Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Parts Unlimited Off-Road Championship Series Round 4: Smith Coyote 100 (Left) Joey Ambrosini was the overall victor at the fourth round of the Parts Unlimited OffRoad Championship Serles In Waukon, Iowa. (Right) John Strangefeld placed sixth at the Smith Coyote 100. STORY AND PHOTOS BY STEVE BERKNER WAUKON, lA, AUG. 5 J oey Ambrosini made it two in a row at round four of the Parts Unlimited Off-Road Championship Series by winning the Smith Coyote 100. Ambrosini rode to an easy win, finishing with a time of two hours, 38 minutes and 20 seconds - two minutes and 37 seconds ahead of runnerup and fellow Gas Gas pilot Matt Stavish, and four minutes and 31 seconds ahead of Kawasaki jockey Jeff Fredette, who finished third. Rounding out the top five were Husaberg pilot Charlie Deutscher and Honda man Quentin Blomberg, who finished with times of 2:49.59 and 2:51.02, respectively. Ambrosini now holds an 18-point lead in the series, with a score of 86. Fredette is in second overall with 68, and Stavish is third with 40. The series allows for one throwaway, with two rounds remaining. . "Winning today had as much to do with surviving the heat as it did with riding the course," Ambrosini said. "Even though the course was very technical and had every kind of terrain you could think of - rocks, sand, off-cambers, gullies, logs, hills, you name it - the biggest factor was the heat. It just tears you up - especially if you don't pace yourself. "The first lap was the hardest, especially the single-track. Most of it had never been ridden before. Just following the arrows was difficult. [After starting in second] I moved into the lead right away when [Jack Lane] crashed into a ravine. I rode on as hard as I could and soon began to overheat when my goggles fogged and I had to stop and let them clear. I knew riding in the heat was going to be the deciding factor, so I just waited for someone else to take the lead and just follow. Stavish caught up to me and I just let him set the pace until the last lap. And then I made my move." Officially, Stavish held the lead for the first four of the five laps, even though he had to make his way through the pack twice before taking the lead from Ambrosini near the end of lap one. "I must have been the last guy off the line [after getting a two-kick start] and I immediately had to work my way up to the front," Stavish said. "I caught up to Fredette, only to get lost when we both followed somebody down the wrong trail. By the time we got back on the course, we had to pass everybody again. The first lap had a lot of new trail and plenty of log crossings. It was a real challenging course - even without getting the bad start and then getting lost. When I finally caught up to Joey, he was sitting beside the course with his goggles off." Stavish took the lead and held it for the next four laps, only to be passed by Ambrosini during the start of lap five. "By that time, I was spent," Stavish said. "When Joey went by, I knew I couldn't catch him. I just tried to hold my own and finish." "Getting lost during that first lap was a real problem, especially in the heat: Fredette said. "Matt and I were riding together, and then all of a sudden we were lost. We turned around and worked our way back, passing riders who were hung up on bottlenecks that formed on trees crossing. That just takes a lot of energy. Eventually I got stuck on a hill and Matt was gone. The course was real technical, with a wide variety of terrain. It went from first-gear single-track to wide-open grass-track. The key was, just don't do anything stupid, and if you were lucky, you'd finish up front." Meanwhile, some real battles were going on over the fourth- through seventh-place positions, with less than one minute separating the next four riders during the first two laps. "Sometimes you just get lucky: difficult - especially at the log crossings, where if somebody made a bad line choice [and a bottleneck formed], you could lose a lot of time. I had a mediocre start but was able to get over the log crossings without getting hung up and before you knew it, I was leading the second group. By then, Stavish and Ambrosini were gone, and I knew keeping up with them for two hours was out of the question. My strategy was to keep pace with the second group, not to lead, so I slowed up and Dave Stickell took the lead, with myself and [Quentin Blomberg] following. Then we got lost and John [Strangefeld, the first A rider, whose group started just behind the Pro class] caught us." "I started on the second row and got the holeshot," Strangefeld recounted, "and it seemed like I was able to catch up to the leaders fairly quickly. It took a lot of focus on where the trail went, but I was able to catch [Stickel I, Deutscher and Blomberg] fairly quickly. Deutscher was able to break away, but Stickell and I rode the whole race together." "The first lap was the hardest, with people trying to find the fastest lines," Blomberg said. "If you made a mistake in the tight stuff, you were in trouble. You had to ride as hard as you could at all times and try not to make any mistakes." eN Smith CDYlltlll00 Waukon, Iowa Resulls: August 5, 2001 (Round 4 of I) said fourth-overall finisher Charlie Deutscher. "That first lap was real tricky. The trail had only been O/A: 1. Joey Ambrosini; 2. Matt Slavish; 3. Jeff Fredette; 4. Charlie Deutscher: 5. Quentin Blomberg; 6. John Str8ngefeld; 7. Kyle Nelson; 8. DZlvid SUckell; 9. Jock Lane; 10. John Heck. arrowed, and picking a good line was e U e • e n e _ S • SEPTEMBER 5, 2001 57

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