Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

to get them. Next year, he'll get five. I don't see anybody beating him next year as long as he stays healthy. I've got no complaints. I'm super happy." Reed was the only rider even close to Carmichael in terms of lap times. Even though he had dropped back, Reed's lap times by the halfway point of the race weren't too far off that of Carmichael. For much of the race, after everyone seemed to settle into a comfortable pace, Carmichael and Reed were busting out 1:20-1 :21 lap times, while Ferry was turning in 1 :25s. Everybody else was in the 1 :30s. But late in the race, even Carmichael toned it down a little, as his times even dropped into the 30s. "I was having fun out there," Reed tona, tying him with Jeff Stanton for the all-time win record at the facility. The only question left midway was, just how many riders would he lap? By lap 10, he had already lapped over half the field, and by the 13th lap he had lapped up to fourth place but had no chance of catching Ferry or Reed. When the merciless flogging was over, Carmichael officially crossed the finish line 14.6 seconds ahead of Reed and nearly a minute and a half ahead of Ferry. This one seemed more like a hare scrambles finish than a supercross one. Carmichael did, however, have a few close calls. He had a fairly big bobble on the first lap and had two near misses later on when he got sideways over a jump and nearly went off the track around the 10th lap, and then he nearly got pitched over the handlebars in the whoops on the second-to-Iast lap. Otherwise, Carmichael had a flawless day and was honored to have tied Stanton's Daytona win record. "It's awesome to do that [tie the record]: Carmichael said. "A guy that's as nice as Jeff - we get along great, and he helps me out a lot. Without his help and support and also from the team, none of this would be possible. It takes a lot of people there're a lot of people that go into the ingredient of winning, especially this race, and only the strong survive. It's really tough. It feels good to tie Jeff. " Stanton was one of the first to greet Carmichael after he had tied his record. "I'm super happy for him: Stanton said. "He's a great guy. We get along good. I'm proud to have four victories here. I earned them. I busted my ass m cD '0 said. "And [I was] just trying to see what lines [Carmichael was taking]. It was interesting what lines he was using. That's why he wins races [Carmichael] picks some good lines. I kind of started doing that, and I was right on him, and the sand was going straight in my mouth. I backed off a little bit, and it was too hard to step it back up again. When I backed off, he stepped it up one more. He rode great, and it's good to have Timmy [Ferry] back up here alongside me. We've got a weekend off to do some testing and get ready for supercross Chad Reed threatened early on but backed off a bit as the race went on. He finished all alone in second. Own' Race:250cc Andrew Short DNF Short was waved in by his Motoworldracing.com/Suzuki team manager Paul Undsey on the fourth lap of the main event. "He rang his bell in the heat race and had a hard time focusing and fell a couple of times on the first lap," Undsey said. "I just didn't like what I saw and pulled him in. He didn't like it, and he's mad with me. Before the race he was complaining of dizziness, and I know him, and he was riding flat. I didn't want to risk injury." ~cD Ernesto Fonseca 11 th A series of small crashes ended Fonseca's hopes of a top finish at Daytona. The Team Honda rider fell three times during the main event and ran as far back as around 25th before working his way back up through the pack. '0 ®® again." The field was quite spread out by the finish, though there were a few serums at the end. Ferry had no one around him when he saw the checkered flag come out. "I didn't get the best of starts, but I worked my way past a bunch of guys really fast and got into third early: Ferry said. "By that time, Ricky and Chad had kind of taken off. I had Ezra [Lusk] behind me for a while. I was just trying not to look back to see Joaquim Rodrigues DNF The Red Bull KTM rider was running in the front half of the pack when he crashed over a double jump. Rodriques pulled off after the crash complaining of pain in his arm and leg. He said he just couldn't hang on anymore. ~ Tyler Evans @'0 Josh Woods 15th The Team ECC Suzuki rider. who won his semi, fought around 12th place for most of the final until the track got the best of him. "He's pretty beat," said ECC team manager Mike Craig. Evans physically ran out of gas but still hung on to finish 15th. DNF After winning his heat race, Woods had high expectations for the 250cc main, but things didn't go well fpr the Red Bull KTM rider. Woods was running eighth when the rear shock failed on the 10th lap., ehdne was forced to pull out of the race. 250cc Qualifying Daytona's 250cc qualifying had quite a few unanticipated goings-on (a red flag and a KTM 1-2 heat-race finish), but the main upshot was strictly by the script - Ricky Carmichael posting the fastest lap time en route to a victory in his heat race. The first of three heats (Daytona qualifies 30 riders for the main) saw Red Bull KTM's Joaquim Rodrigues snare the holeshot and lead until the final tum, where he bobbled and let teammate Josh Woods sneak underneath for the win. "I'm so pumped," Woods said after robbing his Portuguese cohort of the win. "I got lucky with a few guys going down on the start. Then Joaquim made a mistake, and I just went inside and gassed it. KTM went 1-2 in the heat race, so I'm pumped." Amsoil/Chaparral Honda rider Travis Preston was third, followed by Yamaha's Timmy Ferry and Moto XXX's Damon Huffman. Failing to finish was Yamaha's David Vuillemin, who recovered from an early crash only to go down even harder on the final lap and require a trip to the hospital. The heat-two holeshot of SoBe Suzuki's Sean Hamblin was negated when a crash over the finish-line jump brought out the red flags, and Chevy Trucks Kawasaki's Ezra Lusk took the early lead on the second try. Lusk never looked back, winning by more than 23 seconds, with Yamaha's Chad Reed taking second after completing lap one in fourth. Third went to Moto XXX rider Larry Ward, with Hamblin and Mach 1 Yamaha's Heath Voss completing the top five, Team Honda's Carmichael was the first rider to tum one in the final heat, and his lap times dropped throughout the race. By the time the checkered flag flew, he had built a lead of nearly 36 seconds and lapped up to eighth position, but he wanted to talk more about the earlier heat victory of his friend. "Ezra's riding good today," Carmichael said. "It would be awesome to win in the main and get him in between me and Chad." SoBe Suzuki's Danny Smith rode strongly to second, Mach I Yamaha's Nick Wey was the third-place rider, and fourth and fifth went to, respectively, Bobby J's Yamaha rider Keith R. Johnson and White Brothers Honda's Paul Carpenter. The pair of semis went to ECC Suzuki's Tyler Evans and Team Honda's Emesto Fonseca, both of whom passed for the lead early in their races. Evans was followed by Clark Stiles and Jason Thomas, whereas James Povolny Jr. and Scott Davis were the two-three finishers in the second semi. Jim's M.C. Sales' Jon Boruff, KTM rider Scott Metz, and Nicholson Yamaha's Jimmy Wilson advanced through the last-chance qualifier. cue I e n e _ 50 • MARCH 19,2003 21

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