ince the last round of the Natio nal
Arenacross Series was held three
weeks ago, Josh Demuth has had
a lot of time to think about Darcy
lange's three wins to his one win
at the Rockford, Illinois, race . He ob vious
didn't like thinking about it. Because at the
next round, Demuth came o ut swinging and
won everyt hing in sight, sweeping the Fort
Worth Natio nal Arenacross Series round in
Texas and op ening up a comfo rtable 34point lead over his nearest rival, lange.
For lange, the Fort Worth round was all
but a complet e disaster. He did pull off a
couple of second-p lace finishes, but a fifth
and a DNS put a serious kink in t he
Canadian's plans to deth rone the defending
champ, Demuth.
S
FRIDAY
lange's weekend did not get off to a good
start, to say the least. As usual, the Kawasaki
rider had walked down to the start line fo r
the start of the I25cc main event , but when
the gate dropped for the race , he was still
standing there.
"I don't know what happened," lange
said. "I was waiting at the gate , and the bike
never came out [from the pits]. I guess they
[his crew] had a hard time starting it."
44
JANUARY 2 1, 2004 •
Brad Modjewski (91), Brad Hagseth
(10), Da rcy Lange (4) and Tommy
Hafmaster (2) get the jump an the
250cc final at the Fort Worth
Arenacros5.
When lange's tuner finally got his bike to
him, he was not allowed to start the race.
Accord ing to Arenacross rules, once a full
lap has been co mpleted, a rider who for
whatever reason did not start with the field
may not enter the race .
"We had a [spark] pluggo bad, and when
we finally got it changed, we had to pushstart it," said Bill Whitley, lange's team manager. "It was up to the AMA to wait or not .
I honestly believe if it had been Josh
[Demuth], they would have waited . It's frustrating ."
AMA and Arenac ross officials claimed
they waited more than a fair amount of
time, and with all other teams watching the
clock, they had to move on with the event .
Demuth took full advantage of lange's
absence and grabbed the holeshot , with
Tommy Hofmaster and Brad Hagseth in
tow. Demuth q uickly separated himself
from the field and went on to take an easyloo king w in, ahead of Hoffmaster and
Hagseth .
CYCLE NEWS
40th Annivers a ry
