Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

good at starts, usually," Ferry said. "I 99 charged and pretty much gave it all I had, so I had nothing left. My lap times dropped about eight seconds a lap." Ferry had to work a little harder 199 in the second mota after gating just inside the top 1 0, but the four- Ferry back fairly quickly, and that Team SoBe Suzuki's Pastrana may not have finished either 250cc mota, but in a way, the struggling rider had a good day. After being laid up in bed for several weeks prior to the Glen Helen race, and then suffering a hard get-off in Sunday's morning practice, Pastrana revealed a couple of promising signs, one of which was his speed. Despite not having raced since March and not having had much time to practice or test before the Glen Helen race, Pastrana proved that he still has the speed to hang with the leaders. He started off in fifth in the first moto and hung out there until disappearing at about the 16-minute mark. As it turned out, his bike's ignition broke, sending him to the pits early. "I was going for the 130-foot table-top jump in the back in practice," Pastrana said. "It wasn't really faster, but the fans loved it, but it ended up blowing out the front rim, and my frame bent really bad right where the ignition was. It was the last lap when I blew everything out, so we came back in and didn't really think about it. It tums out the ignition was all busted up from where the frame had cracked. So, it [the crack) got worse and worse, and every time I hit a bump, the frame would stretch and bend in that spot. It pushed on the ignition and just cut the bike off." In the was that. Ferry finished up the sec- second moto, Pastrana was again riding well, running in ninth late in ond mota nine seconds behind little bit tired. He got me back." the race when he fell, got back up, and then pulled off the track. "I charged really hard at the beginning," Pastrana said. "I knew I wasn't going to make it [maintain the fast pace] the whole time, Iso IJ relaxed in the middle and felt like I got my heart rate back down, but my arms, from not riding, were done. lover-jumped a jump, landed on a braking bump and crashed off the track." Pastrana rode back to the pits and got off his bike limping, having injured his ankle in the crash. "Nothing is broken," he said. "I'm still alive. I'm disappointed in the weekend, but, in the first moto, I'm pretty happy with how I rode. My speed - I feel like it's definitely there. I can do one lap faster than anybody on the track, but the thing is doing every lap consistently." Ferry said afterward that he's still recouping from a sore back. "I think 11 I'm physically almost 100 percent, but Team Chevy Trucks/ Kawasaki's Lusk rode well at Glen Helen, but the Georgian admitted that he just couldn't get going in either mota. In the first moto, Lusk started off in 10th and couldn't do much with that. He did climb up to seventh, where he took a face-full of roost from Kyle Lewis' big four-stroke and had to pull off for a new pair of goggles, which pretty much sealed his fate for the mota. Lusk didn't have much better luck in the second mota, either. He started off in 12th but did work his way into fifth, passing his teammate Stephen Roncada on the last lap, and finishing sixth overall on the day. "I felt like I was a little bit off the pace," Lusk said. "I had a crash in the first mota, had to stop for goggles; had some problems. The second mota I just couldn't get going. I was two seconds off the pace." stroke rider made a couple of good moves right away and got into fifth very quickly. He then worked on Roncada for a while and got him, and then once again reeled in and passed Vuillemin for third just past the halfway mark. By the time Ferry got into second, Carmichael and Tortelli were long since gone, though he did get close to Tortelli when he fell, and then actually passed him. Tortelli, however, got Tortelli, but well ahead of Vuillemin, who nabbed fourth overall. "The second mota, I didn't get as good a start," Ferry said. "I came out around 1Oth or so. I worked my way up fairly fast, but Carmichael had such a big lead and was pretty much just gone. Sebastien fell; I got right behind him, passed him, but I got a I don't think my endurance is 100 percent yet," Ferry said. "It's going to take me a few more races to get into that. Overall, I'm pretty happy, but I got a little more tired than I wanted too." Although Vuillemin had decent starts in both matos, the Yamaha rider had a tough time hanging with Carmichael and Tortelli. His best opportunity came in the first mota, when he started things off in second, but he didn't have an answer for Carmichael. He instead slipped back Travis Pastrana Ezra Lusk to third and eventually to sixth, but he did fare better in the second mota, where he started off in third and got passed by only one rider, Ferry, to finish off his day with a 6-4 tally for fourth. Vuillemin admitted that he got a little tired on the tough track. Roncada rounded out the top five overall with a 4-6 tally, but he turned some heads in the first mota, when he actually gave Carmichael a race for a while. He put his Chevy Trucks Kawasaki KX250 into second after passing Vuillemin in the first mota and surprisingly gained some ground on the Honda rider. Roncada looked very fast until "hitting the wall" about 20 laps into the race, when he noticeably started losing ground on Carmichael and had both Ferry and Tortelli come up and pass him. Roncada said he was feeling the affects of illness. "I was pretty happy with that ride, considering I was sick all week with bronchitis," Roncada said between coughs. "I was catching Ricky there for a while, so I know I have the speed to be on the podium; now 1 need to get better and get over my sickness 6 Steve Lamson The Glen Helen race was a big one for Fast By Ferracci/Husqvama's Lamson. This was Lamson's first race since breaking his leg at the San Diego Supercross in January. Lamson rode well on the day, but a couple of crashes and a broken hub ruined his results. He went 21-28 for 31 st overall. "It feels good to be racing again," Lamson said. "I didn't know if I was going to make this race, for one, because I'm not ciose to 100 percent yet. The bone's still not healed up too good. I can feel it right where it's broke - the impact from jumps or hit big bumps, I can feel it. I just wanted to get this race in and get through it. I'm definitely relieved [to get through the weekendJ. The first moto, I struggled real bad; I haven't been riding, so this track tore me up. My arms pumped up really bad, I fell on my leg a couple of times, and was a little sore. The second mota was good, but the bike broke. Until then, I got up to 12th and was actually riding better at the end than the beginning." 16John Dowd Dowd was happy with his 8-7 day. "I got good starts," Dowd said. "I was pretty happy. I didn't know what to expect. I actually hurt my wrist here on Thursday; it's still swollen, but it didn't hurt me too much riding. I'm happy I got through the day and just got good starts. In the first mota, I just couldn't find my groove for a while, but I felt better in the second mota." Sean Hamblin After getting off to a pretty poor start in mota one that saw him round the first tum outside of the top 15, Hamblin quickly started making up ground. He eventually found himself sitting pretty in eighth place but was too far behind seventh to advance his position any further. KTM-mounted John Dowd passed him in the late going of the mota, as Hamblin - in his first official race on a SoBe Suzuki RM250 (see Briefly ... ) - had physically run out of fuel. He still impressed many with his ninth-place effort. In the second mota, Hamblin was running 10th and was making progress when he landed in a square-edged hole and jammed his left wrist badly enough to cause him to DNF the mota. He was still, however, the top scoring Suzuki in the 250cc class. 38 Keith S. Johnson Johnson, John Dowd's teammate, made it two Cernic's/PC Worldwide KTMs in the top 10. Johnson went 12-13 for 10th overall. "I'm happy to finish 10th," Johnson said. "Four weeks ago, I broke a couple of ribs and sat around for three weeks waiting to heal, so I knew I wasn't going to be in the shape I needed to be in, so to come out of here with a 10th, I'm really happy with that." 540GUY Cooper Former 125cc champ Cooper broke the top 20 with a 19th-place finish, going 18- 19 on the day. He struggled in the middle of the pack throughout the first mota, but he pulled a monster holeshot in the second mota on his 520cc KTM four-stroke. Cooper, however, didn't put up much of a fight to stay there, and eventually dropped back in the pack. "I'm glad I'm through with today - it was very, very taxing on me today," Cooper said. "When I'm back home riding 30 minutes, I know the track, and I think, 'Yeah, this is tough,' but it's never as intense it is actually out there racing.' I was intimidated; for the last nine years, I've been reading about all these guys, and now I'm racing against them. Sometimes I'm thinking that maybe I shouldn't be out there. It's a challenge to me for top-20. I'd like to be top-15; I'd like to get a couple of times, but I don't want to hurt anybody's championship. I got a great start, but, the front-runners, I didn't want to mess them up, so for the first four laps, I was pulling over, pulling over, and then I was so ripped because I didn't have a rhythm. I think when we go back east, and I'm more used to the clay surfaces, if I get a good start, I'm just going to put my head down and go. If one of the top runners has to pass, well, that's the deal, they're going to have to pass me." 23 Kyle Lewis Lewis finished out the day as the top privateer. The Mota XXX/Yoshimura-backed rider went 5-8 on the day to take seventh overall. "I felt good today," Lewis said. "I spun off the line in both motos and didn't get good starts. The first mota, I was 12th off the start and worked my way up, and the second mota I was eighth [at the finish]. The second mota, I caught up to Dowdy [John Dowd], but I slid out while passing him and I hit him. We both went down; I took him out, and I felt bad about it. I got up, took off again, got by Pastrana and Dowd, and then got a flat front tire with four laps to go and got eighth. Overall, I felt pretty good in both motos. It was a tough track today." 303 Darcy Lange Canadian Lange turned some heads at Glen Helen. Lange, who might be better known for his speed in Arenacross racing, was just as fast and consistent on the long and tough outdoor track. Lange rode his Richmond Gowlandbacked Kawasaki to 13th overall, via 13-14 moto finishes. Jean-Sebastien Roy Blackfoot Honda's Jean-Sebastien Roy finished 11th overall at Glen Helen, going 17-9 on the day. "In the first mota, I crashed on the first lap," Roy said. "I hit the outside line, and someone was on the inside, and we collided. The second mota, I got about a 20th-place start and worked my way up to ninth, so I'm pretty happy about that. " 40 and get back to 100 percent." cue I e ne"". MAY 22, 2002 11

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