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/128137
AMAlEA Sports Super-cr-oss Ser-ies Round 1 : Edison Inter-national Field race. Byrne held Fonseca back for a number of laps but finally lost out to him on the 15th go-around. Byrne went on to finish fourth, not too far ahead of Ezra Lusk on the Chevy Trucks Kawasaki. Lusk was another rider who didn't really show his true potential at Anaheim, opting to play it safe after seeing so many riders go down in the earlier 125cc main and during his race. Lusk started off in 12th, quickly got into fifth and had both Byrne and Fonseca right in front of him, but decided not to go on the attack. "It was tough," Lusk said. "Where Ricky fell we had to move over to a part of the whoops that were pretty bad and beat up, and changing my lines and trying to get around guys got me a little tense and I tightened up some. I figured I needed to finish the night out and get some points. Not try to charge and make things work." Finishing a little ways behind Lusk was Chad Reed, on the Boost Mobile/YamahajTroy Racing YZ250. The Australian, who competed on the GP circuit last year, rode well in his first AMA supercross race. Reed ran as high as second before dropping back to sixth. Nick Wey, on the Moto XXX Yamaha, finished a well-earned seventh, followed by Team SoBe Suzuki's Windham, who was bothered by a still-healing broken finger that he injured a few weeks earlier. "I've been suffering from this broken finger and haven't been riding as much as I need to," Windham said. "Unfortunately, I pumped a little bit, too, but tonight was such a crazy night. I've got to go back and ride a little bit more now that my finger is getting close to 100 percent." Rounding out the top 10 were Chevy Trucks Kawasaki's Stephane Roncada and Blackfoot Racing's Jean-Sebastien Roy. Team SoBe Suzuki's Travis Pastrana was another rider who was expected to do well but instead suffered problems. Pastrana had an encounter with Fonseca early in the race; they bumped in a turn, which sent Pastrana crashing over a berm. He got right back up and going again, but the incident left Pastrana with a damaged front wheel that eventually forced him to pullout of the race. The Anaheim track was considered by many of the riders as a good one, but it was the two extremely tough whoop sections that everyone was talking about. The riders were subjected to a long section of deep, squared-off whoops, only to make a sharp left-hand turn that led to another nasty sections of whoops. As the night wore on and the air got damper, the whoops got tougher and the surface harder and slicker. "The whoops were bad earlier in the night, but as the night went on, they got kind of worn and rutted," McGrath said. "They were pretty cupped; real bad when you couldn't hold on that good. I was real, real timid in that area 'cause I was kind of tight." MAIN Michael Byrne nailed the holeshot in the main event, while three riders were left on the ground in the first turn: Husqvarna's Steve Lamson, Roncada, and Clawson Motorsports rider Tyler Evans. All of them got back up and rejoined the race. Byrne led the pack around the first lap and a half before giving way to Vuillemin, Carmichael, LaRocco and Reed, while Pastrana, McGrath, Lusk and Windham were buried back in the pack. Mike Brown was up there for a little bit, as well, before encountering troubles and dropping back. "I got a bad jump, Jeremy did as well," Windham said. "We kind of hooked bars and we got ate up pretty bad, a couple guys went to the outside of us [in the first turn]." In his first 250cc ride, Fonseca (24) surprised a lot of people by finishing third. Here, he leads Mike Brown in a heat race. 8 JANUARY 16, 2002' cue I • neVIIS Vuillemin set a fast pace right away, while Carmichael began actually feeling some heavy pressure from LaRocco, who was trying to put a move on the number-four Honda. It was also about this time when Damon Huffman and Pastrana came together, both pushed out in a turn by Fonseca. "I was making a pass on Huffman, and Fonseca came and took us both out," Pastrana said. "His footpeg went through my front wheel, and I flipped over the top of Damon, and he [Fonseca] kept going and it worked out good for him. I wasn't expecting it, but you should always be expecting it." Pastrana re-entered the race but later rolled to a stop in the whoops. "Half my spokes were gone and the wheel eventually just collapsed," Pastrana said. "The spokes went through the front disc and the front tire stopped rolling. By the time I got them out, I was a lap down, plus with half spokes, I didn't really feel that comfortable trying to go on." Meanwhile, LaRocco kept pressuring Carmichael for second, which perhaps forced Carmichael into mak- Mike laRocco was gaining on Yuillemin when the checkered flag came out. ing his mistake over the table-top jump where he crashed out of the race. LaRocco got sucked into the wreck as well. "I don't know exactly what he [Carmichael] did, but he dropped the front end hard and nosed into that little step," LaRocco said. "It sprung him over; it was a pretty good fall. His bike grabbed me; I don't know if it hit my handlebar or the front tire or whatever, but it jerked my hand off the handlebar, so I was one-handed through the whoops, which is never good. I rode it out, probably six of them, but I ended up falling off." As LaRocco scrambled to get going again, Reed, Byrne and Fonseca all got around him. Vuillemin knew that something had happened behind him but didn't know what at first. "I was in the whoops in the next corner and heard the crowd," Vuillemin said. "So I knew something happened; I turned around and saw