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(Above) Travis Preston got another so -so stort at Phoenix , but he ca me
through the pack this time for th ird. He was gaining o n Roncada at the finish .
"The bike was really loud, and I didn't rea lly
know what was going o n, so it took me a
coup le laps to start trus ting things again.
O nce I did, I tried to ride hard , but I was a
litt le frustrated . I never give up, but I was
pretty bummed out after the race ."
Ramsey wasn't the only top contender to
go down early. Pro Circuit Kawasaki's 125cc
trooper, Matt Walker, appeared to be in
pos ition to give the Corona, Californiabased mota- motor regime a clean gree n
sweep of the podium. Like Roncada, Walker
charged through the Yamahatra ffic near the
front and got up to fourt h, with Schnell
clearly in his gunsights, only to bale off hard
in t he whoo ps on lap three. Walker was not
seriously injured in the crash, but he was
thro ugh for the night.
Even so, Pro Circuit was able to claim a
podium sweep anyway, in t he form of t he
two Kawasakis and one Honda CRF250R,
as the arguably quite popular former 125
Western Regio nal Champion , Travis
Preston, wound up third by the finish
[Preston's engines are prepared by Pro
Circuit]. Preston was seventh off the start,
and he caught at least one break when he
didn't have to waste a lot of time with his
teammate , Ch risto pher Gosselaar, w ho
faded with arm pump before the race was
t hree laps old. He caught anot her when old
ne mesis Walker crashed. Preston then too k
Sellards in the rhythm section along the
third-base line on lap eight, and he used the
same section to pass Schnell a lap later to
take over third. Preston attempted to run
Roncada down, and he got close at times ,
but third place was his high-water mark . It
was a much better performance from t he
o ften -corned lc fo r mer series cham pio n.
(Abo ve ) Title contender Nathan Ra m se y (25 ) got in a co up le o f crashes,
includ ing this one with Timmy Weigand (56) in the whoops. He finis he d
11th, which hurt his championship cha se.
(Above) Sch ne ll (52) leads a freshly fallen Matt Walker (122) through
the whoops. Walker was on fire early, but he foiled to score a point after
a DNF.
26
JANUARY 21, 2004 • CYCLE NEWS
who said he felt practically fo rgotten after
the arrival of James Stewart in 2003 - if you
can believe that.
"That's perfect for me," Preston said of
his underdog status. "That suits my style. I'll
get a couple thirds and seco nds, the n win a
cou ple and be right the re at the end .
"It [the main] started off kind of bad,
because I was right beh ind Nath an
[Ramsey], and he felldow n, and I kind of ran
ove r his head or some thing," Preston said. "I
ran right over him, so hopefullyhe's all right.
So I started kind of bad, and I just wo rked
my way thro ugh. I played it smart . I knew
that I was the fastest guy in the whoops , so
I just kind of waited until the whoop section
and passed everybody there . That was it."
Motowo rldRacing.com Suzuki's Andrew
Short was o nce again fourt h - and the top
I25cc man - in t he main event. Short got it
together late in the race, catching and passing Sellards, who managed to hang on for
fifth, in the left-hander after t he whoops on
lap 14. Though he claimed to have had an
"off night," Short still believes that he can
w in a Weste rn ro und if he can get a goo d
start, and that's a belief that a few super -
40 t h Anniversary
cross heavies, such as th ree -time former
AMA Supercross Cham pion Rick Johnson,
share . Preston , on the other hand, doesn't
appear to believe it can be don e.
':<\5 far as the 125s go, they may as well
pack those things up," he said.
But in order to, Tedesco, Preston , Short
and the rest of the field are going to have to
spo il his game plan, which is simply to get
the holeshot, get ahead , and let his KX2S0F
do the rest. It has worked so far, and with
Kevin Windham's victo ry in the 250cc class
eliminating all possibility of a perfect season
by Chad Reed, alleyes will be on Tedesco to
see if he can pull of that trick .
"I'd like to say that I could win them all,
but there are a lot of fast guys, like Roncada
and Travis [Preston ]," Tedesco said. "I probably can't win all of them , but as many as I
can. I just have to keep on getting the good
starts . We've worked really hard on the bike
in the off-seaso n. It's just a great bike stoc k,
and you know that Mitch has a reputation
for wo rking really hard. Second place is the
worst start that I've gotten so far. I think I
have led every lap, so I can't comp lain."
Ifhis first two performances are any indieN
cation, you'd better believe it.
BANK ONE BAttPARK
PHOE
NIX, ARIZONA
RE
SULTS: JANUARY 10, 2004
(ROUND 2 OF 7)
H EAT I (6 la ps, 1-9 t ransfer): I. Stephane Ronc.1da
(Kaw); 2. Nathan Ramsey (Hon); 3. Michael Blose (Yam); 4.
Jonathan Shimp (Hon): S. Brock Sellards (Y
am): 6. Chri stopher
Gosse..... (Hon ): 7. Bobby Kim ')' (Suz): 8.)o