Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128369
Caselli jumped out to an early lead but got passed by Salminen on the last lap. it takes a lot of time, but it's a two-hour race. Then I crashed, a small crash, on the second lap I think - just fall down," Meanwhile, Russ Pearson fell in behind Caselli, with Team Green's Destry Abbott running third on his KX250, followed by round-two winner Nathan Woods and privateer Brian Garrahan. Salminen made up ground to finish the first lap in 14th on his Antti Kallonenprepared Michelin/TAG/Acerbis 250 MXC; Davis was 17th aboard his Montclair Yamaha/Zip-Ty Racing/Moose )7250. Caselli got progressively faster as the race wore on, taking advantage of the drying course and knowledge of its worst lines. However, Salminen was also getting faster, and to Caselli's worry, the Finn was about 10 seconds-a-lap faster. "I know that Juha can at any given point go ahead and push to get up front, but I just rode my own race, and he rode his own," Caselli said. And Salminen didn't give in to panic when faced with such a huge deficit so early in the race. As he noted, "If you start riding like crazy in the beginning, you make so many mistakes and you lose energy. Two hours is a long time, and you have to think like that." By the fourth lap, Salminen was up to second but nearly a full minute behind Caselli. But the Finn whittled that gap down steadily, and as they started the final circuit, he was less than a second back. "Juha's a World Champion; I can't really hold him off for too long," Caselli admitted, though he tried. But fatigue and desperation combined to force him into a few mistakes, and he couldn't prevent Salminen's pass, practically within sight of the finish. eN CYCLE RANCH MX PARK FLORESVillE, TEXAS RESULTS: FEBRUARY 26-27, (ROUND 3 OF 12) 2005 PRO: I. Juha Salminen (KTM); 2. Kurt Casetli (KTM); J. Ty Davis (Yam); 4. Lance Smail (Kawl; 5. Russell Pearson (Yam); 6. Rkky D;etrich (Kaw); 7. Desuy Abbott (Kaw); 8. Justin Willwnson (Yam); 9. Mike Kiedrowski (Suz): 10. Nick Pearson (Kaw). SEMI-PRO: I. Brendan Ritzman (Kaw); 2. Chris Johnson (Kaw); J. JamK! L..anza (Yam): 4. Justin Soule (Kaw). ROCKY MOUNTAIN ATV/MC WORLO OFF-ROAD CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES POINTS STANDINGS (After l of 12 rounds): L Kun Caselli (62): 2. Nathan Wood.l (5811 win): 3. Russell Pearson (SO);". Destry Abbott (48); S. Lance Sma;1 (<<); 6. Mike lGed.-ow>kJ (42/1 win); 1. Ty Davi. (40); 8. David PeM=n (D); 9. Juha Salminen (26); 10. Matt Karlsen (26). Briefly... With the sloppy, muddy track not drying out until near the end of the Pro race, Kurt Caselli was about the only identifiable rider; the rest of them appeared to be brown and riding brown bikes. In fact, Ricky Dietrich reported that his father showed his pit board to Ty Davis twice by mistake. "Ty looked at my dad like, 'Dude, what are you doing?' And when I went by, I had to put my hand up, 'It's me!' He just didn't know," Dietrich laughed. After running as high as fifth, Shane Watts' race came to an end when he went over the bars in a particularly nasty section of mud. "I was feeling good; I'd worked my way up through the field there," he reported. "I was happy with that; still wasn't riding strong. I don't want to wad myself up big-time here, so I'll just back it down a little bit." After breaking his only RM250 shortly before the race and being unable to find one in Califomia, Brian Garrahan ended up buying a new RM in Arizona, en route to Texas. In the race, he ran fifth in the early going but ended up pushing his broken bike back to the pits. And that's not all that broke - his truck also conked out on him on his way to Texas, forcing him to rent a box van. CYCLE NEWS • MARCH 16,2005 39