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to finish sixth. Honda's Sebastien Tortelli finished right on Albertyn's rear fender for seventh, while TortelIi's teammate Kevin Windham, Suzuki's Damon Huffman and Yamaha of Troy's Stephane Roncada rounded out the top 10 overall. After already winning his earlier heat race, Carmichael kept his momentum going into the Phoenix main event by capturing the holeshot and leading the first two laps, until Ferry executed an unexpected block pass on the three-time 125cc National MX Champion in a turn. Carmichael, however, said he wasn't too surprised by the move Ferry put on him. "He's been riding really good," Carmichael said of Ferry. "He's riding with a lot of fire and he's real aggressive. Ferry was on my tail and he he passed me, there was really nothing I could do." Joining the two Yamaha riders on the podium at Phoenix was Ricky Carmichael, who rode his Chevy Trucks Kawasaki to a well-deserved third-place finish. It was Carmichael's first-ever podium finish in the 250cc class and Kawasaki's first since last year's series finale at Las Vegas. "Man, it's been a while [since a Kawasaki rider made the podium] and I tell ya, it sure feels good: said a very pleased Carmichael, who led the first two laps of the race. One of the best rides of the night was turned in by Mike LaRocco. While everyone was enthralled by the McGrath/Vuiliemin happenings up front, LaRocco was busy working his way up through the pack after tangling with Kawasaki's John Dowd in the first turn. LaRocco rounded the first lap in 15th place, but by the time the checkered flag came out he had put his Factory Connection/Jack in the Box/ Amsoil Honda into fourth place, passing early leader Ferry on the last lap. Ferry ended up fifth with a bad case of arm pump, and Suzuki's Greg Albertyn kept his bike on two wheels teammate Ferry in usual McGrathlike style and cleanly passed him on the 12th lap. From there, McGrath sprinted away before backing it off a little bit as he usually does when he's got a comfortable lead. Meanwhile, Vuillemin was sneaking up. After spending the first six laps behind Albertyn in fifth place, Vuillemin began his charge to the front, slipping past Windham on the eighth lap, Carmichael on the 12th lap and Ferry on the 15th lap. Now in second, Vuillemin wasted little time catching up to McGrath, who seemed oblivious to the goingson behind him. "When I passed R.C. [Carmichael] and Timmy, I thought those two where behind me," McGrath explained. "I'm like, 'All right, I have a little lead, I can see Timmy across drove it in there pretty good in one of the turns and got by me. I didn't know if he could go the distance, but he started pulling away and I thought he was for rea I." Ferry quickly opened up a respectable lead, while Carmichael began feeling new pressure from Windham and McGrath, who were already involved in their own scrap. McGrath was all over Windham for four laps and was having difficulties finding an opportunity to make a clean pass, so the Chaparral rider resorted to an aggressive stuff-andgo move in a turn. "Kevin and I got together pretty hard there," McGrath admitted. "I was kind of, 'Aw man, that was kind of a foul move on my part,' but the track was so fast and easy, you had to make a little bit of an aggressive pass. You had to get really close and either get 'em or you had to stuff 'em." Once past Windham, McGrath set after Carmichael and managed to pull off a nice pass on the Kawasaki rider as they launched over the finish line double jump - with McGrath managing to keep his Yamaha about 2 feet lower in the air than Carmichael's Kawasaki. McGrath then tracked down his the track.' When I lapped Larry Ward, I'm all, 'He [Ward] must've jumped in behind me and is just riding there,' because at that time I really wasn't charging really hard, so I had no idea. There was nothing on my pit board. When I decided I wanted to see who it was, I looked back over the triple, I went, 'Aw, it's Vuillemin.' I knew someone was there, but I thought, 'That can't be a lapper, it's got to be someone.' It just caught me off guard - that won't happen again." With two laps to go on a track that had become somewhat rutted out, McGrath bobbled in a grooved turn, and that's when Vuillemin went flying by the champ. "When he passed me," McGrath said, "there was really nothing I could do, because I was already settled in. It's hard to just hurry up and get going again." Vuillemin pulled away in the last few laps to take the thrilling win, three seconds clear of McGrath. "After I found some good lines in the whoops, I just wanted to get to the podium: Vuillemin said of his race strategy. "My goal after Anaheim II, when I got second, was to get on the podium every time I can." cue I e n e _ S • FEBRUARY 9, 2000 9