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/128325
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Round 1
MOTOCROSS
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qu ietly held down third positio n. After a
10th place in the first moto, he was put ting himse lf in a pos ition to finish well in
the overall standings.
He was even hanging wit h Ro ncada and
Stewart for a good portion of t he race.
"1 was able to run with those guys for
a little bit, but they were goi ng really fast
today, " Heple r said of his second moto.
W ith his third in mo to two, Hepler was
able to nab fo urt h overall fo r the day, just
behind the veteran Mike Bro wn, on the
Boost MobilelYamahafTroy Racing YZ2S0F.
Brown was one of the riders most
people had pegged as one of the top
contenders for the championship.
Ne vertheless , throughout the day Brown
rode conservatively. Th is was the first
round of 12, and there was no sense in
ta king any risks. There was only on e small
run -in with Red Bull KTM's Ryan Hughes
in the first moto that made Brow n fight
hard. Th e two riders battled each other
for a few laps and swapped pos itions on
more than a few occasions before Hughes
was able to tak e over the third spot permanently. T he battle was reminiscent of
2003 , when the two riders had fi erce battles to the end . When all was said and
done, Brown was able to secure fo urt h in
bot h rnotos fo r th ird overall.
"1feel like it was o kay for the first race
of t he year," Brow n said. "T he on ly th ing
is that I just feel like I'm having problems
w ith the corners. That's wh e re I was losing my time o n t he to p guys today."
Wh ile Hughe s was able to beat Brown
in the first moto, he was not so lucky in the
second . He had a few instances of bad luck
tha t relegated him to the back of the pack.
" 1got a bad jump off the gate," Hughes
said . "If I ge t any kind of a bad jump, I'm
do ne . Then in t he first turn someone got
sideways and took my fron t wheel o ut
from unde r me ."
Hug hes made an inspired charge to the
front of the pack; he even fell over o ne
mo re time w hile try ing to work his way
up. But des pite all of this Hughes was still
able to pull off an impressive I It h-p lace
finish in the second moto, securing himself fifth overall fo r the day.
W ith t he series taking a weekend off
before heading back east to Mount
Morris, ma ny of t he riders will no do ubt
be training to t ry to improve upon th eir
showings in Sacra men to , and eve n tho ugh
he w o n, Stew art will be back training hard
ove r the next two weeks.
" 1fe lt like I struggled all day, and to st ill
co me out on top - t hat feels aweso me.
And I definitely wou ld have been pissed if
he [Ro ncada] had won the race today, but
he rode awesome all day. I have to give it
up to him."
eN
AMNChevrolet 1 5 cc Motocross Championship Series
2
Roncada (Kaw); 3. Ryan Hughes (KTM); ... Mike Brown
(Yam S. Eric Sorby (Kaw); 6. Ivan Ted esco (Kaw); 7. Steve
);
Lamson (Hon ); 8. Danny Smith (Yam); 9. Chris Gossel aar
(Hen); 10. Brcc He pler (Suz) ; I I. T,01 Adams (Kaw); 12.
Paul Carpenter (!