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between Team Honda's Fonseca and
Team Yamaha's David Vuillemin, as the
two went into the final round tied for
third in points. Pretty much all year, the
two riders had battled back and forth, and
Glen Helen was no different.
In the first race, Vuillemin put his
Yamaha into third, behind Amsoil/
Chaparral/Honda's Kevin Windham off
the start, while Fonseca settled into
fourth. While Carmichael cruised out in
front, Vuillemin kept pace with Windham,
maintaining a few seconds on Fonseca.
"I kind of made a lot of mistakes at the
beginning," Fonseca said. "I wasn't riding
very good."
Toward the end of the race, though,
Fonseca changed things around and managed to gain some ground on Vuillemin.
"I don't know," Fonseca said. "From
halfway on, I started riding a lot better
and caught him [Vuillemin, from] a long
ways [back], maybe 10 seconds or something. It was weird."
But Vuillemin managed to hold off
Fonseca, beating him to the finish line by
just a few seconds.
"I had a great first moto," Vuillemin
said. "I actually rode good. Ernie caught
me a little towards the end, but I wasn't
too far behind Windham."
"I really wanted to beat [Vuillemin],
but it just didn't happen," Fonseca said.
In the second moto, Fonseca got a better start, putting his Honda into second,
behind Carmichael's Suzuki. And the
good news for Fonseca was that fellow
Honda rider Windham managed to put
himself between Fonseca and Vuillemin.
This meant that Vuillemin had to pass both
Windham and Fonseca if he wanted to get
third in the series. Knowing the situation,
and knowing that he had second in the
series already wrapped up, Windham was
quite content to hang there in third
behind his "teammate."
Vuillemin gave a valiant chase for quite
a while until he eased up a bit toward the
end.
"I had a great start, but Ernie took me
a little high in the first turn, and guys
passed us on the inside," Vuillemin said. "I
was behind Ernie and Windham and rode
about three-quarters of the race behind
them, but it was tough to pass, because
we were going the same speed. It seemed
like Windham didn't really want to pass
Ernie anyway, so it was kind of a bummer
for me, because I was hoping to get third
[in the series]. It was two against one, so
I didn't just want to get in there and do
something stupid."
Fonseca took the checkered flag just
ahead of Windham, which not only gave
him third in the series but second overall
on the day as well.
Fonseca denied any pre-race team
tactics.
"Well no, I just tried to go out there
and do my best," Fonseca said. "I had
a good start and just tried to hold my
own. No, we really didn't talk about
nothing. I was just trying to go as hard
as I could. The track was rough, and I
almost crashed a couple of times. I
bent my shift lever on the first downhill and took some banners out. I was
so close to crashing, I got a little nervous and was making all kinds of mistakes, but I tried to stay calm and do
my best."
Windham was asked the same question about any team tactics.
"Obviously, I wanted to get around
Ernesto in the second moto," he
responded, "but I caught a rock in the
knee halfway through the first moto - it's
sore and hard to bend. I was fully aware
of the points; there [weren't] any team
orders, but how can you not be aware of
it? They [Vuillemin and Fonseca] have
been going back and forth all season long,
and I think it's a shame to try to take
credit away from Ernie. I mean, if you
look in the first moto and see how well he
did and made a little time on us there at
the end of the first moto. And in the second moto he rode really great, too. He
was definitely hanging it out; I saw the
front of his number plate like four times.
He was going for it, you know. I knew the
topic was going to come up; I'm not stupid. It was one of those things where I
tried to get around him, but I wasn't just
going to clean him, obviously. It just
worked out that he had the lead and I
couldn't do anything with it. It was one of
those things, and I knew I was going to
have to face the question."
"It's a big accomplishment," Fonseca
said of finishing third in the series. "I got
third behind the best two riders in the
world - there's no one better than Ricky
and Kevin. I'm happy."
Officially, Carmichael finished out the
year with S94 points, Windham with 485,
Fonseca with 392 and Vuillemin with 390.
Team Kawasaki's Michael Byrne was
the top two-stroke-mounted rider, putting
his KX250 in fifth place, going 8-5 on the
day. Team Honda's Travis Preston finished
sixth with a 7-6, while Team Makita Suzuki's
Sebastien Tortelli, riding his first National of
the year since breaking his leg during the
Supercross Series, finished seventh overall
with a 6-8. Suzuki rider Ryan Hughes,
MctoXXX/Honda's Kyle Lewis and
Maestro/Edwards Racing's Jeff Dement
rounded out the top 10 overall.
eN
GLEN HELEN RACEWAY
SAN BERNARDINO, CAuFORNIA
RESULTS: SEPTIMBER 11, 2005
(ROUND 12 OF 12)
2S0 MOTO I: I. Rkky
Wondham (Hon); 3.
ean-n_ (Suz); 2.Ernesto
Kev;n
(Yam); 1.
[)av;d VuitIemio
Fonseca (Hon); 5. Ry.m Hughes (Suz); 6. Sebastien Tortelli
(Sm); 7. Tra,,;s ",",ton (Hon); 8. Mkhael Byrne (Kaw); 9.
Sean Hamblin (Kaw); 10. Jeff Dement (Suz); I I. Kj