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/128104
AMAlEA S p o rts S upercros s Series F in a l Round : Sam Boyd S t aaium al ready fourth by that circu it's comp letion , and the 39 ,043 - st rong nea r capacity crowd was on its fe et as he b litz ed by Voss i n the whoo ps a n d closed in on the McGrath/Ferry battle. B y the end of lap three , C arm ich ae l So, who's your M um my? Th at wo uld be Team Honda's Sebastien Tortell /, who wrapped up fourth pla ce while de buting the co lors of the Un iv ersa l mo tion picture, wh ic h, inci dentally, gros se d a (non-holi day) record -setting $70 m illion in its fi rst weekend. was o n F e r r y ' s r ear f e nde r , and he tried a m o v e in t h e w ho o ps that the li n e on th e left, an d really became Yamaha r ider wa s able to fend off. sta ble an d wa s gain in g o n h im a li ttl e Carmichael bumped h is w a y b y t o beg in la p five, taking over second an d setting his sights on McGrath. "Me and Carmichael cam e to g ethe r in t hat first tu rn w hen h e got b y m e ," Ferry sa id . "We bumped a li ttle b it , but t h at ' s raci n g . I'd have d one th e same thin g to him .' " I h ad to ma ke an aggressive p ass o n Red Dog : Carmichael said. " He' s riding good rig h t no w .' M c G rath was se tting a good p ac e , but he made Carmichael's work easi- b it . I slid out in t he c o m er t here, and he got around m e .' M cGrath tried everything h e cou ld to s t a y w ith C arm i ch a e l , but t h e Kawa saki rider had a cushion o f over three se c onds before he bobbled in the whoops a t the ra ce 's m idw ay p oi nt , c aus ing the m ar gin to n arro w a bit. " T h e w h o o p s we re r eall y h ard pa ck ed and r e a lly gro ov ed , ' C a r m i ch a el s a i d . " My ba c k e nd c a u g ht a gro ove a n d spit m e s ide ways . I h ad to slow it dow n, almost came to a comple te stop.' er wh en he sp u n in a turn on that Nex t it was Mc Gr ath's turn to same fifth la p , a mistake that a llowed receive some assistance, and it c a m e the new champ into the top spot. in th e form of Aus t ralian M i cha el " I had a r igh t -hand li n e for the B y rn e , whos e Emig Racin g Kawasaki whoops in t h e heat r a c e,' M cGrath Carm ichael was a tte m p t i n g to lap . sa id . " It looks li k e they watered it That attempt was more difficult than ri g ht b efore the final. I had to find a expected, and after failing to overtake On ly Kawasak i rid er Ricky Carmichael and Yamaha rider Jeremy McGrath have won main events thi s year, so it was no surprise that the two were stro ngest in quali fyin g, tak ing wins in their respecti ve heats. McGrath's came first , aided by a holeshot ahead of a turn -one bottl eneck caused by T eam Yama ha's Ti m my Ferry goi ng down. Amsoil / Dr. Martens/ Jo umey s/ Competition Accessories rider Mik e LaRocco also got th rough the carna ge, and sat in sec o nd behind McG rath ' s Mazd a Yam aha . Pro Cali ber ' s Jason McCormick was thi rd for a while, but not after he was overtaken on lap two by Team Yam aha's David Vuill emin . Vuillemin houn ded laRocco for second for the remainder of th e race, but to no avail, and the two fini shed well back of McGrath . After gett ing held up by Ferry in tu rn one, "Scorpion King" Sebastien Tortelli advanced to fourth (and th e heat' s final qualifying spot) on his black factory Hond a. "I'v e got to get another sta rt lik e that for the final," said McGrath , obviously comfort able in the slick conditions. Carmichael's heat -two start was less stella r than McGrath 's getaway had been, as the holeshot went to the factory Honda four-strok e of Heath Voss. With Hond a hon ches and trophy-girl-sister Heath er hopping aro und in exci te ment, Voss proceeded to lead the entire first lap and m uch of the second, but Carm ichael blitzed by in the whoops for the lead. Voss stayed close for a couple of laps, until Carmi chael's Chevy Tru cks Kawasaki teamma te Step hane Roncada pull ed alongs ide him in the whoop s and then shut the door in the following tum for second place. The whoops once again cost Voss on the final lap , when Team Suzuki's Kevin Windham shot by for third place, though Voss' fourth put him directly into the main event. Carmichael's win was less than a second slower than that of McGrath. "They didn't leave much roo m, " said Carm ichael of the sta rt straight. . Ju st as wins in heats one and two were spli t between Yam aha and Kawasakl, the semis were won b y Yam aha -mou n ted Fer ry and Ka w asak i rider Michael Byrne . McCormick once again started well in the first one, in whic h he grabbed the holeshot , only to be passed by The Edge Raci ng's Brian Mason. Ferry was well back , but im mediately mounted a campaign of aggr essive passing. McCorm ick was back in front by lap one's com pletion, but with two more circuits in the books, he had a momentum-riding Ferry breathing down his neck. Ferry tried in the sand pit, then got aro und on th e following stra ight as th ey approached the tri ple jump. Ferry led McCorm ick to the line, with St. Louis Powersports ' Pedro Gonzalez collecting third, ahead of Blackfoot Hond a's J ames Povolny Jr. and Pro Source's Tho mas Hofm aster. "I came in a Iittie hot that first time," Ferry said in reference to his earlier heat-race crash . "The four-stroke works really good when the tr ack gets slippery. I ju st click it up a coupl e gear and just lean back off the back . Th e Yamaha does all the work for me." Emig Racing's Michae l Byme snared the semi-two holeshot, but like McCorm ick . was quickly overta ken. He followed Blackfoot Honda's Jea n-Sebastien Roy for a lap before going back by in the rhy th m section, and was never headed again. Moto XXX/ DGY/ Atom ic 22 rider Kyl e Lewis passed Roy later in the same lap through the whoops , and that's the way the top three stayed to the finish. Planet Hond a's Mich ael Craig and Ancae Inc . rider Trav is Hodges also transferred to the m ain. "It j ust goes to prov e that you don't need a big truck and a factory team to fin ish in the top 10 here," Byrn e said. "Jeff and I had a deal at the start of the year, and th at' s what we' re wor king on. We're here to prove to everybody that we're here to race, and not jus t to be in a big truck and look cool." Blackfoot Honda's Blair Morgan led out of tum one and thro ugh th e first two lap s of the Last Chance Qua lifi er, but after he was stuff-passed by Motow orldRacing.com / Answer Yam aha's Damon Huffm an, he went down hard in the whoops. Huffm an took it all the way home for the wi n, and Fast by Ferracci Husqvama rider J ason Tho mas was the final rider to tr ansfer. Taking third, and thus winn ing the Racer X Gas Card award , was Nicholson Yamaha's Jimmy Wilson. 18 M AV 16. 200 1ยท cue. EO n _ s Just a couple of days before Las Vegas, Honda announced that privateer Heath Voss would debut the new CRF450R thum per at the race , whic h has been kind to four-strokes in the past (Doug Henry won on a YZ400F in 1997). Voss - who normally races a CR250 R twostro ke, but has put in saddle time in many four -strokes - only got a couple of days on the new Honda at the HPCC reliability testing track before race day. With no Friday practice, he admitted that he was nervous duri ng Saturday's practic e sessions, but he performed well in qualifying, snaring his heat-race holeshot and nearly doi ng so in the main event. Team Honda manager Cli ff White said that not mu ch time had been spent on supercross develo pment, but that the decision was ma de to hav e Voss race in order to "get some good inform ati on for next year ." The idea was actually formed quite some tim e ago, but Honda waited to see how the develo pment process went before finalizi ng th ings. "He certai nly put in a good effort on it," White said. " He was very happy with the way it ran." Voss' smooth riding style app eared well -suited to the bik e, thou gh he came up short on a dou ble in the m ain and jammed his wrist hard enough that he pulled out of the race. Still , he was exci ted at th e histori c opportunity. "This st u ff [ r acing ] becomes kind of routine after a while. week-in and week -out," Voss said. "But this bike makes it special again." Ryan Hughes, who won th e White Brothers FourS t ro k e Wo rl d Ch amp i onships on th e bike in its U.S. debut . will cam paign it in the upcoming Nati on al Moto cr o ss Ser ies . By t he way , f ro m wha t w e co uld see, Voss appeared to have no tro ubles quic k ly and easil y sta rti ng the bike, despit e its lack of an electric start.