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with Hofmaster holding off Ch ad Johnson
for fourth .
for lo ng, though. Lange lost control of his
KX250F comi ng into the start straight and
went down. While he remounted quickly,
he allowed Hagseth by, and he ultimately
had to settle for fourth .
"I just got caught in a rut and we nt
down," Lange said. "If I can't get it, I hope
that he [teammate Northrop] can."
Northrop stayed in command, as it
seemed Hofmaster had backed off a bit
and settled into second .
"Finally - it feels awesome," Northrop
said. "I've come so close so many times...
It's great to do this in fro nt of the hometown crowd."
Lange proved over the past few
wee ks that starts were nice, but not nec essary. The 250cc main was another
e xample, as Just in Brayton leapt out to
the le ad w ith Hofmaster and Dowd close
by. Lange was fifth .
"I got te rrib le starts all night in the
mains," Lange said. "I had good starts in
t he heats, but when the mains came, I
don't know w hat happened."
Maybe it was th e cons tant pressure of
t he looming champ io nship that ke pt
Lange a little off his game in regard to his
starts, but it didn't seem to make much of
a difference in the end result. Lange
worked his way to the front, passing
Dowd and Brayton , who had already
yielded the front spot to Ho fmaster.
Lange set up camp on Hofmaster 's rear
wheel. Ho fmaster seemed to tire out.
"My anms locked up about the fourth or
fifth lap," Hofmaster said. "I rode a lot this
week, and my hands just didn't feel right."
With Hofmaster behind him, Lange
went into cruise control and easily took
the win . Brayton was the overall benefactor of Hofmaste r 's arm -pump issues and
inherited the second posit ion.
Dowd claimed the final podium position,
S AT U R DAY
Hofmaste r grabbed
the holeshot in the
125cc main. Lange
was buried near last ,
barely avoiding a first-turn pileup, w hile
Dowd and Nort hro p followed the leader
in that order for the first few laps. Lange
qu ickly moved into fourth and began to
gain on the lead group of Northrop,
Dowd and Hofmaster.
Wh ile Hofmaster and Dowd traded
paint up front, Lange passed Northrop and
moved even closer to the leaders . Dowd
wan ted a win badly but he just cou ldn't
hold off Lange's charge to the front .
" Darcy' s riding good ," Dowd said .
"He's full of confidence and he 's solid, just
not making any mistakes out there."
Lange set out afte r Hofmaster once he
made the pass on Dowd, and he didn't
wait long to pull the trigger on Hofmaster
and ta ke ove r the top spot. Hofmaste r,
once again, seemed to let up and back off
the pace once Darcy was around him, and
he eventually faded to fourt h, handing the
last podium spot to Northrop.
Lange took the win, and Dowd's bid
for a win would have to wait . Neese
ro unde d o ut the to p five.
With the cha mpionsh ip on the line and
a crowd of family, friends and Kawasaki
bigwigs in attendance, Lange finally got a
holes hot and seemed de termined to put
an exclamation po int on the weekend by
convincingly winning the 250 main.
Dowd , Hofmaster and Jo hnson fell in
behind the heir apparent, and it seemed
as if Lange would pull away and win by a
large margin - as was often the case th is
season onc e the Canadian got out front.
However, Dowd was committed to kee ping Lange honest and showed him a wheel
here and there.
It wasn 't long before Dowd made a
move and actu ally passed Lange when the
Canadian cased a triple .
"I went over the t riple, missed a shift
and kind of cased the landing," Lange said.
"I hit my nuts right on the gas tank. I thought
I could shake it off and we nt a couple laps,
but it slowed me down. "
Dowd didn't care how, but he was about
to win his first Arenacross . But Lange had
other ideas. As Dowd left the door open,
Lange powered thro ugh the whoops and
into an unprotected comer and put a blockpass on Dowd. With one move , Lange had
the race and the championship.
"I passed him, and Iwas trying to be coo l,
but I was thinking, 'Man, I could win this
thing,''' Dowd said. "Towards the end , I got
nervous, but I didn't realize he was that
close, and I would have rode a different line
if I had known he was there. I left the door
open. What more can I say?"
Lange took the win, Dowd second,
Johnson third , Hofmaster fourth and
Northrop fifth.
eN
ARCO A RENA
SACRAMENTO , C A UFORNI A
F EBRUART 2 0 -2 1, 2004
(ROUND 11 OF 12)
(Kaw) ; 2. john Dowd (5<>z); J. jeff North rop (Kaw); 4.
Tommy Hofmaster (Yam); 5. Jim Neese (Suz); 6. Chad
Joh nson (Yam) : 7. Just in Brayton (Hon); 8 . Nathan T ieamey
(Suz); 9. Brad Mod jewski (Suz); 10. Brad Hagseth (Hon);
II. J Willoh (Suz): 12. Brian Edwar ds (Kaw) ; I J, Coh:
eff
Humphrey (Y
am); ' 4. Riley Kurosky (Yam); IS. Na than
Broughton (Suz).
25 0 MAIN : I. Darcy lange (Kaw); 2. Joh n Dowd (Suz);
J. Chad Johnson (Yam);