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Cooper (114) and Dubach (1) were this far apart and trading the lead for the first half of the second moto until Cooper backed It down on his borrowed KTM 520 MXC. for Carson, but just like always, Ward doesn't give wins away. "A guy like Jeff doesn't make mistakes," LaPorte verified. "Last year, I rode the Pro class and I didn't prepare very well: Ward said. "This year, I rode probably 10 times last month and rode the Pro class yesterday, one moto, and ran the two motos in the 40 Plus. I'm too tired to run the Pro class today. I need more preparation to run with the better guys." VET PRO MOTO 1 When the time came for the first Vet Pro moto, the promoters decided that, since it had been sprinkling all morning, the riders deserved a "hot lap" to find the trouble spots before they hit them in a pack at race speed. It looked peculiar at first that Dubach's number-one bike was still on the line as all the other riders were on the track, until he raced out onto the track on his backup bike. Dubach obviously wanted to keep his bike fresh, tires and all, for the start of the race, and who could blame him? Guy Cooper raced to the front on his borrowed KTM (see "Briefly ... ") at the start of the first moto, only to go down in a heap in the second corner. "Not to be cry in' , but I have a steering damper that Shane [Watts] left on last week: Cooper said. "And I normally don't run with a steering damper, but I rode yesterday with it on '1', and it's so light you don't even notice it's there. So, that's the way it's been. So I went f1yin' down into the second corner and something wasn't right - I mean I couldn't turn the thing or anything - and I hit one of them ruts and just cartwheeled right over the bike. I get back on and go to the top of the hill by the orange ribbon up there, where Carmichael went flyin' off the track. I hit that ridge and couldn't turn it over the top; the front end plowed and I endoed on top of the hill. I'm just going, 'Something's wrong.' I look down and [the steering damper] is sitting on '6'. So I turned it to '1', instant back to normal - then I started riding." And riding he was, but the pack clogged up momentarily behind Cooper as he fell, and that was all Dubach needed. He was simply gone, and the racing was all behind him. As Dubach pulled away, Terry Fowler had his hands full fending off Chris Young for second. Even though Fowler had a horsepower advantage over Young, Young seemed to gain on him in the corners on his RM. "I think he was saving it for the second moto as well as I was: Young said, "but Dubach was too far gone. I would've liked to have gotten up with him and ran his pace a little bit and seen where he was going, but overall my Suzuki was working great, and I think I'm the only Suzuki out there, so it feels good to be the underdog and run right there with those guys especially those four-strokes." "I hate concrete starts - I absolutely hate 'em: Cooper said. "I think it's a stupid idea. You know, we burn a $100 tire off for eight feet of the track. I wanted to keep the edge good for the track, not for the start." He could've fooled everyone. Cooper went two for two for holeshots on the day. Dubach was in hot pursuit as the riders headed toward the back of the track, and as they crossed the finish line for the first lap, it was Cooper. Dubach, Billy Frank, Fowler, Jeff Matiasevich, Young, Micky Dymond, Jimmy Lewis, Mercier, Bryan Nelson and Mitch Rowe, with Kevin Walker, who survived a first-lap Carmichaelesque dive off the top of Glen Helen's first uphill in the first moto, rounding out the top 12. On the second lap, Dubach passed Cooper down the big downhill, only to have Cooper pass him back before the riders reappeared from the back section to complete the lap. "[Cooper] seemed like he really tried to get in front of me, and then once he got in front of me, it seemed like he was holding me up," Dubach said. "I don't know if he was taking little breaks, or I don't know what he was doing. I knew I didn't have to beat him to win the overall, so I was a little more patient, but then Terry Fowler was catching up because we were horsing around so much." "They [Cooper and Dubach] were having a good race, so it gave me the chance to close up on 'em: Fowler confirmed. Cooper and Dubach traded the lead for much of the first half of the but Fowler, Young and Dubach were too far ahead for the time he had left to catch up, and he had to settle for fourth. Dubach crossed the finish line about 20 seconds ahead of Young, who had a few seconds on Fowler, who had a few seconds on Cooper, who in turn had a few seconds on the battle for fifth between Shawn Wynne, Billy Mercier and Gordon Ward, which Wynne won. VET PRO MOTO 2 The skies cleared up by the time the gate hit the ground at the start of the second moto and, once again, Cooper came sweeping in from the outside with another holeshot, but he surely checked the steering damper on the line this time. "' stayed right behind [Young]," Fowler said, "but I couldn't do anything with him." Meanwhile, Cooper was charging aboard his borrowed desert machine, jumping past competitor after competitor - with his kickstand tied up and an oversized gas tank, to boot. He eventually found himself in fourth, Honda-mounted Jeff Nordstrom led the first part of the first 30-34 Novice moto on Sunday and evantually went 2·2 for second overall behind the 3-1 of CRF450R-mounted Lucian Williams. cue I ... n e _ so • NOVEMBER 21. 2001 27