Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

tainly showed, as the Suzuki rider dramatically backed off the gas and was runn ing fifth by the 12th lap. After crashing o nce, Pastrana w ou ld eventually finish 10th after getting lapped by Reed . The only other rider besides Windham who seemed to be almost as fast as Reed was Team Suzuk i's other hopeful, Sean Hamblin. After hanging out in third for nine laps, not too far be hind Pastrana and Reed, Hambl in, too , started to fade noticeably. But according to Suzuki team after his front e nd washed out six laps from the end . Reed's crash loo ked innocent enough, but he said he hit the gro und hard, which left the series points leade r in a lot of pain and, litt le did he know, with a tweaked radiator, wh ich bega n showing puffs of steam every so often. Reed began not jumping o bstacles that he had before t he crash, and his lap times dropped considerably, allowing Windham to get a little closer. But with just a couple of laps left, cou ld not cap italize on Reed's mistake . "He was able to fall and still w in; I was frustrated w ith tha t," Wind ham said. "I was happy with the way I rode, ot he r than the start. That was the downfall." As fo r Pastrana, he was still happy with his ride despite fading so badly. "I felt awesome after my heat," Pastrana said. "I know it was only seven laps, but I was ready to go [in the main]. I got through the first tum in second, and I'm like, :-\11 right, I'm go ing to ru n this I Briefly... The big news of the day was the return of Travis Pastrana. The Team Suzukirider hasn't raced supercross or motoc ross since injuring his knee about this time last year. During his recovery, however, Pastrana suffered more injuries in an automobile acci- dent, which prolonged his return . Pastrana said earlier in the year that he was going to ride selected races in '04, beginning with next week 's St. Louis Supercross, but he bumped it up a week earlier, since he enjoys Daytona's longer and more outdoorstyle track. Pastrana didn't make his final decision to ride untilfinishing up some test ingduring the week , at which time he felt he was ready to race . Pastrana's lap times were immediately right there with Kevin Windham and Chad Reed's, which quickly erased anyone's question about his riding skill, only his conditioningin the longerthan-usual Daytona race was in doubt going into the evening's program. As of now, Pastrana does not have intentions on ridingall of the remaining supercross rounds . Perhaps the biggest disappoint of the night for Team Suzuki was the terrible day Broc Hepler had. Going into the Daytona Supercross, Hepler, in only his fourth supercross race of his career. was holdingdown second in points and was coming off a second-place finish in Atlanta. At Daytona Hepler failed to qualify into the main event and went from second to third in the standings. Hepler crashed in both his heat race and the last-chance qualifier . On Friday afternoon, TeamHonda's Ricky Cannichael, this year's DaytonaSX Grand Marshal, held a press conference, hopingto manager Roger DeCoster, Hamblin's sudde n backward slide w asn't all about being in (o r out of) shape. " He said his contact fe ll out, " DeCoster relayed. Hamblin would eventually finish out the race in 12th. Windham gradually Meanwhile, worked his way up through the pac k on his Honda CRF450R after getting off to his second bad start in two weeks. "I was disappointed with that, " Windham said of his start. "N int h place was horrible. I got a late jump . Reed and I were starting next to each other, and I th ink he was over the gate before I even moved. It was horrible." By the time Windham had sole control of second place on the 12th lap, Reed was lo ng gone. "I was watching him the whole race," Windham said. "Igot in second, but it was too late ." With just eight laps left , Wind ham found himse lf about 25 seconds be hind the flying Reed, but things suddenly got inte resting again when Reed went down Reed still had enough insura nce to be assured the win . He drastically slowed on the last lap, hold ing his right side as he crossed the finish line still some eight seconds ahead of W indham. ''I'm just happy to be able to make a silly mistake like that and still go on to win," Reed said. "I really don't know what happened . [The crash] took my breath away, [and] I was struggling standing up and sitting down . It was a track where you need to stand up and sit down a lot. It just made it tough for me . I just had to kind of dig deep and get through it." Reed added that he did not know his bike's radiator was damaged in the fall. "I heard that [after the race], but I wasn't aware of that. I knew my bike was a litt le bent up, but I didn't know it was steaming or anythi ng like that. I was just worried about myself." Despite the sudden cha nge of events, Reed remained composed on the track. "I wasn't worried about him [Windham] catching me ," Reed said. " I had a decent lead ." Windham was disappointed that he pace. ' It wasn 't that the pace was that fast , it was just that - it lasted . The track is so ridiculously, amazingly rough, that you 're just ho lding on for dear life. I was spinning my grips around in circles , and they're wired-tied and glued ! My speed is there, so I'm happy, but about the eighth lap I started [to fade] ." Mike LaRocco joined Reed and Wi ndham on the podium . It was laRocco's fifth podium finish in the last six races, and it was the fifth podium finish Amsoil/Chaparral/Factory for t he Connection Honda rider at Daytona. Even though he finished a respectable third, laRocco said that he didn't feel comfortable on the track all day. He started off about seventh and worked his way up, but not without a couple of scraps along the way w ith Yamaha's Dav id Vuillemin, Kawasaki's Michae l Byrne and Pastrana. "This is definitely one race I wa nt to win, [but] tonight I really didn't have the speed ," laRocco said. "1knew I just wanted to get out on the start and smooth things out and try to stay strong. I didn't answer everyone'squestions about his recovery and about the DaytonaSupercross ingeneral allat once. As far as hisrecovery, Carmichael said, ':A,s everyone mayor may not know, I had myACL repaired. I had a couple other thingswrong with my knee , so they fixed it allup. Mysurgery was December 9, and they fixed it; the procedure went well. I'li be able to be backon the bikeApril I. I'li start riding again, and I'li be ready for the outdoors. Iwould have loved to have come out just for thisone, but as good as I feel, I know I'm not ready." Carmichael was justas curiousabout holding the Daytona . Supercross under the lights as everyone else. "I thinkit's goingto be tough," he said, "because some of the dirt where the jumps are on the track is really dark, and it's going to be dark, also. I haven'tseen how good the lighting is, so it's goingto be unique. It may be a little easier, riding-wise. because it won't be as hot. It'll be interestingto see if we bring in more fans ." The DaytonaSupercross, which has been traditionaliy held Saturdayafternoon, was moved to Friday night to giveroom for the Daytona 200 by Arai Superbike race to be held in its old time slot. The famed road race was moved up a day to allow for a Sunday Continued on poge 27 www.cycienEWs.com CYC LE NEWS • MARCH 17, 2004 2S

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