Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

THO AMA S upercross Series his private practice track in preparation for the Daytona race . "Ricky letting us ride there was awesome," Millsaps said. "We got some things accomplished, and it [the track's layout] was the closest thing to Daytona. Today, watching Kevin Windham and his lines in each one of his practices he's built like me, long like me - watching his lines really did help . And being around somebody like Ricky Carmichael rea lly does help, too." creep up around the inside.", As he has done ever since the first 12Scc East Coast round four weeks ago, Stewart pretty much breezed to victory in what was his very first time at the Daytona Supercross. Stewart checked out right away. By the third turn, Stewart had already opened up about a SO-yard gap on the pack, and by the end of the first lap, he had built up a comfortable lead that would continually grow and grow. The rest of the 12Scc class never had a chance, really, as Stewart clicked off the fastest lap time of the night, 250s included. By the time the trouncing was over, Stewart officially took the win over a half-minute ahead of the second-place rider, and that was even after slowing down a bit on the last lap. "I rea lly felt comfortable the whole night," Stewart said. "This place is a lot different and even harder than an outdoor track. All the train ing and stuff paid off, and I felt good the whole race." Even though it looked like he had a flawless race, Stewart admitted afterward that he did have a couple of close calls along the way. "It wasn't really the track; it was basically some of the lappers out there," Stewart said. "You're out there running your own pace - the jump-on and jump-offs and stuff - and when you catch up to a lapper and have to roll a section, the hardest th ing was to get you r rhythm back up and try to flow again. This track is so grueling, you want to be able to double everything smoothly every lap. I almost went over the handlebars - I don't know how I saved it. There were actually a couple of times that I almost went over the bars." Team Suzuki's Davi Millsaps made it two two-strokes finishing at the front of a pack of four-strokes, and it was his first podium finish in his young supercross career. Once Millsaps passed Josh Hansen for second place on the second lap, the RMI2S pilot settled into a comfortable groove and pretty much ran the rest of the race all alone there, where he would finish. Millsaps, however, could n't get too re laxed because Hansen was never all that far behind him. Millsaps gave Ricky Carmichael a lot of credit for his strong ride. During the week, Carmichael let Millsaps practice at 30 MARCH 17,2004 • CYCLE NEWS Millsaps admitted that the rough Daytona track wore on him. "It's hard to go out there and ride I00 percent fo r IS laps and not expect to get tired," Millsaps said. "I tried to do that, but it didn't really work." Finishing on the podium for the second time this year was Hansen on the Boost MobilelYamahafTroy Racing YZ2S0F. Hansen got off to a second-place start but could not do anything about Millsaps, who got by him early on. But Hansen took control of third and was never really challenged, though last week's third-place finisher Michael Blose, on the Samsung/Radio Shack Yamaha YZ2S0F, was always close enough to pounce if Hansen bobbled or crashed. "I started off the race getting a decent start," Hansen said. "Davi got around me, and I was just going to pace off him. But I 40th Anniversary guess I've got to make my outdoor skillsa little bit better, because Davi kind of checked out on me, and so did James. It was a good race but definitely tiring. I'm looking forward to next week and getting back into supercross." Blose held fourth the whole way and was never really challenged . "I got a pretty decent start and pretty much put in two good laps the first couple of laps,"

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