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/128348
(Left) One of the keys to eventual winner Josh Hayes' success at Willow was his Attack Kawasaki team's efficiency during the pit stops. Two tire s and a full load of fuel in under 15 seconds kept him out front. (Below) Early in the race, Hayes (149) and Vincent Haskovec (3) were p ractically joined at the hip, battling for th e first 58 la ps. laps of the race . Att ard , on the second Attack Kawasaki ZX- IOR, was fi fth. Michael Montoya, meanwhile, was on fire, making a strong run thro ugh the field on his Yamaha TZ2 50 - going fro m ninth on lap one to fourth by lap 2 1. Earlyfrontrun ner Robbie Dowie ran as high as sixth before crashi ng out spectacularly in turn one on lap 12, ending his race in a cloud of dust in the desert infield. The next stint between laps 35 and 66 is w here the race was won . Hayes ran the fastest lap of the rac e o n lap 48 , a I:22.672, and started pulling away fro m Haskovec. O n lap 59, Haskovec and his team threw the race away by pushing their fuel mileage a lap to o far. Haskovec __.>'· . ..-.> - :o~~~ r- ·: 1 ~ ::,:·,~·:~'·_~t,,:~\~· , ,--,._'.,':-.:.- -« il the soiJthecist" when-the wlna is l ' blowing this hard they give it a name, because it's usually a hurricane." '.' j ' - ', J _ -.;. ,.- I' - Jo sh Hayes ran out of gas as he approached turn eight, and was pushing his bike toward the pits befor e getti ng a ride from the crash truck . " I stead ily start ed gapp ing him [Haskovec], and I guess he had a litt le trouble with traffi c, or maybe he cou ldn't run the pace w itho ut me there to pull him arou nd," Hayes said. "It was slow, but the gap was growi ng. The n he ended up running out of gas rather than coming into the pits. I knew I wou ld go a long time without him. We did 34 laps on our first tire , so I knew we could go a long time, a lot longer tha n he could go on gas. I was just going to kee p putt ing some laps dow n, know ing that we had a softe r tire for the en d of the race w ith only 18 laps or something to go at the end . It was an awful long race, just riding along by myself - it seemed like it too k forever. The lap times we re really slow this year, the y were mostly in the 23s or 24s even, and I was rea lly trying hard. The wind was j\lus ati:::illlllilllllliiilillfli unbelievable out there in [tu rns] eight and nine, and even coming down from the top of the hill in four there." W ith Haskovec trying to get back in the race and Barnes pitt ing for his second sto p o n lap 60, Attard grabbed second , www.cucienews.com Michael Barnes showed up at Willow on two days notice to ride an unfamiliar bike to second . CYCLE NEWS . NOVEMBER 3, 2004 43