Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

THQ U.S. Open Alpinestars Four-Stroke Shootout Dube's consistency pays off with four-stroke win (Left) Marco Dub6 (611 gets the jump at the start of the thIrd of four Four-5troke Shootout motos. He won the race. and eventually the overall. Here, he's chased by ~e Lewis (231. Brock Sellards (181. Craig Decker (partially hidden behInd Dubel, and the rest of the pack. By MIKE RYER PHOTOS BY STEVE BRUHN lAS VEGAS, NV, OCT 11-12 he common cold can appear out of nowhere, completely unexpected. One day, you feel fine, and the next morning ... BAM! You have a cold. This year, the virus was in the form of Paine-Claire, Quebec's Marco Dube, who sneaked up on the rest of the pack with a 4-3-1-2 score to take this year's THQ U.S. Open Alpinestars Four-Stroke Shootout title. And he did so with a cold. Kyle Lewis got the dice rolling with a mota-one holeshot, while last year's champ, Blair Morgan, tried to run him down. Dube and Joe Oehlhof also pursued. Dube and Oehlhof found their way around Morgan as he began to slip to the rear of the pack, ending up ninth at mota's end. Lewis was on cruise control out in front and was able to open up a six-second lead over Dube, who moved into second place after Oehlhof was tackled by a Tuff-Blox, dropping him to fourth. In the meantime, Red Bull KTM's Brock Sellards, who was debuting KTM's new 450 SX, was forced to fight his way through the pack from the back after a turn-one mishap that forced him off of the track. With Lewis out in front, the battle was for second place, between Dube, Honda-mounted Craig Decker, and Oehlhof. The recharged Oehlhof and Decker dropped Dube to fourth, but T the moves proved to be too little too late, as Lewis was long gone. Oehlhof, Decker, Dube and YZ450Fmounted Kevin Johnson rounded out the top five. Oehlhof carried his drive from mota one into mota two with a holeshot into turn one after a little nudge with Lewis. Morgan once again found himself in the runner-up spot, looking to be a threat, while Dube, Johnson, and Sellards rounded out the top five on the first lap. Lewis' problems in mota two began at the drop of the gate. "I jerked out of the gate a little bit and came out like fifth or sixth, then moved up into fourth," Lewis said. "There were hay bales everywhere on the track, so we were dodging those, and I went into one of the channels in the whoops ... my foot caught [one] and it pulled my foot off the other side and I was cowboyin', and the bike got away from me. I had to pull off because my shoulder hurt too bad." With Lewis out of the picture, Sellards charged forward and by lap seven had moved into second place, behind Oehlhof. Just as Oehlhof was to get the white flag, he, too, caught a hay bale just a few feet from the finish-line jump and handed the win to Sellards. Morgan was dropped to third by the charging Sellards, and then picked up second while Oehlhof was picking up his bike. He finished sixth. Dube took the lead going into turn one of mota three on Saturday and, despite his cold, showed no weakness en route to the checkered flag. Decker pressured Dube most of the race but ended up second. When asked what he needed to do in order to be a contender, Decker replied, "Get good starts and stay out of trouble." In mota three, that is precisely what he did. A few bike adjustments helped, too. "We raised the forks, trying to get [the bike] to tum a little better, and added the Pro Circuit starting device to try and keep the front end down," he said. Lewis had had time to let his shoulder heal and passed YZ450Fmounted Kelly Smith early to take over third place. Toward the end of the mota he started to reel in Decker but ran out of time. Sellards came from sixth to finish fourth, while Oehlhof rounded out the top five. Decker's second-place finish placed him in the driver's seat for the overall, along with Dube. If either won the last mota, they would guarantee themselves the overall title. Lewis had the inside line into turn one in the final mota, but the space quickly closed up, and Oehlhof found himself in the lead heading into turn two with Sellards, Dube, and hopeful winner Decker, who was on a mission to improve upon his last finish of third place. Just as things were looking good cue I • for Oehlhof, as he and Sellards began to pull slightly from Dube on the first lap, he stalled the bike and handed the lead to Sellards for the second time. Then, on lap four, Oehlhof found himself picking up his machine again. He finished just outside the top five. Dube sat in second, while Decker was on the gas and gaining in his effort to claim the overall with a finalmota win. He put in a valiant effort, but Sellards went on to take the win, and second place overall, while the overall went to second-place finisher Dube. Decker finished third overall for the second year in a row, with Lewis and Oehlhof finishing out the top five. CN MGM &rand lianlea Ire.. las Vegas, NlMlda Resalts: OclIIber 11-12, 2002 Friday I'IOTO 1: I. Kyle Lewis (Hon): 2. Joe Oehlhof (Yom); 3. Craig Decker (Hon); 4. Marco Dubf: (Hon); 5. Kevin Johnson (Yam); 6. Crcig Anderson (KTM); 7. Brock Sellards (KTI'I); 8. Josh Demuth (Yom); 9. Blair Morgan (Hon); 10. Daniel Blair (Yom); 11. Robbie Skaggs (Yom); 12. Kelly Smith (Yom); 13. Ryan Dudek (Yam). MOTO 2: 1. Sellards; 2. Morgan; 3. Dube; 4. Decker, 5. Smith; 6. Oehlhof; 7. Blair; 8. Johnson; 9. Skaggs; 10. Dudek; 11. Lewis; 12. Anderson: 13. Demuth. Saturday MOTO 3: 1. Dube; 2. Decker; 3. Lewis; 4. Sellllrds: 5. Oehlhof; 6. Johnson; 7. Morgen; 8. Smith; 9. Dudek; 10. Blair: I J. Skaggs; 12. Demuth; 13. Anderson. MOTa 4: 1. Senords; 2. Dub~; 3. Decker; 4. Lewis: 5. Bleir; 6. Oehlhof; 7. Johnson; 8. Morgen: 9. Smith: 10. Dudek: 11. Demuth: 12. Skeggs: 13. Anderson. O/A: 1. M~lIrco Dube (Hon); 2. Brock Sellerds (KTM); 3. Craig Decker (Hon); 4. Kyle lewis (Hon); 5. Joe Oehlhof (Yom); 6. Blair l'Iorgon (Hon); 7. Kevin Johnson (Yom); B. Daniel Blair (Yom); 9. Kelly Smith (Yom); 10. Ryan Dudek (Yom); II. Josh Demuth (Vern): 12. Robbie Skeggs (Vern); 13. Creig Anderson (KTM). n • _ S • OCTOBER 23, 2002 21

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