Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

BRIEFLY••• After winning the KTM Supermoto Unlimited final, Kurt Nicoll said that he wasn't sure whether or not he would be back to con· test more rounds of the series. He was still waiting to see how he would do in the Red Bull final [he finished secondJ. "I don't know," Nicoll said. "I don't think that they have a fully settled calendar. If they stick at four races, then I'd do them all. If they get it up to six or eight races, I just haven't got the time." That would be because Nicoll already has a full-time job as the head of the racing department at KTM in Austria - not a bad thing when it comes time to score the trick parts. "Of course," Nicoll said. "I get all the good parts, and the factory riders get the second·best stuff... Don't laugh, it's true." Watercraft racer Clay Cullen got a lot of laps on the Laguna Supenmoto circuit. though he wasn't entered in either class. Cullen has been hired to provide on-bike camera footage for the upcoming Outdoor Life Network telecasts of the AMA Red Bull Supenmoto Championship Series. "My girlfriend, Molly Culver, is going to be the color analyst in the pits, interviewing everybody," Cullen said. "This is pretty fantastic. We both love bikes so much, and now we get to work together. The track is pretty cool. It's a lot of dirt." You might recognize the name Molly Culver from her co-starring role with Pamela Anderson Lee on "VIP" and her promotional efforts with Ducati. Culver is a certified road race fanatic, and she said that she feels Supermoto will explode in popularity. "Super. moto is going to be amazing," she said. "What a combination of sports that I can't wait to see. With OLN I will be trying to get people to see a side of the riders that they might not normally see. Everybody wants to see them race, but we want people to see them with their helmets off. We want to see what they do after the races. We want to know how their wives feel about them racing. The touchy-feely side." went down. It was just a mechanical that happened when I hadn't even really gotten going yet. But I'm getting more comfortable. There's still a little more practice to do, but it's going well. It's a fun little track. " Joe Kopp commented on the fact that he looked forward to racing with his regular rival, Chris Carr, in Supermoto. "We're really trying to chase down Chris Carr right now in the dirt track series," Kopp said. "It's really fun that Chris is out here riding today, too. We get to have a lot more friendly battle out here than we do on the dirt tracks, which makes it kind of nice." When Friday's Supermoto announcer, Ben Cheatwood, asked Jeremy McGrath how it felt to be back on a Honda when nobody ever thought they would ever see it happen again, McGrath responded, "It feels great. It was big surprise to every· one, but I'm loving it. for sure." When asked if it was a big surprise to him, too, McGrath replied, "Not really." Jeremy McGrath also said that he was enjoying his visit to Mazda Raceway. "This is my first time up here [Laguna SecaJ," McGrath said. "I really love watching road racing· World Super. bike and AMA Superbike . so I'm excited to check that stuff out as well as to get some seat time myself. " Perhaps the busiest man in the Laguna paddock was American Supercamp's Danny Walker, who was overseeing the new Honda Red Riders Junior Supermoto Challenge presented by the Honda Riders Club of America. "I've got 16 employees, 10 hotel When referring to the weak purse, which the AMA set at only $3000 in total with $300 going to riders finishing first through 10th and nothing being given to riders finishing from 11 th on back, McGrath said, ''I'm not in this for the money, but it's jacked up, and they need to fix it. They've got 120 entries here. You don't get that many guys at a supercross. They need to do something with the purse. They need to do something with the structure. They need to have timed practice. I'm sure all that stuff will come. This is the first race, and they're trying to get it all ironed out. But I'm having fun." we're going to have a lot more competition in this Junior Super- moto program than people think." Walker explained the program. "The way it works is that we invite 14 kids to each round of the series," he said. "To be accepted, they have to send us a letter explaining why they should be accepted, what their racing backThey have to have a B average or better, which is a great motiva· tor. At the first five events, out of 14 kids, we're going to invite the top three from each event to the final round in Las Vegas. And Honda is working hard to get them some cool prizes. "When we did our first American Supercamp, I had to borrow bikes," Walker said. "Now we're doing three different programs with Honda. It has really grown, and that's just because we have a lot of great people involved with us." and said that his main concern was "not getting stacked up in one of the heat races. If we can survive that. we should be sitting pret· ty good." Unfortunately, that is exactly what happened to Chandler in his KTM Supermoto Unlimited heat: he crashed in the first turn and dropped out of the race. Chandler came back and won the semifinal later in the day to guarantee his spot in at least one main event on the weekend. Similarly, Chandler's new teammate, Larry Pegram, looked good on his bikes but was disillusioned with the random-draw heat-race line-ups. "I'm happy with the KTM deal, but the format of this program makes it so that it's no fun," Pegram said. "I have to start on the sixth row in my heat races. I drew 85 and 98 out of 100 in both classes, so that puts me on the back rowan a track where it's impossible to pass that many guys. I don't understand why they can't do some kind of timed qualifying. I guess AMA doesn't make enough money on this deal to be able to buy transponders. " Former AMA 125cc National MX Champion Mickey Dymond was another rider underneath the KTM factory tarps, and the crazy Californian had the distinction of being the first rider to crash in Friday's opening practice session. going down on the lower pavement section that leads to the jump. "That wasn't me," Dymond joked. "Really, I had a problem with the front brake, and I Although former AMA Superbike Champion Thomas Stevens had his work cut out for him in his Saturday semi if he was going to qualify for the Red Bull main event, he wasn't about to let it spoil his fun. "It has been an uphill battle," said Stevens, who only received his Moto Britalia Yamaha YZ450F on the Monday before the event. "It has only been two years since I rode any· thing, so it has been an uphill battle, but it has been a lot of fun. The coolest thing was just lining up in my heat race and looking over and seeing Jeremy McGrath. That was pretty cool. There are a lot of fast guys here. So we'll just get through the weekend, reload and come back and start doing some testing, and maybe next race we won't be struggling. And hopefully they'll give the pavement guys some more pavement. I'm sure they will." Former AMA 125cc National MX Champion Travis Pastrana took in the action at Laguna. Still recuperating from his recent automobile accident. it was clear that the Team Suzuki rider is chomping at the bit to join the Supermoto circus. "I think this is an amazing idea," Pastrana said. "It's really cool that everybody gets to come together. It will be interesting when they start to do a little more pavement. Right now the motocrossers are dominat- Former Ricky Carmichael mechanic Chad Watts has started his own company, Watts Perfections, which will involve the building of tailored motorcycles for individual customers. "It's not neces- Former X Games star, snowboard god and 125cc supercross Though he had limited test time on his factory KTMs, Doug Chandler appeared to be comfortable on both bikes in practice The impressive performance of White Brothers' Steve Drew's Honda XR650L in the KTM Supenmoto Unlimited class almost didn't come about at all, as Honda agreed, then balked, then agreed again to assist Drew in his effort to Ride Red in both divisions. "Yeah, they weren't sure if they wanted me to ride the bike or not. but we put it together at the last minute, and I'm really glad that we did because I wanted to ride Hondas in both classes," Drew said. "The guys at Honda really helped me out by giving me the bike." The bike sported an HRC·kitted motor with a CRF450R front end grafted on. Drew put the machine into the Unlimited main event easily, leading several laps of his heat before eventually finishing second to Kurt Nicoll. He finished fourth - and first non-KTM - in the Unlimited final. ing, which is good for me." Pastrana said that he plans to be at the next round of the series at South Boston Speedway. sarily one-offs, but it's building a bike for the customer from the ground up," Watts said. "It will involve full-on race prep, just like I did on Ricky's bikes. I'm doing this Motard deal because this is something else that I could do, build a Motard bike for the customer and get it set up for him and then give him a kit to ride- racer Shaun Palmer re·emerged at the Laguna Supermoto and said that he wants to be at more rounds of the series in the future. ''I'm haVing a great time, but the first session I had no brakes, so I was just rolling around pissed off a little bit," the 34year·old Palmer said. "I haven't really been doing too much lately. I just moved back from Florida to get back with my lady that I love and figure out my life, and here I am again, getting thrown right back into something else. I just rushed down to Southern Califor· nia last week and learned how to ride one of these things on Wednesday, so I have maybe five days on one." Palmer said that he hopes to be able to put together a deal with Yamaha of Troy for Supermoto. "They already gave me a bike to ride, but I had to build it," he said. "I had to steal Matt Wait's dirt track motor and the suspension off of his Motard bike, so Matt Wait. I love you, brother. I couldn't be here without him." At least one dirt tracker, Terry Poovey, opted to park his ride after failing to transfer out of his heat race on Friday. "I hurt my knee earlier when a guy fell in front of me," Poovey said. "I just think that it's better to park it and race next weekend than to hurt myself now and not be able to race at all. " rooms and four rent-a-cars here," Walker said. "Between our Honda kids' demos and the new Honda Junior Supermoto pro· gram, we've got a lot going on. But it's great. it's exciting, and ground is - a racing resume - and a copy of their report card. After Friday's early practice sessions, Jeremy McGrath admitted that he had a lot to work on in terms of technique. "I just need to ride a little bit longer and work out my braking points, because I know that I can go a lot faster," McGrath said. "We have a new brake on the front, and it's gnariy. Whatever it is, it friggin' works good. Up until now we have just been using the stock brakes. have a pretty big team here," the 23·year·old Yarrow said on Sat· urday. "Rick Pearce, myself, Aaron Howe, Cory Call, Paul Orlandi and Alexandre Thiebault. who came from France to be on our team. We figure that the bigger we are, the better we'll look. Hopefully, we'll end up on top of this thing." Like some of the other SITARS supermoto riders, Yarrow came to Laguna expecting to see a little more pavement. "It's not bad, and everybody does have to ride the same track," he said. "It's coming together pretty good. The jump's fine." motocross the next weekend." Watts will also remain as the chief mechanic for the Troy Lee Designs Honda team of Jeff Ward, Jeremy McGrath and Troy Lee. Speaking of Troy Lee, the world"famous custom helmet painter took two hits over the weekend. Lee crashed hard in his semifinal race on Saturday and had to be taken to the hospital to get checked out. He suffered a compressed vertebra and has been The Honda Red Riders Junior Supermoto Challenge (abovel was won by Mike Alessi, the talented young motocross racer passing brother JeH Alessi, who then crashed. Mike then crashed himself, but he was able to pull it together to repass Bobby Fong two turns from the finish to take the win. JeH Alessi was third. "I don't know what happened out there - I just came into the corner a little too hot," Mike Alessi said. "I should have taken it a little bit slower toward the end of the race, but I just wanted to pull away and just beat them. I was doing the tabletop from the inside, actually, and only the 450 guys have been doing that. I was jumping that from the inside and then tripling into the corner, and I landed and just washed the front end out. I was thinking, 'Oh my God, I'm going to lose. I never lose.' But I had the time of my life. We never get to do this kind of stuff. I had a lot of fun." Mark Avard from Newcastle, Australia, showed that they know how to Supenmoto Down Under by earning direct transfers in both the KTM Supermoto Unlimited and Red Bull classes. "I was real keen to come here and do this one," said the 34·year·old Avard, who is currently atop the Australian Supermoto series standings. "I rode some of the world races last year, and I really learned a lot there. This race is going good overall, I think. They've done a great job with the track, and all the right guys are here. It can only get better from here." Avard raced the Unlimited event aboard a Husaberg that literally had to be carried in his suitcases. SITARS Open Champion Casey Yarrow was part of the CHM Exhaust Systems/McAlister Racing Honda team, which nearly equaled the KTM team in terms of rider count if not budget. "We advised to take it easy for the next six weeks. The second hit was to his wallet, as Troy Lee stepped up and offered an impromptu contingency bonus to double the anemic $3000 base purse for Sunday's Red Bull Supermoto final. "I just thought that we had better make it better," Lee said. "I know that this is the first race and everybody is trying to get everything together, but it just seemed kind of embarrassing when I saw it [the payoutl. So we put a little bit of money in there to show that we believe in the sport, and let's help find a sponsor to make this thing happen. We have so many top riders from around the world, great athletes, that it's an insult to have them run for $300 [First through 10th were to receive $300, with 11th through 28th get· ting no moneyJ. Now it's $1400 to win, then $900 and $600, then $300 to 10th, and 11 th through 20th get a hundred bucks. We just wanted to keep everybody positive. I know this sport is going to explode. " Dirt tracker Shaun Russell was also on the "hit list." as the AMA U.S. Flat Track Championships regular highsided Viciously in the Sidi Corner during Red Bull heat one on Friday. Russell had been leading the race comfortably when he suddenly stalled his motor in the dirt section and lost several positions before getting back under way. He then appeared to try to make it all back up in the paved right-hander and was sent flying. Russell was not seriously injured, but it was his second high-speed highside in as many weeks, the first coming at the Sharon Half Mile in Hartford, Ohio, where Russell completely demolished one of his Harley· Davidson XR7 50s. cue I e n eVIl's JULV 23, 2003 49

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