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/128138
Yuillemin, here leading Pastrana, proved that he is indeed for real after winning the first two supercross rounds. want to hang it out and win some races. Letting Vuillemin get away, and Travis getting up there, I don't need those guys to get any more confidence. I wish I got on the gas a little bit better." For Ricky Carmichael, getting fourth would normally be considered a bad night, but considering the serious crash he suffered at Anaheim seven days earlier, fourth wasn't too bad at all. "I wasn't expecting to do this well," said Carmichael, who was bothered by a sore hand hurt the Anaheim crash. "A lot of people didn't want me to race and thought I should take the weekend off, but I need to get the· points." But after winning his heat race that was stacked with such riders as Kevin Windham, Vuillemin, McGrath, Ezra Lusk, Nathan Ramsey and Stephane Roncada, Carmichael raised his expectations and wanted more than just points - he wanted the mainevent win. "I'm a little bumming," Carmichael admitted. "I thought it might've been mine there after the heat race, I'm a little ticked off. I guess in hindsight I'm just glad to be here. I wanted to get some points and anything else other than that would be a bonus, but once I got a taste of victory [after his heat-race win], then I wanted it. Then not getting it makes it tough on me." Rounding out the top five was Boost Mobile/Yamaha/Troy Racing's Chad Reed. After turning heads with his sixth-place finish at Anaheim, the Australian rode another solid race, starting off in seventh, and then drop- ping to eighth before finding his groove and climbing back up to fifth. Team SoBe Suzuki's Kevin Windham had another disappointing outing, though he did have his chance to cause some damage. Windham nailed the holeshot, but both Pastrana and Vuillemin surged past him down the whoop section immediately following the first turn. Still, Windham stayed right there in third for while, demonstrating that he certainly had the speed to hang with the leaders but once Carmichael closed in behind him, Windham tightened up, made some mistakes and gave way to both Carmichael and LaRocco on the same lap. Windham had no answer for either Honda rider, and soon had Reed breathing down his neck. On the 12th lap, Reed relegated Windham to sixth, where he would finish out the race just ahead of Team Chevy Trucks Kawasaki's Ezra Lusk and Team Honda's Nathan Ramsey, on the CRF450R four-stroke. Lusk's hopes of a win pretty much went out the window after getting off to a horrible start, while Ramsey lost a few valuable seconds when he stalled his big Honda once in the whoops. Team Motoworldracing.com/Suzuki's Damon Huffman worked his way up from 15th to take ninth, while McGrath, on the Bud Light Yamaha, rounded out the top 10. For the second week in a row, McGrath suffered a bad case of armpump. "I had a decent start," said McGrath. "I went more laps tonight than I did last week before I got tight. event, but both Pastrana and Vuillemin slipped un~er Windham through the turn and got better drives down the following whoolJ section, taking control of the first- and secondplace positions. Windham settled into third ahead of LaRocco, Carmichael, Tim Ferry, Reed and McGrath, who said he touched handlebars with Vuillemin down the start chute. However, not all of the riders made through the whoops section unscathed. A bunch of riders got together and went down in a heap, including Steve Lamson, Huffman, Mike Craig, Nick Weyand Stephane Roncada. Pastrana set a very fast pace but couldn't shake Vuillemin, or even Windham for that matter, while Carmichael began hammering on LaRocco for fourth, eventually getting him on the third lap. "I didn't get such a good start," Carmichael said. "I had to play catch up, I got by Mike - kind of made an aggressive move." Not long after that, Vuillemin overtook Pastrana when the Suzuki rider got a little out of shape in the whoops. "I was freaking out the first five laps," Pastrana said. "I've never led before. After David passed me it was almost a blessing in disguise. I started riding - not his race - but just kind of following him around the track." Once into the lead, Vuillemin wanted no part of Pastrana. "When I went around him," Vuillemin said, "I tried to get a little gap on him - a couple of seconds - so I would be out of target for a block pass or something." After Vuillemin passed Pastrana, the Suzuki rider had Windham to worry about. And not far behind It's a weird thing; I just got tight. It was better [than last week], though. I rode a lot of laps this week, but there was nothing I could do. I was kind of a prisoner again." McGrath rebuffed the rumor about a possible arm injury that he supposedly suffered during the off-season, perhaps causing his sudden tightness problem. "I am healthy, completely healthy," McGrath said. "I'll take the beating [from his critics], I don't have any excuses. I just don't know." MAIN Windham timed the gate perfectly and out-dragged everyone to the first turn at the start of the 20-lap main cucle Pastrana got his first taste of leading a 250cc main, and he liked it. He ended up finishing a close second. n e _ S • JANUARY 23, 2002 7