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/128327
. • ".. • • I , ": •, I , . • :Briefly... - .i.J... , Former top amateur prospect Gene Stull was competing in his first race of the season . flying the Team Solitairebanner on a Millennium Cycles Yamaha 'fZ250F. Disaster struck on the last lap of his morn ing qualifier though. ; Stulldipped the top of a jump and went down, and other riders were unable to avoid him. Stullwas struck by Motoworldracing.com Suzuki rider Daryl Hurley. and the impact shattered Stull's femur. The native of nearby Gibsonia, Pennsylvania, will be out indefinitely . Another top rider from the area, Brandon Jesseman, is now rumored to be taking a spot in the Pro Circu~ Kawasaki trailer in 2ooS. Jesseman, the 2003 l2Scc East Supercross Champion , is stillout of action with a wrist injury. Also out with injuryis Red Bull KTM's Josh Woods, who attended the High Point race wearing a knee brace . Woods hopes to make a retum from recent knee surgery at the Millville, Minnesota, round . After Stephane Roncada kept him honest in both motos at Hangtown, many questions surrounded the performance of James Stewart's KX125. Supposedly Stewart asked Kawasaki to find more power out of his bike, but according to Stewart's mechanic Jeremy Albrecht, the only changes made involved suspension andgearing. consecutive wins at High Point. He also extended his le ad early in the Nationals to 16 points over Windham. Added Carmichael on his one mistake all weekend : " I went into the corner too fast , my back end kind of bounced out of the rut, and I just tipped it over. But I kept the bike running, got up and caught Chad pretty quick [Reed had about an eight-second lead after RC went down] . I was able to get by him and put in some good laps." W indham's (2-2) runner-up effort was his fourth straight ru n ne r-up finish at H igh Poi nt . With Carmichael checked out in the first moto, Windham p ut o n a bri lliant riding display in chasing down both Re e d and his Yamaha teammate David Vuillemin (two-time 25 0cc winner at High Point) to take second o verall. He the n parlayed the ho lesho t in th e second moto to an early race le ad be fo re he was tracked , watched, set up and finally passed by the speedy Carmichael. "He [Carmichael] watched where I was going and was able to make time on me," Windham said . " W e played some cat and mouse before he passed me, but I was able to change up some of my lines and catch up. Ricky was on today. I kept charging, tried to put on a good show, and overall I was happy with the way I rode." Reed, the new Supercross Champion, wasn't all that pleased w ith his second third-place finish in two races - and especially with the way Carm ichael chased him down after his first-moto fall to pass him just one lap later. "Three/three - just like last weekend, " said Reed in disgust from the podium. "I had terrible rhythm and was struggling in the ruts. But I'm heading back to Florida this week, looking forward to riding out East here for a while, and we'll get things figured out." Outside the top three , Vuillemin (fourth with a 4-4) and Suzuki's Se a n Hamblin (sixth with an 8-6) rode ve ry well, but the big news just o ff the podium was the effort of H o nd a's Ernesto Fonseca. Fonseca, in his first race back after mis sing much of the supercross season w ith a knee injury, took advantage of some solid starts, great line selection and raced to an impressive fifthplace overall (7 -5). " I'm really happy with the way th ings went," said Fonseca, who was the highest placing two-stroke racer in the 2 50cc class . " My knee's 100 percent. I've only Indianaprivateer hero Scott Me a made his retum to radng after breaking his hands in an inddent unrelated to racing. "Y eah, but you should see the other guy," said Metz. The Thor High Point National induded three days of amateu r racing as part of the Team Green Spring National. The fadl~ hosted motocross racing on Thursday and Friday , while Saturday marked the debut of Mota-XCountry, a new hybrid fonm of GNCC and motocross racing. GNCC Champion Barry Hawk, who lives just a few minutes from High Point, showed up and won the Pro class over JimmyJarrett and Randy Hawkins. Racer Productions unveiled several changes at the High Poin t facility. The event promoters builta new starting gate and first tum for the amateur riders, keeping the Pro gate offlimitsuntilSaturday's practice sessions. Also, a new mini-bike track was built for use Inthe Xtreme Motorcycles Minibike National. which ran under the lightson Saturday night Brae Hepler was the center of attention at his home National. The Suzuki rider donned a Shoei helmet painted to match the P~rgh Stee!ers' NFL helmet. O'Neal and Racer X Continued on page 17 www.cyclenews.com C Y CLE NEWS • JUNE 9 , 2004 15