Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

" I jum pe d up o n the dirt and hit ne utral in the air and just saved it fro m jumping off," Henry ex p lained. " I kind o f got lucky on that one. I was pretty scared, but I made it through th at one. The scariest moment was that I went int o one of the corners w ith no front brake at all - it was pretty fast , I was afra id and w as getting so nervous, as the w all w as coming up qu ick. I was just able to get it laid in the re and made the corner. " He nry led each and every lap at the stripe, ne ve r le tt ing Wa rd get in fro nt for eve n a second . Metzger, meanwhile, gave chase to t he front seven and e ventually w orke d his way into sixt h pos ition after struggling to get his Honda run ning pe rfectly in the thin Colorado air. "My equipment isn't really up to par in this altitude ," Me tzge r said. ''I'm ha ppy to be he re , I did n't crash, and that 's pre tty much all I have to say." Fo llowing third -place finishe r Kun ze l ho me was Th iebault in fou rth, Fillmore in fifth, Metzger in sixth and Frenchman clutch to re le ase because it w as all smashed up ." W hile the battle at t he front raged on , Fillm ore , Drew and Th ie bau lt battled for fourth position. Fillmore and Dre w go t together in th e fast , sweeping d irt -track left-hander, with Dre w getting t he worst of it, a nd then suffering a nat tire one lap from th e e nd . "The start d idn't go as w e ll as I want ed it to," Drew sa id. "W he n w e started getting into the nitty-gritty, guys were bumping and grinding, and t hen Nicoll cam e in on me in the dirt and took me out into t he hay ba les . Th en T hie bault , N icoll and Fillmore got by me, so I was in, like , e ighth place o r so me t hing [actually, he was seventh]. I started passing a co uple of guys, a nd we started pulling away. Me and Fillmore and Th iebault had a pretty good battle go ing, and t he n Nicoll went dow n, a nd Fillmo re and I started battli ng again . We got togethe r and I kind o f spu n o ut in the dirt, got back up and sta rted reeling him in. I w as getting close and t he n all of a sudden I e nded up w ith a nat tire. In motoc ross, yo u can rid e a nat tire for a couple of laps, but in th is stu ff it 's just too hard. That's racing w hat are you going to do?" Midway through the ra ce, Ward started pushing reall y hard, trying to close the gap to Henry, who seemed to be st rug gling in a couple of places but re fused to slow the pace. "We ran strong and pulled away from the KTM guys, so we had a good race," Ward e xplained. "Wh e n he [Henry] made m istakes , I had made some right before him, so I cou ldn't capitalize on them. I just needed on e less mista ke and I th ink I could have got him in a couple of areas. Wh en lappers were getting in the way, t hey would help him and then help me; it' s just how it is. We ran good and I know who my com- petition is, so it 's go ing to be a long year." By this point, Kunzel was all alone in third, not co mpletely ou t o f touch with the two leaders but not quite in striking d ista nce , e ither. O n the other hand , he had comple te ly checked ou t o n Thiebau lt, who had worked his way aro und both Fillmore an d D rew. "The start w as no t bad; I was in third position," Kunze l said . "T he speed of Ward and Henry was very high - it was a fast sp e ed that w e go in the ra ce . I can follow the guys and go w ith t hem, but pass ing them... my sp eed w as not e nou gh for this on e . I did my best, and then in the lo ng left I made two mistakes. I came a little b it out of th e good line - for the moment I almost crashed , and then I didn't crash. Then I had too much d istance to Jeff [Ward] , but I give my best and in t he 450cc race , th ird pos ition is o kay - but for me, it isn't so good." As the laps wound down and Wa rd was mak ing one last assault for th e lead , He nry made a mistake that very well could have e nded his race a nd han ded the Victory to Ward . As He nry entered t he d irt rhy t hm section, he bobbled an d almost went over t he bars, ba re ly getting the bike under control before t he fo llowing berm. He t he n had brake problems e lsewhere on the track. I Briefly... Doug Chandler ended up a spectator at Copper Mountain, decidingafter the mom ing practice that his injured leg was too sensitive to riskaggravating on the track's 1arge jumps. "Everything came together so late," Chandler said. "1he bike worked reallywell for me, but with allof the jumps... I'm just not able to deal with that kindof stuff the poundingon my leg. , 1he times I've been on my dirt bike, it's taken me from doinganythingelse for about a week. I'm just beat up, so Ifiguredthat [since] we've got a lot of racingcoming up, I thought it would be wise to regroup, go home, try to get these thingsto run a littlebit better." The Honda Red Riders Jr. Supe nnoto Chal lenge turned out to be an exciting race on both days,getting the day's events under way. On Saturday, I I-year-old J.D. Beach from Covington. Washin gton, ran away from the field early in the race. Beach used his jockey-sized proportions to his advantage,easily pullingaway from second-place rider Tyler Fisher from Greeley, Colorado, early in the race. At the finish, Fisherhad closed the gap down to .38 1of a second. Rounding out the podium was Taylor Clemens from Denver, Colorado, who won a hard-foughtbattle for third positionwith John Hopper from Colorado Springsand Jamie Siever from Belle Plaine, Kansas. Sunday's race picked up where Saturday's race left off, and 8randon Dooley, from Belle Plaine, Kansas, led each and every lap, usinghis lighter body weight to pullaway from the much bigger lucas Scherb from Decatur, Texas. Coker Dimick from Fort Collins, Colorado, was fifth on lapone but worked his way up to third by the finish, with Tyler Valentine from Evergreen, Colorado, in fourth andCharIyRupprecht of Colorado Springs in fifth. 1he top three riders from both days are invited to atte nd the final round, which will take place in Las Vegas at the end of the season, to detennine a champion. Fonmer 12Sc Motocross World and National c Champion and last year 's Unlimited Superrnoto Champion Grant Langst on was a noshow at Coppe r Mountain. And Red Bull KTM boss Ron Heben was as surprised as anyone. Langston wasn't riding one of the Red Bullfactory bikes but was rece iving support and bikes from KTM. As of the X Garnes earlier in the month, things seemed in order, but lAngston hasbeen rumored to have been testinga Pro Orcuit Kawasaki for the upcoming2005 AHA Supercross and Motocross series. Langston recently pulledout of the AHA Motocross Championship because of injuries that were aggravated by the rough nature of motocross, and Supenmoto was supposed to be an alternativefor the remainder of the year. Stay tuned. David Baffeleuf, on a KTM, in seventh. Leon ardo Bagnis, Mar k Bur khart and Josh Ch isum ro unded out the top 10. Notable nonfinishers included N icoll, w ho cras hed and messed up the clutch on his KTM; Gary Trachy, who was e xt remely fast before crashing spectacularly on the huge metal tabletop jump due to a failed rear brake; and Jeff Wood. SUPERMOTO UNLIMITED RACE ONE In the first of two 5upermoto Unlimited races, Kunzel worked his way past early lea der Micky Dymond , who got the www.cyclenews.com Another rider who was notably missing from the paddock was seven-time Supercross championJeremy McGrath. 1he former Troy Lee Designs rider had joined the American Supercarnps White Brothers Honda team in the offseason to team up with Steve Drew. Accordingto team boss DannyWalker, "McGrath had other priorities." The two parties have apparently separated. Many of the riders in the paddock commented about having difficulty setting up their jetting for the 975()"foot e levation at Copper Mountain. Not to mention a couple of riders such as JeffWard, who commented that it was affecting his personal lungjetting as well. "Being43 at this altitude doesn't help me at all, so when we get down to sea level, I'll have a littleextra energy," Ward said. CYCLE NEWS • SEPTEMBER 8 , 2004 13

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