Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

THQ World Supercross GP SeriesiAMA Supercross Series Round 14/13: Silverdome man became the second AMA champ from the state of Pennsylvania_ The other? Tony DiStefano. who won the 1975. 1976 and 1977 250cc National Motocross Championships. Coincidentally. they both did their winnln9 on Suzukls. BRIEFLY••• The Pontiac Silverdome actually looked pretty full this year. when you didn't look at the upper deck. The top of the stadium was almost completely lifeless. Attendance this year was 50.818. last year, the attendance was 58,920. Attendance was no doubt affected significantly by the ice storm that hit the area in the days before the event and knocked out much of the surrounding area's electricity. The entire Pontiac Silverdome was running on generators for the Pontiac Supercross. The power in the area went out before the weekend, causing many of the teams staying locally to have to move their accommodations elsewhere In the area. It seems the outage was due to a local ice storm. Over 200.000 houses were reportedly without electricity in the area. Because of the ice storm, it was really cold outside the SiIverdome. Unlike many domes, the pits were actually located outside, which made for some very cold teammembers and nders. It was snowing throughout the day - even when the sun came out. Most of the people in the pits understandably spent most of their time inside their rigs, Actually. the fact that there are so many injured riders right now may have been better for many teams. because most teams were working on bikes inside their rigs. and with all the riders healthy. there wouldn't have been enough room. Speaking of snow, Mike Cox, the Midwest Burton Snow· boards representative, was on hand in the press box. Cox has the distinction of bein9 the longest-lasting Burton Snowboard rep in the country. 'We're fans. man." Cox said of supercross. '1 was standing out in the pits and I was like. 'Dude, I got laRocco's autograph!' And then all the riders are like, 'Dude. you work for Burton!?' It's pretty funny. We ride a couple days a week all summer long. " Wisconsin's Cole Pritchard battled it out to win the KTM Jr_ Supereross Challenge, taking the lead from Michigan's own Kyler Gimenez about halfway throu9h the race. Michigander Brendan Hortemiller finished third. Bradley Ripple won the $250 Asterisk Medic Card for finishing fifth in the 125cc LCQ, and Doug DeHaan got the 750 extra dollars in the form of the Racer X Gas Card for finishing third in the 250cc LCQ. Nicholson Yamaha's Jimmy Wilson (below) made history of sorts on his Yamaha in Pontiac. He was the first to run any of Michelin's colored treads in a supercross main event. He finished 18th. The 125cc SX Championship was also the 12th for Suzuki since the 125cc Regional system started in 1985. The other champs are Bobby Moore <1985, 125cc WestJ, Willie Surratt (1987. 125cc West). Ron Tichenor <1987. 125cc EastJ. Todd DeHoop <1988, 125cc EastJ, Denny Stephenson (1990. 125cc Eastl. Brian Swink (1992. 125cc EastJ. Ezra Lusk (1994. 125cc Eastl, Damon Huffman (1994-1995. 125cc West), Tim Ferry (1997, 125cc Eastl and TraVIS Pastrana (2001, 125cc Eastl. The Amsoil/Chaparral Honda team's two remainin9 healthy riders aren't anymore, as Travis Preston and Ryan Mills both had spills in practice. Preston went over the bars in the whoops and hurt his left knee. Mills crashed and hurt his left hand. After getting X-rays in the Asterisk Mobile Medical Center, it was found that Preston's knee mainly had an impact bruise, while Mills wrist was also bruised. Neither rider rode in the night program. Preston hopes to be healthy for the remaining two rounds of the 125cc Westem Regional Supercross Series starting next week in Dallas. Texas, and will reportedly get an MRI if his knee doesn't start to feel better early this coming week. One very interested party in the press box was Doug Fehan. the Chevrolet Corvette C5-R Endurance Race team director. He proved that racing's racing by coming up with many observations about the sport of supercross that most first·timers usually don't realize right away. "There are so many similarities. The fact that there's only two wheels ... " Fehan said. 'When you look at how brutai the track is, Just phYSically. it's not too unlike what we do in our car. It's a different deal. but it's 150 degrees, and you're running for at least an hour· half the time it's in pitch black in rain, wet... It's always a physical challenge coupled with the actual mechanized part of it. The foundation is the same, just a little different medium, I}.ut I love this stuff_ One guy, one bike. going against 20 other guys, and you're Just duking it out.' Chad Reed was sporting a new look on his double deuces on the back of his jersey. The first 2 was colored like the Australian flag, while the second was decorated in an American-flag motif. 'We're in a pretty critical time, and we've got a lot of Americans and a lot of Australians out there trying to keep us safe - trying to keep supercross running week to week . and I'd like to thank them a lot.' Reed said. Sean Hamblin's jersey (rightJ was also designed in support of the mili· tary. The rider. who got a chance to fly with the Blue Angels earlier in the year, not oniy had camouflaged threes on his back, the No Fear 1090 on his chest was also of a special design. The No Fear logo features four "windows." and they were filled with an M 1Al Abrams tank. an aircraft carrier. an F-l1 7 Stealth Fighter, and a Marine soldier, representing the Army, Navy, Air Force. and Marine Corps, respectively. Bobby J's Yamaha/Star Racin9's Kevin John· son crashed hard In the 125cc main and lay motionless in the track for long enough to worry a lot of people. '1 just cased a double. and when I hit the ground it pulled my foot off the peg, and I hit the next jump with one foot on the peg, and it threw me sideways. and I crashed,' he said. 'i jammed my knee, and it popped really funny, and now it hurts, so I don't know what it is. I need an MRI." Team Solitaire's Erick Vallejo also got off just one straightaway further along on the track. He was clearly unconscious after his fall but was in 900d spirits. all things considered, a couple of hours after the race ended. '" don't even know what happened - I don't remember," he said. '1 feel fine: my head just really hurts. I don't know what happened: I don't remember how I was riding or anything. " SoBe Suzuki's Sean Hamblin grabbed his very first $1500 SXGP.com 250cc Holeshot Award. while Tiger lacey got the $1000 SXGP.com 125cc Holeshot Award for what seems like the umpteenth time. With his clinching of the 125cc Eastern Regional Supercross Championship at the final round in Pontiac, Branden Jesse- 32 APRIL 16. 2003' cue I • n .. _ Boost MobilelYamaha/Troy Racing's Brock Sellards had a was the gearbox that 9ave out on his thumper. Red Bull KTM's Brett Metcalfe had a weird crash as well. as his bike be9an to smoke two laps from the finish. and almost immediately afterward he was spit off while tripling a set of four jumps and was sent falling to the ground without his bike. 'So far he's fine,' Team Manager Larry Brooks said. 'They just called me from the hospital. and he's fine - well. they're gOing to check his ribs, but it just looks like a contusion on his hip. He landed on that pretty hard and then the bike slammed him, but he's fine. So far, so good.• It seems that Josh Woods, who started the year with the Red Bull KTM team with a supercross-only contract. has been rewarded for his hard work. 'Wooos is 90ln9 to nde 125s for us for the rest of this year and also next year.' Brooks said.• He might miss a few Nationals because he's got two broken heels, but KTM's standing behind him not only for this year, but for 2004 as well. • And, as far as the rumors of KTM developing a rear-suspension linkage for its motocross bikes. Brooks said, "We're talking a little bit about different rear suspension, but PDS is the way that KTM is right now, and until we decide to go a different direction, we'll let you know." Ricky Carmichael was wearing his orange Fox gear again after two straight defeats wearing other colors. Did he switch to help him beat Reed? - No. I've won in all kinds of different colors that's not it at all. It's just that I haven't worn it for a while, and I figured I'd switch it up,' he said. "Just something different. and have some fun out there. Switch it up." AX champ Josh Demuth said that AX and SX are quite dif· ferent. 'There's just a lot more obstacles to leam on the track. In arenaoross, you pretty much have everything dialed within a couple laps," he said. 'The whoops in arenacross definitely helped here tooay - they were aimost exactly the same. Also the length of the races. It's a different type of training. We train our bOGies for arenacross to do a short sprint. and here it's kind of a longer mota. so you kind of have to do an endurance thing. Larry Ward may soon be stamng in the TV show, Wal·Mart Great Outdoors. '1 filmed a pilot turkey-hunting show this week,' he said. 'The guys at Seals Communication are trying to renew their contract with Wal-Mart for the next three years, and they're looking to try to get a young, new host in there, and I filmed a pilot show this week and had a really 900d time. I called in a lot of birds, and I was a little rough on some parts, but other parts were 9000. So they're going to put a show together and make me look as good as they can, and hopefully Wal-Mart will re-sponsor the show. I'll be 33 here in a couple days. and you can't race motorcy· c1es and jump dirt hills your whole life. so I'm just kind of looking for something else to get a little paycheck and see some new places and learn some new things ... Ward was confused about who exactly Is the top privateer also. "One week they tell me I'm top privateer; the next week they tell me I'm not.' he said. '1 understand that there's two separate series. but it seems like now they're saying all the privateer stuff is just for the World series, so I'd kind of like an explanation on that.' Keith R. Johnson is leading the Top Privateer series. as only the riders who rode the races in Europe apparently qualify: Ricky Carmichael had his theories on this year's injuries: '1 think that everyone's trying to step ~ up, and they're riding over their head - they're not riding within their limits. When you're not riding in control, there's but one way to go. and that's to hit the 9round. There's a lot of races, too. These guys raced in Europe and all this stuff. and they're so fried and so wore out that it's easy to make mistakes. and it's easy to not be on top of your game_ That's probably half the reason right there." Will Carmichael race in Europe next year? '1 haven't even thou9ht that far.' he said. '1 take it a week at a time, and that's so far down the line that I don't even think about it. It's a lot of races. I can't imagine haVing more races. Pretty soon there'll only be one or two factory guys left fat the end of the season}." On April 1sl. www.racerxill.com played an April Fool's joke on the motocross community as the site posted a release saying Ricky Carmichael would be riding both classes in the Nationals this summer aboard Honda four·strokes. 'Someone told me about It.' Carmichael said. "I didn't see it. but I heard it and laughed. Anybody that believes that doesn't follow our sport well enough, because they would know that you can't ride both classes outdoors.• scary crash while running second to his teammate Ivan Tedesco in the main event as his YZ250F spewed smoke and stopped rather abruptly in the whoops - right in front of third-placed Mike Brown. Brown hit him square in the back and leg. A member of the team said Sellards had his leg checked out, and though the results weren't known yet. he was walking on it. Reportedly, it s Team Racerhouse.com privateer James Povolny Jr. made a return to racing after receiving a concussion while practicing after Daytona. In his time off Povolny got married to Donita Frazier in his home state of Minnesota. He made the main event and finished 17th.

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