Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

AMA Red Bull Supermoto Championship Round 4 : R eunion Arena su re h im. We ran into a lapper , and he wa s goi ng o ne wa y an d I w as going t he other. I slid ou t, an d he slid o ut a li tt l e m o re , a n d I sq ueaked r i g h t between h im and the lap p er and g ot by him. I w as just trying to h o ld m y ow n th e rest o f th e rac e, b ut h e was ri gh t o n m e." M cGrath (2) and Doug Henry (369) laun c h off of the steel tabletop jump. was Cham bon . I d idn't k n ow it w a s Lang st on until I c ro ss ed the lin e at t he c he c ke re d flag ." O n lap 14 H e nr y fi n ally got b y McGrath b ut wasn 't abl e t o b reak awa y as t h e t w o battled hard fo r the position , Carlso n was now a solid fifth , fo l lowed by Drew, Peg ram and M et zg er. McG rat h wa s d e s p e r a t e t o g et b a c k b y Henry and co n ti n ue d t o p ut t h e pressu re on, "I kn ew if I co u ld j ust get a dece n t sta rt ana Fast Frenchman Boris Chambon started way back in 17th position but sliced throu9h the entire pack to take hang in th ere... I k ne w I se c ond place. cou ld just r id e my o w n rac e, " Henry said . I k ind pace of Ward and never let Cha mbon of wo rked up to M cGrath . It w as c ool. get anothe r sho t at th e leader. I wa s right behind him , and I actua lly "I w ent up the inside of Wardy and yelled at hi m a c o up le o f times , and I just sta lled it ," La ngston sa id . " It's j ust ran into the back of h im a cou p le o f o ne of th ose thi ngs. " A ft er th at I w as times. In th is type of racin g I'm fast if just ridin g for f u n . A ft er I got going I 'm b ehind so m ebo dy , be cause yo u aga in, I pull e d back in beh ind h i m k ind of learn b ra king points , but when I' m in front of so mebody , and I'm su re i t 's t he sa me t hi n g f o r Jeremy, it seems w h en you 're in fr ont , the guy behind you c an go a little faster. So I was ab le to ca tch up to him and pres - [Ward ], and w e had g reat fu n. H e [Wa rd ] sai d ' Hey thank s fo r pushi ng m e wh en Cha m bon was coming ,' so it ke pt h im going . So I had a great time and to ld Ward later th at I hope I wasn't both erin g h im. It was just a lot o f fun , and I j ust wanted to keep ridin g fo r the experien ce ." O n the other hand , Ward did n ' t h a v e any idea who it was th at was pressuring him, and at first he tho ug ht it w as Chambon , for cing the lead er t o pi ck u p th e pa c e a l ot more th an he h ad ho p ed to in th e closi ng lap s. " He ha d me pushing hard er than I prob ab l y sh ould h av e , " W ar d sa i d . 1 co u ld hav e gon e d own at a ny second. I almost oversh ot a corner in the tunnel, and t hen I OCTOBER 29, 2003' C ing at tempt) . I was ju st trying t o do something and try ing n ot to fa ll o ve r. It wasn't the best race , but it was fu n ." Wa rd crossed the line well ah ea d my Own Race ®@@ Jake Zemke 15 th The Dallas race was Zemke's debut in the AMA Red Bull Supermoto series. He looked good in his heat race, transferring directly to the main wit h his third-p lace fini sh. "The fi rst couple of turns there's all these guys blowing up the inside lik e idiots looking like there going to take out the whole field," Zemke said. "Luckily a few of them were smart enough to pick it up in both turn one and then the next tum at the end of the long straight. Man, some of those guys just ride like idiots.' That's the one thing that I don't like about this sport, these guys don't realize that there's 24 laps or whatever. Look at Chambon, he came from the fifth row, and he can still get second - if you' re fast enough, you're still going to get through. I had a fun time, though. After the first couple of comers, everythi ng smoothed out, and everyth ing was fine from there. 1just cruised around and had fun. I was waiting for some people to play with, and no one seemed to be around. Landes came by pretty early, and I wasn't able to run his pace, and then Marc Gifford and I diced for a while." 7.l ® Steve Drew 6th '? .. :< ," .. .. ~' Drew, it seems, must be due for a podium finish in the near ~ • future, as he was superfast all weekend, running cons istently , ,,, fast lap t imes and finishing a solid second in his heat race. "In -~ - '"'" the 450 race I got a pretty good start, " he said. "I just wanted to get up there with the leaders so I could get on that pace. If you get up there, you get yanked away from all of the slower guys and all of the guys that are m aking mi stakes. Som e peop le messed up, and we got them. Then Benny' Carlson and 1 got into a good race. Once we got by Pegram , we were ju st going back and forth. I flat-landed the steel tabletop back there, and on the 17s [inch rims ] it doesn' t feel too good. He [Carlson] passed m e there, and I ju st co ul dn 't get it back. Met zger , Burkhart and Pegram were coming up on me, and 1ju st hung it out over the last five laps or so and yanke d away from them . It felt good, my Maxxis tires were working good, and the Honda was working good all weekend." r. , . Roger Lee Hayden 18th Hayden had to go to the semifinal after missing out on a direct transfer by one position in his heat race. He finished third in his semi but ended up with a last row grid position. "The first lap was so good," Hayden said. "I was on the last row [on the grid], and I think I was 11th (act ually 13th] when I came by. We made a few changes to the bike, and it was so good. There was a pack in front of me, and when I got up on them , I stalled the bik e. I couldn't get it started, and when I finally did, I got going and got it up into the top 20. I'm just so bummed out, when I finally got back going, 1 was doing low 24s. I definitely couldn't have won it, but I think I could have finished in the top 10. It was fun, but finishing that bad isn't fun. I leamed a lot, and it' s good to keep racing to work towards next year." ~ >'li,;; ~~ Drew (73) and Ben Carlson (45) battled th roughout saw a wheel, and I th ought it the race with Carlson ending up f"1fth and Drew sixth. 28 At t h is po i nt Cha m bo n appeared t o settl e fo r seco nd, as Ward turn ed his faste st lap of t he race o n la p 17, a 1:20.2 7 7 . Sti ll not sure w ho w as pressu ri ng h im ( La ngsto n) so hard at the end, h e ke pt it wi ck ed u p . "The rac e wa s very hard for m e, " Cha mbon sa id, " be ca use after having to sta rt fr om th e last row, it wa s v ery d iffi cult beca u se every la p I h ad to pass o ne or tw o rid ers and was always losing time between Jeff [Ward] a nd me. By the t ime I got up to him, I w as so , so t ired , and also Jeff rode very, ver y strong , and for me I said, 'O k ay, I' ll j u st fin ish se cond.' That was th e best t hat I could do to d ay ." T h e closing lap s saw t he best bat - tie on the trac k be twee n H enry and M cGrath es c ala t e t o the v er y e n d, wi t h M c Gr a th a l love r Hen ry a n d showi ng h im a w heel at every opportun ity. On the fina l lap of the race , both riders turn ed t he i r fastest la ps , w it h H enry t u rn i ng a 1 :21. 2 6 0 to M cGrath 's 1:2 1.24 9 . In o ne last des pe rate a tte mp t t o pas s He n ry, M cGrath t r ied a rare ly u sed o uts ide be r m in th e dirt sect i o n , but H enry ju st b e at him i nto t h e pe n ul t i ma te co rner. W ith n o ro om to p a ss , the positio n w en t to Henry . "I t wa s rea lly f u n d ic i ng w i t h Henry ," M cGrat h sa id . " O nce he got past m e, I sta rt ed pi cking it up be tter. Ther e w ere sp ots wh er e I was faster , and there were spots where h e was a littl e faster. If the berm w ou ld hav e been p ac k ed a little be tter, m ay b e it wou ld h ave worked [hi s last lap pass - II C l en e _ s ®g~ (£) U eJ Mike Metzger 7t h Metzger was consistent all weekend, tran sferring dir ectl y from his heat race to the main. He battl ed through out the race for the fifth position. "A ll in all I'm hap py where we finished because I haven't been ridin g much at all lately," Metzger said. "I messed up my wrist and some other stuff in a freestyle crash and ju st haven't been able to ride. So finishing eighth (actually seventh ] or wherever 1finished isn't bad. I'm happy with that. " .. -

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