Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128396
..~ '~tJI P' AMA motocross official and AMA Congress member Jim Mitrowitz passed away while he was en route to the Glen Helen National. Mitrowitz, a fireman by vocation, was a lifelong motorcyclist. He w!,rked for years as a regional AHA official around his native New York. Most recently, his duties included working as chief steward in AMA Arenacross and Motocross as well as some Supercross events. He was recently honored with an AMA recognition award at the 21 st National Arenacross Series awards ban- quet in Columbus, Ohio. Motorcycling was a family affair with Mitrowitz. Jim's son Jay Mitrowitz is an avid rider and AMA Motocross Championship race director. "This is a tough loss for the entire AMA Pro Racing family," said Kerry Graeber, AMA Pro Racing's vice president and director of communications from When KTM's team manager Larry Brooks protested, it took AMA race manager Steve Whitelock only one look at the footage before levying a five-second penalty on Langston. "I viewed the footage, and in my opinion Langston cut the track," Whitelock said. "When you cut the track with us, you get a fIVe-second penalty assessed." And that's how Nessi saw it, too. "He [Langston] came down the Mountain hard, railed it on the inside, and we came together, bar to bar, and I was like, 'No way!'" Nessi said. "'This is the last lap, I want the win.' We kind of bumped a little bit, and I remember going up the hill, and he wasn't behind me. I came back down the hill after the next turn, and I see him sitting there on the track, waiting for me. He tried to take me out in the next corner. I don't know, we were having a great race, but to go out there and cut the track - I didn't think that was very cool." Langston didn't see a problem with his move. '" got into a dogfight with Nessi at the end there," Langston said. "He passed me pretty aggressive, hit my front wheel - no big deal, I probably would have done the same thing. The last lap, I came on the inside off the big downhill section; then we went into that step-up and landed together; then he just banzai'd me into the next turn and sent me off the track. I had to cut a section of the track, but obviously I didn't want to gain an advantage, so I let him by me, figuring that that should be okay. My understanding is that you can leave the track and get back on at the safest place without gaining an advantage, and I felt I did that." Whitelock disagreed and assessed the fIVe-second penalty, which gave Nessi the first-mota win and Langston second. This wouldn't have been that big of a deal to Tedesco's quest for the overall title had he not wadded up early in the race and come out of the first mota with zero points, redUcing his once 35-point lead to just 10. Glen Helen. "Jim brought a tremendous amount of enthusiasm to his work, and he was well liked and greatly respected by everyone in the industry." The family will announce funeral arrangements later this week. David Vuillemin says he has one more race as a member of Team Yamaha before switching over to his new Honda ride on the BooKoo Energy Drink team. "I'm going to do the des Nations; that will be the last race [with Yamaha): Yuillemin said. ''I'm going to have the DiCarii bike of Antonio Cairoli's team. They're going to bring me a 'ISO, and I'm going to bring my suspension and ride like that, so it should be good." As far as the U.S. Open is concerned, Yuillemin is still up in the air if he will compete or not on the Honda. "I will be contracted then with Honda, but it depends on testing and how everything goes. I'm going to try to [race the U.S. Open); it's eight days after my contract with Yamaha is over, so it's really short. If I go, it will be a last-minute decision." Team Makita Suzuki's Davi Millsaps sat out the 12Scc-c1ass National after getting slammed to the ground during Sunday morning's practice. "They took me to the hospital because my stomach was hurting a little bit and they just wanted to check it out," Millsaps said. "Everything was all right, but I kind of hit my head pretty hard and didn't want to hurt it any worse. I was done." Speaking of Millsaps, this was his last race on Suzuki before switching over to the factory Honda team for next year. Millsaps Conlinued on page 20 CYCLE NEWS. SEPTEMBER 21, 2005 19