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/128236
AMA Red B u ll Super-mo ta Championship Round 3 : P r-omoWest Pav ilio n - ElIrty action saw Jeremy MeG...th (2). Jeff Ward (behind McGrath). Doug HenlY (369). Ben Carlson (45) and'll"rance's Alexander Thiebault III tight battle for the 1eacI. - Motoc r ossers ru le the roost: In Columbus q u art er of the ra c e. Una ble to drive off the comers, he was a sitting duck for h is te am mate War d , wh o took him on th e 14th lap. The last bit of luck was a cra sh by rac e leade r Car lso n o n the 17th of 20 laps. Carlson had earlie r won th e 24la p Un lim it ed Su perm ot o rac e , and th e st ra in beg an to sh ow lat e in th e Supermoto ma in . His fa ll. a hi gh side o n a sho rt p av em en t section after By H E N NY R A Y A BRAM S P HOT OS BY R A Y G UND Y COLUMBUS, OH, OCT: 5 , t was a memorab le weekend for th e veteran m ot ocro ss crowd with J eff Wa rd winn ing Supermoto fi nals in two di fferent time zon es in th e span of 12 hou rs, J erem y McGrath foll owing his Motorcy cl e Hall o f Fam e induction with a sec ond -pla ce fin ish , and Dou g Henry , th e m ostly ret ired Connecti cut m otocrosser, fini shin g th ird in hi s first AMA Red Bull Supermoto race, th is one behind th e PromoWest Pavilion o n a sun-drench ed Indian su mmer afternoon in Co lum bus , Ohio. T ro y Lee Design s/Fun Bik e Cent er Honda's Ward arri ved in Colum bu s at 6 :3 0 a. m . on the red-e ye fro m San Diego w here he 'd won the K& N Di rt T rac k Ch ampion shi p Supermoto race in nea rby Del Mar . "Tod ay, I fell aslee p o n top o f the m ot orh om e f or 2 0 minut e s f a c e do wn ," Ward said. In th e race, he wasn't as foc used as he wanted to be, but he caught more than a few lucky br eaks, includ ing not being taken down in a first -turn dustup with McG rath , Henry and Red Bull HMC KTM's Ben Carlson. H is second b it of fortun e ca m e when Henry went down at the bas e of t he lo n ge st and h ig hest dirt m ound seen so far in th e Supermot o seri es. Th at ca me o n la p 10 , th e h al fw a y m ark . T hen the engine on McGrath's Troy Lee Designs/Fun B ik e Cen t er Ho nd a we nt off-so ng in the second 20 O CTO B ER 1 5 , 2003 • cue Wa rd w on his second AMA Red Bull Superrnoto race in as many tries. I e co mi ng ou t of the dirt, put Ward out front, and he soon had the lead up to 10 seconds, b ac k ing off to cel eb rate w ith a wh eelie and a 6.402 -s econd m arg in of v ic tory . " Be n [Ca rlson), I kne w , probably was going to get a little tired , esp ecia lly [c o ns id eri ng ] how roug h the dirt was," Ward said. Onc e Ward got past Henry a nd McG rath , Carlson was next. " So on ce I got [M cGrath] ," W ard co ntinued, "I start ed closing in, and I th ought I coul d get hi m , and he gave m e a gift by going down." McGrath was up to second when C arl so n fell , th ough a sour. engine made a charge im possible. "Three-quarte rs of the way throu gh, it w as k no c k in g , maki ng some bad no ise," said McGrath, who att ended the Hall of Fame d inner bu t had to sk ip Sunday 's ind uc ti o n . " I d idn 't th ink I was going to fin ish. It m ade no power." Henry started r iding Su permoto about a m onth ag o , onl y doing two lo ca l race s an d a lot of p r a c t i c e befor e Co lumbus. In th e m ain, he was trying a d ifferent lin e at the end of th e dirt m ound when he go t into th e loose dirt a n d w as he d ou t the fron t. Hi s Ya m a ha ke p t runni ng, a n d h e g o t back up and fin ished thi rd . Fourth went to Fr enchman A lexandr e Th i eb ault , on t h e M cAllist er Motorsports Honda , j ust ove r 1.5 sec o n d s in fro n t o f Pacifi c o S aund ers Suzuk i' s Mark A vard , th e Au stralian Sup erm ot o Cha mp io n. B oth had arr ived in the United Sta tes a few da ys before the ra c e and both were return ing home. Neither w ill conte st the next ro und , in D a ll a s in t w o w eeks, but Ava rd hopes to be bac k for Ir w in d al e a nd th e fina l ro und in Las Vegas, while Th iebault will return o nly for Vegas. T he w in p ut Wa rd into a tie w ith Ava rd at 50 points, but with two wins, Ward is the true leader. McGrath is thir d with 42 points after three of six ro unds.