Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

James Stewart is scheduled to have an MRJ performed on his wrist early this week, but the offICial word so far is that Stewart suffered a severe sprain when he crashed in the second heat race. TIle results of the MRJ probably will not be available until midweek, but the Kawasaki team is hopeful that he will be ready to go for the start of the outdoor Nationals in Sacramento, Califomia, May 22. what number you have anyway, so it didn't make a difference to me. If you changed the color of the crossbar pad, that would seem kind of weird, because that's alii see." third-best privateer. 1YJer Evans had his bike specially done up ArnsoiVChaparraI Honda rider Josh Grant is another rider looking to get attention paid to a damaged wrist, although the l25cc youngster is putting the injury on hold. "I'm not 100 percent, but right after we finish outdoors, I'm going to go get surgery and get it fIXed," Grant said. "1llen I'll probably ride the East [Coast Region Supercross Series] again next year. Obeying doctor's, Mike laRocco was forced to sit out the Us Vegas Supercross. laRocco, who crashed the week before in Houston, was told to stay off the bike for two weeks after having knocked himself out in the Houston crash. "I'm on two-week probation," LaRocco said. "I guess I was out for about 30 seconds; I didn't even know it. I heard bikes going by, but I guess it was the next lap. I haven't knocked myself out like that since 1990." LaRocco also hurt his finger and shoulder in the fall and is scheduled to have an MRJ done on the shoulder. As far as the outdoor Nationals, LaRocco will probably sit them all out this year. "I rode one last year, and Ispent three weeks getting ready for it but was miserable," he said. "It'll take six weeks to do it right, but that's a lot of work for just one race. But we'll see." LaRocco added that he will ride the 2006 AMA Supercross Series and then officially retire. Tyler Evans wrapped up the U.s. Smokeless Tobacco Pro Privateer Challenge prior to the Us Vegas final. At Us Vegas, the BIoodshot/Skaterade/No Fear-backed Suzuki rider qualified for the main event in dramatic fashion. In his semi, where the top five transfer, Evans was running eighth on the final lap, but, in the last tum, he remarkably passed three riders in one move to finish fifth. For the series, he beat last year's top privateer, Damon Huffman, by just seven points. Evans finished out the year tied for 10th with James Stewart but gets credited for I Ith, due to Stewart having more wins. For being the top privateer, Evans pocketed $25,000 from U.S. Smokeless Tobacco, a new Nissan pickup truck and a new Weekend Warrior toybox trailer from Giant RV. He also got a $25,000 bonus from Suzuki. For being the second-best privateer finisher, Huffman cashed in on $1 S,OOO, while Subway/Coca-Cola Honda's Jason Thomas pocketed $10,000 for being the for Vegas. His sponsors carne together to create graphics and plastic to commemorate his Top Privateer award for 2005. Yamaha team manager Jim Perry cet13inIy had an intenesting night after having watched his riders - Tom Ferry and David Vuillemin - tangle in the second heat race. Ferry and 'AJiliemin were battling for a transfer spot when the two locked handlebars and went down in a heap. TIley struggled for a while to free bikes and bodies and, after they got going again, they continued to dice it out to the finish, with 'AJiliemin making the cut and Ferry going to the semis. In the final, Perry again watched his riders Heath Voss and Vuillemin battle it out for fourth near the end. Voss, who held down third for the first three laps, was running in fourth when Vuillemin intervened. TIley went at it for a while until 'AJillemin made an aggressive, but dean, pass three laps from the end. Team Yamaha's riders were not the only team to have run-ins among them- selves. Team Honda's Travis Preston and Ernesto Fonseca locked bars late in the race while dicing for seventh. Fonseca eventually went down in the whoops, and when he went to get going again, he pulled out right in front of ECC Honda's Damon Huffman, taking him out. Huffman quickly got going again and finished out the race in 10th. Fonseca finished 13th. Clear Channel Entertainment, the promoter of the Supercross Series, announced that it will "look for a new home" for television coverage of the series next year. It appears that CCE will abandon its ties with ESPN. Grant Langston raced the Dave Coombs Sr. I25cc East!West Shootout with the number IE on his Kawasaki (teammate Ivan Tedesco wore I W), marking the first time that the South African has raced with a number-ooe plate since 1991, when he was an Amateur on a Yamaha PWBO. "It was pretty good," Langston said of his Us Vegas experience as number one. "When you're on the bike, you don't even see When asked if he thought that the Eastern Region had better riders than the Western Region, Shootout winner Davi Millsaps joked: "Of course. Definitely I thought the West Coast [riders] were going to be up there for sure. I finally got a good start, while this guy [Langston1 pulled a Millsaps Jr. [got a bad start]. Tedlesco and Hepler, they just got done with Houston, and I thought they would be up there for sure, but they both went down... Well, one [Tedesco) went down and the other one [Hepler] got taken out. I just rode my own race." TIle AMA meted out no less than four penalties for riders who jumped obstacles in the area of the crossed flags while Joaquim Rodrigues was being attended to by medical personnel during the 125cc main event. Brock Sellards, Broc Hepler and Matt Walker were all penalized five seconds each, while Steve Boniface was actually disqualified. "He [Boniface] was disqualified because he managed to jump through the red flag three times not once, not twice, but three times," AMA motocross manager Steve Whitelock said. "Once would have been a flVesecond penalty, twice would have been another fIVe seconds, but three times? You're just not too bright. We just said, 'That's it. Sorry. See ya later. Bye. 'TIle other three were penalized just for doing it one time each." Davi Millsaps and Grant Langston both commented in the press conference that the Rodrigues situation was more confusing than usual, mainly due to the number of caution flags and where they were located. "TIle yellow flags and the red flags kind of did mess us up," Millsaps said. "I didn't know where to double. There was a yellow flag, then another yellow flag, and then a crossed flag on the fourth jump. I didn't know if I could go two, two, two or whatever. I just went double, single. single, single, single." Langston, too, said he wasn't sure what the right protocol was, even though he is clear on the rules. "You don't have to single on a yellow flag, but you do have to single on a red flag," Langston said. "I just did what everybody else did because I figured at that point we could all be disqualified. One lap, I did the double over the red flag. It did mess us up. I was in back of four guys, and we just kept running into each other going into that tum after where that incident was." Steve Whitelock answered that by darifying that the "red zone" actually began where the official with the crossed flag was standing. "We had yellow flags to slow the riders down, then we had a big, red Makita Tuff Block with a guy standing there with a crossed flag," Whitelock said. "From that Tuff Block on was where

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