Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Motocrosser nmmy WIegand finally had luck on his side. After o~omlng a poor start, he finished second. Bobby Garrisan finished a hardearned fifth, one of his best finishes yet. effectively ended any hopes he had of winning, but he did regain some ground and ended up fourth. Meanwhile, Woods enjoyed a mistakefree day and employed a strategy that obviously served him well after he got into the lead on lap three. "I just started pacing myself," Woods said. "I told myself the first fIVe laps I'm going to go wide-open, then I'm going to back it off for two laps, then I'm going to go fast again for another fIVe and just do that back and forth. It worked out to my advantage." After getting left at the line, Wiegand didn't panic but instead made smooth yet rapid progress toward the front of the pack. By the fourth lap, Wiegand had KTM's Kurt Caselli was leading the points coming into Havasu. Pipe problems dropped him to second in the standings. "The first three laps were good - two, three laps - then I could tell my silencer started sounding weird. But the pipe broke, so that was kind of hanging for a lap. It wasn't too bad, just kind of loud, but it was still running good. I don't know if a rock [hit it] or all the weight on the front of the [exhaust] manifold from the pipe [caused it, but] the bottom of the manifold cracked. Kind of a freak accident; it never happens. We put a new pipe on, and we had to wire-tie the pipe onto the frame and just kind of rigged it up. For what trouble we had, it was an all right finish, I guess." sand in my face that Kiedrowski and Smail and all those guys got by me. I was bummed out, but I wanted to be on the podium this weekend, so I just wanted to ride as hard as I could [to the finish]." Wiegand repassed them and met his goal, eventually finishing I minute and 23 seconds behind Woods. As for Kiedrowski, "I had an okay start for a dead-engine - and just kind of worked my way up the whole time," he said. "I got into second, then Wiegand passed me and kind of just stayed right there the rest of the race. I tried to catch him, then with about two laps to go I tipped over, and he got a little lead on me, and that was it. Overall, it was a pretty good race." Motocrosser Bobby Garrison, aboard a Honda CRF450, ended up fifth, about six seconds behind Pearson. "The first couple laps I couldn't stop going down," he admitted. '1>,ctually, later in the race, the more tired Igot, the better I rode - kind of smoothed out a little bit." Woods' win made him the first repeat winner of the season, and it vaulted him into the points lead over Caselli, 88-76. Pearson is third with 68, while Abbott and Kiedrowski are tied for fourth at 63. "Right now it's just getting the ball rolling," Woods said. "There's a lot of races left, and I'd like to win them all, but the goal is, at the end of the year, to have the number-one plate. If that's winning it by one point and that's what it takes, then that's what's going to happen. I'll be back in a couple weeks for Idaho. I ended up getting third there last year at the last round. The places I don't win at [or] I have never won at, I really want to win just because of the fact that I've never won there." eN 875 CRAZY HORSE CAMPGROUNDS LAKE HAVASU CITY, ARIZONA My 105 worked his way into third and was pressuring Team Green's Lance Smail, who eventually dropped back to I Ith, a victim of dehydration and fatigue. Another four laps found Wiegand in second place, but that was as far as he got. "The first hour I rode really good and strong and wasn't tired one bit," Wiegand said. "I was just kind of in a rhythm. After that, I don't know - going into the back section you don't want to get stuck behind guys, so I was trying to push it a little too hard through some of those whooped-out sections. I swapped out once and got back up and couldn't start my bike. The next lap I swapped out again right in the sand, and there was so much OWN RACE Shane Watts 10th After a pair of good showings in the GNCCs, KTMHutt.com/Fun Mart Cycles/Maxxisbacked Shane Watts hopped back into the WORCS wars, this time astride a borrowed KTM 200 EXC. He worked his way up to seventh in the closing laps but, unfortunately, ran out of gas with a lap to go. "That was disappointing to have that happen, especially after riding real strong the whole race," Watts said. "I'm just glad to have done so well on a used, stock 200 EXC out on that extremely rough track, but it would have still been good to be the first KTM across the line." 6 Kurt Caselli Mike Metzger 7th 20th The jack-of-all-trades and godfather of freestyle continued his run of off-road races to work himself back into shape. "From the start, I knew that this was going to be a two-hour motocross, and I haven't been doing a whole lot of motocrossing [lately]. I thought I'd just pace myself the whole time and try to stay off the ground. I never wear a kidney belt and thought I'd try wearing a kidney belt [for this race]. I think I had it a little too tight, so I started cramping up on the left kidney and I had to loosen my kidney belt." REsuus: MARcH 20, 2005 (ROUND 4 OF 12) PRO: I. Nathan Woods (Yam); 2. Tim Wtegand (Hon): J. Mike Kiedmwski (Suz); 4. Russell Peanon (Yam); 5. Bobby Garrison (Hon); 6. Destry Abbott (Kaw); 7. Kurt Caselli (KTM); 8. Dennis Stapleton (Hon); 9. Ryan Dudek (Yam): 10. Shane WalU (KTM). SEMI·PRO: I. Brendan Rinman (Kaw); 2. Jamie Lanza (Yam): J. Justin Soule (Kawl: 4. Erek AmoId (Yam): S. Robbie Goolsby (Yam). Briefly..• Montclair Yamaha/Zip-Ty Racing/Moose team captain Ty Davis had one of those days. After finishing third at round three, he hoped to put in an equally strong performance at Havasu, but those plans started going south on Sunday morning when he discovered the power valve on his YZ250 was off just a bit. After getting that fixed, he got a good start and was running with the leaders, but then his bike seized, putting him out of the race. Team Green's David Pearson ran as high as ninth on his Pro Circuit/Renthal/Moose KX250, but that was before a suspected rock punched a hole in his clutch cover, forcing him into the pits for a iengthy repair. Because he'd lost a lot of oil and heard unnerving noises emanating from the bot- tom end, he cruised for a while just to make sure he'd get a finish. He was credited with 26th, several laps down. The decision to use a dead.engine, banner-drop start wasn't announced until the riders' meeting on Sunday morningnot a lot of warning for those unfamiliar with that procedure. '" wish they would've announced it [well] before the race or put it in the flier or something like that," Mike Kiedrowski said. Mike Kiedrowski insisted that he was fully recovered from the elbow injury suffered last month at round two and complained that he hadn't had much time to train fully. As a result, he opted out of the trophy presentation and had an IV drip to replenish fluids. CYCLE NEWS • APRIL 6,2005 35

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