Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

BRIEFLY••• There were a number of walking wounded in the pits come Sunday morning, but the funny thing is that many of them had smiles on their faces. Motorcycle Product News sponsored a minicycle race on the Red Bud supercross track on Saturday night, and Guy Cooper even provided a bunch of his Extreme Motor Co, 107cc XR50 minis, Michigan's own Jeff Stanton won both of his classes, The Wednesday before the Red Bud National, the NPG organized a riding session with Mike LaRocco and Pee Wee miniGycle champ Kyle Frese, of Dowagiac, Michigan, "This was a lot of fun," LaRocco said, "I was not nearly as good as Kyle when I was that age, If he sticks with it. he could be really good in a number of years." "Man, this was fun!" Frese confirmed. "I can't wait for Sunday to see Mike race, I think he's gOl1na win for sure'" They ended the session with LaRocco jumping over Frese and his parked bike over LaRocco's Leap, Considering the track conditions during Saturday practice, many 250cc riders didn't even try LaRocco's Leap until Sunday, but Chevy Trucks Kawasaki's James Stewart gave it a shot on his 125. He came up really, really short - scarily short - but immediately pumped his fist in the air after the recovery to let everyone know he was okay, Here's some fantasy-racing fodder: If James Stewart keeps making up points on Mike Brown at the last six rounds the way he has at the last two, he would beat Brown in points by eight. SoBe Suzuki's Stephane Roncada went down in a heap in a first-turn tangle with John Dowd and dropped out for the day with badly split lip and a run-over arm, "I hit Windham I think, and it was just kind of a chain reaction from there," Dowd said. "My bike was on top of Roncada's, actually, but I picked it up and kept going," There's nO word yet on whether or not he'll be back for Troy. No Fear/Factory Connection/Lee Dungarees Honda's Kevin Windham confinmed he will be racing supercross next year, but on what and for whom isn't clear just yet. "All that's up in the air right now," he said, "Things are working well right now, but this thing came together really quick, and it takes a long time to get the deals worked out, and there's so many different sponsors and people that have to come together to make this work, but once this deal was done, it's worked out to be an incredible deal for me, because of the flexibility I have and all that. When you have so many people helping you out, it takes a little while to do the deal. It's definitely a hot topic right now. I need to get it done soon so I can be confident in what's going on next year and just keep plugging away. I'm definitely riding supercross." And as to whether he thinks he'll be aboard a two-stroke or a four-stroke indoors in 2004, Windham responded: "I haven't ruled out a four-stroke for supercross, I've just got to ride a little bit on my practice track at home, and we'll see, There's no guarantee, I think Nathan [Ramsey] actually prefers his 450 in supercross over the four-stroke in outdoors - he actually thinks the bike's a bigger advantage indoors, So, I haven't put in a good effort on a supercross with it. and until I do, I'm not going to take anybody's suggestions, I want to decide for myself once I get out there and turn some laps on it. I've just been busy lately keeping up with the motocross." JeH Montgomery was serving as the new team manager for the Boost Mobile/Yamaha/Troy Racing team, replacing Aussie Craig Dack, Kelly Smith let us in on what happened to his bike three weeks ago at Budds Creek, when it broke while he was running fourth. "I had a rock smash my radiator hose, and it sprung a leak and dumped all of the water out," he said, "I actually did that before the halfway point. and I made it all the way to the two-lap board before I finally burned the head gasket out of it, It was kind of disappointing because I knew I would have a top-four finish easy," Smith also talked about his new ride for 2004, "I'm going to ride the Kawasaki," Smith said. "Whether it's with Pro Circuit or in the factory rig, I don't know yet, but I'll be on the new fourstroke. " Front-nunning privateer Steve Mertens had to have his YZ250F hauled back to the pits after having mechanical difficulty during his qualifier, "The bike blew up," he said, "It's been sputtering all day, and finally it just let go, I'll get them next week, I guess." Team Honda's Nathan Ramsey was forced to sit out the Red Bud National. "I fell in practice yesterday, and I hurt my left wrist." he said. "Doc looked at it and said he didn't see any fractures, but they might show up in a couple days, so I didn't want to risk it. I don't know if I'll be able to ride next week," Team Yamaha's David Vuillemin feels like he's adapting to the 450 better and better all the time. "Yeah, the 450's a good bike," he said, "You know, I broke my back in March, so that's a big deal, and you lose a lot of things - fitness and strength. And you know it took me a while to jump that LaRocco's Leap, I jumped it, but I'm not very comfortable yet." Mach 1 Yamaha's Heath Voss made his long-awaited return to racing at Red Bud, He was happy to be back at the track, "Oh, it's great." he said, "I took about four weeks off from riding after my concussion at Hangtown, and I feel so much better than I did at Salt Lake and Vegas and Glen Helen, It's amazing the effect that getting knocked out or getting a concussion has on you. You sit there and you say, 'Oh, I'm all right.' But it really messes with your balance." Amsoil/Chaparral Honda's Mike LaRocco will likely be sticking with his team next year, ''I'm really happy with what's going on, so I probably won't do a lot of monkeying around," he said, Is he considering a supercross-only deal? "It's a thought," he said, "I want to know what I'm going to give up and know my options, but I really have to see it to make a decision, But, I'm getting to a point where I'm not as competitive as I want to be, so I'm starting to consider that. .. MotoXXX's Larry Ward is feeling better following his bone bruise on his leg at Budds Creek, "It's a lot better," he said, "It's still not exactly right, but it doesn't hurt when I ride at all." Kelley Smith's third-place overall finish was more than enough to clinch the U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Pro Privateer Challenge Award for being the top privateer in the 125cc class, MotoXXX's Troy Adams, just back on the tour after breaking his collarbone at Glen Helen, went 38-12 to take 17th overall and the second-place privateer award. Kelly Smith's fine ride came on the heels of his inking a deal with Kawasaki to ride its new KXF250 four-stroke in 2004, "I don't know what team I'll be on next year," Smith said. "Maybe the factory team, maybe Pro Circuit. We don't know yet. It sure would be nice to be in the factory rig with James [Stewart], " Ryan Hughes' punch1ng match with Mike Brown at Budds Creek was still a big story at Red Bud. Hughes has no regrets of the situation, "I don't think I overreacted," Hughes said, "I had to take matters into my own hands, The AMA gives him a waming. What does that do for me? That doesn't make me feel any better. Hitting him did, He does that kind of thing all the time, but this time he did it to the wrong guy. From now on, my motivation is to beat him. I don't care how or where: I just want to beat him," Hughes had a different view on James Stewart, though, "He shouldn't even be in this class," Hughes said, "He's so much faster than everyone; he's just wasting his time on 125s. Plus, I would like to get to watch him, I love getting to watch people ride that are so smooth and so fast like he is. " Grant Langston was a little under the weather at Red Bud. "I was really sick all week at Mammouth," Langston said, "I had to back it off in every moto there," No doubt the sickness had something to do with his results, While Langston did come home the winner of several classes, he was nearly run down by Suzuki teenager Broc Hepler, which created a lot of stir during the week, Speaking of Broc Hepler, it appears the Suzuki amateur threat will make his Pro debut at the Millville, Minnesota, National, one week after his final amateur race at the Air Nautique Amateur National Championships at Loretta Lynn's. Hepler will be riding a 250 at the last three Nationals, "There won't be any pressure on him in that class," said Hepler's manager Denise Conroy-Galles, "Plus Suzuki has a lot of extra 250s around," Although he has missed several months of action with a thumb injury, Branden Jesseman didn't expect to be anything less than 100 percent at Red Bud, "I don't want to be top 10 or top five or anything," Jesseman said, "I want to pick off where I left off." Jesseman's last race saw him clinch the 125cc East Region Supercross title at the Pontiac Supercross in April. After the race, Jesseman said the bad thumb caused no problems, Another rider returning from injury was Team ECC Suzuki's Shae Bentley, who missed a few months of action with a hand injury. But "Shag Nasty's" day didn't go so well, as he rode just a few laps of each moto before pulling off, still not ready to race, By JASON WEIGANDT PHOTOS BY STEVE BRUHN BUCHANAN, MI, JULY 6 eam Chevy Trucks' Kawasaki's James "Bubba" Stewart is a nice guy, but he's not being very kind to his competition. Despite coming off an injury, he destroyed the field in his series' debut a few weeks ago at Budds Creek, Maryland, Then he came out and did it again at his second race, the Scott National at Red Bud Track 'n' Trail. Two dominating mota wins at Red Bud gave the 17year-old Floridian his second overall victory of the year, as well as four moto wins in four tries, "Man, how can you not be pumped?" Stewart said, "We're racing in a great state with great fans, Racing at Red Bud is awesome, I got good starts and worked my way up, It's never easy, but I just race, and I end up with 30- and 40-second leads, I fell over a few times today, I don't T James Stewart was in a class of his own once again at Red Bud, winning both motos handily. cue I e n e "'" s JULY 16, 2003 13

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