Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

"I was kind of glad Jeremy was there," laRocco said of the five-way battle. "He allowed me to catch the group pretty qUick. I just kind of took my time. It was difficult because in the whoops, everybody was going all over the place. I made a bunch of mistakes, but I got through 'em clean enough to make the passes. I don't remember where everything happened, but it happened." As far as passing Vuillemin on the last lap, laRocco said, "David got a big gap on me, but I found a good line in the whoops and it worked out for me." Vuillemin ended up finishing fourth, while Windham, who got caught up in the big back-and-forth battle and got knocked around a bit, rounded out the top-five overall. eN QUALCOMM STADIUM SAN DIEGO, CAUFORNIA RESULTS: FEBRUARY 19, 2005 (ROUNDS 9/7 OF 17/16) Carmichael said of his charge on Reed. "I just figured a last-ditch effort, I'm not just going to roll over and let Chad win that easy. It didn't work out for me. [I] got a little wild there and fell down but still got second." Reed had a close call when he and Vuillemin nearly tangled moments after he passed Carmichael. "It was kind of scary," Reed said. '" made the pass on Ricky. I knew he wasn't going to lay down and let me have the win. I was going hot into the turn, and I went in on Villy; I was going in there so hot I couldn't really turn back to the inside, so I tried to go on the outside, he moved to the outside to let me go, [but] I was on the outside." Reed still got around his teammate, lapping the field up to third place. Reed was obviously very excited to get his first win and found it difficult to talk on the podium. "It feels good. I was on the podium, I was nervous, I was shaking, so excited," Reed said. "I know the effort that so many people put into this. Six races deep and hadn't had a win, that was tough to take. I never thought that was going to happen, but you have to expect the unexpected. We have a big points lead to try to make up. Alii can do is try the best I can every weekend. I validated a lot of things this weekend: The bike is able to win, I can win, I'm strong - I can race Ricky for 20 laps. He's the strongest guy out there. That's what he's known to do. I was able to catch him on the last lap and pass him. All the training' did in the off-season definitely paid off and just validated a lot of things that a lot of people were questioning. "The whole race, it was really weird," Reed added. "I would make some time, and he would pull it back, and I'd make some time and pull it back. The lappers were rough this weekend." Carmichael agreed: "It [the lappers] was pretty bad. I'm not going to whine about it. Everybody has to ride the same track. Villy almost got up on Chad's wheel the last lap; Chad was haVing to tap his toe a little bit. Those guys are in their own race, too. It's hard to throw stones at those guys. They're great riders and doing all they can do out there. You can't bag on them and say that they're getting in the way." After getting his first win, Reed admits that this doesn't mean wins are now going to just start falling into his lap. "This wasn't just a win, a lot of hard work went into it," Reed said. "It feels like a big achievement just to get one race win. We want to take it from here. We don't want to get [overly] confident, we don't want to get settled or whatever. There's still things I want better, and these guys [Yamaha team] are going to work their butts off to make that better and go to Atlanta." Overall, Carmichael took his first real defeat of the season quite well. "Hey, I'm only human here," Carmichael said. "I know Chad is going to win some. I was happy the way it turned out after my heat race experience." Finishing third on the night was laRocco on the Amsoil/Chaparral Honda, and he was the only rider other than Reed and Carmichael to finish on the lead lap. laRocco got off to a seventh-place start and spent much of the race involved in a huge battle that involved many riders, including McGrath, Vuillemin, Windham, Yamaha's Heath Voss, Kawasaki's Michael Byrne and Honda's Ernesto Fonseca, who ended up crashing on the fourth lap. LaRocco managed to work his way up through the chaos and settle into fourth, behind Vuillemin. On the last lap, laRocco got around the Yamaha rider to sneak onto the podium. "It was a tough night," laRocco said. "These guys [Reed and Carmichael] rode it like it was a great track. I think everybody [else] rode it was like it was a little muddy. I'm happy to be here. I had a tough race, visited some Tuff Blocks, so I'm happy to be on the podium. HEAT I (8 laps, 1-4 transfer): I. Chad Reed (Yam); 2. Kevin Windham (Hon); 3. David Vuillemin (Yam); 4. Jeremy McGrath (Hon); S. Heath Voss (Yam); 6. Sebastien Tonelli (Suz); 7. Travis Preston (Hon); 8. Stephan Demartis (Yam): 9. Michael Young (Hon): 10. Joseph Oehlhof (Hoo); It. Damon Huffman (Hon); 12. Doug Dehaan (Hon): 13. Ryan Clark {Yam); 14. William Browning (Suz); IS. Antonio Balbi Jr (Hon); 16. Daniel Blair (Yam); 17. Kris Papworth (Suz): 18. Pierrick Paget (Yam); 19. Brandoo Butler (Hon); 20. Thomas Hofmaster (Suz). TIme: 7 min., 7.760 sec. HEAT 2 (8 laps, 1-4 transfer): I. Emesto Fonseca (Hon); 2. Mkhael Byrne (Kaw); 3. Mike laRocco (Hen); 4. Tyler Evans (Suz); 5. Isaiah Johnson (Yam); 6. Sean Hamblin (Kaw); 7. Jiri Dostal (Hon); 8. Justin Buckelew (Hon); 9. Brian Mason (Hon); 10. Erick Vallejo {Yam); II. Clarl< Sti~ (Han); 12. Dennis Ewing (Hon); 13. Keith R. Johnson (Yam); 14. Robert Kiniry (Hon); 15. Chris Barrett (Hon); 16. Jason Brief'Y··· Continued from page /9 lot of pain. He hasn't even been able to ride He's hopeful he'll return next week in Atlanta. ye~ Team Solitaire's Ryan Oarl< had a disappointing night. He failed to qualify for the main event, and what made things even more difficult to accept was that he missed a transfer by one position in both his semi and the LCQ. He did take home, however, the $7S0 Racer X Gas Card for being the top nonqualifier. "Not a fun race to be in," Clark said of the LCQ. "My start was decent and at the end of lap one I was eighth. I moved past a few riders but would have to do better in this six-lap sprint. I was fourth with two laps left and charging. I passed into third and dosed in on second. I would have to ride a flawless last lap to catch and pass second; I didn't. I closed to the back wheel but fell short. For my third I was awarded the Racer X Gas Card WDrth $7S0, a small conciliation for avery disappointing evening. Oh well, this is just one week of my life and I'll come back next week." Another notable nonqualifier was Monster EnergylPro Circuit/Kawasaki's Sean Hamblin. For Hamblin, everything came down to the Last Chance Qualifier, but he went down in the first comer and basically ran out of chances. He finished out the LCQ in 10th. For the Star Racing Yamaha team, it was another interesting weekend, with all three of Thomas (Hon); 17. Ricky Carmichael (Suz); 18. Forrest Butler (Hon); 19. Logan Darien (Yam); 20. Brandofl Thomas (Hon). Time: 7 min., 19.360 sec. SEMI 1 (6 laps, 1·5 transfer): I. Travis Preston; 2. Heath Voss; 3. Sebastien TorteUi; 4. Michael Young: 5. Damon Huffman: 6. Ryan Clark; 7. Antonio Balbi Jr, 8. Doug Dehaan: 9. William Browning; 10. Kris Papworth; II. Pierrick Paget: 12. Daniel Blair; 13. Joseph Oehlhof; 14. Stephan Demartis: IS. Brandon Butler, 16. Thomas Hofmaster. Time: 5 min., 29.700 sec. SEMI 2 (6 laps, 1·5 transfer): I. Ricky Cannichael; 2. Isaiah Johnson; 3. Erick Vallejo; 4. Jason Thomas; S. Brian Mason: 6. Clark Stiles: 7. Jiri Dostal; 8. Sean Hamblin: 9. Justin Buckelew; 10. Dennis Ewing; I I. Keith R. johnson; 12. Robert Kiniry; 13. Forrest Butler: 14. Chris Barrett; IS. Brandon Thomas; 16. logan Darien. Time: 5 min., 14.680 sec. LAST CHANCE QUALIFIER (6 I"P', 1-2 on (Yam); 16. Roben K;nl

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