Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

,e< My 1 OWN RACE: Heath Voss 5th Heat h Voss, the de fending World Supecross Champion , had a promis ing start in the 20-lap final and was running as high as sec ond before slipping back to fifth, where he wou ld finish. Voss' plan to use the tough whoop section to his advantage didn't rea lly pan out. "We ll, the whoops sections were both gnarly, and they kind of go t worn down the re and were kind of one-lined ," Voss said. "Everybody was just jumping thr ough them and I was blitzing them, and that's whe re I wa nte d to do my passing, [but] both whoop sectio ns ended up being easy. I t ried really hard to get to the front right away, and I almos t went down a few t imes and just kind of killed myself and le t LaR occo and Huffman come up and pass me . I just didn't have anything for t hem . It was kind of disap pointing, I tr ied really hard in the beginning, probably too hard . The tra ck is really tr icky because it's like ice in some spots, and sometimes when you try harder you go slower." 33 Jason Thomas 6th Jaso n Thomas, on the Subway/Coca-Cola Ho nda C RF4S0, had one of his best rides of his caree r. He got off to a good start , fo und his way into se co nd and held on to it for qu ite so me t ime be fore dropping back to sixth. "I was ecstatic," Thomas said. "I got a rea lly good start, and that was the first time I got out in fro nt like that. I didn't ride tight, I just rode smooth and ran sec ond for about eight laps. I made a huge mistake and thr ee guys got by me. I'm kind of bummed abo ut that , but it's good for my confidence to be able to run up there, and it gives me a boo st going into Anaheim." After Thomas settl ed into sixth, he rode smooth and consiste nt. "I was just try ing to stay wit h Heath [Voss]; he had a good pace going there , and I trie d to latch on to him there . I was also trying to sta y away from Tyler [Evans] - he was com ing. It was a long 20 laps whe n yo u're no t used to ru nning up fro nt . The amazing part was t hat I actua lly felt good, I was just smoo th and wa s kind of doi ng my o wn thing, where I norm ally wo uld get o ut ther e and tight e n up and make mistakes ." 15 T im Ferr y 17th Team Yamaha's Tim Ferry had a disappointing e nd to his long stay in Vanco uver. On t he first lap of the main, Ferry went cartwheeli ng off the t rack and would have to make a quick stop for rep airs. "I was going into the rhyt hm sect ion on t he first lap and Hamb lin said he hit me," Ferry said. "I was going over the ta bletop - hop o n, hop off - and he just re ar-e nded me, and it just loo ped me o ut. I couldn't hang on to the bike and, when I came dow n, I landed right on the crossbar pad and it knock ed the wind ou t of me . My thro tt le was sticking [after the crash], so I had to come into the me chanic's area. I've be en he r e since Wednes day and for it to end like that ..... 28 Sean Hamblin Briefly... 250cc I I th Although Sean Hamblin loo ked fast on his new Monste r Energy Kawasaki ride , he just co uldn't get to the fro nt in any of his heat race s, and things didn't go much better for him in the main, where he tangled with Ferry. "Everybody was kind of going eve rywh ere off that table section ," Hamblin said of his gettogether with Tim Ferry, "and he had to avo id a guy on his left , so when he jumped up on top of the table, he had to dodge a guy on t he left, and I was already in the air. I basically rear-ended him and shot him out from under me , and then I kind of bobbled a little bit and everybody passed us. Over all, it wasn't great night for me . I'm not feeling the greatest right now. I need to go hom e and do some hom ewo rk. These ro unds we re to get the bugs wo rke d out - de finite ly did that - now it' s t ime to put our heads down and focus. I definitely know I'm capable of doing mor e. I'm a littl e unpre pare d, and we' ll get ready for Anaheim. We got our eq uipme nt a litt le late and I nee d more t ime on the bike to get my flow back." 23 Kyle Lewis 8t h Whenever the re 's a start to a motorcycle race , you can almos t always cou nt on M o t a XXX' s Kyle Lewis to get the ho leshot, and that is exactly what he did again in the ma in event. But a small crash ende d any chance he had of making the po dium. "I was surp rised [about the holesho t]. It's a stoc k bike and it's t he first weekend with the Akaapovic pipe, and t he th ing works awe some," Lewis said. "Overall, it went go od . I wa s runni ng second , felt st rong , and I just came into t he corner and lost the fro nt en d and co uldn't save it and tipped ove r. It too k me about three laps to get going after t hat , th en I just ro de the pace ." 73 Just in Bu c kel ew 13th Unlike his teammate, Moto XXX' s Justin Buckelew had a terrible start but manage d to work his way up a few positions. Buckelew had a goo d heat race but cou ldn't carry that mo ment um into the final. "Well, I felt like I improve d a little bit from last week with my speed . This week I liked the tr ack a little be tte r even though it was pretty soft and broke do wn bad, but I had a good heat race , led that for a while . The main event I kind of got a bad start, I made a mistake and picked a gate that I should've picked. I don't know, I didn't really go fo rward like I need to. I de finitely got so me work to do be fore Anaheim. I've got to go back and take what I learned and ho pefully get on a two-stroke and work on gett ing that set and get my endurance, and we'll be ready to go, I really have to th ank Moto XXX for he lp me o ut this year." 56 Isaiah Johnson 12th Star Racing's Isaiah Johnson had a good ride in the main event, but a cou ple of crashes didn't help him any. "It we nt pretty good ; I we nt dow n twice but st ill got 12th ," Johnson said. "The trac k was really tough, and I had to try to not crash and be co nsist ent out there. Over all, it was all right, I th ink if I did n't cr ash twice I wo uld've bro ke the top 10. But that 's racing. I tried to put in the best ride I co uld. This was a good wa rmup for Anaheim." 57 Erick Vallejo 10th Erick Vallejo was Star Racing's top -finishing rider, in IOlh. "I KTM Red Bull's Nathan Ramsey had lit tle trouble winn ing the 125cc main event again. Ramsey had the lead by the t hird lap and, like he did in Toronto a week earlier, ran away with the win . Kawasaki's Jeff Northrop was the early leader but was relegated to secon d when Ramsey got by him. Northrop stayed the re the rest of the race , while Hon da/PPG rider Brad Hagseth ran a close third for most of the race. Fourth place went to Kawasaki rider Evan Laughridge, followed by Blair Morgan Racing Team Hond a rider Ryan Lockhart, who finished third in Toronto. Team ECC's Robert Kiniry, who finished sec o nd in To ronto , was runn ing Of w hen th he wen t do wn and had to settle for 14t h. Arenacros s sta r and home he ro Darcy Lange competed in the 125cc class, as did the re st of t he Richmond Kawasaki team. Lange won his heat race but cra shed a co uple of times in the main event. He ret ired afte r the sixth lap. Ho leshot Racing, a dealership in Langley, B.C. , helpe d the Moto XXX team th is weekend in Vancouver. Like som e of the te ams, Moto XXX chose not to deal with customs and bo rrowed Honda's for its swing in Can ada. Last we ek in Toronto, Wheels ports, a de alersh ip out of O tt awa, supp lied the te am (Kyle Lewis and Justin Buckelew) with 2004 CRs, but this we ek in Vancouver, t he te am got 'OS CRs. For the Holeshot Racing dealership , it was quite a week, having a big part of t he Moto XXX team and ow ner Don Nelsen having his grandson com pe te in t he KTM Jr. Supercro ss. Factory Co nnection's Mike LaRocco rode a 2004 Honda CR250R fitted with a few 'O parts, including an unpainted S stock exhaust pipe. Many of the Honda teams are st ill awaiting the arrival of their 2005 CR2S0Rs from the facto ry, including laRocco and t he Moto XXX te am . Accord ing to Moto XXX, there 's a chance that the team might not get its 2S0cc tw o- stroke for Justin Buckelew before Anaheim I. Speaking of Buckelew, by the t ime Anaheim I ar rives , he will have ridden three differen t motorcycles in the last t hree races , assuming the twostroke shows up before Anaheim. He will have ridde n an '04 CRF450R (Toronto) , an 'OS 450 (Vancouver) and the 250cc two -stroke. wa s run ning ninth the whole ra ce but w ith th ree laps to go , I got passed by [josh] Hansen," Vallejo said. "I landed on the hay bales and could n't regroup afte r that, so I got passed by him. I finished 10th , and I'm pretty happy wit h that. The whole night I was st ruggling, but in the main I just relaxed a little more. I'll take a 10th over a last or somet hing like that." Kawasaki's new Amateu r Motocross supervisor, Dave Gowland, was helping out in Vancouve r. Gowland has taken his new position at Kawasaki following the departu re of Kawasaki's longtime Team Green amate ur boss Cr aig Martin. Prior to his hiring, Gowland was the team manager for the Richmond Kawasak i Arenacross team, and before that he worked wit h Kawasaki's Mark Johnson on the Indy car racing circuit . Gow land was also an off-road field technician for Kawasaki and worked with TyDavis when Continued on page 25

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