Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Ezra Lusk (111, LaRocco (51 and Sebastien Tortelli (1031 were even closer than this at times during the main. Tortelli gave up second to Lusk and third to laRocco within the last few laps. Carmichael, Lusk began SIZIng up Tortelli for second, eventually making the pass on the inside before the finish-line jump with three to go. "Sebastien really surprised me: the Phoenix winner said. "He was riding awesome. He was riding really, really good. He wasn't holding me up by no means. He was just setting the pace, him and Ricky, and I was just making some mistakes, and I tried to settle down and not do anything stupid and race. I tried to be there at the end of the race - we started to catch Ricky there at the very end." man hung right with him. Chevy three spots on the second lap to was unsure how the AMA would see it Trucks Kawasaki's Lusk found him- move into fourth, but he had some if he jumped it. self third after the first lap. catching up to do to get to the lead- LaRocco got Tortelli for third when the Frenchman messed up in the whoops the very next lap. Tortelli went into survival mode to finish the Reed went down while running around seventh and trying to get by LaRocco for sixth through the whoops. "I kind of got screwed in the first comer, and I was trying to be smart, but like the second lap I got together with LaRocco in the whoops and went down," Reed said. But Carmichael couldn't shake Tortelli, and Tortelli couldn't shake Lusk out front. LaRocco grabbed ing trio. "It wasn't that difficult to pass, it race. "I was not used to that pace, so I was pushing and pushing every lap, and I start doing some mistakes, and up time on him," LaRocco said. "But was just making the time to do it," when you're in a group like that and LaRocco said. "It was easy to make you all have to roll it, it's kind of like mistakes - if you could capitalize on everyone's jumping it anyway." that, the passes were easy." Tortelli seemed to be making the whoops were getting very tricky and very slick, and I almost crashed a couple times in them, and that's where I was getting time," said the While the chasing trio of Tortelli, Lusk and LaRocco closed in on some time on Carmichael in the big whoop section early on, and that kept him on number four pretty solidly for the first half of the race. After about 12 laps, Carmichael began to pull away slightly, but then his teammate New man: Tortelli surprised many, even other riders, with his performance at Anaheim II. He won his heat over Carmichael then ran second for nearly the whole main, keeping Carmichael in sight. "I know Ricky rolled the first section more than we did, and we made Ernesto Fonseca endoed hard into the face of a triple, and everyone had to take the triple one jump at a time. Carmichael was even singling the section before the triple because he [J{]®w flDD@W @®(1 flDu@[?@ Qualifying The first heat race of the night was a surprise in that Sebastien TorteUi grabbed the holeshot ahead of Ricky Carmichael, and most thought that Carmichael would make short work of the SoBe Suzuki Frenchman. However, Tortelli actually pulled away and stretched his lead over the course of the race, while Carmichael settled for second ahead of Emesto Fonseca and Tim Ferry. "I've been working pretty hard, and my So Be Suzuki out there is running awesome," Tortelli said. "I got a great start, you know the Michelin tire hooked up great. I've been training hard, Rick Johnson's been a great trainer, and the SoBe Suzuki's working great out there. Everybody's working hard, and I know we can make it ha.ppen." The second heat was nothing short of epic. Ezra Lusk and Chad Reed had an awesome heat-race battle in Phoenix, and when Lusk got out to the early lead in this heat, Chad Reed was right behind him. The two quickly gapped the rest of the field, and on lap three Lusk messed up in the whoops, allowing Reed by. The very next lap, Lusk put an inside move on Reed over the finish line to retake the lead, only for Reed to get him right back that lap. The two traded the lead repeatedly, giving each other room when they saw a block-pass coming their way, then just trying to counter quickly in a high-stakes chess game. On the seventh of eight laps, Lusk got by in the same whoops that cost him the lead earlier, only for Reed to dive up the inside and get a run on him down the next straight but Lusk held him off by a couple feet, and both riders whipped their machines over the finish, "I just really tried to put my head down and think a lot, you know, like I did last week· end, and to be as creative as possible," Lusk said. "I made a couple really big mistakes there at the beginning· I almost tossed it away - but it was a huge race for me and Chad." "We were going at it," Reed said. "We rubbed with each other at times, and we left each other enough room. It was a lot of fun. I would've liked to have won, but it's only a heat race, and it didn't bother me too much." . Mike laRocco made up for a heat-race crash by winning his semi, and Ryan Clark did likewise in semi two. The LCQ was a heartbreaker for White Brothers Honda's Paul Carpenter, who has yet to make a main this year, He worked his way into the second and last qualifying position in the LCQ, only to go over the bars in the whoops with maybe 50 feet to go to the checkered flag. "To be honest with you, I don't know exactly what happened," Carpenter said. "My toe might've caught the shifter and knocked it into neutral right at the end. But, dude, 1 was way disheartened. I was definitely looking forward to getting it into the main, and I was riding pretty decent, so 1 should've been in there. Shoulda, coulda, woulda. I'm definitely disappointed, but I'm leaving Anaheim knowing that I tried my hardest, and next week's a different week." MotoworldRacing.com Suzuki's Daryl Hurley won the LCQ, while Subway Honda's Ted Campbell got the last transfer to the main event. eye I e n e _ S • JANUARY 29, 2003 9

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