Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Henry (369) and McGrath (2) put on the best show of the weekend, dic ing for m uch of the ra ce. After passing McGrath on lap 14, Henry had his hand s fu ll trying to ke e p M cGrath at bay. Th e two crossed the line nose to ta il w ith He nry taking the final podium spot. of this battle and a full 10.70 seconds ahead of Ch ambon , but the closin g stages o f th e ra c e were still v e ry exci ting, despite Ward 's huge margin of victory. Fo llowing th e aforemen ti o ned top four were: Carlson , Drew, Metzger, wh o got by Pegram on the last lap for sev en th , and Avard i n n inth . One of th e m ost impre ssiv e rides in th e ra c e had to g o to Burkhart, who had a very impressive run from 2] st and the last row on the g rid , to ] Oth at th e ch ecke rs . He was one of only eig ht riders able to d ip in to th e 1:2 1-sec on d -Iap -ti m e range during the race on his Yamaha . KTM UNLIMITED SUPERMDTD The Unlim it ed Supe rmoto ma in would have b ee n an exci ting ba tt le if it we re n't for a particula r Frenchman : Cha mbon. The slim field of ]] lined up for the start, and at the green it was HMC KTM 's Larry Pegram getti ng the holeshot. The only problem was that Cha mbon was in second a nd, wit hi n a few corners , had already stolen Pegram 's hard-earned po sition away. The rest, as they say , is history . Chambon put on a riding clinic over the course of the first five laps , pushing his KTM 525SX extremely hard to put a huge gap on the battle for second . The battle for second look ed like it was going to be a good one for the first five laps, with HMC KTM team mates Larry Pegram, Ben Carlson , Chris Fill m ore and Grant Lang ston all runni ng in close formation . Lan gst on struggled with cl utch prob lems early in the race. He m ad e it up into secon d br iefl y before the bi k e refu sed to shift any more, endi ng his race pr ematurely. " I st rug g l ed f r om t h e fir st lap ," L ang sto n sa i d. "I stru g g le sh if t ing fr om second to th ird . To shift down I was having to hit it [th e shift leve r] a bunch of ti me s to get it to go . I ki nd of figured o ut a technique that m ade it ea sier t o sh ift, ro ll off, pull in t he clutch , shi ft it and the n acce l erate. Th e final laps of th e race w er e pro c essiona l to say th e least, with huge gaps among all of th e remaining rider s and Chambon literally looking asleep at the wheel , as he easil y maintained his near 20 -second lead . In the fina l couple of laps Chambon literall y coasted throu gh the slow corners trying to save as much energy as possible for the Supermoto [4 50] ma in. Cham bo n w as a bsolutely untouchable "I got a good start in the in the Unlimited sec on d position ," Cham Supe nnoto main. bon sai d. "I pa ss immediately Larry Pegram for fi rst p osit ion . I pus h ha rd for two or three laps, and the n after that I see that I have a good gap and fi nished th e rac e relaxed, because i n the 450 race I have to start from the last row [actuall y, second to last] a n d will have a lot sneaki ng up on th e ba ttle for seco nd . of work to do ." eN When the othe rs fell , stalle d and ret ired , Reunion Arena he was there to tak e third positi on. Dallas, Texas "I inherited third p lac e from sixth Results: October 18, Z003 [Round 41 in a cou ple la ps ' ti me: Dy mond said . RED sou, SUPERMOTO QU A UFYI NG': I. Grant Langston ( 1:21.412 ): 2. Jeff Ward (1:21.787); 3. Chris "I ju st could n't catc h t hose guys Fillmor e (I :22.0 18); 4. Jeremy McGrath ( I :22. 852); 5. (leaders] . I th ink I st ayed pr etty m uch Steve Drew ( I :23 .6 64 ); 6 . Larry Pegram (1 :23. 666 ): 7. Mi ck e y Dym ond (1 :2 3. 85 0 ); 8 . Gory Trac hy the sam e pace as th e guys in second ( 1:2 4. 18 1); 9. J osh Chi sum (1 :24 .610) ; 10. Do ug Henry (1 :24 .409) ; 11. Jake Zemke ( 1:26 . 140); 12. through fo urth, but Gra nt [Langston] Mike Metzger (I :25.973); 13. Matt Pursley ( 1:25 .888 ); k ind of walked away fro m m e there. 14 . Mark Avard ( 1:2 4 .570); 15 . Rolland Fabien ( 1:24 .26 7 ); 16. Ben Carlson ( I :23 .4 36 ); 17. Boris and I could n't ca tch hi m ; he was Chambon ( 1:2221 0); 18. Brett Landes (1:25 .026 ); 19. John ny Murphree ( I :2 7. 9 0 4 ) ; 20. Marc G ifford pull ing away . I had so me good for( 1:26. 368 ); 21. Mark Burkhart (1:24.434 ); 22. Roger tune there. I p ut in some consistent Lee Hayden ( 1:26.14 1); 23 . Steve Jolmson ( 1:28.689 ); 24. Bryan Smith (1:26 .895) . l a p s , and luckily something hap KT M UNLIMITED SUPER MOTO QUAUFYING : 1. Bori s Chambon ( I :22. 83 6 ); 2. Grant Langston pened . and I improved m y posit io n." Then after I learned how to ride around the problem, I started to come back and pass some guys, and then on the long straightaway it wouldn 't go up and it wouldn 't go down, and that was it." Carlson quickly got into second position and held it to the end , able to stay out of tro ub le and finish the race. " I got an okay st art and was aggressiv e in turn two and got by Grant [Lanqston] right away, " Carlson said. "I knew I needed to get by Larry [Peg ram ] to see if I could get away . A t the end it was just survival of th e fittest. We were all pretty close, but everyone just kept stalling or fall ing, and I was the only one th at stayed up , so it worked out good." Mean whil e, Fi llmore an d teammate Pegram tang led, wi th Fillmore crashing and sm ashing up his front-brak e m ast er cy lin de r, ending his ra c e. "I was getting a little bit frustrated behind Larry [Pegram]." Fi llmore said. "I co uldn't fi nd a pface to get around hi m. He had been goi ng to the inside going into tha t tunnel , and that one last la p I came up on his side and I started to cut in, and he j ust kept on go ing and pushing himself to the bales , and I had nowhere to go. We went down, and then the master cylinder broke open , and th at was it." Pegram tried hard to catch back up but crashed hard in the dirt section trying to get back by Aussie Mark Avard on a KTM. " I got int o the corner down there a little hot ," Pegram said . " For som e reaso n Chri s [Fill m o re l tri ed t o go a round th e outsid e of m e th ere, and we got together and fell down. I got th e bike up and k ept it run ning and took off. When I got to the d irt, I was all flus tered from falling, and I fell down in th e dirt , but t h en it sta lled , and I c o u l d n ' t get it st arted ." n e Unlimited main. All of th is m ayhem at the front rison _ k second, while Pegram crashed helped o ut a c har gi ng M ick ey spectacularly in the dirt section after crashing eariier that same lap with teammate Fillmore. Dymond , who had been qu ietl y cue I e - ( 1:23. 80 6): 3 . Larry Pegram ( I :24. 3 18): 4 . Ben Censon (1 :24.497); 5. Chri s Fi llmore (I :25 .355); 6. Mark Avard ( 1:24.979); 7. Malt Pursley ( I :27.4 14 ); 8. Ga ry Tra chy ( J:2 6 . 0 2 4); 9 . Steve Drew (1:26.426) ; 10. Mi c ke y Dym on d ( 1:25. 666 ) ; 11. Kenny Coo lbeth (I :27.855). RED BUll. SUPERMOTO : I. Jeff Ward (Hon): 2. Boris Cha m bon (KT M ); 3 . Doug Henry { Yern }: 4 . Jerem y McG rath (H on); 5. Ben Carlson (KTM) ; 6. Steve Drew ( Hon ) ; 7. M ike Metzger ( Hon) ; 8 . Larry Pegram (KTM): 9 . Mark Avard (Suz ): 10. Mark Burkhart (Yam); 11. Brett Landes (Hon); 12. Gary Tra chy (Hon); 13. Josh Chisum (Hon) ; 14. Fabien Rolland (Hon); 15. Jak e Zemke (Hon) ; 16. fv\a Gifford (Hon): 17. Matt Pursley rc (Yam); 18. Roger Lee Heyden (Hon); 19 . Steve Johnson (Yam); 20. Johnn y Murphree (H on ); 21. Chris Fillmore (KTM): 22 . Grant Langston (KTM) : 23 . Mickey D ymond (KTM): 24 . Bryan Smith (Hon). Tim e: 27 m in.• 1.040 sec. Dis tance: 20 laps Avera ge speed: 44.4 m ph Margin of victo ry: 10.700 sec. F a stes t lap: Boris Che m bo n. Jep 10 . 1: 19 .9 8 6 KTM UNLIMI TED S UP ER MOTO : I . B o ri s Chambon (KTM); 2. Ben Coli ri son (KTM); 3 . Mickey Dymond (KTM ); 4. Mark Avard (KTM ); 5 . Steve Drew (Hon) ; 6. Kenn y Cocl be th (KTM) ; 7. Larry Pegram ( KT M); 8 . C hristo phe r Fillmor e ( KT M); 9. Gary Trachy (KTM ); 10. Grant Lang ston (KT M); 11. Malt Pursley (KTM) . "Top eight set by Supcrpole. nine through 24 set by heats and semis. n e _ S • O C TO B ER 2 9 , 2003 29

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