Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128347
ach year, Friday and Saturday nights at the u.s. Open are rese rved for som e of the best supercross riders in the wo rld to compete for $100 ,000 and bragg ing rights go ing into the next season . And each year, Sunday is reserved for some of the top amateu r riders in the country. The 2B8 prequalified amate urs compete fo r 16 championships in the Grand Arena . O nce the factory sem is and su perstars are gone , it 's t ime for the future superstars to try the ir luck on the very same track - although slightly mod ified - that many of their heroes raced on t he night before. Last year, Thomas Hahn, now on the Amsoil/Chaparral/Honda team, was the big winner, taking home two titles. This year, Hahn came to the Open to compete in the Pro class on both Friday and Saturday night, leaving the Amateu r portion open to a new up-and-com er. This year, the big winner of the night was Oh io's Zach Ames . The youngster took titles in 12Scc Schoolboy, 125cc Inte rmed iate and 250c c Inte r med iate classes. The F&S Suzuki rider abso lutely dominated the two I25cc classes on his RM 125, leading from the drop of the gate to the checkered nag in both , but it was the 250cc Intermediate class that Ames E was most impressive in. Ames didn't have the best of luck in his qualifiers. He crashed in turn one of his first qualifier, coo king the clutch on his RM and having to start the main from the second row. Going into the main, Ames knew he had his work cut out for him, since coming up through the pack on the tight and ofte n one-lined track was going to be difficult. However. once the gate dropped Ames put his head down and charged through the pack with a vengeance , making the tight trac k look as if it were a mile wide. Meanw hile, out front CRF-mounted Mark Graddy batt led for the lead with KX250 pilot Matthew Williams. The top tw o co ntinu ed the stuff-fest until it claimed Williams and op ened the door for Miles Warren and Kyle Glass to challenge Graddy - but Ames was ripping. In the last two laps of the main, Ames knifed his way past all three front -ru nners to take a huge w in and solidify his popu larity w ith the audience. Before his stunning win in the 250cc Intermediate class, Ames had led the 125cc Intermed iate main from wire to w ire and made history with his do minant 125cc Schoolbo y win. Even last year 'Os big winne r, Hahn, could n't match Ames' three-for-three final title tally. Mark Graddy had to settle for third in the 125cc Intermediate class, beh ind Ames and Grant Moreland , but he managed to regroup to take the College boy ( 16-24) title. Block passes and stuffs kep t Graddy fro m gett ing two titles, as was the case with KXB5 pilot Cameron Lansing. T he young Lansing battled Greg Duffy to take the B5cc Superm ini plate, but Duffy 38 OCTOBER 27, 2004 • CYCLE NEWS 40th Anniversary