Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

SUPERMOTO Some other people had some problems out there, and that moved us up_ Seventh place is a good one for us, and we got some good points_" Pastrana kept trying to get inside Ward exiting the final corner before the finish stripe but couldn't make the move. Ward felt the pressure and upped the pace, forcing Pastrana to start taking some chances in the rhythm section. On lap 10, Pastrana ended up making a huge mistake, crashing spectacularly over the triple leading onto the back straight going over the bars and getting pummeled by his Suzuki. "I wasn't too worried about him getting by me," Ward said, "but I wanted to start pulling away little by little. I gapped him enough to where I think he [Pastrana] had to pick it up a bit, and I think that's when he made the mistake." Fillmore almost landed on Pastrana because the corner workers didn't have time to warn him of the incident and the takeoff for the jump was completely blind. '1\5 soon as I hit the step-up thing and was in the air, I could see him laying there," Fillmore said. "I think he heard me, and just at the right time he moved, or we would have hit." The crash was eerily similar to Henry's crash the day before, but Pastrana was up on his feet and headed to the medical -Rounds 5-8 August 20-21, 2005 AMA Supermoto Championship center shortly thereafter. With Pastrana out of the way, Ward went into cruise control and wasn't pressured at all on the way to a 4.937-second victory. Things behind him were far from settled, however. His teammate Fillmore was in a solid second, with Gazzarata in third, but he was starting to feel heavy pressure from Nicoll. On the 14th lap, that pressure 34 AUGUST 31,2005 • CYCLE NEWS finally got to Gazzarata, and he went down in the final dirt corner, letting Nicoll by for third; Anderson, Thiebault and Carlson all slipped by as well. "I had a bad start; I was in sixth off the start from the second pick [on the grid], which is bad," Nicoll said. "Then I came up to fifth and had a good battle with Max Gazzarata, and then Travis crashed. Max overcooked it, and I was putting an awful lot of pressure on him, so I thought he might make a mistake. We had a good battle. It was perfect." Behind Ward, teammate Fillmore ended up second, ahead of Nicoll. "It went really well," Fillmore said. "I was really bummed because I needed that front-row start, but I came up from the second row. I just held it wide open around the outside, and it worked out really well. jeff [Ward] passed me in the dirt; then I just tried to stay with him as long as I could. I just used my head and kept it smooth." Anderson put in another excellent finish, in fourth. "I didn't feel like I had the speed that I had yesterday," Anderson said. "My hands kind of felt like they were asleep out there. I couldn't really relax that much. I felt good and had kind of a steady pace and didn't really make any mistakes, and a couple of riders went down, so I moved up_ I qualified seventh and never got a good lap in qualifying, and it's obviously a huge advantage to start on the front row here." Next were Thiebault, Carlson, Steve Drew and josh Chisum. Kunzel was ninth after slicing through the field, and Gary Trachy rounded out the top lOon his joker Machine Honda. RAce TWO Race two wasn't nearly as dramatic as the first one, and a lot of that had to do with the absence of Pastrana from the front row of the grid. Pastrana elected to sit out the second race after his hard tumble in the first one. The holeshot once again went to Italian rider Gazzarata, who started from the inside position on the grid. Ward was quickly into second, while his teammate Fillmore couldn't believe his luck, as he lined up behind the huge hole on the front row for the second day in a row. He grabbed third after the second corner. Another great start put Anderson in fourth, ahead of Kunzel, Nicoll, Thiebault, Lazzarini, Drew and Carlson_ Ward was quickly by Gazzarata on lap two and immediately starting putting in some fast laps to break away from the field. Fillmore had his hand full with Anderson and Nicoll early, as Lazzarini got by Drew and went after Thiebault. Nicoll was around Anderson on lap six and started to go after Fillmore. The other movement was Carlson getting by Drew on lap six. Things settled down by the halfway point of the 16-lap race. Ward was long gone and was simply maintaining his gap over Gazzarata. Things stabilized in the top 10 positions, with the exception of Kunzel's getting by Thiebault on lap 13. At the finish, it was Ward taking the victory over Gazzarata, who was happy to stay upright this time around. "In the first moto, not too much concentration on the last lap and I crashed in turn," Gazzarata said_ "In second moto, I get into first and then follow Ward for more concentration and finish second. I'm happy for me and my father and my sponsors." The final podium position of the day went to an excited Fillmore. "This is the best weekend I've had since I've raced Supermoto," Fillmore said. "I couldn't ask for anything more, except maybe a win. I'm just so happy. I was really bumming, because at the

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