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AMA Che vy Truck s 1 2 5cc U .S . M o tocr o s s Championsh ip S eries Round 6 : Red Bud T ra ck & T rail t Ie B y D A VE D ERINGER PH OTO S BY STEV E B RU HN BUCHANAN, MI, JULY I inc e when does a 30-someth ing ye ar -old pe rson race in the 125cc Pro class ag ai nst kids ne arl y half his age? S inc e Glen Helen . S ince when does that same pe rson become com pet iti ve against those youngs ters? Since Glen Hel en! And s ince when does that person actually win? Since Red Bud! And how long has it been s ince th is pe rson wo n his la st National? Since 19921 By now we may have yo u guessing as to whom we are ta lking a bout well, it's Larry Ward , of course . It's almost hard to believe that it's b e en more than 12 years sin c e the 31 -year-old Wa rd won his first 125cc Nationa l at Sou thw ick in 1989. And it has be en n in e ye a rs s ince h is last Nat ional win altog eth er , th at w in coming at th e ve ry same Southwick tra ck in '9 2. After ta king th e wint er sea son off from th e Su per cross Series, th e vet er an Wa rd de cid ed to m a ke a pr ivate er co meback t o 12 5cc Pr o rac in g . Aboa rd a Moto XXX/ DGY/ Yo s h irn ura / Ato mic 2 2 -backed Doug Sto ne tu ned Yamaha YZ250F fo ur -stroke, Wa rd ca me ba c k to a place that he ha s not be en to in a long while - the to p of a m ot oc ross po dium. In front of a n estima ted 23,000 fan s at th e motocro ss drea m la n d known a s Red Bud , Wa rd so ld iered on to two co nsiste n t sec o n d -place finis hes to take the top honors on a beautiful , sunn y , but ch illy and S 12.JULY11,2001ยท cue I e extremely wind y day in so uthwe stern Michigan . " I gues s y o u can c all m e t he champion of the day ," Wa rd sa id from the victory ci rcle. "As long a s I've been do ing th is , it' s a bo ut time! I've been racing for 24 yea rs a nd I I of those in th e Pro class , so I'll ta ke it. Ever since [Mike] Brown ra n me down at that rac e two weeks ago , I said I wouldn 't let that happen again . Now Lang st on gets me. I went 2- 2 th ere also, so I know that I'm there. It fee ls good ." Ward be come s the fourth winner of the '0 I 125cc Serie s tha t reached its halfway point at th e conclus ion of th e da y 's events . And with h is strong string of se cond-place moto finishes in th e last four motos , Ward m ov e s into fourth in th e class st andings and does not seem to be letting up . Like fe llo w c o m peti to r Mik e Br o wn , h e se ems to be gett ing better with ag e . "Before th e ra ce, Tra vis [Pastra na ] to ld m e not to go as fast as I did in pra ctic e , " Wa rd la te r said . "But he forg ot to tell me that he was go ing to pick it up a not ch a lso :" Wa rd a lso be c a m e the first four stro ke -mounte d winner of the series the th um pe rs hav e been up front a lot but ha ven 't won, un til now . And Ward became the first rider to win a ra ce in three different deca d e s ('80s , ' 9 0 s, 'OOs). Fin ish ing second overall with a 1-4 score was Tea m Suzu ki's Trav is Pa s trana. The 17 -year-o ld from Maryland to ok a narro w vic tory over Ward in the first moto, and a m idpa ck start in moto two saw the friendly s pee dst er n eVIl's Greg Schne ll 1 301pu1 his Motoworldraclng.comlAnswer Yamaha at the f ront of the pack at the start of the f irst moto. Schnell had a good day, fini shi ng fourth overall. wo rk his way thro ug h the pa ck to a solid fourth by the moto 's e nd . With h is closest ne m esis Mike Brown ha ving a split da y as well, Pastrana holds a comfortable po ints lead go ing into th e rough Unadilla ci rc u it in t w o weeks. "I've had a pretty good season so far , but not really the way that I had hoped for , " said Pastrana of his results. "I us ua lly ride better when the po ints are tight o r when I'm behind, but luckily I still have the po ints lead . I'v e won two out of si x so fa r, so I need to win a few m o re ." Once again, an inc redible ride was turned in by KTM Red Bull' s Grant Langston - yes , the sa me Langston who had e arlier said he wasn't go ing to race for a while in order to ta ke ca re of h is separated s ho u lder. But Langsto n ju s t couldn 't sit ba c k. Riding fo r the first time in nearly three we eks, a wr a p ped a n d med ic ated Lan gston to ok his bum s ho ulde r out on th e tra ck a nd somehow managed to ride to a n inc redible th ird overall ev en more a mazing wa s th at he won th e secon d moto l Afte r finis hing fifth in moto on e, Langston started strong a nd m oved into second for th e maj ority of th e second moto , th at was until he m a d e a last-l a p , three-c o me rsfro m-the -finish pass on War d for the moto win, his fifth of the year. After si t ting out the pr e v iou s Budds Creek National because of the injury , Langston decided not to go th rough with t he surgery unt il it' s absolutely necessary : hopefully, not until the end of the season. Th e 2000 125cc World Champion is still second in the points race . "I was a litt le rusty in that first moto becaus e I haven ' t r idden in nea rly a month ," Langston said at the end of the day . "I got a good start in that second moto and made that las t lap pass on Ward for the win. I'm just try ing to sa lvage this th ing ." And how is Langston dea ling with t he p a in and s u ffe ri n g of a th ird d egree shoulder separation when he is on the track? "I've been going to rehab almost every da y, an d I'm just For the second 125cc National In a row, Moto XXXlAtomic 22/YoshimuralDGY's Larry Ward went 2-2, but this time he got the overall.