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/128606
(Above) Team Chevy Trucks/Kawasaki's Ricky Cannichael ran with McGrath in their heat race, ultimately finishing second. In the main Cannichael got pinched off by McGrath in th.e second comer, and dropped to fourth. By the time he moved back into third, the lead two riders where too far gone to catch. (Left) Vuillemin won his heat and led the main for two complete laps before stalling his bike right in front of a hard-charging McGrath. Carmichael was block-passed by McGrath. The pass threw last week's Daytona Supercross winner off so much that he fell from second to fourth in a matter of seconds. "Jeremy ran me high in the second turn after the whoops, and Larry [Ward] got by me, and he was in front of me for a little bit," explained Carmichael of the early laps. "After him and we got into heavy lappers, and 1 knew I could've caught him, but [Jean-Sebastien] Roy and a couple other guys screwed me up in the whoops. I'd be catching, losing ground and catching up, and 1 kept doing that pretty much the entire race and ended up finishing that way." After racing back and forth with Honda teammate Sebastien Tortelli that Vuillemin and McGrath gapped me, and I couldn't pull them back. It was spread out. It was probably pretty boring after the fifth lap." Carmichael eventually made it around teammate Ward just before Vuillemin stalled his bike, but by that time, the top two were too far out in front to reach. By then Carmichael had other things to worry about, like Mike LaRocco, who came dangerously close to taking Carmichael's thirdplace status more than once in the main. LaRocco gated in a reasonable spot but got pushed back to fifth. He for sixth and seventh places for much of the race, Kevin Windham finally broke free of Tortelli, passing him for good, as well as Ward later on. Still, Windham was disappointed with his fifth-place ride after showing great speed in his earlier heat race. "I felt really fast. 1 don't know what happened," Windham said. "I fell way off the pace in the main. Some of the riders out there have been getting the flu and can cope with it. Whatever 1 had the last couple of weeks, has been tough. At Daytona I got tired on like lap three. I'm still feeling the effects of it. A lot of the time when you're out stayed there until lap five, when the Honda rider rode past Ward. He then tracked down Carmichael. "I brought it in on Ricky a couple times and made a mistake trying to do that in the triple-triple section, and he'd take it back out," explained there with the front guys and you break away with them, then it's easier to run those lap times the whole race. I fumbled around at the beginning of the race and was considerably slower. I'm disappointed in myself for that. Whether it was because 1 was stuck LaRocco of his quest for a podium finish. "Then I brought it in again on with a group of guys that were going a little bit slower or not, I should have UUD@J'J @@li uUD@[l@ ®f!!JffJD5[!;J5UD@ [J{]@1!A!l fd@@@@ The first heat of the night showed great promise from David VuiUemin and Kevin Windham. They separated themselves from the rest of the pack and went back and forth until the final lap, when Vuillemin got by Windham for good. Mike LaRocco easily made the show, finishing a lonely third, but Robbie Reynard had to move through the pack and around Larry Ward to transfer. Besides Travis Pastrana's 125cc Main event win, heat two was actually the most talked about action, as Ricky Carmichael and Jeremy McGrath went head to head. McGrath could not have pulled a prettier holeshot, but a hungry Carmichael came out on top before lap one of the eight-lap race was completed. For the next four laps the racing was close and intense. "It was a great race," said McGrath. "A few times 1 was out on my own part of the track, and I was getting blocked by him a little bit. He wasn't riding to take me out, he was just riding really defensively." The two block-passed one another a few times in comers, but just before the finish-line jump halfway through the race Carmichael - while leading - slowed a bit and attempted to stuff McGrath in a corner in order to save his lead. Instead, the veteran, anticipating the stuff, actually hesitated going into the corner and took a line that allowed him more momentum out of the corner than the defensive Carmichael. McGrath's wise move not only avoided the stuff, it allowed him to rocket out of the berm and around Carmichael for the lead. He rode unchallenged for the final three laps, but Carmichael was always close enough to capitalize on a McGrath mistake. Meanwhile, Sebastien Tortelli and John Dowd rode in third and fourth, respectively, transferring to the main. Larry Ward took the first semi in perspective, not only as a way to get into the main, but also as a way to get more track time. "I'm almost happy to have gone to the semi because it gave me more time to go out there in a race situation, and I rode pretty good," explained Ward, who admitted th"t he's been riding timidly the last month. He easily won the semi, with Motoworld/yamaha's Greg Schnell and the Hondas of James Povolny Jr., Grayson Goodman and Jason McCormick all following to move into the show. Mike Craig followed Kyle Lewis in the second semi, until Lewis missed the triple. Nearly everyone on the track got by Lewis, but the Mota XXX Suzuki rider pulled it together and finished fifth, good enough for a transfer spot. Meanwhile, Craig held it together for the win with Voss, Jason Thomas and Ryan Terlecki firushing third through fourth. Jean-Sebastien Roy and KeVin Crine moved into the main via a one-two finish in the last chance qualifier. cue' e n e _ S • MARCH 29.2000 15