Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

AMA Eastern Four-Stroke Nationals/Fall Classic MX Series Round 6: Broome-Tioga SpOM:;S Center cross section of the racecourse, allowing Stratton to retake the lead. Carpenter remounted second and quickly charged after Stratton. Trailing were McCormick, Veracka, Johnson, Shawn Nutt, Jared Lendrum, Jack Carpenter and Greg Pamart. Paul Carpenter caught Stratton near the end of the first lap and began putting pressure on the veteran Honda pilot from Clifton Springs, New York. Paul Carpenter came off the National Hill on lap two in the point position, relegating Stratton to sec- STORY AND PHOTOS BY JIM P. SANDERSON BINGHAMTON, NY, OCT. 13 au! "Pit Bull" Carpenter, the 2002 AMA Western Regional FourStroke National MX Champion, came back home to upstate New York to race round six of the AMA Eastern Four-Stroke National MX Series at the Broome-Tioga Sports Center. You could say that Carpenter had the "home-field advantage," as he has been racing Broome-Tioga since his amateur days and lives just up the road in Ithaca. Carpenter came to round six of the Eastern Four-Stroke Series with three overall wins and two runner-up finishes under his belt and is leading the Premier four-stroke class points by 16 over Kelly Smith. By the end of the day, he would add two more wins to his tally and another overall win in the Premier class for a total of four overalls. Carpenter now leads the series with 229 points. Carpenter took another two wins and another overall in the super-competitive 250cc ProAm class, and now leads that class in series points as well, with 225. Jason" Jammin" McCormick finished second overall in both the Premier and 250 Pro-Am classes. In the Premier four-stroke class, McCormick's consistent 3-3 rides earned him the runner-up spot over another "local" upstate New York rider, Bruce Stratton, who finished 2-4 for third overall. McCormick did a little better in the 250cc Pro-Am class, riding to an even more consistent 2-2 score. McCormick moved up to second in series points in both classes after round six, knocking Kelly Smith, who was not in attendance at the BroomeTioga round, back to third in points. KTM's Keith Johnson finished just off the podium in the Premier fourstroke class with a 6-2 for fourth overall. Johnson had some problems in the first moto, losing his front fender at around the halfway point; it was nearly impossible for him to run up front as he was seen wiping the mud off his eyes several times. Johnson managed to salvage a sixth-place finish. Johnson had a much better go of it in the second moto as he and Carpenter rounded the first turn side-byside, with Johnson taking the lead by the second turn. Johnson could not hold Carpenter off very long and relinquished the lead to him by the time they exited the front rhythm section. Johnson hung on to finish a solid second. In the 250 Pro-Am P 30 NOVEMBER 6, 2002· cue (LeftJ Paul Carpenter thumped the competition at round six of the 2002 AMA Eastem Four-Stroke NationalslFall Classic MX Serles, winning both motos In both the Premier Four-5troke and 250 Pro-Am classes at the Broome-Tioga Sports Center. (Below) Jason McCormick (76) and Jimmy Wilson (194) battled at the start of the first 250cc Pro-Am mota. McCormick finished second overall In the class. class, Johnson finished a consistent 3-3 for the last spot on the podium. Johnson moved up from ninth to fifth in series points in the Premier FourStroke class, and from seventh to fifth in the 250 Pro-Am class. The Premier and Pro-Am classes ran the full AMA National racecourse. There was also a full Amateur race program run as well, but the Amateurs ran an abbreviated version of the National-track layout. Over 300 Amateur riders came out for the event despite the not-50-great weath• _ n __ s er that Mother Nature provided. The day started out relatively warm and dry but gradually got colder and wetter, with intermittent rain showers throughout the day that turned an expertly groomed National racecourse into a slick and very rutted mudfest. In the first Premier Four-Stroke moto, it was pretty much a tie for the holeshot between Stratton and Carpenter, with Carpenter moving into the lead by the third turn. But Carpenter went down in the front super- ond. He quickly began to pull away from the rest of the field and eventually finished the first moto with more than a 20-second advantage, lapping up to sixth place. The rest of the first moto would be a race for also-rans. Johnson, who was involved in a first-turn pile-up, was up to sixth by lap two. Near the halfway point of the first moto, Paul Carpenter's lead was a whopping 15 seconds, and he was still pulling away. Rounding out the top five were McCormick, Stratton, Veracka and

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