he Lone Star State has been very good to Finland's Juha
Salminen. He won the opening round of the GNCC Series
two weeks ago in Gilmer, Texas, then stuck around to see
what all the fuss was about in the Rocky Mountain ATV/MC
World Off-Road Championship Series this weekend at
Cycle Ranch MX Park outside of San Antonio.
Round three of the series, presented by Toyota and KTM, turned out
to be another Salminen victory. He came from behind to steal it on the
final lap from KTM teammate Kurt Caselli, who had led from the start.
Montclair Yamaha's Ty Davis rounded out the top three in another comefrom-behind performance after racing the day before in California.
A downpour complete with hail on Thursday rendered practically the
entire course a muddy mess, though it didn't rain on race day and actually began to dry out a bit after the sun came out before the two-hour
Pro race began. Russell Pearson got the jump on the field off the MX
track's concrete starting pad on his Montclair Yamaha/Zip-Ty
Racing/Moose-backed Yl4S0F, but Caselli snuck inside him going around
the first bend on his Michelin/909/Moose-sponsored KTM 2S0 MXC and
jetted into the lead.
"It's not too often a two-stroke 2S0 is getting the holeshot now,"
Caselli said. "I didn't really want to lead that first lap because there were
so many ruts and mudholes and stuff. I just got out on my own and tried
not to make too many mistakes."
Salminen, on the other hand, bumped Pat Garrahan, then went down
moments later.
"In the second or third corner, I have big problems," Salminen said.
"Somebody just hit me, and we both crashed. My airbox cover came
down, so I had to pick my bike up and try to [replace] the filter cover, so
T
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MARCH 16,2005 •
CYCLE NEWS
