Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

AMA Supermoto Championship (Below left) Jeff Word (1) ond Alexondre Thieboult (47) tangled in race one, with Thiebault forced to pull out of the race. In race two, Thiebault held off Ward for a time, but Ward went on to finish fourth, while Thiebault was sixth. (Below right) Eric Bostram used the Shawano race as a test-and-tune for the upcoming X Games SuperMoto. Bostrom suffered tire chatter problems and crashed in race one. He was ninth in race two. Kunzel in the dirt section only to have the door slammed in his face as they rejoined the pavement. Henry was unfazed. "I just started getting in the groove and chunking down the time," Henry said. "It's like smelling blood when you see you're starting to catch the guy, and you just keep pushing." Henry made the money pass over the Urbancross tabletop on the last lap. "The lap before, I saw that I was catching him in the Urbancross jumps," Henry said. "I figured I would just stick right by him and just try and get him. I think we both overjumped the big jump, and I was just able to soak up the landing a little better than him and get a good drive forward. That's what got me by him. I was running all off lines after I got by him, because I knew he was going to try and sneak to the inside, and I was hoping he wouldn't come back and take it away from me." Kunzel could not retaliate, and Henry escaped to win by more than half a second. "I had good start, good pace," Kunzel said. "But the problem is that my pace wasn't good enough. I was not good 34 enough this weekend to win a race, but I am closer. We will work on it, and the next race I hope it will go better then," Carlson appeared set to grab another third-place finish, but he crashed in the left-handed sweeper after the dirt section and collected Gazzarata in the process. That left the door open for Verderosa, who is currently sixth in points in the FIM S2 World Supermoto Championship, to claim his first career AMA podium finish. "I enjoyed this race because the track is very fun," Verderosa said with the aid of a translator. '1\MA organization, it was very easy to understand the rules and the way to race. It is not so different from Europe, but doing a race in Europe is easier because there is much more time to practice. We had a problem with the bike in practice yesterday afternoon, so we really had to use race one to learn the circuit. Race two was much easier for me to find the right line and to pass and be fast. I would like, with pleasure, to return to America and race again, maybe in Reno," Ward worked his way to fourth in the race, partly due to the attrition of the AUGUST 10, 2005 • CYCLE NEWS other riders. It was clearly not his day. "We had some learning stuff here with our bike today," Ward said. "We've never ridden a track like this before, that's this fast and flOWing, so we were out to lunch on our bike setup. We changed a bunch of things for that mota, and it was a lot better. I came down the hill the first time and it looked somebody was going to crash, so I thought I was going to have to take to the grass. Then nobody crashed, and I was like 14th. I passed at least six guys, but I got a couple gifts at the end there. All in all, it wasn't a very good weekend. We lost a lot of points, but that's okay. We have eight points races to go, so there's still 400 points to be had. We learned what we needed to learn, and if we were to come back here tomorrow or next week, we'd be right on the pace," Baffeleuf was fifth, followed by Nicoll, Bartolini, Bostrom and Fillmore. SUPERMOTO LITES While Henry did his thing in the Supermoto class, his Graves Motorsports Yamaha teammate, Mark Burkhart, was once again unstoppable in the 16-lap Supermoto Lites race and remained undefeated in the new class for 2S0cc four-stroke machines. Team CurriefTroy lee DeSigns Kawasaki's Brandon Currie was second, netting his first career AMA podium finish. Fast SOs Yamaha's Calvin Andlovec was third. Burkhart easily qualified on pole for the race, posting a fast time of I minute, 26.470 seconds, over one second faster than anyone else. But he didn't get the holeshot. Red Bull KTM rookie John lewis, the former AMA Dirt Track Horizon Award winner who was making his AMA Supermoto debut, took the lead off the start, but Burkhart was all over the youngster, and he quickly made the pass before they hit the Parts Unlimited Urbancross section for the first time. Burkhart never looked back after that, lapping mostly in the I :27s and pulling out to a whopping 27.443 margin of victory in the 16-lap race, which pretty much turned into a processional. Still, it was nearly picture perfect for the Ohio rider. "I just wanted to get out by myself and run some good laps," Burkhart said. "The X Games is coming up, and Iwanted to see how hard I could push. I had fun. I wasn't worried about the times. I just wanted to go out and have fun and win. I ain't trying to embarrass anybody or anything like that. Brandon [Currie] is a good rider, and there are a lot of good riders in the class," Like Henry, Burkhart said that he benefited from a lot of testing at the Shawano track prior to the race. "We had some front-end problems earlier in the week, and we got that sorted out," Burkhart said. "Everything worked great, and I am getting my setups figured out a little better. Yamaha and Graves do an awesome job. I just want to have fun." Currie also passed lewis on the first lap and then ran second for the whole race, losing time to Burkhart but still running a solid pace in the high 28s and low 29s before slowing in the later laps. It was the 20-year-old's first AMA podium finish, coming in his second season of AMA Supermoto racing. "I just tried to get a good start and then work my way into a bit of a cushion," Currie said. "I rode really tight the first few laps, but then I opened up and got that cushion. I just went out and tried my best, and everything held up. The motorcycle was awesome, and the tires worked great. Thanks to all my sponsors. This is my first podium, and now I'm second in points, and our team is in the team points lead. This is awesome. It took awhile to get that first one [podium]. Hopefully, they'll just keep coming now," Despite the follow-the-leader naturee of the race, there were two riders on the move, Fast 50s Yamaha rider Calvin Andlovec and Two Brothers Kawasaki's Joel Albrecht. Andlovec shot past lewis to take over third place in the dirt on lap seven, and he continued to charge, ultimately finishing just .382 of a second behind Currie at the finish. Like Currie, it was Andlovec's first AMA Supermoto podium. "The race went good," Andlovec said. "Metzeler got me some tires that worked really good. In qualifying, I wasn't very fast, but we were still building the bike. It's brand new, and I didn't know what to expect. Iwas fast enough to get on the second row, and I got a good start and went off with the lead group, and I once I got with the lead group, I just hung behind them. It worked out good. I was in fourth for a while. lewis was riding pretty good, but I saw some lines I could use to pass him. It worked out good. I didn't go to round one because I won a trip to Mugello, Italy, and it was a once-in-a-Iifetime deal. Now I am kind of bummed I missed it, because I'm I Oth in the points, and I could be a little bit better than that," Joel Albrecht went on his tear late in the race, passing lewis for fourth as they came out of the dirt section on lap 14. lewis was fifth, followed by CHM Exhaust Honda's Don Hart, American Supercamp Honda's Dalton Dimick, Scotty's Speed Shop Honda's Matt Pursley, Yarrow Racing Honda's Casey Yarrow and American Supercamp Honda's C.D. Howell. SUPERMOTO UNLIMITED Like Burkhart in Supermoto Lites, Baffeleuf had a fairly easy time in winning the 16-lap Supermoto Unlimited final. Baffeleuf got the holeshot, with GP

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