Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Briefly... Continued from page 29 situation just yet," Hansen said. "It's going to take a few weeks. We're just going to take it as it comes." Hansen said that, one way or another, he will probably have a smaller team next season, though he couldn't say who would or wouldn't be on that team. One current HMC rider undernood to be looking for a ride is Benny Carlson, though Carlson didn't want to comment on his situation. Red Bull athlete Travis Pastrana said that he had fun racing the Reno event. "It's a great track, but I don't have much confidence in the pavement," Pastrana said. ''I'm all over the place, but the dirt section is awesome. I have to be up there on the start." Pastrana wound up qualifying eighth for the Supermoto features and was competitive on his way to seventh- and ninth-place finishes, respectively. Travis Pastrana was one of the featured celebrities in a Red Bull·hosted celebrity poker tournament at Harrah's Casino on the night before the Red Bull Supermoto AGo-Go, and he fared better there than in the race, finishing third in the No Limit Texas Hold 'Em event and collecting $250. "It went pretty good," Pastrana said. "I've never really played poker before. It was fun, but I don't see a professional poker career in my future." The event was won by Dakota Taylor of Reno, Nevada. Taylor, who was assisting Red Bull with the Supermoto A-Go-Go, collected $1000. RPM's Cameron Gray finished second, collecting $500. One of the many added perks to having Red Bull sponsor the Reno event was the inclusion of the Red Bull Air Force extreme parachuting team. The four-man squad descended on the downtown area like a bomb, perform- ing scary aerial antics at insane speeds before making perfect touchdowns on Virginia Street, thrilling the huge Reno crowd. "These guys are the best in the business." Red Bull spokesman Steve Pegram said. "They really give the crowd a thrill, and it's a great opportunity for us to cross-promote some of the different sports that we are involved in, and Red Bull has been involved in the sport of sky diving almost since day one." Steve Pegram also said that Red Bull had experienced a great degree of satisfaction out of its investment in the Reno race. "The City of Reno has been great to us," Pegram said... Not too many cities will let you just plop a motorcycle race right in the middle of downtown, bring in dirt and block off roads, but the city has been fantastic to work with. This is fantastic, it's unique, and we've never really seen anything like this before in motorcycle racing." Including the Reno race, Travis Pastrana said that he had a busy month ahead of him. Pastrana was scheduled to fly out immediately after the race in order to compete in a CORR off-road truck race in San Diego, California, on October 2, after which he will contest the 24 hours of Glen Helen with Robbie Reynard before preparing for his first attempt at the Baja 1000 in Mexico. "Me, Robbie Reynard and Greg Godfrey are racing a Pro Truck [in Baja], and also a motorcycle," Pastrana said. "I'll start the race on the motorcycle and then wait for the truck to show up and take that. Godfrey will jump out of the truck and then fly down to do the final stage on the motorcycle. We're probably going to die down there, but we're jumping in full bore, and we're going to see what happens. I watched Dust To Glory, and I said, 'Okay, I've got to do this.' That movie was definitely an inspiration. Dana Brown makes 30 OCTOBER 12, 2005 • CYCU NEWS some good stuff, and Bruce Brown was at a rally with me earlier this year. It was like, 'No way, that old guy is still getting it on!'" Doug Henry was on hand to watch the Red Bull Supermoto A-Go-Go and support his Graves Motorsports Yamaha teammate, Mark Burkhart. Healing nicely from his bonecrunching Copper Mountain crash, Henry said that he had no inkling to try to race Reno. "If I had even a remote chance of win· ning the championship, then maybe, but there's no need to chance it right now for nothing," Henry said. "Everything is healing really good. I'm about 80 percent right now, but I've just got to build back up the muscle that I lost sitting around. That's my goal over the next few weeks. I'm just going to go to the gym and start riding around my house to start getting ready for whenever the next opportunity comes." Henry did take part in opening ceremonies, doing a parade lap aboard his bike to salute the Reno crowd. Though he was not competing at the race, Supermoto racer and school instructor Darrick Lucchesi took some demonstration laps aboard an Aprilia SXV4,5 twin prior to official practice at the Red Bull Supermoto AGo-Go. Lucchesi was effectively demonstrating the bike for AMA Supermoto manager Todd Eagan in the hope that it will be homologated for the 2006 AMA Supermoto Championship. "Todd invited us out to come and do some laps," Lucchesi said. "It's great. I just got back from testing with the factory a week ago. They have a 4.S [450] and a 5.5 [550], and we're hoping to legalize them both for 2006." Eagan said that the AMA was seriously looking at including the Aprilias for next season. "We're talking about it," Eagan said. ''As you're probably aware, the Aprilia is not legal for AMA motocross. I think our view on it for Supermoto is that if we do allow it, we would allow both the 450 and the 550." Eagan said that he has been paying attention to the performance of the Aprilias in the World Supermoto Championship and that their interaction in that series could weigh into the AMA:s decision. Darrick Lucchesi also told Cycle News that he will be putting on the Supermoto Shootout.com race at the Stockton Fairgrounds in Stockton, California, on October 8. Many of the top AMA teams are expected to attend the event, which will feature a $10,000 purse. There will be Amateur classes as well. For more information, visit www.supermotoshootout.com. Matthew Menzer of Sheboygan, Wisconsin, won the eight-lap Honda Red Riders Junior Supermoto Challenge presented by the Honda Riders Club of America at Nashville. Menzer took the lead from Brandon Dooley of Belle Plaine, Kansas, on the second lap and led the remaining six laps to the finish. Dooley finished second. Hot off his win at the Nashville round, Tyler Valentine of Evergreen, Colorado, was third. The top three finishers were rewarded with the pink slips for their Honda CRF 150Rs and all of the riding gear that they used during the event. Gavin Trippe the father of Supenmoto racing, was on hand to take in the Red Bull Supermoto A-Go-Go, and he voiced his approval with the way the event was being handled thanks to Red Bull. "This is absolutely awesome," Trippe said. "What's not to like about it? The most important thing is that this shows that the sport can reinvent itself and become an urban event. This is perfect. If it were to be held at a racetrack, then it just becomes another motorcycle race. This is all good stuff."

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