Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Johnson was moved from fourth to third behind Hagseth . Justin Brayton took off like he was shot out of a cannon to start the 250cc main, with Hofmaster tailing. "I got a good start and just pulled away," Brayton said. " I did start hitting so me lapped traffic early, and I got held up." This allowed Hofmaster, Johnson, Huffman and a charging Lange to close . Lange first passed Huffman and t hen Johnson, and then he set his sights o n Hofmaster in second. "It's kind of hard to get back in t he groove after everybody's been out there in the I25s," Lange said. "I got a decent start. Brayton was riding good out fro nt, and he was hard to catch ." Once Lange was past and working on Brayton for the lead, Hofmaster faded , allowing first Dowd and then Johnson by before he sett led into fifth. Brayton and Lange traded block-passes for a coup le of laps before Lange cou ld com plete the pass and go on to win. '" think we were going about the same speed; we just got into the lappers , and I missed the tr iple jump a couple laps ," Brayton said. "That messed me up." Brayto n hung on for sec ond ove r Dowd, Johnson and Hofmaster. SATURDAY The start of the 125cc main saw Lange on the grou nd, and a lot of the blame - at least in the pit area - was directed at Hofmaster for reta liating against earlier heat-race bumping. "Me, Brayton and Hofmaster got o ut of the gate the same and kind of locked elbows over the little drop-off," Lange said. "My arm came off the bar when Tommy went by me . I hope we can stay out of each oth er's way in the 250 main. It makes it good for the crowd, though." With Lange o n the ground , Ryan Huffman and Hofmaster battled briefly for the lead. Huffman prove d, by winning Saturday's DFC, that he could once again run up front, but overcoming injuries for more than four laps was too much, and he quickly faded , handing the lead to Hofmaster. Johnson was trailing in third. No rmally, Lange could mak e up gro und quickly and get back to the leaders, but the crash had severe ly bent the handlebars and triple clamp, making even easy jumps seem daunting. He battled the problem for the entire main and finished 14th. While Huffman slid back, Brayton was on the move, and soon he was battling with Johnso n for second. "I got a bad start, and it's tough on this track," Brayton said. "I was a little faster in the whoops than Chad, and he was holding me up a bit. Ijust wanted to get by him and stay in front of Dowd since we're battling for third in the points." Hofmaster took the checkered flag. "Me and Darcy bot h want to win!" Hofmaster said. "Neither one of us wa nts to back down, and I have no hard feelings about what's going on out here - it's racing. There was some talk in the back about retaliating on me . I don't feel that 's right." Brayton hung on for second, while Johnson claimed the last podium position Lange grabbed the holeshot in the 250cc main, and once again he just plain split. Huffman, Dowd and Northrop followed , and desp ite a second-row start, Hofmaster was quicklyin fifth. Dowd made the first move around Huffman to claim second, but Hofmaste r was on the move . Hofmaste r caught Dowd and made a move for seco nd, but Dow d was not conte nt to finish third and made a not-s o-c lean move to get back by Hofmaster in the turn after the whoo ps. "We were going back and fo rth a w hile," Dowd said. "We got together that last time , and I spun out, and he [Hofmaster] went down. I think he wanted a piece of Darcy. Luckily, no one was right behind us, and we got back into things quickly." Regardless of how it happened , Dowd now clung on to second and would finish there. Hofmaster remounted quickly and eN claimed third. KEMPER ARENA KANSAS CITY, M ISSOURI RUULTs: FEBRUARY 28-29, 2004 (FINAL ROUND) Friday 125 MA IN : I. Tommy Ho frnaster (Yam); 2. Brad Hagse th (Hon) ; 3. Chad joh nson (y.m); <. just ;n Braytoo (Hoo); 5. john Dowd (Suz ); 6 . jeff Wolloh (Suz); 7. Bred Mod jewski (Suz); B. Randy Woodring (Suz); 9. Brian Edwanls (Kaw); 10. COO Humphrey (Yam); II. N.than Il<-oughloo (Suz); 12. Chad Ule (Hoo) . 25 0 MAI N , I . Dao-cy lange (Kaw) ; 2. Ju.tin Il<-aytoo (Hoo) ; 3. John Dowd (5<,,); <. C had johnson (Yam); 5. Tommy Holnust... (Yam); 6. Jeff Nonfvop (Kaw) ; 7. Ryan Huffman (Yam); 8 . Brad Hag

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