Briefly...
,
Many riders showed up at the U.S. O pe n
aboard new e q uip m e n t. Of course, the
most notable was Ricky Carmichael, on
his factory Suzuki RM250. Brett Metca lfe
moved to the Yamaha of Troy team and
was one of only tw o riders to compete
aboard a 125cc two-stroke (t he other
was Kris Keefer, on a KTM ). Joaquim
Rodrigues also made his debut on the
Amsoil/ChaparraVHonda team in the
125cc class, while former Suzuki factory
rider Nick Wey was aboard a Honda
CR250 fitted with white plastic. According to Wey, he will be form ing his own
team aboard Hondas . One surprise entry
in the 250cc class was new factory KTM
ride r Josh Hansen.
The Amsoil/Chaparral/Honda team has
another new not able spo nsor. For 2005 ,
the entire 125cc team and Mike LaRocco
will be joining forces with the popul ar
on line music-downloading giant Napster.
At th e U.S. Op en, the tea m riders were
running N apster stickers on their fro nt
fend e rs and jerseys.
With the 2005 seas on ra pidly approaching, many riders are already preparing.
On e rider who has already begun, and for
good reas on , is Pro Circuit Kawasaki
rider Stephane Roncada. Rumo r has it
that he was so out of shape from taking
off the outdoor seas on (due to injury)
that team manager Mitch Payton told him
that he will ride the East Coast 125cc
Series so he can use the extra time to get
ready.
The 2003 I25cc -c1ass U.S. Open Champion , Kelly Smith, didn't get the chance to
defend his shiny gold number-one plate .
Smith reportedly contracted food poisoning and was forced to sit out the event .
Some of the best racing all weekend
came on Saturday night in the 250cc lastchance qual ifier, when Kyle Lewis and
Ryan Clark swapp ed posit ions for the
lead numerous times . O n the last lap,
Clark passed Lewis to take the final tra nsfer position .
Everyo ne was wearing t heir newly
ass igned numb e rs for 2005 - all but one,
that is. New Red Bull KTM ride r Jos h
Hansen said that he didn't like the number he had ea rne d, number 71, and chose
to go with the num ber 100.
Cycling lege nd Eddy Merckx showed up
fo r Thursday 's press confe re nce at the
U.S. Open bec ause he wanted to meet
Continued on poge 4
OCTOBER 20, 2004
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