Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Finishing a close fourth to McGrath was last week's Pontiac Supercross winner, Honda's Nathan Ramsey, who started the race off in fifth. Sixth place went to Chevy Trucks Kawasaki's Stephane Roncada, followed by Honda's Sebastien Tortelli, Yamaha's Tim Ferry and Lusk, who was involved in a first-turn pile-up. Blackfoot Honda's Heath Voss took ninth, and Moto XXX/DGY's Nick Wey rounded out the top 10. MAIN There was plenty of action right off the start. As the 20-rider field headed into the first turn after the lOO-yardlong start chute, things got a little cramped, and Chad Reed and Ernesto Fonseca locked bars and went down, starting a chain-reaction pile-up. At least seven riders went down alltogether, including Lusk and Damon Huffman. Both Reed and Fonseca would later pull out with mechanical problems related to the crash. Meanwhile, McGrath, Carmichael, Tortelli, Vuillemin, Ramsey and Roncada all got through the first turn cleanly, setting the stage for what promised to be an interesting race. Not much passing took place in the early laps, but the lead group did stay close together, as McGrath tried unsuccessfully to sprint away. Things started really happening by the fourth lap, when Carmichael executed a nice inside move on McGrath to take the lead, while Vuillemin got around Tortelli for third. McGrath just couldn't quite match Carmichael's pace and soon had Vuillemin breathing down his back. Vuillemin eventually made a nice inside-outside pass on McGrath to take second. At this point, Carmichael had opened up a modest lead, but that wouldn't last, as Vuillemin closed the gap slowly but surely and actually began threatening the Honda rider for the lead. At about the halfway point, Carmichael bobbled and Vuillemin made the mistake of not using this as an opportunity to go for the kill. Instead, Vuillemin hung back, thinking it was still too early to make a move to the front. "I think Cobra had some better lines," Carmichael said. "I think that was where he was beating me. He's good at that stuff, and that's where I wasn't too good tonight. I think if we take the same lines, I think that I'm a bit fast - he definitely had some good lines." As Vuillemin decided to wait, Carmichael decided it was time to make a break for it. In the latter laps, Carmichael dug down deep and gave it everything he had and began inching away from Vuillemin, who just didn't have an answer for Carmichael's laterace sprint. Carmichael pulled about a four-second gap on Vuillemin, slowing down on the last lap to officially take the checkers 3.440 seconds ahead of Vuillemin. "I was just thinking Indy the whole time," Carmichael said. "I slowed down a little bit; I'm like, 'Ah, let him get in front of me and I'll give him some of what I was feeling at Indy.' He didn't want to take the opportunity to pass me, and about the 10th lap, I said to myself, 'I'm gonna put the hammer down and try to pull away, and if I can't, then he deserves to beat me.' As soon as I believed in myself and made up in my mind that I was going to win and he wasn't going to pass me, I was going to pull away, and that's exactly what happened. I started to inch away every lap." "In the middle of the race, I felt like I was faster than him [Carmichael]," Vuillemin said, "but I wanted to wait a little bit because there was 10 laps left; to lead 10 laps of a race in front of Ricky, I thought was kind of tough. So I waited to see if I could have another opportunity, and I continued to push and push. But I had a few fd@@@@ @(J[JffJD5(Ji;j5m@ {PDff07] 7]@ 7][}LJ@ [S@[JLJDD0 Jeremy McGrath scored a popular win in the first 250cc heat race; once he got arouod Nathan Ramsey, who pulled a huge holeshot on the big CRF450R Honda, McGrath led the whole way. At one point, McGrath had opened up a fairly sizeable lead, but David Vuillemin, who fought his way around Ramsey, reeled him in and made it relatively close at the finish. "David had a little trouble with Nathan," McGrath said. "After he [Vuilleminj got by Nathan, I made a couple of mistakes. The track is dry and slick - you have to be cautious and smooth out there." Tim Ferry also caught and passed Ramsey, as did Emesto Fonseca, making it McGrath, Vuillemin, Ferry and Fonseca at the finish. After leading early, Ramsey was forced to ride the semis. The second heat race was a good one. Sebastien Tortelli started it off with the holeshot and led it for three laps until he bobbled, and Ezra Lusk and Ricky Carmichael got by him in succession. Before that happened, Lusk and Carmichael had already made a couple of stuff-passes on each other, and they were now passing each other back and forth for the lead. Lusk led the way for another lap until Carmichael pushed him to the outside of a tum and took the lead. From there, Carmichael steadily pulled away from Lusk to take the victory, just one second slower than McGrath's earlier win. During the last few laps, Roncada came up and started picking on his teammate Lusk for second, but Lusk held on to finish just ahead of the Frenchman. Fourth place went to recentiy crowned East Coast 125cc Champion Chad Reed, who started the race off in eighth. Just like Ramsey in the first heat race, Tortelli, who took the holeshot, ended up fmishing one spot out of a transfer and was forced to go to the semis. Ramsey easily won the first 250cc semi, this time holding on to his holeshot. He finished well ahead of James Povolny Jr., who had room to spare over a four-rider battie for third through sixth, which included the final transfer spot, fifth. Damon Huffman ended up finishing third, just ahead of Ryan Clark, Keith R. Johnson and Jean-Sebastien Roy, who headed to the LeO. Tortelli should've won the second semi, but he crashed in a rhythm section while running way out in front near the halfway point. He went from first to eighth and nearly went down again in the exact same spot a lap later. Nick Wey inherited the lead and rode off with the win, well ahead of Heath Voss, who managed to hang on to second despite crashing while holding down that position. Voss took the checkered just ahead of Ben Riddle and Tyson Hadsel. In the LCO, Tortelli pulled his third holeshot of the night, but this time, he put it to good use. taking the wire-to-wire victory over Roy. A distant third went to Isaiah Johnson. cucle n e _ S • MAY 1, 2002 25

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