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Cycle News 2003 04 23

Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles

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THQ World Supercross GP SerieslAMA Supercross Series Round 13/15: Texas Stadium (Left) Nick Wey was on the gas and finished fourth after battling with Fonseca. (Right) For the second week In a row, Heath Voss match his career high finish with a fifth. race, but Bill Ferry, Wey's team manager, said that Wey was still fighting a cold and got a little winded late in the race. For the second week in a row, Heath Voss rounded out the top five after starting off in eighth. "My first seven or eight laps were great," Voss said. "I was riding really well, catching Weyand Fonseca, but I made a couple of mistakes in the whoops. Once my position was established after about eight, 10 laps, I pretty much just rode it out till the end." eN Tex•• Stadium Irving, Tex•• Re.ults: April 12, 2003 [Round 13/151 HEAT 1 (8 laps, 1-4 transfer): 1. Cheld Reed (Vom); 2. Nick Wey (Vom); 3. Brock Sellords (Vom); 4. Ivan Tedesco (Yam): 5. Tyler Evans (Suz); 6. Josh Demuth (Yam); 7. Keith Johnson (Yllm): 8. Casey Lytle (Vom); 9. Joseph Oehlhof (Hon); 10. Joson Thomos (Hon); 11. Ryon Clork (Vom); 12. Zeb Armstrong (Hon); 13. Karsten Butler (Suz): 14. Brian Mason (Yam); 15. Doug DeHalin (Hon); 16. Mark Wundreck (Vam); 17. Jecob Merlin (Yam); 18. Hans Neel (KTM); 19. Scott Oovis (Suz): 20. Edd;e Roy Jr. (Hon). Race Time: 7 min., 6.718 sec. Reed eventually took the checkered flag 2.002 seconds ahead of Carmichael. Moments after the race, the two riders pulled over and shook hands. "The race tonight was great," Reed said. "It all started off in practice - I really liked the track. You had to be on your toes to find traction out there, and I think that was the key." "It was a good race, but I got beat tonight," Carmichael said. "It was a close race, and it basically came down to mistakes. Chad was riding really well, as well as myself. I think I can get a little better; I think I can always be a little better - in the whoops for one place, and Chad's best friends, and I wouldn't jack him up." Overall, Carmichael felt it was a clean race with Reed. "It's fun to race Chad and not take a cheap shot like anyone else," Carmichael said. "It reminds me of racing with Jeremy [McGrath]. It's fun to race when you don't have to look behind your shirt. I've told everyone before that I don't want to run in there and take someone out and take the chance of putting a hole through my radiator. It was good, clean racing." Reed and Carmichael weren't the only riders in the main event, of course, but at times it seemed that way. Finishing a distant third was really good in the whoops. Obviously I need to improve there. It's frustrating for me not to win. I'll try to rebound from it. I still have a lot of confidence, and the main thing is the championship. " Carmichael went on to say that he didn't have too much trouble with the lappers but did have one incident in particular that he felt really held him up. "The lappers really weren't too bad, except my good buddy Brock Sellards; he'll be finding a new place to stay this winter," he said. "But even if he did get in my way, who's to say if I would've won or lost? But it certainly didn't help matters. If I was a better rider, I wouldn't have had to worry about that." "All I did was move to the right for Chad," Sellards explained. "I let him by, got behind him, went over one step-up, [and] Carmichael was deathrevving it like crazy. I went clear off the right side of the track and went 2-1 on the triple - I didn't jump the triple [in order] to let him by. I mean, I don't see how he could be possibly mad about that. Ricky is one of my 10 APRIL 23, 2003' cue I Carmichael's teammate Ernesto Fonseca, who has finished on the podium, in third, four weeks in a row. After a fourth-place start, Fonseca moved into third after passing Ward on the fourth lap and from there held down that position until late in the race, when he went off the course, and Mach 1 Yamaha's Nick Wey got around him. "I got off to a pretty good start and was riding pretty good," Fonseca said of his race. "I had a pretty good lead on Nick, and then all of a sudden 1 ran off the track and jumped over some hay bales - I can't believe I didn't crash. He [Wey] passed me, and I rode behind him for, I don't know, maybe five or six laps and almost crashed again a couple of times, saved it somehow. I passed him eventually, and then I tried to stay consistent and not make any mistakes. It was a lot tougher than it's been the last few weeks." Fonseca is currently a solid third in e the series points standings. Wey, who ended up fourth, was unavailable for comment after the n e _ 50 [J{]@1!i!l UW@W @@f1 Qualifying UW@[?@ There was no reason to do any standing in the first 250cc heat race, which tends to be the case when the winner does so by more than 22 seconds. Yamaha's Chad Reed had no factory riders to dice with, so he jumped out to an early lead and rode off with the win. He did have to pass Team Racerhouse.com/SRT's Brian Mason and Boost Mobile/Yamaha/Troy Racing's Brock Sellards on the first lap, but that was about it. Sellards, meanwhile, held down second place for most of the race until Mach 1 Yamaha's Nick Wey got him at the end to finish second, dropping Sellards to third. Finishing well back in fourth was Sellard's teammate Ivan Tedesco. The second heat race was at least interesting, with Carmichaei crashing and Kenny Bartram's bike snapping in half off a jump. It all started. with Carmichael's nailing the holeshot and jumping out to a comfortable lead over Mach 1 Yamaha's Heath Voss and SoBe Suzuki's Sean Hamblin. Carmichael, who has been crashing a lot as of late, went down again - all alone. Carmichael overcooked it going into a bowl tum and went flying off the track, though his bike remained upright, leaning against the Tuff Blocks at the top of the berm. By the time Carmichael got back going again, the defending champ was running fourth behind Voss, Hamblin and MotoXXX's Larry Ward. Carmichael then started his comeback. Meanwhile, Bartram got the Dallas crowd to gasp when his KTM snapped in half as he landed off of a long triple jump (pictured). Bartram was obviously shaken in the sudden and unexpected crash, but he got up and limped back to the pits while his mechanic carried his bike. Carmichael eventually got around Ward and then inherited second when Hamblin crashed and was carried off on a backboard. (He would return for the semis.) Once into second, Carmichael tracked. down Voss but seemed to have a hard time getting around. On the last lap, Carmichael finally put the move on Voss to take the win, with Voss taking second and Ward a distant third. Fourth went to Yamaha rider Greg Schnell. "I don't know what I was doing; I was aU over the place," Carmichael said. "That was embarrassing. I've got to get things figured out for the main.· The first 250cc semi featured close racing but not too much passing, but one of the few passes was for the lead and eventual win. Team SOlitaire's Ryan Clark came away with the win after passing Subway's Jason Thomas early in the race. Later on, Thomas got passed by ReMax Yamaha rider Casey Lytle, making the top three Clark, Lytle and Thomas. Team ECC's Tyler Evans and Mason rounded. out the top five. The second semi was a snoozer. Team Honda's Emesto Fonseca, who crashed on the first lap of his heat race, took the win going away, finishing well ahead of Hamblin, who surprised many just by showing up to the line after his earlier fall. Hamblin rode conservatively in second the whole way, finishing comfortably ahead of James Povolny, Moto XXX's Clark Stiles, and Shogun Yamaha's Tommy Hofmaster. Shogun's Josh Demuth won the LCQ, but most of the drama involved Star Racing's Keith R. Johnson. After crashing in his semi, Johnson was running third behind Subway's Joe Oehlhof in the LCQ, one spot out of a transfer. Not only was Johnson battling for a spot to get into the main event, but he was also trying to keep his hopes alive for the yearend Privateer fund, worth $25,000 and a brand new Nissan truck. He's currently leading Ryan Clark for the prize, but if he didn't get around Oehlhof, he most likely would've conceded the Privateer fund to Clark. Johnson just couldn't get around Oehlhof, but two laps from the end, Oehlhof bobbled, and Johnson got around him to finish second.

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