AMAlEA Sports Supercross Series
Round 1 1 : Astrodome
By KIT PALMER
PHOTOS BY STEVE BRUHN
HOUSTON, TX, MAR. 24
OU would think that finishing in
the top five of an AMA/EA Sports
Supercross Series race is a great
accomplishment and something to be
happy about. But if you take at least
four of the top-five finishers at the
Houston Supercross, you'd hear along with some happiness - disappointment in their voices. And they
all had legitimate reasons to feel a bit
bummed, mainly because they saw,
for the eighth-straight time, Chevy
Trucks Kawasaki's Ricky Carmichael
beat them. And to make matters
worse, they all had - and thwarted their chances of preventing that from
happening.
Mazda Yamaha's Jeremy McGrath
took runner-up honors at Houston,
but he had a few reasons to be somewhat subdued: He got passed by
Carmichael early on, wasted too
much time passing riders ahead of
him (which prevented him from giving RC a race), and he wasn't happy
about lapped riders holding up his
progress. (He wasn't the only rider to
share this feeling, either.)
Third-placed Mike laRocco, on the
AmsoiJ/Dr. Martens/Journeys/Competition Accessories Honda, made the
podium for the seventh time this season, but he's still looking for that elusive win and was left wondering what
could have been had he not gotten
another bad start in the main event,
unlike the holeshot he got in his earlier
heat race (which he ended up winning).
Team Honda's Ezra Lusk finished
a decent fourth, but could've had at
least third had he not slid out in a
tum late in the race.
And then there was Suzuki's Kevin
Windham. He was (and rightfully so)
the most disappointed rider of the
group, after leading the race for the
first five laps, then steadily dropping
back. This has been an unfortunate
trend this year for Windham, who is
obviously having a difficult time
breaking out of this funk.
Y
6
APRIL 4,2001
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