Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Briefly... .' Continued from page '9 haven't been doing good at all in the 250 class," Gosselaar admitted. "I've been having some problems with my bike and decided to try the 450. They're easy to get going fast, and there's not much you have to do to them. I've only got a couple of days on the 450, but I feel pretty good on it." Another rider making the move from the I25cc class to the 250cc class was Oklahoman Robbie Reynard. Reynard was on a Honda CRF450R at Millville. "We've just been fighting the 250F so much, and we just couldn't get it right," Reynard said. "I just figured I would try a bigger bike. We don't quite have it down yet, but Ifeel a lot better on it, where I was really struggling on the 250F." After winning five of the six classes he entered at Loretta Lynn's the week before, Jason Lawrence showed up at Millville sporting new Monster Energy Drink/Pro Circuit graphics on his Suzuki RM-Z450. Lawrence has been a member of the Monster Energy Drink/Pro Circuit Amateur support team for two years and began his Pro career earlier this year, but he has been running Cemics graphics. The Yellow "Monster" Suzuki was an The Alessi brothers, Mike and Jeff, came into Millville early to get a little track time on Amateur day. They KTM riders blew away the competition, and it obviously paid off, as both had great weekends in the National. Mike finished second overall in the 125cc National, and Jeff was 12th. What's up with Mike Brown? From being the guy to beat every week to the guy that's getting beat every week, it's been a tough last few races for Brownie and his fans. "Shit, I don't know, another bad week, really," Brown said. "I don't know what the problem is. I've tried everything from working on the bike, to training and starts - nothing seems to be working. I'll go home and see my family. I've been gone for four months and I'm ready to go home. I'm scratchin' my head really. This is pissing me off, but 1ain't done for sure." AMA Motocross Series presenting sponsor FMF broke out the custom new dual exhaust for Ryan Hughes' Honda CRF2S0R. Unfortunately, Ryno wadded the bike up in practice on Saturday, and that, along with some last-minute jetting questions, forced Hughes back on the conventional exhaust for Sunday's race. interesting contrast in the sea of Green under the Monster Energy Drink canopy. Kevin Windham's lap times were consider- ably off the pace during Friday's practice session. In fact, he was nine seconds slower than Carmichael. The Honda rider, however, admitted trying a few new setups with the bike and a few new lines in order to try to gain some speed. "I think I ride a little lackadaisical during practice. at times, and I am usually never that close. Practice usually never goes that good for me. But, 1don't really focus on the times." the afternoon. The end result was his first moto win in five years of trying and a move from fifth to second place in the overall standings. "More than anything, I'm happy for Honda," said Short, who finished second at the two previous Nationals, Thunder Valley and Washougal. 'There's been so many people working so hard around me, to be able to win this for the Honda team is what makes it special. I've been running pretty well for a number of races now, probably should have won at Washougal, but was just glad I could here today. I'm definitely looking forward to continuing the momentum and hopefully score some more wins before the season's over." Quietly getting the job done at Millville was series points leader Ivan Tedesco. The Monster Energy/Pro Circuit! Kawasaki pilot went an "easy" 6-6 on the day for fifth overall, coming away with 30 points and carrying a S I-point lead into next weekend's National in Binghamton. And given the nature of events that have occurred all summer long in the class, Alessi says it's going to take a DNF to bring Tedesco within striking distance of the rest of the class. "The points chase is pretty much all Ivan [fedesco], but I've been thinking, 'Everybody has had a DNF, and he [fedesco] has not yet had one,''' Alessi said. "It's going to take a DNF to catch him, otherwise he's just going to stay back in fifth or sixth and keep plucking points, and before you know it, he's going to have that championship." The second moto started out with Alessi pulling a three-bikelength holeshot, which he said was his best start of the year. It was also something he said he figured out by watching Carmichael's "delayed response" off the start of his first moto. The 17-year-old led the first moto conVincingly for a while but began looking over his shoulder around lap six, as Short and former Champion Grant Langston, on the Monster Energy/Pro Circuit/ Kawasaki, began to close - qUickly. ''''ndrew [Short] was definitely getting through the whoops faster than I was, so I did my best to hold him off as long as I could and try and pick up speed in other areas of the track," Alessi said. Problem was that Short was just as fast there. "I think all parts of the track," Short said when asked where he was picking up the most time on Alessi. "I ended up passing Going into the Millville event, Ricky Carmichael has not lost a 250 race at the Spring Creek course since joining the 250 class in 2000. In fact, his domination at Millville in the 250 class has lasted so long that all the past winners of the race, except one, have retired from motocross. Longtime veteran John Dowd, the only other Millville 250 winner in the field, won the race I I years ago. Carmichael's six 250 overall wins at Millville have come on three different motorcycle brands. Speaking of John Dowd, the veteran competitor turned 40 on the Wednesday before Millville and was honored during Sunday's press conference. Dowd is set to retire at the end of this year. him as we left the whoop section, but today I felt I rode the entire track very well." Short's pass on Alessi to take the overall was epic. It seemed like it was all Alessi could do in the whoops just to hang on to his bike. On the other hand, Short looked to take on the whoops like an NFL running back in a Pop Warner football game. The final move was a slick outside/inside blitz coming back toward the main portion of the track, which caught Alessi by surprise and gave Short the lead as they Speaking of exhaust and, more particularly, four-stroke noise issues, the NPG's Ed Santin was on hand with his testing data for the team managers and AMA to look over. Santin has spearheaded the movement to properly test the noise levels on the bikes and says FMF's new dual pipe puts out about 98 decibels at full power and is quieter than a regular aftermarket pipe. FMF also says, logically so, that it helps balance out the geometry of the bike more efficiently. Monster Energy/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki has signed Jason Lawrence to its 2005-06 roster, according to Lawrence's agent, Scott Sepkovic of Crown AMG. There were many members of the National Promoters Group (NPG) in town for the Spring Creek National. The folks that own/operate the venues that host each round of the National series, as well as AMA and OEM representatives, came together to meet and discuss strategy and ways to improve on the outdoor National series. Denver Broncos tight end Steve Alexander took the Broncos tribute helmet Andrew Short wore at the Thunder Valley National and had all members of the Broncos football team sign it. exited the whoop pad. It was a lead he'd never relinqUish. The guy everybody in the pits had been calling in the second moto was Grant. The California native was on fire in the first moto, charging from eighth to the podium in third, and with one of his patented rocket-ship starts, he looked to have it for the second moto. Unfortunately, Grant didn't nail the start Alessi did (fifth vs. first) in the second moto and would wind up fourth, though that was still good enough CYCLE NEWS • AUGUST 24, 2005 23

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