Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

I Briefly... The starting line inside Qualcomm Stadium was different, to say the least. It sat wellabove the stadium floor, and riders had to be careful not to take off too quicklyso that they could gas it down the hill onto the start stra ight. It genera llyresulted in a more spread-out first-turn pack. Did Chad Reed enjoy receiving the $ 1500 Butterfinger Holeshot Award! "Y eah, definitely. I want to thank Butterfinger for giving us riders something to strive for," he said. "l owe this to my team . They did a great jo b and got me a lot of horsepower to beat those four-strokes to the first corner, which is not normal for me." Greg Schnell earned his second such award of the year in the 125cc main event. earning $ 1000 fro m the candybar company. David Vuillemin rode quietly to third. The podium has been identical the last two weeks. Huffman. Coming into the race at Qualcomm Stadium, which was marred by the death of Southern California pro Jason Ciarletta (see In the Wlnd), Reed had never won a main event without winning his heat race as well. After he encountered bike problems in his heat , Reed was forced to race the semi. With the unusual downhill start, though (see Briefly...), it may have done him good to get another shot off the gate . " Yeah, definitely," Reed said. "T his track, you need a great start, and it gave me a chance to try another start, and I got a good start. That's the name of the game in the main event." Amso il Cha pa rra l Honda's four-stroke star we nt to w ork, passing Vuillemin right away and t hen taking an inside line on Reed a couple of turns late r, on ly for Reed to squeak back by for t he lead . Two laps lat e r, in the same turn , Windham made the pass stick, jumping inside Reed in a 90-degree right- hander and taking over the lead . "Wh en I first got out, I saw Chad was in front, and obviously you don't want to let anybody get out in the opening of the race , so I wanted to attack early and get up there - and I did," Windham said. "And I didn't really get a chance to see him or race with him because he had that prob lem in the heat and everything, but I was surprised at how easy I co uld run with him, and I wanted to continue to put the pressure on , and I ended up making the pass, and it kind of flipped the coin . Now he was kind of stuck on me ." It quickly became a two-rider race, and although Windham looked much faster than Reed while Windham was running second, the opposite was true once Reed began to study Windham's lines from beh ind. "We ll, I th ink it would've been to my advantage [to follow Reed longer]," Windham said , " because when yo u're behind , if you 're slower in any section, you can see where , and it's up to you to make it up, and it' s fairly easy to do when there's someone right in front of you ." Reed agreed. "I think , like Kevin said earlier, when you 're riding beh ind some- one, it' s easie r," he said. "When he was be hind me , he co uld pass me pretty much w henever he wanted, and likewise when I was be hind him, so ... You know, it's just the nature of be ing second and seeing what's up - seeing what the line is and seeing if it 's a good line or a bad line," Reed pushed Windham for the next J I laps, show ing him a wheel in the same right-hander afte r an infield tr iple almost eve ry lap, and Windh am was noticeably guarding his lines all the way arou nd the track. The two were never separated by mo re than a second, and Reed even got a wheel in front of Windham a co uple of times, only for W indham to re bou nd back to the lead . Reed used that same tu m after the infield triple to go inside Windham near the end of the 13th lap. The two raced down the start stra ight, and Windham went back inside Reed after the finish-line jump . However; the far-inside line caused Windham to lose his dr ive , and Re ed regained t he lead through the ensuing rhythm section. Windham jumped in behind , and once again roles were reversed. "You know, I was watchin g the laps go by, and I seen the halfway, and I was just Clear Channel re ported ly brought in $150,000 worth of dirt for Dirt Wurx to work with, and most of the riders were fans of the surfoce. However, many riders complained t he track was too one·lined and easy. Every time Chad Reed is on the podium duringqualifying now, floo r announcer Terry Boyd helps him pimp his new T· eah, definitely. Y know, every ou sh irt. "Y wee k in the Yamaha [autograph] line, more and more peop le are gett ing these shirts," Reed said before tossingan autographed shirt to the crowd . "Y know, I want to ou give a shout out and thank allof you guys for purchasing this shirt." Rookie San Francisco 4gers wide rece iver Brandon Lloyd was in atten dance at San Diego. He happens to have the same trainer as James Stewart - Chuck Williams. This weeke nd's KTMJr. Supercross Challenge winner was from back east - way back east. Kyle Webster is from South Africa, and he won aboard a number-eight KTM 50 SX. According to Clear Channel, Q ualcomm Stadium boasted 61,062 race fans Saturday night. BillyBinckley receivedthe $7S0 Racer X Gas Card for finishing third in the 250cc LCQ, whil Sean Collier took home $250 from e Asterisk for fi nishingfifth in the I 25cc LCQ. After the races, privateer Pro Circuit Honda CRF250R pilo t Greg Schnell was spotted in the MotoXXX truck talking to team manager Kurt Haller. "We're going to figure it out this week," Haller said of whe ther or not Schnell will be ridingout of the team's semi next week at Anaheim III. "I can't tell you yes or no because we don't know yet, but it depends on what happens with Larry [Ward], and it depends on what's up with Timmy [Weigand] - if Timmy's t humb is broken - and it depends on how bad Larry's shoulder is." The second setback to ECC Suzuki's Mike Craig's comeback is a doozy. "My Continued on page 14 www.cycienEWs.com CYCLE NEWS • FEBRUARY 4,2004 13

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