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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128347
tie faster and beating the
full
factory
guys.
Hopefully, at Vegas we
can do it."
Altho ugh he has finished fourth before, this
parti cular fo urt h may
have been Dymond's
best performance yet,
as he was strong at
the start and stronger
at the finish. It allowed
him to take over so le
possession of third
place in the standings,
with 112 points.
"Better this week,"
Dymond said. "I kind of
started out a little slow
beca use I didn't know
how strong I would be,
but my shoulder is better than it was last
week. About halfway through the race , I realized that 1
had started a little soft. 1was too slow at the beginning,
but I picked it up toward the end and finished fourth .
I'm not too disappointed . I had some better laps
toward the end and was stronger toward the end. If
Benny had made a mistake, I would have gotten him."
Baffeleuf recovered from his struggles to pass his
strong-running HMC KTM teammate, Darryl Atkins,
for fifth. Atkins was sixth, followed by Husaberg US,A;s
Graham Cheney, the Aussie on the Swedish-built
machine be ing the first non-KTM finisher. Joker
MachinelQTM KTM's Justin Ross, Fast 50s KTM rider
Calvin Andlovec and S&B Motorsports KTM rider
Jason Baldwin rou nded out the top 10.
CN
Micky Dymond put together his
strongest ride of the year 10 finish fourth in the Unlimited race.
Dymond pressured Carlson for
third almost the entire way 10
the finish.
okay, but I am concentrating on the 450. I have a good
start in the Unlimited class, and Benny was in the front.
I see that I can go faster, and I make easy the first two
or three laps, and then I pass him. Then 1go my speed,
and my speed was good eno ugh that the other riders
could not follow me ."
Nicoll dosed up on Carlson du ring laptwo, and the
Brit put an aggressive block-pass on the young
Wisconsinite in the off-road section to take over second place. Carlson said that he was surprised , though
not disappointed, by Nicoll's pass.
"I hit the berm." Carlson said. "I didn't think he
would make that sort of move . He just kind of blodkpassed me, but that's racing. It was a good move."
Kunzel was already disappearing over the horizon
by then, and Nicollknew that there was little he would
be able to do about it.
"jurgen got away," Nicoll said , "I tried to squeeze
him in at the start, but he just got ahead of me , and then
he went straight around Benny Carlson at the end of
the first lap. It took me another two laps to get around
Benny, but two laps with Jurgen on the big bike was
about frve seconds. 1tried like hell when 1got through
to second, and I kept that gap to five seconds, but you
don't giveJurgen Kunzel frveseconds and expect to get
it back. The only way to beat him is to put pressure on
him, and 1didn't put any pressure on him today."
Even so, it was a great day for the British-born former MX contender and cunrent KTMworld racing
GP
manager, as he trails Kunzel in Unlimited -class points
standings, 129 to 116, the double points race in Vegas
taking on added signiflGlIlCe as it stillgives Nicolla solid
chance at the championship.
''I'm stoked," Nico ll said. " For a guy who retired
seven years ago from real competitive racing, you can
imagine how happy this [perfonmance] makes me."
Carlson was, perhaps, the busiest rider dUring the
whole race . After Nicoll got past him, Carlson spent
the rest of the race trying to stave offAll Access KTM's
Micky Dymond, who ran fifth off the start but quickly
moved to fourth after David Baffeleuf dropped back
with apparent bike issues. Dymond charged after
Carlson, and he appeared to make most of his time in
the tighter, more technical sections of the track , only to
get motored by Carlson on the lo ng, paved straights.
The tw o finished only a few lengths apart when the
checkered flag fell.
'~n oth er podium finish," Carlson said. "We're
having a good run. It's just a matter of me getting a lit-
On MAR FAIRGR
OUNDS
On MAR,
CAuFOllNIA
1bsulJS: OCro8ER 17,2004
(ROUND 6 OF
7):
SUPERMOTO ( IBIap<; 24 rideB)' I. DougHenry(Hen): 2.jeffWW
(Hon): 3. Kun NKolI (KTl'1): 4. Dav;d Balf Jeul (KT : 5. Benny Carnon
e
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(KTl'1): 6. Moke Meager (Hen): 7. Mrl B