Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Cycle News 2003 05 21

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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Ricky Cannichael chases down Kevin Windham in the second moto. Cannichael extended his moto win streak to 26 in the 250cc class. The streak goes all the way back to 2001. miliar to me, and I didn't know quite where it went into the corner. In the heat of the battle I didn't get the line I wanted to. I tried to power through the corner and up the face of the jump continuing the turn. I slid off the edge of the track. The thing about Glen Helen, you come out of a turn that's loam, deep, deep mud or loam into something that's shiny, just the inconsistency of the dirt kind of got to me." Windham got to his feet and picked up the bike before Carmichael rode past, but he could not get the big four-stroke to fire back up. He kicked and kicked as Carmichael went past, as did Reed, and then Hamblin, Ferry and pretty much the rest of the pack. He finally got back going again around 20th place. "I don't want anybody to get the misconception that the bike is hard to start," Windham said. "It was the first time for me to fall in race conditions. There's a technique that you need to use to get the thing back running, and I didn't use it just because I was the anxiety, the race pace and everything was in my blood. I got caught up in the moment and learned a valuable lesson." When Windham went down, Carmichael inherited a somewhat comfortable lead over Reed, who had just gotten around Ferry. Hamblin held down a distant third, followed by Sebastien Tortelli, Vuillemin, Travis Pastrana and Lusk. But the only rider on Carmichael's mind was Reed, who was about 10 seconds back. For the second half of the race, Carmichael pretty much held that margin to take holeshot in the first moto, and, man, he was gone! I've seen him riding when we've been testing, and I knew he was going to be good. He's a great rider. I love to just watch him. It's unfortunate that he fell down, and I think things might've been a little bit different, because he was setting an unbelievable pace out there. So there's no telling what could've happened. I know he was turning a lot faster lap times than me in practice, and at that point [when Windham was leading] I was just relying on my fitness and was hoping for a mistake on his part. I would've liked to have seen if I could catch him, but he went down." The second moto again saw Windham blast out of the gate into the lead. And, once again, Carmichael started off about fifth but quickly moved to the front of the pack. He had control of second place by the second lap and this time was not about to let Windham get too far out too early. Still, Carmichael had about three seconds to pull in, and he did so slowly but surely. By the third lap, he was right on Windham's rear fender and pretty much had radar lock on him. A couple of laps later, Carmichael cut to the inside of Windham in a turn and executed a clean pass on the four-stroke rider in the same spot where Windham crashed out of the lead in moto one. From there, Carmichael slowly but steadily pulled away from the field, including Reed, who continually lost ground to the battling Windham and Carmichael. By the second half of the race, the lead group had spread out significantly, and Carmichael had such a big lead that he was able to cruise After beating Cannichael in the last seven Supercross rounds, everyone was wondering how Chad Reed would do outdoors in the 250cc class for the first time. Well, he did pretty well, going 2-3 for second overall. (Abovel Kevin Windham, the last rider to beat Cannichael outdoors at Washougal two years ago, nearly ended Cannichael's win streak at Glen Helen but crashed while way out in front in the first moto. Windham ended up going 14-2 for fifth overall. the win over Reed, who held a comfortable margin over Ferry. Tortelli ended up fourth over Lusk and Vuillemin. Hamblin ended up crashing out of the race, while Windham salvaged 14th. "I got a decent start," Carmichael said of the first moto. "Kevin got the cue I • n e _ S • MAY 21. 2003 11

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