Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Every lap, Reed's pitboard was telling him to go faster and faster. "I'd like to know what it takes to not get 'go now' or 'push more' on my pitboard," he said. "Every weekend, I could be winning, like Anaheim I, I was way out in front and he [Reed's mechanic Dave Dye] is like, 'c'mon, more.' so I'm like, 'all right, let's see what I've got.'" Carmichael felt that he at least could've made a race of it if not for his slip-up in the whoops. m "It definitely throws you off a little bit when you have some momentum going - it throws you off your rhythm," Carmichael said. "I shouldn't have made a mistake, and I did, and it definitely didn't help. I felt that if I didn't have that mistake, it would've been a lot closer." Reed won the race by just over four and a half seconds, with Carmichael coming in behind him. "It was a good ride," Carmichael said of Reed's race. "Chad was riding 4th Hamblin didn't triple one of the triples on the seventh lap, and his trouble in the whoops eventually allowed Fonseca to catch him up. Fonseca got by on the 11 th lap, and although Hamblin kept him honest for kind of made a mistake, and I had a pretty good drive through there, and I think he cased that double at the end, and I kind of just made it through, and I passed him. I had maybe two or three laps that were really consistent - really good - and I had a little bit of a lead after that and kind of stayed the same all the way to the end." Fonseca made the top three a carbon copy of the podium each of the previous two weeks before Pontiac, and Hamblin couldn't be too disappointed with his best-ever supercross finish in fourth - the last rider on the lead lap. Brian Mason 13th 7th "I'm not bummed, just a little disappointed," Hamblin said of missing out on the podium. "You've got to put the stones in front before you can cross a river, so... " "I don't want to really say that I'm happy with third, but I want to be realistic, and I want to look at Chad and Ricky's lap times, and I think they're a little bit faster right now," Fonseca said. "I want to go back to California and try to improve on what I've gotten. I'm getting closer and closer as the season goes on. Right now I think they're a little bit further ahead, and when Ricky passed me, I think my main goal was to try to stay behind him - stay as close to him as I could. It seemed like they kept inching away, little by little, so I just tried to ride my own pace and not make mistakes, and I think it's going to pay off. But right now these guys are a little bit faster, and I'm happy with third." Fonseca was 47.157 seconds the main again this week and called it a night. "Last week in practice I came up short on a jump, and my hand came off, and I hit my chest really hard," he said. "This week, , didn't ride any 'cause I was too sore, and I got here, and I had the medic guys check me out after the first practice, and it tums out I have some cracked ribs. But I had a good heat race, even though I'm not 100 percent, but I got thrown over the bars in the main, and I landed on my back pretty good. I was spitting up some blood, and I was really sore." ®~ Keith R. Johnson ®7J 10th Ryan Clark 6th Bobby J's Yamaha/Star Racing's top privateer matched his careerbest finish of a week ago. "The last four laps. I got a lot of sweat in my goggles from running down to the start because' took my bike off of the stand, and the shock bolt broke, so we had to fix that," he said. "I threw off my goggles and just held on." rode well in Pontiac. "Just coming around the first comer, I got tangled up with 8 few guys, and a couple riders went down on the outside, and I had to stop and kind of go around, but I got off to a pretty good start, I guess: he said. "There was a few guys down, and I just had a real good time through the whoops, so my bike was working really good, and I was able to make like four or five passes in the whoops up to 10th place," Nick Wey Larry Ward LB 7JwasClark Stiles effects of a crash last week, 20th he fell in Stiles still feeling the when Racerhouse.com(Troy Lee Designs' YZ450F rider rode well but had bad luck at the beginning of the race. "Me and Lytle pulled out a good start, and we both went down in the first tum," he said, "so I just got back up and started picking people off." LB® Josharenacross champ Demuth The two-time 1] @ The MotoXXX veteran had a hard time adjusting to the track in the Silverdome. "I struggled all weekend here with the slick, rocky conditions, and the whoops were real good," he said. "The fourstroke definitely is a handful in those big, slick whoops. I got better every practice. Dunlop tires and Noleen suspension, we fine-tuned and got it better all night, but I definitely wasn't lOO-percent comfortable out there. So I'll take 8 seventh." SoBe Suzuki's star replacement rider of his best-ever 250cc supercross finish. "I holeshot and ran that pace with Ricky and Chad. and that's all right - that's where I need to be - but I need to be there for at least 15 laps of intense racing, and I'm only up to about eight right now. I think it's good, though, that' got to start with them and gradually work my way to the podium." ~7J the rest of the race, he couldn't get close enough again to strike. '" passed him in the whoops," Fonseca said of Hamblin. "I think he Own Race: 250cc ®® Seanpretty happy," said Hamblin "Overall, I'm ®1] really good tonight, and he handed it to me. It was a good time; the bike was good; I just have to go home and do some more work." 8th Mach 1 Yamaha's hometown boy had a hard time. "I just wasn't feeling real good coming in here this weekend," he said. "I've been sick for like two weeks - they told me I have walking pneumonia this week - and I just came here and tried to make do with what I had. I left it all on the track. It was going against me all week. I had a good start and fell in the first tum, and I had to fix my bike a little to get it going. I think I ended up getting eighth, so it could've been worse, but I wasn't looking for eighth." 9th The Team Solitaire boss felt he rode well. "I was actually really happy with the way I rode in the main," he said. "The first half was really good, and I passed Larry (Ward], and I was making time on Keith (R. Johnson], and' thought I would pass hjm before the end of the race, but right after I passed Larry, I made a mistake, and he got me right back. It killed my momentum, and I started riding defensive, and Nick [WeyJ passed me." ~~ behind Reed at the finish, with Hamblin another five seconds behind. Mach 1 Yamaha's Voss rounded out the top five one lap down on his YZ450F. With the win. Reed is now out of reach for the THQ World Supercross Championships, leading injured teammate David Vuillemin by 88 points with only 75 possible in the remaining three rounds. Jason Thomas 14th The Subway rider is hungry for better finishes. "I was kind of riding tight all night, but I got a 15th-place start and was trying to move forward, passed a couple guys, then crashed in the whoops pretty hard," he said. "I got up and charged and passed Tyler Evans back again towDrd the end. I need better StDrtS in the main to get inside the top 10.' "I have mixed feelings on it," Reed cue. e n e _ so • APRIL 16. 2003 31

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