Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

wh ile Dennis Jonon raced to a respectable but distant th ird. " l wis h it was , like , seven la p s [instead of five]," said Millsaps. In pro ba bly the most inte nse race of the wee kend, the 125cc Intermediate main e ve nt, Josh Hansen, so n of Donnie "Holeshot" Hanse n, undoubtedly made his dad proud with a near holeshot behind Honda-mounted Tim Weigand , but Hansen got around to lead lap one. Weigand continued to chase Han sen cl o s el y, wh ile Jesse Cas illas pass ed and repassed Weigand for second until he was just too tired to charge anymore . "I passed Weigand , and he passed m e bac k, and it kind of hit m e : 'Whoa , tired ,' " Casillas sa id. "T ha t track seems to take it out of me." Meanwhil e , We igand began to make his move on the last lap , closing up on Hansen in th e left -hander before the uphill - where they collided , both falling in a heap. "I ca me into the co mer right befo re the uphill , an d I went to square it up and - I d o n ' t k now ," Ha nse n said . "Wei ga nd just kind of went stra ight without le tting off, and he - I don't know if it was on purpose or not, but he kind of hit the back of me, a nd we got into t his big 01' crash. But I'm glad I'm all right, and I'm g lad I finished the rac e. " " I was go ing to rail the outside following Josh [Hansen] ," Weigand said. "He railed way outside , and I went to rail the middle [of the] outside berm, and he came down and squared it, and I just hap pened to be a t the wrong pl a c e at the wrong t ime. It wasn 't inte nt io nal. I had nowhe re to go . If I could ta ke it ba c k, I would've done s o met hing d iffer e nt not to h it him . I d idn 't want to go dow n, a nd I didn't want to ta ke him ou t. I'm not a dirty rider . It's just how it e nded up happening." The onl y pe rson o n the track who smiled at the sight of th e leaders on the ground was Casillas , who inhe rit ed the lead an d the win. "I was pretty beat, an d once they went down, it kind of flipped a switc h in me, and I just ch arged all the way," Casillas sa id. "l guess I pulled it off. It was pretty scary." Casilla s collected his first m aj or 125cc Intermediate win, althou gh he has plenty of 250cc wins to his credit, but the 125cc races we re always won by James Stewa rt in the past. Ha nse n a nd We ig a nd recovered for second and t hi rd , respectively, while Gavin Gra cyk and Eric Nye rode extremely well for fourth and fifth. OPEN PRO The first of the Pro classes run over the weekend was the Open Pro d ivis io n on Friday. B'ecause there were only 21 entries, the class was run in a two -moto format, as opposed to the qualifier-and -single-ma in-eve nt format for the 125 and 250cc classes . Th e first-mote holeshot belonged to Dubach, with Michael Young , on a CR500, chasing him around for the first lap . McGrath ' was in fourth descending the downhill bu t crashed at the bott om. "I think I was on the ins ide of Spud [Walters] on the downh ill," McGrath said, "a nd I turned right at the bottom of the downhill, and as I wa s ex iting the turn , someone hit me in th e swingarm and pushed me sideways, and I high -sided." McGrath had no problems starting the big YZF . "I got it first kick ," he said. "I had to just take the time to put it in neutral, but I got it." By la p two , Dubach's ever-present tea mmate Spud Wa lters had gotten around Young for second and set his sights on his Dubach . Ov e r t he ne xt fe w la p s , Wa lters reeled in Dub ach until he was right on his ta il on la p five of the 1O-Iap race . "I started reel ing in Dub ac h a bo ut halfway through," Walters sa id. "I was riding a little bit tight, and I just got arm pump." Meanwhile , McGra th was moving forwar d, eve ntually passing T y Davis for fou rt h o n la p nine. Young and Steve Mertens scrapped o ve r th ird until Young went down , dropping ou t of the race . Mertens followed su it soon aft er , handing third to Nathan Woods. Dubach he ld on for the win, with Walters second and Woods third. "I came out good ," Dubac h said. "I go t out of the gate really good, and m y bike pu lled really good up the re. I felt pretty strong. I was a little tig ht at the beg inn ing , but , ra ced yeste rday and none of these other guys did , so I got to kind of get th e cobwebs out." In the second moto, Dubach again grabbed the hol e shot , with Wal te rs and McG rath hot o n his tail. Dur ing the sec ond lap, McG ra th pulled o ut with a rear puncture flat, ending his bid for t he sweep and p rov ing the adage, I'd rather be lucky than good any day. T he rest of the race wa s rather proc ess ion a l, with the only rider o n the move being Yam aha Power house/Troy Lee Designs-sponsored Woods, who moved from seventh on the first la p to third on lap five, but too far behind Walters and Dubach to move any farther. "Third overall , beh ind Doug a nd S pud , I gues s isn't too ba d, " said Woods . "But I like to win, you know? Maybe next time." Dubach fin ished a few seco nds ahead of Walters, who had another gap to Woods. Davis ended up fourth after a miserable start, for fourth overall. "E ve ryt h ing flowed ; , didn 't get tired," the off-road star said. "So me lAbove) One guy who showed extremely impressive speed all weekend was Spud Walters, who was always runn ng up front. Here he negotiates Mammoth's infamous Tree Tum. (LefQ Jesse CasIllas used a IltUe luck to win the 125cc Intermediate main after the two leaders went down In front of him on the last lap, but he showed the win was no fluke by dominating Sunday's 250 c c Intermediate main. motos , everything cl ic ks, and othe r motos , no thing clicks at a ll, and you use twice as m uch energy . It's just a bummer th at , had to start that fa r back , be cause I felt so good, I th ink I could' ve given Spud and those other guys a run." "I felt pretty good," Dubach said. "I felt prob ably a little better th at moto than th e las t one . I got the sta rt I needed, and ' just put my head down a nd thought, 'J e re m y should be coming pretty soon,' and I just kept going and goin g . Then I looked back down the track, a nd all I c ou ld see was Spud, and the n no bo dy . So I coul d kind of ease up a little bit and save a little energy. I've got two mo re da ys to go ." '1 2 5 PRO McGrath came back with fire in his eyes on S a t urd a y , dom inating h is qualifier on hi s YZ250 F after an extremely poor start, and he loo ked confident heading into the main . "Yesterday was miserable for me," McGrath said, "and' really thought today that I would st ruggle a lot , because of the kids on the 125s and stuff." Struggle he didn't. At the start of the main, it was on ce aga in Dubac h cue I e with the holeshot, with McGrath ba c k a rou nd fourth . How ever, before the t re e turn on t he first la p, McGrath us ed an insi de/ o u t si d e move on Dubach for the lea d. "The start couldn' t have been better; I was the first guy up that hill," Dubach sa id . ~ J e remy was riding rea lly aggress ive t hose first couple laps before I could kind of find my groove." McG rath q u ic k ly raced off to a five- s ec o nd lead by t he end of la p three, while Wa lte rs , who started in th ird , passed his team m a te Dubach a round the tree tum as well. Dubach soon passed Walters ba c k, but by the time he d id, McGrath was nowhere to be fo und - leading by 10 seconds at the checkered flag . In th e meantime, An d re w S ho rt and S te ve Lamson broke u p t he four-stroke party after poor starts . Short too k his Kawasaki u p to third, while Lamson took his Fast By Ferracci Husq va rn a to fifth by th e end of the race . "I just needed, like , five more laps for it to be more my style;" Lamson said. "It was kind of short. They usu ally run longer motos he re." "I had the flow today, much be tte r than yesterday," said McGrath . "I got n uv S • JULV t t , 2001 51

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