Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128310
THO A MA l2Scc W e ste r n Regional S u p e r c r o s s S e r ies Kevin W indham ran fellow No Fear ride r Robbie Reynard 's gear in Friday's first practice session. H is gear show ed up (or the second practice , though. At the ride rs' meeting, Steve Whit elock said that the contact between Tyle r Eva ns and Ezra Lusk last week, whe n Mach I says Evans looked ove r and inten tionallyto ok Ezra dow n (altho ugh Evans fell, too), was determined to be "just racing." Howeve r, Eric Sorby and Rod rig Th ain were both made to have last pick o n the gate in thei r dayt ime qualifiers for th eir co ntact in the San Diego LCQ. Wonder Wa rthog Racing had a pre sence in the pits for the first time. "We 've created an organ izatio n, Wonder Warthog Racing, and the pr imary mission of that o rganizatio n is to figure out how to help privateers," said Scott Kandell, otherwise know n as Wond er Warthog (he's the guyyou mayhave seen in the superh ero o utfit walking aro und in the pits at so me of this year's events). "So there's tw o compo nents under that . Th e first and primary component is Team Wart hog, which is a notfor-profit , no n-ma ney-making entity that is created to conceptualize, fund and e xecute mea ningful programs for privateers. For Team Warthog, we are using the cartoon character of Wond er Warthog, which was a '60s comicbook charac ter w ho, in some of his episodes. used to race mo tocross. It was actually d raw n by Tony Bell, w ho used to do Motocross Cat for Cycle News. We're usinghim, the flying warthog, to repre sent the symbo l of the privateer. The first program around this is the pr ivatee r evening-pr ogram payout . It's really simple. You run a small Wonder Wart hog sticker o n your fro nt fe nde r; if you 're a privatee r and you make the evening event, which from our bes t estimations is usually abou t 35-45 privateers, we will re imburse yo u for you r AMA e ntry fee . We will cut a check next week and sen d it out to the registe red riders ." He we nt o n to say tha t he will be launching an appa re l line as well tha t w ill be for profit, marketing r o C ircuit/Kaw asa i/ Cti e vy Trucks' Ivan Ted sco is ho lding a ho t hand . Aft r s tar ting t he se ries stro ng by taking holeshots to vitto r ie s i t he firs t two rou nds , Tedesco has wo n the last three com ing from behind. That' five wins down and two to go to possibly ecome the second rider eve r to reco rd pe rfect 12Scc Supe rc ross series. Th e first? Pro Circuit Kawasaki's Ricky Carm ic ael in the 1998 12Scc Easte rn Regional Su ercross Championship - although RC won eight of eight, plus t he s ho o t o ut in gas , wh ere as Tede sco o nly has seven rou nCl ut West this year. W ith the w in at Anaheim III, Tedesco bec ame the secon d rider ever to sweep t he Anaheim races in any, class, with the P casualclothing called Wonder Warthog Apparel. Whether that succeed s o r fails he says will not affect the privatee r programs. Speaking of Wond e r Wart hog, Suzuki privatee r Scott Davi s actu ally wo re the shirt and cape of the characte r in his semi, much to the AMA's chagrin. Since it was so cold, many of the riders we re wearing jackets befo re lining up on the start line, so the (Above) Ivan Tedesco loob almost unstoppable. He bettled around is game teammate to w iri his fifth in a row. Two more wins and he's perfect. (Right) Tedesco (29) made this same pass a"empt twice on his teammate Ste pha ne Roncada (21), only for Roncada to stuff him in the ensuing corner. Tedesco forced Roncada to double a triple to take the lead. cape sort of sneaked by. The AMA was reportedlydoing "cape inspections" befor e the rest of the night's races . www.cyc lenews.com CYCLE NEWS • FEBR Y 11 ,2004 UAR 19