Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Finishing on the podium, in third place, for the first time in his career was Kawasaki's Michael Byrne, making it two Australians on the Anaheim box. Byrne, who looked exceptionally fast all weekend long, was one of the few riders that made it through the main without crashing on what was the most technical track of the year so far. After nailing the holeshot and getting passed by Carmichael on the first lap, Byrne held down second place until the 14th lap, when Reed got him. "It feels good," Byrne said. "I've been waiting for this for a long time. Tonight I felt like 1 was riding good and my speed was good. I really needed just to get the holeshot - and I did that - and everything worked out really well. "The first round [Anaheim I] for me was a nightmare," Byrne added. "I fell off so many times, it just wasn't a good start to the season. In Phoenix, I fell off trying to pass Jeremy [McGrath] for fifth; Anaheim II I had the flu - just been a rough start. Last weekend in San Francisco and this weekend I felt a lot better, I'm not sick or anything. I'm fully healthy. This week, I had a really good week of training, and I felt really good on the bike." Byrne looked especially good in one difficult rhythm section that he had mastered, giving him a considerable edge over everyone else on the track. It was the same section that Team Honda's Ernesto Fonseca crashed spectacularly on the day before. "Honestly, when I walked the track on Friday, I knew that if James [Stewart, Byrne's injured teammate] was here, he would've done it, and he would've ripped on me if I didn't jump it, so I knew I had to hit it," Byrne said. "I think maybe with Ernesto and the crash yesterday, it kind of filtered through the guys, and people didn't want to take that risk." But Byrne did, and it paid off. The Anaheim III track featured a somewhat controversial split-start/firstturn section, following a design that has been used before in the past. Half of the starting grid was forced to line up to the right, the other half to the left, but from the second lap on, riders were free to go either way. Like it or not, it certainly made the starts interesting - especially in the main. Both Carmichael and Reed chose the right side; it worked out good for Carmichael but not so good for Reed, who tangled with Fonseca and went down. Fonseca ended up blowing through the first right-hand turn and found himself, stopped, sitting on his bike in the third turn - after completing cutting off the second turn - with Carmichael and the pack barreling down him from his right. Fonseca waited for Carmichael and Jeremy McGrath to pass and then continued on his way. (Fonseca was not penalized for cutting off the small section of track. See Briefly.) (Right) Michael Byrne was flying all night and got on the podium for the first time of his career. It appears that Kevin Windham will be okay after his hard get-off in the 250cc main event. Windham reportedly has a badly bruised leg and should be ready to go by next week's rounds in Indianapolis. When Ernesto Fonseca blew through the first turn, cutting off the entire second turn. it left everyone wondering if he would be assessed some sort of penalty. But after (Lower left) Windham was calTied oH the track after crashing early in the main. reviewing the incident, AMA referee Steve Whitelock chose not to penalize him. "There was a discussion about it, but it wasn't an issue," Whitelock said. "Some people said he re-entered the track at the wrong place, [but] it's all okay. No penalty." Ricky Carmichael made it clear at the after- (Lower Right) Reed went down hard during the first practice session. race press conference that he is not a fan of the split start. "I don't agree with the split start, I think it's really dangerous," he said. "I think they need to do away with that. It looks cool, but it's not cool at all. You have guys going wide open into the turn, some guys get throttle happy and don't want to stop because they're trying to get the Butterfinger $1500 [holeshot money], they just go blowing through the hay bales. I'm not really crazy about going straight into a turn, and it's a 90-degree turn. How are you supposed to stop? I was trying to stay ahead of Chad, [and] at the same time, I was just trying to stay on two wheels. I carne around the left there, you do a right and then left, and Isee Ernesto just sitting in the middle of the track just waiting there for me to go by. They need to refrain from having that stuff. It looks cool, but look what it does to the field. It's not very good. If you had a split seerion, like a rhythm lane, that would be good, but not on the start like that. I think the first turns need to be round. The first couple of races were like that, everybody was straight and there wasn't chaos. It's hard when you have guys going wide open into a 90-degree turn. It's impossible." Some riders, however, like it. "I think it's kind of cool," I 25cc-main winner Ivan "I didn't know what happened," Reed said of the first turn. "I don't know if 1got down there slower and just kind of got caught up in the middle of some stuff or not. I know Ernie [Fonseca] was going in there really hard from the outside and kind of blew through the turn. I kind of wish I did that - just let those guys go by rather than crash." "I got a great jump," Fonseca said. "It was a tight right-hander, and Reed stood me up. Me and him hit, there was nothing I could do and went straight. I just looked to my right and I kind of let some people go by, because I wasn't going to take advantage. I knew it was going to be a sore subject. Ricky went by me, Jeremy went by me, and then I kind of jumped in behind those guys." Byrne, who went to the left. got through the first couple of turns on his side cleanly, and when the two sections merged, he had the edge on Carmichael - but not for long. Carmichael slipped past the Kawasaki rider before the first lap was over. Reed wasn't the only rider to go down on the first lap; so did Makita Suzuki's Sebastien Tortelli on the RM-Z4S0 and Kevin Windham on the Amsoil/Chaparral/Napster Honda CR4S0F. Tortelli bailed in a whoop section, and Windham went down hard in a rhythm section. Tortelli managed to get back up and finish 13th, but Windham, who reportedly clipped a foam bail with his shiftlever that caused the bike to go into neutral and spit him off, wasn't so lucky. He landed hard on his backside, causing his leg - the one with a rod still in it from a previous injury - to go numb with pain. He spent the rest of the race being attended to by track medics and was unable to finish the race. (See Briefly.) Meanwhile, the crowd still had something to watch, as McGrath started pressuring Fonseca for third and was looking Tedesco said. "You had some options." The AMA's Steve Whitelock said that they will still consider using split starts in the future. "It's exciting," he said. The final round in Las Vegas has plans to use a split start/first turn, but it won't be used every lap. For Michael Byrne, it was a proud moment to be standing on the podium alongside fellow Australian Chad Reed. "I was a little older than Chad when we were growing up, but we raced together when Chad turned Pro in Australia," Byme said. "I was on 125s and he was 250s. Since, I think, '9B, we raced each other the whole time. I sat many weekends thinking, 'I wish Iwas up here [on the podium] with him.' It's been a long time. Definitely feels good to be up here." It was the first time two Australians have finished on the podium in Supercross. Continued on page '7 CYCLE NEWS • FEBRUARY 16,2005 15

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