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/128374
Southern f'tI . jeffWard and company gear up for Supermoto STORY AND PHoTos he AMA Supermoto season is rapidly approaching - it's now just over a month away. With that in mind, quite a few top professional racers turned out for the inaugural Stateline Supermoto Challenge held directly behind Buffalo Bill's Resort and Casino in Primm, Nevada. This first-year event also turned out to be one of the largest supermoto events in North America, with 600 total entries. There were classes for everyone from those with sOcc bikes to 4s0cc bikes to even quads. The premier class, however, was the $4000 Open Expert race, and going into the final, the heavy favorite was last year's reining AMA Supermoto Champion, Jeff Ward. Last year, Ward was the man to beat. He wracked up a total of three wins and won the championship by 29 points over KTM's Jurgen Kunze!. Ward and his teammates, Chris Fillmore and Troy Lee, were using this race as a warmup for the AMA Supermoto Series that begins May 15 in Costa Mesa, California. But you couldn't tell that Ward hadn't raced in awhile, as he was easily one of the fastest riders all weekend on the challenging course. "I haven't supermotoed since the middle of January," Ward said, "We just got our new bikes, so we're building those. T 40 APRIL 20,2005 • BY BRENDAN luTEs Other than that, everything was good, We're just getting ready for the season and getting all the stuff gelling." From the start of the Open Expert final, Ward took command of the lead and never looked back. His closest competition came from KTM rider Micky Dymond. In their heat race, Dymond beat Ward, so Ward knew that he might get a little trouble from the always-consistent rider. "In the heat race, I got second - I was back in the third row," Ward said. "Micky was running really good today. He had that big bike, so on the straightaways, he'd gap me. I was like, 'Man, I just can't get through these corners. '" In the main, however, Dymond's big bike couldn't match Ward's speed aboard his smaller 450. Ward put his head down and clicked off consistently fast laps, "In the main, I got to be on the front row," Ward said. "I knew I had a lot faster pace than Micky did, and I just rode my own race, I got down to a 22.4 [lap time] or something, which is going pretty good, at the end of the race." From the start, the running order for the race never changed much. Ward got the holeshot, followed by Dymond and Honda rider Josh Chisum. From there, CYCLE NEWS (Top) Jeff Ward (3x) grabbed the holeshot in Open Expert final, while Micky Dymond (43) and Josh Chisum (428) followed close behind. (Above) Word took the win in convincing fashion. With the AMA Supermoto Series rapidly approaching, it was a great way to get bock up to speed. (Left) Dymond tried his best to stoy with Ward in the Open Expert final but fell short to finish second.