Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128212
Jacob Sayor was smoking in the Pro class. He topped both 250cc classes and the 125cc Stock Pro class. North Carolina sent Cobra-mounted Gavin Trettel to do battle in the older Pee Wee classes, as well as the younger 65cc Junior Cycle. Trettel swept the 50cc Modified (7-8) on a Cobra and"ffle 65cc Stoc 6-8) events o~ Suzukis. Alt aug e headed into Sunday's 65cc Modified (6-8) and 50cc Stock (7-8) nm-offs with division wins, his fourth in the Pee Wee and eighth in the Junior Cycle garnered hir;n a third and fifth overall, respectively. Suzuki's Ben LaMay ventured down from Alaska and took no prisoners in Sunday's Stock and Modified 85cc (1. 11) run-offs. LaMay had his work cut out from the get-go, going into both main events with underdog scores but using run-off wins to take the championship in the Stock class with 2- 1 and the Modifle with a 3-1. California's M'{hael Hall put two slashes in the Kawasaki win column by taking the 65cc Open class wi a blazing 1- 1 win, and then he wefjt on to clai the ove~-all and championship in the 65cc Stock (9- 11) with a 2-1 punch. KTM's stealth missile, Zach Osborne, once again put. the new 85cc KTM on top of the podium in BRIEFLY. •• American Suzuki has racked up top podium finishes in the last 11 major amateur events. Suzuki captured 10 of the 34 titles up for grabs at the World Minis.• Suzuki has worked really hard to develop our motocross race program'- Suzuki's MX support manager Cole Gress said. .. From Suzuki" 5 production testing to our rider development. we have manifested an elite pro· gram that has raised the bar in amateur racing. - Yamaha had eight wins. while Honda had five. Kawasaki. KTM and Cobra all won four titles each. Califomia produced the most winners at this year's World Minis. Califomia came away with 10 wins, followed by Rorida, Michigan and Kentucky. each posting three wins. New to the World Minis this year was a live webcast on Sunday. Announcer Kevin Kelly kept over 19.000 signed-on listeners tuned to motocrosslive.com and ktmtalk.com through Houston. Texas, on what was going on during the races. which included multiple interviews with riders and various vendors. Pat Forbes and Bob Davis proVided the service. Ever wonder how the World Mini Grand Prix came about? A chat with promoter and president of NMA Ron Henricksen revealed the answer. Henricksen started the NMA in 1970 when he ran minibikes on a mini track at Indian Dunes in Valencia. California. He went to the general manager. Walk James. and told him he wanted to start up a big race and run the minis on the big track and call it a World Mini Championship. When James commented. "It sounds more like a grand prix than a mini race." Ron took the comment and came up with the World Mini Grand Prix. That was back in the day of minibike Tacos. Carabellas. Mini Mates. Powells. Zebras. Tahatsu. Flexos. Cats and Birds. Henricksen then went to Jacksonville. Florida. and started the Mini Olympics in 1972. Later on when the Japanese motorcycle companies starting coming into the United States. Hen· ricksen designed the original Factory Contingency program for Yamaha. FollOWing that was the "Tuner Awards" for Kawasaki. since riders could not receive money. In 1985 Henricksen brought the World Mini Grand Prix to Las Vegas. where it has remained since. From the original 420 entries in 1972. this year's World Mini tipped the scale at a claimed 2677 entries. the 85cc Stock (12-13) event. Osborne finished second to Yamaha's Josh Hill of Washington, in the Modified category. "I don't have a modified KTM yet, so I had to use my stock bike," he said. "It was a little awkwa d off the start, but L-tlfulk Ldid really welL Josh Hill was going really, really fast." The first of the four Pro races rolled around midday on Thursday, with Steve Haughelstine of California leading off the gate. But he went down in the first tum, which resulted in a major pileup. Racers Edge/ Chuck Franklin team rider Tim Weigand managed to escape the melee and led from the first lap to the checkered flag. Nick Adams cased a jump hard the first time through the six-pack whoops, banging his head on the cross bar. Adams was done for the week after that. Jimmy Nelson followed Wiegand in second, with Saylor rounding out the top three. "It was the first moto of the week, and I had the jitters," Saylor said. "But I still got on the podium, and that was my goal." In the second moto, Derek Costel0: U 0: I e La got the holeshot but was caught up in that first-turn crash of moto one and finished 16th. Wiegand was second out of the hole with Jacob Saylor on his rear wheel, and he eventually passed Wiegand on lap two. Saylor chased down Costella on lap four for the lead and held it to the end saying, "I got a good start and made the pass I needed to get the Championship." Wiegand said, "It was an early morning moto, and the track was muddy and kind of one lined. I pretty much just raced in third, but I'm happy with second overall." The 125cc Modified was the only Pro event that had to scale down the gate by use of division races. Both Laughridge and Saylor headed into the run-off with single points. Saylor was after his fourth win of the week, while Laughridge just wanted to redeem himself. Kawasaki's Team Green rider, Bryan Johnson, nailed a perfect holeshot in the final run-off, but Laughridge was on fire and took the lead by the end of the first lap. A three-way battle developed involving Johnson, Weigand and Brian Gray. Saylor had a little difficulty, though. n e _ so • MAY 7,2003 61