, let's wait until maybe the last lap or two." MAIN That stretch of peaks in the northem U.S. this weekend wasn't a new mountain range, but a particularly brutal section of whoops at the Minneapolis Supercross. The Dirt Wurxdesigned and -created track was fairly standard in every way except for that section, which, in addition to featuring especially steep and deep moguls, also boasted a larger, rhythm-breaking bump about midway through, followed by an exceptionally sizable gap after that. "We wanted to make it so you can't get through smoothly, even if you rail the rest of the section," said Dirt Wurx's Rich Winkler, who added that at the previous few rounds, the top riders had all pretty much been riding smoothly and finding a rhythm. The whoops served their intended purpose, as racers of all levels struggled with the section all night, with riders the caliber of Ricky Carmichael, Casey Johnson and Nathan Ramsey all going down in practice, and many others experiencing near-falls. Most of the top guys were getting through fairly smoothly by the main, though Team Honda's Ezra Lusk was bitten while running second, coming to an abrupt halt and stalling the bike (though he remained upright). "It was pretty tough this week," Mike laRocco said of the whoop section. "I'm glad they had it in there. 't created a lot of mistakes and issues out there, so I was glad to see it. , struggled there every other lap or so, but it was good to have." "For me, it was great," Kevin Windham said. "My bike was working great through it. The thing that I didn't like about it was the last four whoops worked into a single-file line. I was super-fast through the first set. but we would always meet back up in the same line." While not everyone was as enthusiastic about the whoops, it was hard to find anyone who didn't like the soil, which was soft and loamy with nearly perfect traction. "' like the eastern tracks because the softer consistency makes for better racing," Winkler said. "It's more work for US in terms of maintenance, but it's worth it because of the better racing. Some of the westem rounds almost get like BM){ tracks." Carmichael and his Chad Wattstuned KX250 were awarded with the $1000 SFX holeshot award, though a fair argument could also be made for Ferry and his booming YZ426F. At any rate, Carmichael was in the lead spot at the exit of tum one, with Ferry second and Vuillemin third. LaRocco had pulled an uncharacteristically strong start in fourth, and McGrath an uncharacteristically bad one in fifth. "LaRocco smoked me on the start!" McGrath exclaimed in amazement. "I couldn't tum in at all. I was just at his mercy." "We actually worked on it this week, more than ever," laRocco said of his good start. "We tried some different stuff, because really, that's my biggest weakness. We tried to get that ironed out, and I think I made some progress." McGrath got by LaRocco for fourth over the triples on lap two, but he still had Ferry and Vuillemin between him and Carmichael, who started to put a bit of a cushion on everyone else. But Ezra Lusk appeared to be the fastest rider on the track, immediately going to work after completing lap one in sixth place. The Team Honda rider zapped LaRocco (no easy feat) to start lap two, then set about pressuring none other than McGrath, who once again found himself stuck behind Ferry. With Lusk breathing down his neck, the champ knew he had to get by the big four-stroke, and he tried polite moves several times in corners, only to have the 426 hook up and pull him down the following straights. Finally, he parked Ferry in a corner with a block pass on lap five, then repelled a similar attempt by Ferry just after. Lusk then zapped the Yamaha rider in the final turn of the same lap. "Every time I tried to put a move on Ferry, he just put the power down on the straightaway," McGrath said. "So I kind of had to put that block on him. He went bananas the next two corners and dove it in on me hard, but I was expecting that. I knew I had to get out of the way." cucl. n • _ os • MARCH 28. 2001 13

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