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/128354
THQ W orld Su percross Grand Prix Series How They Got There: Dualifying In the first 250cc heat race, Team 5ubway/Coca-Cola/Honda's jeff Gibson grabbed the holeshot and for most of the race was followed by his teammate jason Thomas and Mota XXX's Kyle Lewis. Kawasaki rider Sean Hamblin had to work his way up after a bad start and by the end couldn't make it into a transfer position. At the finish it was Gibson, Thomas and Lewis, respectively. As for the second heat race , most of the factory stars cou ld be found here. Takingthe holeshot was Team Suzuki's RickyCarmichael, followed by Yamaha's Timmy Ferry, Subway/Coca-Cola Honda's Clark Stiles and Tyler Evans, aboard his Suzuki. As the race went on , Carmichael opened up a commanding lead, while Ferry did the same over the third-placed Evans. Sebastian Tortelli got a horrible start on his new Suzuki RM-Z450 but by the halfway point worked his way up to fifth. At the end , Carmichael went on to the win , followed by Ferry, Evans and Mike laRocco, respectively. In semi number one, joe O e hlhof jumped ou t to the early lead, follow ed by justin Buckelew, Ryan Clark and jim my Wilson. Meanwhile, behind them, Hamb lin was closing fast. By the last lap, Hamblin had moved up to second. Then, in the last tum, the Kawasaki rider got around Oehlhof to take the win. In the second sem i, Heath Voss got out to the early lead, ahead of Nick Wey and Isaiahjohn son . Be hind them, Tortelli began making a charge for the lead. On the second-to-Iastlap, Torte/Ii made a pass on Wey for second, and on the last lap the Suzuki rider made a pass on Voss, which got the fans on their feet, to take the win. The last chance qualifier had some fast guys in it, including ne w factory KTM rider Josh Hansen, and Keith Johnson and james Povolny. The start saw johnson get the holeshot, but he was quickly passed by Hanse n. Then, on t he last lap, Hansen got tangled up with a lapper and almost went down, but johnso n cou ldn't cap italize on the mistake. At the finish, it was Hansen taking the win, followed by johnso n in second - the final trans fer position . Indeed the track wasn't easy, but Carmichael made it look it was, as he sped away from second-placed Mike LaRocco, who also got around Lewis right away. By th e halfway point, t he Suzuki rider had an I I-second le ad over th e ever-enduring LaRocco. O ve r t he summer, LaRocco, who is known for his tough training reg iment, chose to sit out th e 2004 National MX Series and has only raced a few times since last May - and that includes the U.S . Open in Octobe r. Since t he U .S. Open, he has been slowly getti ng back up to sp e e d . "I felt a litt le bette r," laRocco said afte r the 16 DECEMBER 15, 2004 • race. " I'm still not where I want to be. I mean, I wanted to get around Kyle Lewis early and try to chec k in w ith Ricky 's pace , but that d idn't happen ." laRocco did, howeve r, learn quite a b it about what it is going to take to w in t his season in t he ever-com petitive 25 0cc Supercross class, and that was one of his main goals fo r comi ng to t he Toronto race. " I just wanted to see where I was at and see if I could push it for 20 laps," laRocco said . " I w as n't really comfortable moving around in the ruts. I think just not being overly ready to wi n w as t he CYCLE N EWS 40th Anniversary