Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

.. AMA THO 12Scc Western Regional Supercross Series was going to rain at this first race, it was a good off-season because it did some raining and it gave us chance to kind of play around in the mud a little bit," Ramsey said. "As this race got closer and it started raining more, I got a little more serious in the mud. "I felt so ready coming into this race," Ramsey continued. "Rain or shine, we're all coming in here under the same conditions. I want to win the championship, and tonight was one of those races where it could go either way. Fortunately for me, it went really good, but it's not over. This was just the first race, and I'm just going to keep working like I have been and try to be smart. The sky's the limit. It's all up to me." Tedesco's race deteriorated along with the track, as Woods got by him over the finish-line jump to run second at the start of lap three. On lap four, Tedesco would come up short on the infield double, though he managed to save it, but then the champ fell prey to both Narita and Hahn. Narita moved to third, jumping past Tedesco by doubling the infield triple on lap eight, while Hahn got the champ a lap later in similar fashion at the first-baseline triple. Tedesco would continue to drop back, eventually finishing eighth. Prior to the race, Tedesco said that he had hoped for a repeat of his 2004 season, where he won seven of the eight Western rounds, with Ramsey winning the other one. Now, the champ has spotted Ramsey, the '99 12Scc Western Region champ, one race. The point wasn't lost on Ramsey, 22 JANUARY 19, "It's sort of a short series, so every race really, really counts," Ramsey said. "Being a mud race, it was such a big deal for us I 25 guys. I don't know where he [Tedesco] finished, but I would rather race him straight up. I don't want to see anything bad happen. I've been in that position before, and it ain't no fun. If I'm going to win the series, I want to go head to head with the best guys." Woods said he hopes to be one of those guys, The second-place run at Anaheim was a huge confidence booster for the Michigan rider, who missed the entire 2004 season due to injuries. "I just wanted to get healthy for this year," Woods said. "I actually missed supercross with a back injury and missed most of the outdoors with a knee injury, so I didn't have very much confidence coming into this season. I have been working really hard for the last couple of weeks, and my confidence is really good, Working with Gary Semics has helped a lot and got me in good shape. I was just looking to be strong and get out of here with at least a top-five [finish]. When I knew the weather was going to be bad and I knew it was going to be rainy. I knew that I had an even better chance of being up there. I just needed to get a good start and ride smart, and I did that... This is huge for me." Woods said that the only difficulty he had was in choosing whether or not to double up on some of the jumps, "and trying to do it every lap, with the downed riders and the ruts, A few ruts had nasty holes in the bottom of them, 2005 • CYCLE NEWS Akira Narita was all smiles after finishing third in the 12Scc main. so if you found a good rut, you really had to try and hit it the same way every lap. The track changed a lot as it kept raining, and it definitely got worse every time we came around. The whole moto, I just charged. 1 really didn't even know... I had a good idea that I was in a podium position, but I had no idea really. I just rode really hard except for about the last two laps, where I pretty much just rolled everything and got her in there safely." While most of the field, including Ramsey, just tried to survive, Narita, like Woods, appeared to charge at every turn, using more speed than sense to banzai his way into third place. The tactics served the Japanese rider well. "I'm happy," said Narita, who speaks very little English. "Japan is so many rain. I don't like mud, so ... My tires were Dunlop... Everything good. I

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