Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Briefly... After finishi ng third in the first I25cc moto, Matt Walker crashed and suffered a dislocated hip. It appeared that Walker ran off the course just before the fall and had picked up course-marker ribbon around his front wheel, which might have caused the front wheel to lock up. Walker got slammed into the face of a jump. According to Team Suzuki manager Roger DeCoster, Brae Heple r, who finished sec ond in the first I25cc mo to, d id in fact break his co llarbone in a second-moto fall. Hep ler got patched up and signed autographs after the race . Ricky Cannichael had a scary moment during Sunday morning 's practice . AMSOI[JFactory Con nection Honda's KevinWindham had a minor fall, but Carmichael ran into Wind ham's bike and crashed. Carmichael cam e off a jump and cased his Ho nda right on Windham's Ho nda, leaving Carmichae l sore and with a badly damaged frame. The lower lrame rails were ben t en ough to req uire that the whole lrame be rep laced, wh ich certa inly increased the stress level another not ch for Carmichae l's mechan ic Mike Gosselaar, who was on the ve rge of a perfect season himself. But even w ith the bent motorcycle, RC got right back up and proceeded to click olf the fastest lap time 01practice. to win and keep trying to get up on top." Eve r since he came back from h is knee injury that t o o k him out of action for over a year, Team Suzuki's Sebastian Tortelli has been steadily stepping it up and has been a regu lar o n the 250cc pod ium. At Glen Helen , he turned in two good r id es that netted h im third overall on the day. In both motos Tortelli was fo rced t o work h is way up to third after getting st a rts that found him at the latter ha lf of t he top 10. Maki ng th is all th e more imp ressive was the fact that the temperatures were easily in the h igh 90s a ll day long. " My mechanic was cheering me on - Tony [Berlutti] - out there," Tortelli said . "An d t hat reminded me that we're ou t there to work a nd to push as ha rd as w e can , and that's what I d id. Everything w ent very good. T he track was rough, as usual, but t his is one of the best tracks o f th e ye ar. It's re a l mot o c ro ss out there a nd I'm happy that my bike was ha ndling very well out there . Everything w o rk e d out good fo r me." While everything a p peared to be going smoothly, Tortelli did ha ve a little t rouble getting around Team Mota XXX's Kyle Lewis, who na iled the hol eshot in both motos. " I was very surp r ised ," To rtell i sa id . " Kyle Lewis ro d e very good all d ay. He ha d two consist e nt rnotos, a nd it w as hard to pass hi m . The t ra ck fit me very go o d out he re , so I was ha p py to get by him and get thi rd place." Despite missing much of t he first ha lf of the season, Tortelli finished out the year eighth in points. Lewis put those holeshots to good use and battled up front all day long. Lewis was rewarded with fourth overall with two fifth -place finishes . He nearly finished th ird in the second mota but just couldn 't qu ite hold o ff Tortelli or Kevin W indham, w ho cha rged up fro m a bad start. Ro und ing out the to p five overall was Te a m Ho nd a's Ernesto Fonseca. H e came into the day sixth in points and 10 points behind Michael Byrne. Fonseca rode a consistent race, going 7-7, which was enough to get by Byrne in the points stand ings and finish out th e ye ar in fift h . Byrne had a m ise rable d ay a ft e r finishing ninth in the first mota and DNFing the second m o ta . Sixth overall went to Team Suzuki's Se an Hamblin with a 4-12. Hamblin had a strong ride in the firs t mota and pretty much ran in the top five the whole way. A bad start in the second mota ended any chance he had o f ge tting o n www.cyclenews.com Accord ing to Boost Mobile/Troy RacinlifYamaha's team manager, Jeff Montgomery, YoTs Josh Hansen and KTM Red Bull's Brett Metcalf will inde ed "make a trade" lor the 2005 seaso n. "It' ll be a swap," Montgomery said . "They are going to be released about the same time ." MontgOmery added tha t he was a little d isappointed with Hansen's resu lts in this year 's outdoor series. "He never really had the locus and att ention and the dedication lor the ou tdoors that we had hoped for," Montgomery said. Speaking 01the Boost Mobt1eteam, things are stilla little up in the air regard ing Mike Brown, who reportedly has been offered a"lucrative two-year dealby an unnamed team to race in Europe, but he still has another year left on his YoT co ntract. "There 's still some dialoggoing on about wh ether we willor will not release him," MontgOmery said. "But he wants to go to Europe. We really want to keep him , but we also don't want to anyth ing tha t might damage his career." The odds are good that Brown will end up in Europe . Finding a comparable re placement for Brown will be diffCult lor the YoT I team, but there are lew top ride rs who have yet to sign a deal lor 2005, such as Branden Jesseman . Red Bull KTM's Joaq u im Rodrigues just signed a deal to ride for the AMSOI[JFactory Connection Honda team for 2005. Rodrigues will jo in Billy Lanninovich, Josh Grant and Tommy Hahn on the I 25cc-class team. "I don't know wh ich co ast I will be riding yet , but I'll be riding the 250Fs . Things were good at KTM but I just needed the change, " Rodrigues said. Two Brothers Racing, who helps out James "Bubba" Stewart when the l25cc champ wants to do some mini-class racing lor fun, gave Stewart a nice gift at Glen He len in acknowledgement 01his two titles th is year - a 24-karot, gold-pla ted KLX I 10 minbike. The "Ultimate Trophy: ' as lWo Brothers calls it, is a "life-size" ornament like those found on top 01most motocross racing trophies. The gold KLX is reportedlyworth about $25,000. Word has it that late night television host Jay Lena has invited lames Stewart to be a guest lor a luture show. Also, editors from GQ magazine attended the Glen Helen National to do a story on CYCLE NEWS • Continued on page '5 S EPTEMBER 22, 2004 13

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