Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

and wins the race. It's weird. Everybody crashed." American Honda's Ernesto Fonseca led the first nine laps, the first time he'd ever led a 250cc supercross. The pressure got to him, and he fell back to finish sixth. "I got kind of tight when I was in the lead, and it seems like I struggled a little bit in the whoops," Roncada said. "That's where everybody started catching up on me. I don't know - it seems like I could never really get it going. Tough weekend, and hopefully I'll turn it around next week." Ezra Lusk ran as high as second before a couple of bobbles and a big crash in the whoops dropped him to eighth. He finished seventh. Then came Sebastien Tortelli. The Frenchman was trying to pass one teammate (Fonseca) on the sixth lap when he landed in a rut and collided with another teammate (Ramsey). Tortelli went from second to 13th. "After that, I was trying, and I couldn't get going again and got kind of stiff and didn't make things happen," he said. Moto XXX riders Nick Weyand Kyle Lewis filled out the top 10. Along with Fonseca and Ramsey, Yamaha's Tim Ferry was the third race leader. Ferry led laps 10 to 16 before crashing his Yamaha YZ426F in the whoops. He ended up 12th. "There was a Tuff Blox in my back wheel, and that kind of slowed me down, and it took me a while to get started," Ferry said. "To tell you the truth, after I fell, I thought it was a nightmare. I thought I had my first supercross win in the bag, and that happened, and at that point I didn't really care. It's sad to say, but when you go from first to 15th, it's not very pleasing." MAIN In the immediate aftermath of the Pontiac race, various experts and commentators called it the best ever. They were wrong. Exciting? Sure. Captivating? Certainly. Unpredictable? No doubt. But what made it all that was that the riding level was low, not high, that everyone was crashing and remounting. It wasn't two or three riders battling each other for 20 laps. It was riders leading and falling, chasing and falling, or just plain falling. Carmichael was among the first to go down. He felt that Fonseca was holding him up, and he was impatient to take over the lead. "I knew if , could get by him, I could check out, ride smooth and try to win again," Carmichael said. '" made a stupid mistake. It was totally my fault. It bit me." When Carmichael landed off the double jump, he was nearly vertical, but not for long. The bike slid away and Carmichael was pitched forward onto his face, hands first. "The visor took most of the impact," he said. "It was a hard fall, and it was hard-pack right there. I just sprawled out like a little baby out Due mainly to this crash, Ricky Cannichael's win streak ended at seven, though he still leads the title chase by 24 points. there - did a Pete Rose. My first instinct was to make sure no one was going to hit me. I saw people getting on the brakes, and Ezra [Luskl was coming right toward me and he turned away. [II got lucky - didn't get hit. [lJ got up, and I see there was two guys behind me." That's when the fun started. The visor was wedged into his chin guard and was sticking out the bottom, hit· ting him in the arm. "It was kind of weird to look up and seeing Ricky looping out like that," said Ramsey, who was fifth at the time. "I was passing him, and I was thinking, 'I'm passing Ricky.' Only problem is, he was running for his bike." Fonseca was then in front of a surging Tortelli, until the sixth lap. Tortelli was trying to pass Fonseca on the back jump section, going doubletriple, while Fonseca went doubledouble-single. Tortelli went sideways into a rut on the landing and drifted to the left, colliding with Ramsey. Ramsey kept going, but Tortelli didn't. "The track was really tricky," he said. "[There were] a couple of areas where it got some ruts, and the whoops got pretty chopped down. That was a good track to race and have fun. I didn't put everything together for it." Ramsey said that he managed to stay up after the collision, only to go down soon after: "Then, once I saw what everybody was doing and the whole race was coming back to me, I was like, 'Alright, just be smart,' and that's what I tried to do." McGrath's only incident came at the end of the Tortelli-Ramsey sequence. "I was behind Nathan, and he went to the inside and lost the front end," he said. "He fell on the inside, and I was more inside of him, and I was pinned and I couldn't do anything. I couldn't back up - I couldn't do anything. I was waiting for him to get up. He tried to get up once, and he fell down again. Then he got up again, and I was like, 'Come on, go,' because there were three guys that already went by Ezra, Timmy and Roncada went by." The next lap brought an end to Vuillemin's hopes. While trying to pass Lusk going into the tunnel, he slid the front tire and went head-first into the hay bales. He only lost three spots, but his charge was dulled. "Three guys passed me, and after that I never found my pace back," Vuillemin said. "Ezra passed, and Timmy passed, and I got fourth. It's not a great ride. For 10 laps, it was cue I e okay, but after that I got too tight after my crash." Fonseca and Lusk were getting away from Ferry, then Ramsey, with Lusk taking the lead briefly for part of the eighth lap. Again on the ninth lap, Lusk tried Fonseca, but bobbled. The Costa Rican remained in front, though Ferry was then closing. Lusk again took the lead near the halfway point, only to lose it to Ferry, who swooped past both Fonseca and Lusk to take the lead. Lusk fought back and took back the lead, but it was Ferry in front as the 10th lap finished, followed by Lusk and Fonseca. The 11 th lap was the last time that Lusk would lead (again briefly), and he lost it when he bobbled. Fonseca slowed a bit and fell back to sixth. "I was kind of riding a little tight, overall," Fonseca said. "I think I struggled around the whoops the most part of the whole track. I think that's probably where I gave the race a little bit away early on ... I led 9 of the 20 laps. Hopefully, it's one more or two more and sooner or later I can win one of these things." Winning was on Ferry's mind at that point, and his position was strengthened when Lusk crashed hard in the whoops on the 13th lap. That gave second to Ramsey, with n e _ S • APRIL 24, 2002 11

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