Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

AMA 1 25cc Eastern Regional Supercross Series Round 4: Daytona International Speedway Branden Jesseman had his chances at Daytona but a small crash cost him. He fell while leading and ended up second. The Daytona track certainly suits Brown's style. The long, spacious Daytona track layout isn't all that much different than an outdoor National track (Troy, Ohio, quickly comes to mind) where Brown excels, and the former l25cc National Motocross Champion loves the mud and deep ruts (he is from Ohio, after all), so Brown was smiling under his helmet as he positioned his Pro Circuit/Chevy Trucks/Kawasaki KX125 on the start line. Even though Jessemen was getting all the pre-race attention, Brown was okay with that because he knew his time was about to come. And it did, but not until the seventh lap of the main event. That's when Brown took the lead for good and ran away, finishing well ahead of Suzuki's Jesseman and third-place finisher Team ECC Suzuki's Shae Bentley. But Brown had to work for his win. He managed to avoid a pileup just after the first turn, and he had to work his way up from a sixth-place start. He was hoping to get the holeshot on the muddy track, but that instead went to Paul Currie, who quickly got bounced back down the pack. Bent- 24 MARCH 19. 2003· eye I ley moved into the lead, but Red Bull KTM rider Brett Metcalfe got him before the first lap was over. Brown made some quick passes to get into third, while Jesseman settled into fourth. Metcalf was looking good. He opened up a modest 2.3-second lead over Brown, who didn't waste any time getting around Bentley, as did Jesseman a few turns later. Metcalf continued to lead until, on the third lap, he came up a little short over a double and went down. Brown was so close that he plowed right into Metcalf and came to a complete stop. He whee lied over Metcalf's KTM and rode into the lead, but the incident let Jesseman right up onto Brown's rear fender, and Jesseman smelled blood. Jesseman hunted down Brown and passed the Kawasaki rider a lap later. The series points leader then tried to sprint away from Brown, but that plan didn't work too well. Jesseman did pull a few seconds on Brown, who was doing a good job of hanging with the Suzuki rider, and Brown perhaps pressured him into making a very costly mistake. "When I came into this race, I e n e vv s knew Jesseman was going to be the tough one out here," Brown said. "He went by me, and I thought, 'I'm just going to hang in here and see what goes on.' I knew he was doing the same at the first. I was trying to go slow and not push it too hard. He went on by me and was pushing a little harder, [butl he made a few mistakes." On the seventh lap, Jesseman lost the front end in a turn and went down right in front of the mechanics' area. He got up quickly, but not before both Brown and Bentley had ridden past. Jesseman got up in third but passed Bentley two laps later when Bentley mistimed a double jump, landing a little short. By the time Jesseman had moved back into second, Brown was pretty much gone. The Kawasaki rider had opened up a nine-second lead that Jesseman just couldn't do anything with. He did gain about two seconds on Brown when the Kawasaki rider bobbled and nearly crashed, but Brown got those two seconds right back. "I was coming back up, got around him, and was riding okay," Jesseman said. "I started tightening up a little bit and just slipped out around a corner. I got back up again and tried pushing it. I let myself tighten up, and I couldn't really push as hard as I would like to." On the 12th lap, Brown had a big scare when he washed out in a turn, but he had built up a big enough cushion to keep his lead. Brown went on to take the win with six seconds to spare over Jesseman and 16 seconds over Bentley, who pulled off his goggles and did everything in his power to keep Brock Sellards from passing him and getting muddy roost slung in his eyes. "I could just see through the strip [through his Roll-Off], then I just couldn't take it anymore," Bentley said. But the day belonged to Brown. "I got a good start, better than I've been [getting]," Brown said of his race. "I came out in the top five and worked my way into first. Branden was riding good, and he caught up to me, and I didn't want to push too hard to crash, so he got around me. I figured I'd just stay back there and watch his lines and see where he was going and put the pressure on a little bit and see what happens. I just didn't want to burn myself out in the beginning of the race. I just did what I thought I should do. And he made a mistake. I did the same thing ... I crashed in a corner. I thought, 'Man, I shouldn't be doing that.''' Unfortunately for Jesseman, he wasn't close enough to capitalize on Brown's mistake. "I made a few mistakes; I crashed once, and I let myself tighten up, and it cost me the win today," Jesseman said. Bentley was happy to get on the podium for the second week in a row. "It feels awesome," Bentley said. "I had to put up a fight and give it everything I had. I haven't raced this race in about five years, and I gave it all I had, and I came up third - I'm so happy. 1 even stayed with them. This my Own Race: 12Scc 1] @@ Ryan Morais 14th The Motoworldradng.com/Suzuki rider was one of many riders who got caught up in a first lap pileup in the 125cc main. By the time he got going, Morais was nearly a half-lap down, but he charged up through the pack only to fall down again. He still salvaged a 14th. @@ Steve Boniface @71 Jeff Gibson 15th Boniface also got held up in the pileup. His bike ended up on the side of the track at the bottom of a table-top. By the time he got going again, Boniface was nearly a lap down, but he managed to dimb back up to 15th. 13th The Team ECC/Suzuki rider was another who got taken out in the first-lap pileup. Gibson then mounted a strong comeback, finishing out the race in 13th. 1] ~® Brett Metcalfe @71@ Matthieu Lalloz 6th After highsiding off the face of a jump while leading, the Red Bull KTM rider got back up in seventh but could only get one position back. "He got a ~lttle tired," 'said team manager Larry Brooks. 12th A bad start didn't help MatthieulalJoz any. The Team SaBe Suzuki rider start off in 16th but dimbed up to 10th before dropping back to 12th. "He just hit the wall," saId his tuner Tim McAdams. "He got tired. It was a vicious track; it ate him up."

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