SUPERMOTO
John Lew;, (KTM); 5.
Don Han (Hen); 6. Calvin Andlovec
(Yam); 7. Casey Cum. (Kaw); B. Matt Pumey (Hen); 9.
Dalton D;mlck (Hen); 10. Cd Howell (Hen); I I. Joel
Albrecht (Kaw): 12. Roger Hensley (Hon): 13. Eric
Wedemayer (Hon): 1-4. William Baker (Hon): IS. Troy lee
(Hen); 16. James Dlckenon (Hen); 17. Rkk Crist (Yam); lB.
Joey Stephens (Yam); 19. Chase Guthrie (Hen); 20. Joe
Kopp (KTM); 21. Drnd AmoId (Hen); 22. jeromy Buehl
(Yam); 23. Craig Mason (Yam); 24. Paul All""" (Hen).
Time: 19 min.• 15.870 sec..
Margin ohictory: 12.278 sec:..
AHA SUPERMOTO UTES CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES
POINTS STANDINGS (After- 5 of 6 I"OUnds): I. Mark
Buridwt (125/5 w;ns); 2. Bcandon Cum. (100); 3. Joel
A1b (KTM); II.
Alex McElyea (KTM); 12. 5'even AyIe< (KTM); 13. Mon'e
Frank (KTM); 14. Mike Be Tucker (KTM); 17. Scott Pode (KTM);
lB. Mike Omahony (KTM); 20. 11m Boblin (KTM); 21.
Rodney Taplin (Hus); 22. Craig Ma>on (KTM); 23. Trent
Feltman (KTM).
Time: 18 min., 54.390 sec:..
Margin of victory: 1.1 II sec..
AMA SUPERMOTO UNLIMITED CHAMPIONSHIP
SERIES POINTS STANDINGS (After- 5 of 6 r-ounds):
I. Darryl AtlUns (9B); 2. Micky Dymond (97); 3. Troy
Herfoss (9212 w;ns); 4. David Baffeleuf (75(3 w;ns); 5.
Robert Loire (74); 6. Alex McElyea (65); 7. Travis Mark>
(62); B. Cole Wabdorf (5B); 9. l.eonanJo Bagn' (56); 10.
Mike Bergman (44); II. Joel Tarquin (37); 12- Jeff Grace
(34); 13.]o>h ChOum (31); 14. Justin !lou (30); 15. Craig
Ma>on (2B); 16. Chri> Cook>ey (27); 17. Monte Frank (26);
lB. Steven Ayler (23); 19. Paul NafzJger (21); 20. Chri>
Tucker (20).
UPCOMING ROUNDS
Rounds 11·12: Reno, Nevada, October 1
Briefly...
Continued (rom page 33
The PacificolGP Husqvama team pulled all
the stops in Nashville, erecting a large hospitality area alongside the team's work area in
the paddock in order to serve dinner to its
VIPs and guests.
Pacifico/GP Husqvama rider Leonardo
Bagnis was still feeling pain in the left hand
that he broke while practicing at the X
Games Supermoto in Los Angeles back in
August. The Argentinean crashed over the
perilous stadium downhill jump that claimed
many riders, breaking the hand, and he was
forced to miss the Copper Mountain AMA
Superrnoto rounds. "It [the hand] still bothers me a lot," Bagnis, who was fourth in the
Superrnoto Unlimited points coming into the
Nashville round, said. "It gives me some
pain, and it's a little weak, but we're still in
there. We'll see what happens." Bagnis finished fifth in the Supermoto Unlimited final.
Speaking of Pacifico/GP Husqvarna, the
team has been able to trace the multiple
engine failures that it suffered at the
Shawano, Wisconsin, round of the AMA
Supermoto Championship to a batch of bad
wrist pins that it received from an aftermarket piston supplier. The bad pins destroyed
fIVe cranks before the problem was found,
but since switching back to DE Husqvarna
wrist pins, the Huskies have been finishing
races without a glitch.
While Marie Burkhart knew that he had a
good chance to clinch the Superrnoto Utes
Championship at Nashville, he wasn't putting
any extra pressure on himself to do so, even
with Graves Motorsports team owner
Chuck Graves and Team Yamaha racing manager Keith McCarty in the pits. "My goal is to
lock it up here, but if we have to go to Reno
to do it, that's what we'll do," Burkhart said
prior to the night's action. "My goal is to try
to win tonight, and then ride in the 'ISO
[Supermoto] class in Reno."
If Mark Burkhart does race in the Supermoto class at the Reno race, he will forego the
chance to have an undefeated season Supermoto Lites, but according to Team Yamaha's
Keith McCarty, that's sort of part of the plan.
"We just want to see what it will be like without Mark in there," McCarty said. "There are
a couple of other riders that we are keeping
our eye on." It's a relative certainty that
Yamaha will be expanding its involvement in
the Superrnoto class next season, moving
Burkhart up to the 4SOS and seeking out
another rider for the Supermoto Utes class.
Though an expansion has not been set in
stone, Keith McCarty said that none of
Yamaha's factory Supermoto effort next season will be complete without the participation of Doug Henry, the Connecticut rider
still at home recovering from the serious
injuries that he suffered at the Copper
Mountain, Colorado, round. "Doug is recuperating nicely at home, and he is very anx-
34
OCTOBER 5,2005 • CYCLE NEWS
ious to come to Reno next weekend and see
all of his Supermoto buddies," McCarty said.
"He can't wait to get back on the bike, and
he might even try to get one and take a
parade lap at Reno. It won't be too long
before he can start riding again."
While Yamaha may possibly be expanding its
efforts for 2006, the 2006 factory KTM
effort may be possibly be downsizing,
according to KTM world racing manager Kurt
Nicoll. "The way it looks now, we're probably going to join forces with Mitch [Hansen]
and go back to where we were three years
ago, when Mitch was running the program
for us," Nicoll said. "He's running a real good
program over there, so it looks like we'll kick
the Red Bull KTM program back to him.
There probably won't be as many riders, but
we will still be running in both the Supermo·
to and Supermoto Unlimited classes. There
will be some 2S0 KTM's, but we're not going
to make an official effort there."
Although he could certainly find room in the
budget to do so, Kurt Nicoll said that he
might not be able to contest the AHA
Supermoto Championship full time in 2006.
"I don't know," he said. "They're talking
about expanding to I 0 races, and if ESPN
comes up with six more races, that's 16
races in a year, so I don't know. I'd probably
go back to just doing a few guest rides."
Prior to the race, Alexandre Thiebault
expressed a bit of nervousness over the
high-speed back straightaway section of the
Nashville track. "This track is very fast, and
it has walls." the Frenchman said. Welcome
to America.
Two Brothers Racing Suzuki's Steve Drew
was lamenting the lack of available gears in
the transmission of his Suzuki RM-Z4S0 after
practice. On the long, fast, back straightaway,
Drew was topping out way too early aboard
the four-speed bike "It's a great motocross
bike, and it's even great for Supermoto
except for when we come here," Drew said.
"When you get behind a guy on that long
straightaway it's frustrating because you
know that there's nothing that you can do. It
just runs out of gear. That's tough to deal
with when you've got guys like Kunzel and
Nicoll with six-speeds in their bikes." Even
so, Drew pulled it all together to run II th in
race one and eighth in race two.
Tyler Valentine of Evergreen, Colorado,
won the eight-lap Honda Red Riders Junior
Superrnoto Challenge presented by the
Honda Riders Club of America at Nashville.
Valentine led from start to finish, while
Jacob Lehmann of Snohomish, Washington,
finished second. Kenneth lamberti of
Mechanicsville, Virginia, was third. The three
riders thus became the final entrants to the
Honda Red Riders Junior Supermoto Challenge final to be held in Reno, Nevada, on
October I.
