Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

AMAlEA Sports Supercross Series: Round 12: Trans World !Dome end of the first of 20 laps. The hard work was ahead and he was up to it, seventh by the halfway point before picking up the final two spots by the 15th lap. "I would have liked to have gotten a start to battle with those guys up front," Ferry said. "It just took forever to get around [Heath] Voss and [Michael] Byrne and Casey Johnson." Damon Huffman had his own trouble getting through the same riders, and for much the same reason. The MotoworldRacing.com Yamaha rider was one spot better than Ferry after the first lap, with Ferry by on the second lap and moving up a few spots ahead of Huffman for the duration. Huffman came through the same trio, 'Voss, Byrne, and Johnson, on laps 12 through 16, leaving them well behind at the end. Huffman attributed part of his success to unique lines he was taking through a few sections. "The track was really one-lined, but I didn't have a hard time passing out there at all," Huffman said. "I had a couple of lines that no one was doing. The pre-race fireworks were nothing compared to what the first heat race would bring. Off the start, it was Jeremy McGrath in the lead, a lead he'd hold to the end, though not without worry. "I think I was just a little bit cautious at the beginning," McGrath said. "I picked up the pace." Jeremy McGrath crashed a few times and ended up fourth. into third. Windham's path to the front had been more troublesome, a bad start dropping him to seventh after the first lap, with considerable work needed to improve. "I felt like I had a good start," Windham said. "If I would've been six more inches up I would have been able to control it. I wasn't in hot enough. Ended up being pushed out into the bales, which accounts for the slow start." At the halfway mark, Windham was nearly seven seconds behind Lusk, but the gap was quickly eroding to the point that it was down to less than two only three laps later. "I really didn't think much about who was there," Windham said. "Once I got in my position, I was feeling comfortable, I was clicking off laps, and that was exactly what I needed to do - not worry about what everyone else was doing and just keep clicking them off, and I think that's what did it for me. Just go out there and not care who was in front of me or who was behind me. Just try to do my personally best." 14 APRIL 11, 2001 • cue I e Windham came up on Lusk at the start of the 18th lap and made quick work of him. "Me and Ezra didn't exchange any paint, but I felt it was a pretty aggressive pass," Windham said. "It was getting late in the race and, at that point, Ricky had a huge lead. I wanted get up as best I could."' Lusk revealed that Windham had been able to make a late run at him because he'd tightened up midrace. "I got a little tight out there about halfway and I couldn't hardly ride I was so tight and tense," Lusk said. "We made a couple of changes today to the bike to try to fine tune it to my liking. It worked really good out there. I just wish I could have gotten a little more comfortable with it." McGrath was fourth, with Tim Ferry rewarded with fifth after a race full of struggle. Off the start, Ferry was right in with McGrath and Windham, whom he said was hollering in turn one. They were all pushed wide, Ferry getting the worst of it, the result being a 12th-place position at the (Left to right) Lusk, Carmichael and Windham were the stars In St. Louis. n e _ 50 Halfway into the eight-lap race, McGrath had a 2.g-second lead, a cushion he'd quickly built up after a slow start. "I could see Travis [Pastrana) behind me," McGrath admitted. The lead wouldn't appreciably grow: It didn't have to. McGrath had the win by 2.775 seconds. "It's been a few weeks since I won a heat race," McGrath said, before adding a note of optimism about his chances of ending Ricky Carmichael's eight-race winning streak. "I think I could stop the streak here. It can't go on forever. Someone's got to do it." Suzuki's Travis Pastrana was the reason McGrath had had to pick up the pace. The 17-year-old from Maryland had won his 125cc heat race, then did a brief post-race interview, before getting right onto his RM250. Out of the first turn he was fourth, quickly third, then second after a scary midair clash with Amsoil/DocMarten's/CompetitionAccessories/Honda's Mike LaRocco over an early triple jump, the contact nearly putting him down. Pastrana kept his balance, and his momentum, and took over second, LaRocco in pursuit. "I came off the triple, and that triple's steep and, when I did, I kind of drifted a little to the left and I hear this 'wing, Wing, wing,' and the next thing you know I'm going back to the right," laRocco said. "Luckily nothing hal'pened to either one of us." Despite relentless pressure, Pastrana stayed in front of LaRocco. On the penultimate lap, LaRocco made a run at him, stuffing him by taking the low line in a left-hand hairpin berm, the pair again touching, Pastrana skipping away over the ensuing section of 10 whoops of varying heights. "He came over to my left and we collided really hard and the next corner I pushed him wide in the whoops," Pastrana said. "Really, he said, 'You know what, you've got to do what you've got to do, but you've got to be quite safe.' I didn't feel that it was that bad. He was really good about it. He was my hero when I was seven or eight." LaRocco never gave up, but Pastrana had too mUCh, and took second by a little over a second, LaRocco gesturing his disapproval as they rode away from the finish jump. LaRocco wasn't so much angry, as frightened, and bemused. "He's still in the wild stage, and he was just all over the place," laRocco said with a smile. "I don't know what else to say. We were battling, but I was pretty much scared because he was on each side of the track running over hay bales, but he was in front of me, so there wasn't much I could do. I battled with him. "He's just totally scary. I said, 'I don't mind racing with you, but don't kill us.''' Suzuki's Kevin Windham got the holeshot in the second heat and that was a good thing. Just behind him there was a melee, and TheEdgeSports.com/Kawasaki's Casey Johnson ended up in a heap with most of the pack bearing down on him, Kawasaki's Carmichael just getting through after making incidental contact with Johnson. "It was a bad deal. Luckily I survived," Carmichael said. Within a few turns, Carmichael was in the lead with Windham just behind, the pair making a clean break. The lead was a second on the second lap, then nearly two on the third, a cushion which Carmichael was able to maintain, but not bulld on. "He was right on my tail the whole time and I tried not to ride his race, I tried to ride mine," Carmichael said. "That's what you've got to do." Windham never gave up, taking a 10th here and a lOth there, closing to 1.475 seconds at the white flag, but not able to cut any further into the lead. Carmichael was the Winner by 2.342 seconds, his eight· lap heat race almost four-seconds faster than McGrath's. "I almost had the holeshot; almost don't count," Carmichael said. "I need a little bit better start in tbe main to make life not so hard." Honda's Ezra Lusk, the lone remaining Honda rider, was third, about nine seconds down, then came Reynard Modifications' Robbie Reynard, another 30 seconds behind, fol· lowed by Moto XXX's Kyle Lewis. . Blackfoot Honda's Jean-Sebastien Roy got the jump on the first semi, holding the lead for about two-and-a-half laps before TheEdgeSports.com/Kawasaki's Michael Byrne got by. The pair were on their own for the first five laps, then Great LlIkes Aviation's Heath Voss joined the fray, closing right up on Roy on the final lap. Byrne took the win for team owner Jeff Emig, the very popular native Missourian. Roy was second, then Voss, with St. Louis Powersports' Pedro Gonzales and MotoworldRacing.com·s Damon Huffman taking the final two transfers. Casey Johnson showed early in the second semi that there were no lingering affects from his heat-race crash. Johnson had over four seconds on the second lap, then cruised to the end, building it up to 7.693 at the checkers. Lewis took second from Pro Caliber's Jason McCormick on the third lap, leaving him to hold off Team Blackfoot's Doug Dehaan at the finish. Dehaan's teammate James Povolny made his way into the mllin with his fifth-place finish. The Last Chance Qualifier began with a seven-rider pile-up in tum one and ended with Shrout's Kawasaki's 8rian Stone comfortably in the lead, and in the main. Going along with him was Torco/Malcolm Smith Motorsports/MSR's Robbie Skaggs, who passed Nicholson Yamaha's Jimmy Wilson on the final lap to take the last transfer.

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