Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

(Left) All David Vuillemin could do was stand and watCh, and he saw Cannlchael take away his points lead. A shoulder injury prevented Vuillemln from racing. (Above) After injuring his knee earlier in the year and bruising his lung at the Phoenix Supercross, Tim Ferry looked as good as new on his way to second place. (Right) Ezra Lusk battled his way onto the podium for the first time this year. fd@@@@ ®C!!J&JD~'W!~[jf)® flJJrz!JUD@[?@[?fQ'i...L- Pastrana stayed close to Carmichael for a while, then starting losing ground to the Honda rider. Carmichael's lead steadily grew to three seconds, then four, then six and then about nine seconds, when, on the 11 th lap, Pastrana suddenly rode off the track and fell to the ground, where he was attended to by track medics. (See Briefly ... ) Meanwhile, Ferry had dropped off the pace considerably, so when Pastrana dropped out, Carmichael suddenly found himself with a very comfortable 22-second lead over Ferry, who, though way back, was in no threat of losing that spot. From that point on, the race was all Carmichael's. Knowing he had the race pretty much in the bag, he backed off a bit, his lap times dropping from 1 :29s to 1 :32s, and his lead shrinking from 22 seconds to 13. "After passing Timmy, I just rode my own race," Carmichael said. "Travis was giving me some heat for a while. I was trying to keep a good pace for him and try to wear him down. I was inching away there before he [pulled offl. After that, I went on cruise mode." Carmichael officially crossed the finish line 13.970 seconds ahead of Ferry, and 28.110 seconds ahead of third-place Lusk. "It's definitely good to win for Honda, as well as for myself," Carmichael said. "I just want to win, and I had a good race." For the most part, Ferry had a very uneventful ride. The Florida native ran well ahead of Lusk and Tortelli the whole ride, taking the checkered flag approximately 15 seconds ahead of the Kawasaki rider. "Ezra was running about the same pace as I did the whole race, except when I got that 10- to 15-second gap on him right at the beginning," Ferry said. "That made it easy for me toward the end of the race." Lusk worked hard for his third place. He started off around sixth, got past Team Honda's Ernesto Fonseca and McGrath for fourth and then inherited third when Pastrana pulled off. But then he had to fight off Honda's Tortelli, who had worked his way up from ninth. The two factorybacked pilots provided the only real racing action during the last half of the race, as they went back and forth a couple of times in a battle for the final podium position. Lusk eventually came out on top of their duel, finishing out the race four seconds ahead of the former World Champion. "I had a tough going at the beginning," Lusk said. "There were a lot of guys in between me and the leaders. I was just trying to find the best lines. _ In the first of three (instead of the usual two) heat races, Florida's own Tim Ferry - making his return from an injury - and Frenchman Stephane Roncada went back and forth for the lead all race long. Roncada jumped out to the early lead, pulling Ferry along with him. The two factory-backed riders quickly detached themselves from the rest of the pack, as they began their fight for the win. Before the first lap was over. Ferry had passed Roncada and looked as though he would run away from the Kawasaki rider as he opened up a small lead. But Roncada got close aga.in and actually forged ahead of Ferry; that didn't last long. With two laps to go, Ferry got a second wind and jumped to the inside of Roncada, taking the lead once again - but this time for good. Ferry quickly opened up a comfortable lead and took the win over Roncada, posting what would be the quickest time of the three 250cc heat races. Ernesto Fonseca finished a distant third, followed by Kyle Lewis and Damon Huffman. Ricky Carmichael won the second heat race, but not without a scare along the way. While enjoying a big lead over Ezra Lusk, Carmichael swapped out and dropped his bike in a whoop section. The Honda rider actually landed on his feet and was able to upright his bike right away and get going again before Lusk could pass him. Carmichael went on to take the win well ahead of Lusk, followed by Nielsen Enterprises/WSA Snocross' James Povolny Jr., 3-D Racing/SoCal's Jason Thomas and Blackfoot Honda's Heath Voss, who snuck into the final transfer position after falling twice, the first time while running second on the second lap. Jeremy McGrath, Travis Pastrana and Sebastien Tortelli were the headliners in the third heat race, and McGrath started things off with the holeshot over Pastrana and TortelIi. McGrath, however, could not hold the lead for long, as Pastrana got by the Yamaha rider before the first lap was over. Pastrana quickly opened up a comfortable lead, while Tortelli started picking on McGrath. Tortelli eventually got his way and suddenly had Pastrana right in front of him. While Pastrana was cruising up front, a lapper inadvertently moved over and into him, knocking the Suzuki rider to the ground. He still got up in time to save the lead, but Tortelli and McGrath were right on him. But, just as he had done early in the race, Pastrana gradually pulled away from everyone and took the win with room to spare. TorteUi finished out the race in second, while McGrath cooled down, crossing the finish line a distant third. Well back in fourth finished LCR Racing.com's Keith Johnson, while fifth and the final transfer went to Moto XXX/DGY's Nick Wey, who had fallen earlier in the race. In the first semi, Nathan Ramsey worked his tail off to get the win: The Team Honda rider nailed the holeshot, got passed by Shenandoah Honda's Kevin Crine on the first lap, passed Crine back on the second lap, fell over in a tum and got passed by Crine again, repassed Crine, stalled his big four-stroke in the same tum that he fell in the lap eadier, got passed by Crine again, reeled the Honda rider back in, passed him once again on the last lap, and took the win. Crine took second. "Kevin rode a great race, but I kept making mistakes," Ramsey said. The battle for third through sixth (and the final transfer spot) was a fierce one, but when it was al( over, Blackfoot Honda's Jeremias Israel had fought his way up into third, followed by Fast by Ferracci/Husqvama's Tyler Evans, Kawasaki Team Green's Brian Stone and Blackfoot Honda's Jean-Sebastien Roy. The second semi wasn't quite as hectic as the first but was still pretty close. Crossroad Powersports' Damien Plotts, Pro Caliber/Suzuki's Isaiah Johnson, The Edge's Brian Mason, Nicholson Yamaha's Jimmy Wilson and Suzuki ride( Barry Carsten all mixed it up at one time or another, but it was Johnson who managed to work his way to the front and put some distance on the pack. He pulled out a four-second lead to take the win over Plotts, Campbell, Mason, Carsten and Wilson. In the last-chance qualifier, from whicb the top three riders transferred, Joseph Oehlhof took the win by nine seconds over Clark Stiles and Mike Katin. CUD I e n __ S • MARCH 20. 2002 15

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