Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

AMAlEA Sports 1 25cc Western Regional Supercross Series Round 5; Edison Internatio al Field (Left) Sellards' teammate Billy Laninovich (1321 showed his potential at round five, starting up front and finishing on the podium In third. Chris Go..elaar (901 finished runner-up, while Travis Preston (291 worked his way up from a horrible start to finish fifth. (Below) This crash right after the finish line while running fifth on lap nine was the second of three on the night for Chevy Trucks Kawasaki's James Stewart Jr. He would eventually finish 11tho Joe Oehlhof (791 went on to finish sixth. By the end of lap three, Stewart had already moved up to 10th, and the crowd went nuts with every pass along the way. Sellards had put a very small cushion on Laninovich, and Gosselaar had started pressuring Laninovich for second. The pressure paid off for Gosselaar on lap four, as Laninovich made a small but significant mistake in a rhythm section, handing the Honda rider second. On lap five, Amsoil/Dr. Martens Honda's Travis Preston made his presence known, as he moved into seventh after a horrid start, and Stewart was right on his tail. "I didn't get a very good start," said Preston - known for his dry, sarcastic sense of humor. "The track was not very good - worst track I've ever seen. [It was] way wet. But) rode, and it was hard to pass. It was really one-lined. I'd try to make passes, then make mistakes... So it was tough." On lap seven, both Preston and Stewart freight-trained past Blimpie Suzuki's Shane Bess, who was having his best ride of the series to date in sixth, and then Stewart looked like he tried to push Preston right off the track in the whoops. Although Preston held his ground on that pass attempt, Stewart got by him for sixth down the start straight on the following lap. The Kawasaki phenom was keeping an eye on the leaders over the triples, but he may have gotten a little ahead of himself; on lap nine, another mistake cost him. 14 FEBRUARY 13, 2002' cue "I was coming back· I think 1 moved up to fifth," Stewart said. "They [the leaders] weren't right there, but 1 could see them around the track. I had like nine laps left, so I was coming up and I slid out in a cor· ner in fifth. Then I got up again, and I was like, 'All right, settle down,' and then everything went to crap. Everybody was taking me out, just trying t~ kill me out there." Stewart had indeed been fifth when he fell just after the finish line; he remounted in 15th, and wasn't a factor in the race again. His fall handed fifth back to Pro Circuit Suzuki's Erick Vallejo, but the Mexico native had his hands full with Preston and would lose that spot to the Honda rider on the 11 th go-around. Meanwhile, with all this action going on just at the tail of the top five, the still-leading Sellards had built up a three-second lead on Gosselaar, who had a decent lead on Laninovich. And Kevin Johnson was having the best race of his life, so far, in fourth. "I just finally got a start up front, and I rode around like I always ride," Johnson said. "I was charging good and trying to look in front of me, and I just stayed up front. I didn't make any mistakes, really - I made a couple, but not drastic ones. A start just helps so much. That's pretty much all it was; just getting a start and staying up there." The rest of the race was rather processional, with the top five staying pretty spread out to the finish, • II! n II! _ S although Johnson had to hold off a last-lap charge from Preston for fourth, and Stewart fell again with about three laps to go, sealing his fate. "So I ended up 11 th, and I still have a 21-point lead, so it's not all bad," Stewart said. Stewart took out Bess on the 14th circuit, then got MotoworldRacing.com Suzuki's Justin Buckelew in the last tum for that 11 th place. Sellards won, with Gosselaar a strong second, and rookie Laninovich showing his mettle for third. Johnson finished the race a distant but

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