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/128224
AMA Red Bull Supermoto Championship Series Round 1 : Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca 80 ... 81•• _ ..... ul.U.t Rea 8uII .... llliiOtO fInIIL T1ae 'ac .·In' . - - ... t ••• dilIr . . . . . . . place ride In the betore. he fInIaIIed '-'II In the KTII U8SOL McAllister Honda. "It went well: Ward said. "I got the holeshot, and I felt pretty good. The lap times were about a second a lap faster than any other heat race. I feel pretty good about the [Sunday] main event." McGrath was equally impressive, winning heat two in a runaway fashion. Iowa dirt tracker Matt Burton, the stepson of former Grand National tuner Rick Canode, inherited the win in heat one after Shaun Russell 42 JULY 23, 2003' cue I e stalled on lap eight while leading the race from the start. Russell then recovered, only to suffer a spectacular high-speed get-off in the righthand hairpin before the dirt section. Saturday's semi winners included Andy Harrington, Joe Kopp, Larry Pegram and Casey Yarrow. After McGrath got the holeshot in the Sunday final, Ward camped on his fender. "I didn't get the start I wanted," Ward said. "I wanted to be out front, n e vv s but Jeremy jumped me, so I had to follow him, and that got me a little bit tight, and I just couldn't run as smooth as I wanted to." Nicoll, meanwhile had to force his way past McAllister Racing Honda's Thiebault and White Brothers/Moto Master Honda rider Steve Drew to move into third place. He was able to close the gap back up, and the three riders then sliced and diced their way through traffic, with both Ward and Nicoll slipping under McGrath when he went just a bit too wide in Sidi Corner. Ward then tried to get away, but Nicoll kept him honest. Nicoll appeared to be patiently probing Ward, patiently biding his time and waiting for the right chance to make a move on the leader. "I don't know about patience," Nicoll said. "It's not easy to pass without doing something nasty, and I've known Jeff for about 130 years, so I didn't want to do anything nasty to him. He's still pretty strong. I was hoping that a guy as old as him might tire at the end of the race so that a youngster like me could catch him up, but that didn't happen." Nicoll is 38 years old, though Ward thought that Nicoll was oldel than he is. "Me and Kurt have known eacr other for 100 and some years, ane we've banged bars at Motocross de~ Nations and stuff like that," Ware said. "I gapped him a little bit, but then I got behind a lapper, Kurt'~ teammate, and that didn't make iI easy for me to get by. He saw me back there, and I yelled, and ther he looked back again and almosl fell down. It wasn't too good, bul that's all right. I'll remember thai next time." That teammate was backmarkeJ Christopher Fillmore, who claimee that he had no idea who was behine him. He may have a valid point, as he instead ended up holding Nicoll just as much if not more than Ward wittlittle over a lap to go. That iced it fOJ Ward, though Nicoll charged right te the finish, as did McGrath, the motocrossers scoring a sweep thai came as no surprise to Ward. "Motocrossers are so versatile, and I think that we're just used te getting the best out of whatevel you're on," Ward said. "I actually feel like I'm better on the pavement thar I am on the dirt. When we get more pavement tracks, I might even be better. We'll see. I've watched the road race guys on the pavement tracks, and they're tough." Still, Ward said that he has no illusions of dominating the sport. "These guys are all fast," Ward said. "It all comes down to that one race in Vegas, and anything can happen there. Everybody's going to get quicker. We just have to stay on OUI game and focus. And we need to get a lot more practice in. We haven't gotten in a lot of practice yet. We just put these bikes together Friday morning before practice started. So we're still learning, and hopefully we can get a little better at some stuff. Chad Watts worked so hard to put this together, and without him we wouldn't be here." Thiebault went on to finish fourth, the Frenchman with World Supermoto experience looking good early before he dropped off the lead pace.