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/128399
Kunzel, who had also fallen in the dirt, got back up and salvaged a third-place finish to give himself the slimmest of championship hopes going into the final race. "I got a great start, and so I can see the speed from Ward and Burkhart, and those guys were flying around the course really fast," Kunzel said. "But I have a small mistake in the dirt around five laps or so. I slide and crash, and my engine won't start. I picked it up and kept going, and my third position was still really good for me." Then came the all-important race two. Ward got the holeshot and was in great shape, controlling his destiny from the front when it all went wrong on lap four. "I got the holeshot and then missed the urban jump and let him go by because I didn't want to get docked a lap," Ward said. "Then I got in behind him and figured that I would just run with him. Then I hit a hay bale. The footpeg just clipped it and kicked the back end out, and it just came around. I kept it running, but I was sitting on the ground, and I had to take something [his hand] off I kept it revved up, but when I went to pick it up it qUit. I wasn't panicked because nobody really came by. I just figured that I would put it in neutral, and first or second kick and I'd be off, but it wouldn't start. Then I started freaking out and kicking harder and harder. The bottom of my foot is just bruised. Once I got going I thought, 'Okay, I can still do it,' but then I went five or six laps and didn't pass anybody. The gap was so big." Burkhart appeared to be on a Sunday drive as he enjoyed a huge, nine-second lead over Kunze!. "It was great," Burkhart said. "I knew I could win, but I didn't think I'd win both of them. The only race I lost all year was the X Games, and I really got waxed there." While Burkhart ran away, Kunzel ran second, clicking off laps, unsure of the drama behind him. "Burkhart was really fast, but he could not take points from me, so it was okay for me to take second place," Kunzel said. "I see that Wardy fell, but I did not think it was a big crash and was thinking he was still right behind me. Then, after the race, my mechanic told me he was 17th, and I could not believe what was going on. It was really luck. It was Christmas time for me." Food for thought: While Ward struggled to catch riders and ultimately finished one position behind where he needed to in order to clinch the tide, the Troy Lee Designs Honda team still had one last ace it could have played, as team rider Chris Fillmore ran in seventh place for most of race two. Had Fillmore pulled off, Ward would have finished 14th and won the championship. It wouldn't have been the first time in racing that such team orders were handed down. That fact was not lost on Ward after the race. "If Chris would have slowed down, I would have tied on points and won it," Ward said. "The last few laps I was pointing [to the crew], going, 'Pull our guy out!'" Ward said. "I did it three or four laps. I needed the help. He got third in the points, and if he would have done that, he would have got fourth or fifth, but I think the championship, for the team, is worth more than third in the points. If it was three points, it wouldn't have worked, but if it was two, it would have. We're going to have to add it up, and if it's two, then that's not going to be good. It's just one of those things. It [the crash] shouldn't have happened, but it did." The batde for third overall in the series was even tighter than that, though it was similar in that crashes played a huge role in the outcome. Fresh off his pair of podium finishes at the Nashville round, Red Bull KTM's Kurt Nicoll had high hopes of displacing Fillmore for third in the points, and when Fillmore crashed on the first lap in race one, it appeared as though that might happen. Nicoll shot himself in the foot, however, when he crashed twice on the same lap, dropping from third place to finish 17th. Fillmore was 21 st in race one, but even a third-place finish by Nicoll in race two - in which the Brit had a great battle with Yoshimura Suzuki's Aaron Yates for most of the race - was not enough to offset the points that Fillmore earned by finishing fifth. The two ended up tied, with Fillmore winning the tiebreaker by virtue of his better average finishes for the season. (Nicoll did not score any points at the second of the two Copper Mountain, Colorado, rounds). "I just rode terrible in the first race," Nicoll said. "I had a really bad first lap. I crashed, and then I crashed again. In the second race, it was a Iitde better. [Aaron] Yates has a different style for sure. I caught up to Cassidy [Anderson], and I didn't want to get him where Yates dove inside of me, but then I saw Yates try to dive under him, and I said, 'Screw it, I'll dive under both of them and see what happens.' They just couldn't straighten up, and I got on the podium. So, fourth in points... Whatever." CYCLE NEWS • OCTOBER 12,2005 27