Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Rounds 11-12/6 SUPERMOTO SUPERMOTO UNLIMITED If that wasn't crazy enough, with three riders still in the running for the class title, the 16-lap Supermoto Unlimited race held just prior to the Supermoto finale was just as dramatic and far more controversial. HMC/Generations of Sonoma Wines KTM's Darryl Atkins held a singlepoint lead over All Access Racing KTM's Micky Dymond, 98-97, with Pacifico/GP Husqvarna's Troy Herfoss eight points behind Atkins - rather than five - after AMA Pro Racing docked Herfoss two points and fined him $250 for cutting the course at Nashville (see Briefly). The outcome will likely be talked about for many years to come. Herfoss inherited the lead after HMC/Generations of Sonoma Wines KTM's David Baffeleuf crashed in turn II on lap three. Herfoss led the next seven laps, while Atkins and Dymond ran nose to tail behind him, battling for second place. When Herfoss suffered a mechanical failure that took him out of the race on lap 10, it came down to Atkins and Dymond. The season-long battle for the championship came to a head in the last corner on the last lap, when Atkins appeared to go just wide enough to allow Dymond underneath him. The two riders made contact, and Atkins crashed at a high rate of speed. Dymond trucked across the line to claim his first career Supermoto Unlimited race win and also his first AMA National Championship title since winning the AMA 125cc MX National Championship in 1987. Although severely battered, Atkins managed to get up and push his bike across the finish line in third, behind Pacifico/GP Husqvarna's Rodney Taplin. While Dymond was awarded the number-one plate on the podium, AMA Supermoto manager Todd Eagan reviewed footage of the incident to determine if any penalties should be handed out. Upon review, the AMA upheld Dymond's championship. "I don't believe it should be controversial at all," Dymond said afterward. "We had a close race, and it was a fight. It was a hard race to win. In the last three corners is where I was going to try to pass him. He tightened up in the right-hander before the final turn, and I got bunched up and went wide. That gave me one hell of a run into the next one. He knew I had a run on him, and he went in really tight. If he didn't, I would have dove inside. But he used the inside, and I set up outside. It just so happened that he got on the brakes really deep and went across me and opened up a big opening. I was able to come back across, and he tried to hold that line through the corner, but there was a lot of room on the outside of him. When we touched, his hand touched my side or the back of my bike, and he went down." October 1, 2005 ~ AMA Supermoto Championship Naturally, Atkins, who lost the championship to Dymond by four points, 122I 18, didn't think it was just a case of incidental contact. "I'm really disappointed, and I don't think it was fair," Atkins said. "If I were in that position, I don't think that I would be happy to win that way. I had it won, and I heard Micky coming up the inside of me, and he just never shut off, and knocked me off the track. I had a concussion, I didn't know where I was, and I still managed to push my bike across the finish line and take third. I worked hard to win this championship, and I consider myself to be the champion. I wouldn't want to live the rest of my life knowing that I did something like that to somebody in order to win a championship." The two had scrapped back and forth for the entire race, setting up the fateful confrontation. Dymond had actually passed Atkins for second place in tum two on lap three, but Atkins immediately passed Dymond back in one of the dirt sections. "I was much faster than him on the pavement, and he was much faster than me on the dirt, and I got by him on the pavement, but he put a hard pass on me there," Dymond said. "I don't think he tried to knock me down, but he put a hard pass on me there in the dirt, and he got by. I knew it was going to be that kind of race. I had to beat Darryl [Atkins] to win. It could have gone either way." Speaking of that early pass, Atkins responded by saying that while he made an aggressive pass on Dymond, it was a clean pass, unlike the one that Atkins feels Dymond put on him at the finish. "No matter what he says, if anybody looks at the tape, they'll see that I wasn't trying to knock him down," Dymond said. "It came down to the last turn, and it was either his championship or mine, and I got it, and I'm sure that he feels bad about it. I feel bad that he went down, but that's racing. I did the best that I could do get by him clean, and it was unfortunate that he went down. Darryl is a great rider and a great guy, and I don't expect him to be my best buddy right now. All the tension and drama of the day aside, I fought hard to be here today. I had challenges this week, and I proved something to myself. I'm proud of myself for sticking it out and using a lot of fortitude. I'm going to be hurting tomorrow, and I don't even care." Lost in the melee at the front was the fact that yet another visiting Australian, Pacifico/GP Husqvarna's Rodney Taplin, claimed his first career AMA Supermoto podium finish. Running third for most of the race, Taplin moved to second on the last lap, the only rider to pass the downed Atkins. "I'm stoked, and I just can't believe it, 28 OCTOBER 12,2005 • CYCLE NEWS actually," the 26-year-old Taplin said. "It was a good race. I just kept it going the whole time. I knew that fourth was a long way behind, so I just stuck with what I was doing, because I knew that the other boys were way up front. Then I came around the last turn, and Darryl Atkins was on the ground, and I got second. It was a good opportunity for me to come over here and see how these boys do it. It would be great to come over here and do it full time, for sure." SUPERMOTO LITES Crashes and heroic rides punctuated the final Supermoto Lites class event of 2005 as well, with Team CurrielTroy Lee Designs Kawasaki's Brendan Currie able to claim both distinctions en route to his first career AMA National victory. '~ctually, it was a little too dramatic for me, but it ended good," Currie said. Two Brothers Racing Kawasaki's joel Albrecht took the early lead in the 16-lap race for the 250cc contingent, with Currie dogging Albrecht at every tum before backing it in too hard and highsiding in tum three on lap seven. "I didn't want to pass him too early, because I knew that he could pick up on lines pretty good like he did in Colorado," Currie said. "So I was just cruising behind him, keeping my calm, and with eight laps to go, I wasn't even trying to pass him, and my back end just came around and highsided me over." Currie managed to get up qUickly and overcome a deficit of about 10 seconds to run Albrecht down again on lap 14, passing the former AMA National motocross and supercross racer at the end of the whoop section to take over the lead. Currie then went on to take the win over Albrecht, with the third-place man, Nashville's Casey Yarrow, finishing third again in Reno. "I didn't think that I could catch him at first," Currie said. "I still had second wrapped up in the championship, but I saw him, and I put my head down and just went. My dad had my pit board: 'You can do it! You can do it!' I caught him in the dirt. and he made a mistake, and I passed him in the whoops and just kind of took off from there. It was a great race, and I had a lot of fun." Currie's win actually tied him in points with Mark Burkhart, 125-125, though Burkhart clinched the class at Nashville after haVing the tiebreaker - most National wins - in the bag. CN

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