Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

i Izzi []ominate§ Mini§ Briefly... I Continued from page 39 Ricky Carmichael. Merckx grew up in the same town as Roger DeCoster and is a longtime friend of t he motocross legend. When De Co ste r was destroying his competition in t he GPs back in t he day, Merckx was do ing the same in cycling, earn ing himself the nickname of "The Cann ibal." Each year, the U.S. Open holds an invitational race for the top minibike riders in the country. They are chosen from the ir finishes at the Amate ur Nation al Championsh ips at Loretta Lynn's. Lastyear, Do minic lzzi was able to go home with the victory aboard his Team Suzuki RM8S. This year, Izzireturned and got the chance to run his number-one plate. On the first night of competition, Izzi was dealt one of the worst gate picks Almost all of the riders at the U.S. Open were runni ng the number 33 on thei r bikes, in m emo ry of Whitn ey Mu rp hy , a young racer from Southern California who passed away after he fe ll while racing. A benefit race will be he ld in November to establish a sc holarsh ip fund in his memory. The money will go to kids w ith good grade- point averages to help them get into college . Dur ing Sat urday's practice, Chad Reed was the first ride r to complete a difficult trip le .to.q u ad rhyt h m se c t io n . By doing so, Reed was ab le to better his lap times even m ore . Ricky Carmichael was t he next rider to successfully make the leap. However, on his first attem pt , Carmic hael swapped be fore the quad and nearly crashed . Ernesto Fonseca was the third rider to attempt the risky jum p . out of the entire field in the first race. When they rounded tum one, the Suzuki rider was buried back in the pack, but once everyth ing began to calm down , he slowly made his way to the front. In the closing stages, Izzi managed to move into the lead, and once there he never looked back. The next race that night wasn't as exciting,as Izzigot the lead early on and ran away fro m everyone . The second night was much the same for Izzi. He managed to win both races to take the overall victory. Finishing second in the overall standings was KTM rider Taylor Futrell, who led a few laps on Saturday but couldn't quite hold off the hard-charging Izzi. The final podium position went to Kawasaki rider Trey Canard , who rode consistently throughout both days, but it was his second-place finish in the final race that gave him third overall. With t he 2004 season officially over, Chad Reed can now wear gear in someth ing other than just blu e . Still, he wore blue for the first night of rac ing. "I like blue and w hite," Ree d sa id. " I just don't like to wear it 24/7. It's a good thing to be able to change it up." Saturday night , Re e d don ne d mint -col ored Thor gear. RESULT S 85 O/A : I. Dom inic lui (5U"l) ; 2. Taylor Futrell (KTM): 3. Trey Canard (Kaw); 4. Blake Wharton (Suz); 5. ~J. Larson (Kaw): 6. lyle.-Wharton (Suz): 7. ChazHolladay (Yam); 8. Les Smith (Suz); 9. Cole Seely (Suz): 10. Benjamin Denton (Suz); II . LowellSpangler (Suz); 12. lucas Cres pi (Hon). Reed wa s also aboard a new 200 5 YZ 2 50 . "It 's really close to my last year' s bike - it's really impressive ," Reed said . "We 've gone to t he aluminum frame . A lot o f pe ople kind of thought that it was going to be on the rigid side , but it seems to be fine . We have some parts to make it work, and we've actually gone back to last year's parts . Seems like it 's just like it was, which is a good t hing. " high, and it showed once it was t ime to go racing. He easily wo n his heat race and, when the gate dropped for the ma in event, he again grabbed th e ho leshot and bega n to pull o ut to a rather sizable lead . Beh ind Schnell was Adams, who, after a th ird-place finish the first night, was an excellent conte nde r for second overall. However, behind him was Ha hn, who had finished se cond on the first night and was wi lling to do anything to get the second position aga in. Later o n, while cruising o ut in front, Schnell had a scary moment w hen he stalled his bike, but he managed to get it running before Adams could capitalize. Once he got his bike ru nning again , Schnell was gone, pulling out to a lead t hat rivaled his first night and crossing the finish line way out in front. Coming across in second was Fr iday night's thi rd-place finis he r, Adams, and roun ding o ut the podium was Hahn. "It' s m uch eas ier to have good results whe n you get a start here," Schne ll said. "I actually stalled the bike on lap seven or eight, but luckily I was ab le to get it restarted and w in the race. T his gives me a big boost o f confidence he ading into my Supercross season ." www.cyclenews.com Next year, Sebast ia n Tort elli is re portedly going to be rid ing t he RMZ4S 0 in both superc ross and motocross, and he was planning on riding it at the U.S. Open , but he wasn't able to, due to an AMA rule that doesn't allow the use o f bikes that aren't in full prod uction . Since t he new Suzuki 4S0 isn't in full pro d uctio n yet, t he AMA wouldn't let him use it . Suz uki could have , though , if t hey had wan ted to use up their o ne-time-o nly one-year exception to the ru le t hat each ma nufacturer has for developi ng a fo ur-stroke. CYCLE NEWS • oaOBER 20,2004 41

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