Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

over, but LaRocco would move back into third when Carmichael crashed on the sixth lap while running second. LaRocco never did let Windham out of his sights and stayed right with the Team Honda rider until the 13th lap, when Windham bobbled and LaRocco was right there to pounce. LaRocco wanted nothing more of Windham at that point and quickly pulled away from him, but LaRocco had no chance of catching the high-flying Vuillemin, who was already long gone. It was the first time that LaRocco put the Amsoil/Competition Accessories/Jack In The Box/Factory Connection Honda on the podium since the Phoenix Supercross in January, and he was happy about that. "It felt good to be back on the box," LaRocco said. "I'm happy to get a decent start, but I'm real disappointed in my speed, which wasn't great early [in the race). but in the .end it was good." And then there was Jeremy. McGrath was extremely concerned about the start and perhaps thought about it too much. He was barely outgated by Vuillemin, who qUickly moved over on the champ down the short start straight and McGrath was ultimately pinched off from both sides and left fighting for the scraps back in eighth place. "I don't know, maybe my strategy didn't work: McGrath said of the start. "I was thinking I'd move to the inside; if I didn't get a good start I'd just turn inside, but I got so shut off before the first corner. David [Vuillemin] just shut the door. It was just my fault." But McGrath did the best he could with what he was dealt and fought his l!l[jj]DDD@!JUDD[JiJ[j @@f?!JUDD@W@@D !XJ@fJ D[JiJ fJw@ [){)@@fJ[;B David Vuillemin came away with the win in the first 250cc heat race, but he had to work on Robbie Reynard for a while before taking the checkered flag with room to spare. Vuillemin chased down Reynard before executing a crowd-pleasing inside-outside pass on the Suzuki rider to take the point. From there, Vuillemin stretched out his lead for the win. Things only got worse for Reynard after Vuillemin passed him, when a battling Sebastien Tortelli and Mike LaRocco came up on hjm. The two Honda riders rode right past the Suzuki rider, as they continued their duel to the finish line. Heading into the final turn, laRocco pinned it through a section of whoops and tried to sneak in under Tortelli. As they entered the turn, Tortelli slammed the door on laRocco, but LaRocco didn't care and kept coming. The two riders leaned into each other while rounding the tight turn, and Tortelli ended up getting dragged to the ground, while LaRocco broke free and sprinted the last 100 feet to the checkered, grabbing second place. Tortelli frantically tried to get back going again before Reynard rode by him, but was unsuccessful. The former world champ, hanging off the back of his bike, crossed the finish line in fourth but still had plenty of room over the fifth-place rider, Mike Craig. The second heat race was a thriller when Ricky Carmichael (right), Kevin Wind- . ham and Jeremy McGrath broke free from the rest of the pack and engaged in a frantic three-way battie for the lead. Carmichael was in charge at first, while McGrath started working on Windham. On the third lap, McGrath pulled alongside Windham in a turn but suddenly'came to momentary halt. "I got a rock or mud in my brake," McGrath said. "I cased that little double [before the turn], and I was going to pass Windham. I went to take off [out of the turnl and the bike wouldn't go, so I had to jam the brake to get whatever it was in Ricky Carmichael (4) won an exciting heat there to fall out." McGrath was soon on his way again, but he had lost valuable time and was now race over Jeremy McGrath (1) and Kevin Windham (14). trailing Carmichael and Windham· for the time being, anyway. No longer having to worry about McGrath, Windham was able to concentrate on catching Carmichael, which he did. Windham nibbled at Carmichael's rear fender, but Carmichael wasn't giving an inch. Meanwhile, McGrath was catching back up, and with two laps to go, the defending Supercross Champion had reeled the two riders back in and executed a beautiful pass on Windham at the base of the finish-line jump. McGrath simply ran out of time to challenge the eventuaJ winner, Carmichael. When the semis came around, most of the top-seeded riders were already in except for Ward - so a lot of attention was put on some of the iocal riders from Minnesota, namely James Povolny and Heath Voss. Povolny was in the first semi, but Brock Sellards stole the show. Sellards led from start to finish, but Povolny gave the crowd something to cheer about when he stuffed Kansan Jeff Hedden, who was running fourth at the time, and sent him to the ground. Povolny went on to finish fourth behind Sellards, Canadian Jean-Sebastien Roy and California's Mike Craig. Squeaking into the main in fifth was New Zealand's Shayne King. Voss was the hero in the second semi, taking a wire-to-wire victory. It was the first semi-race win In an indoor Supercross for Voss, and the crowd loved it. "I got a good start, and that made it easy," Voss said. "I suffered a concussion in St. Louis last week, so I was riding a little tight. It was my first semi win and I'm glad to do in Minnesota," A fierce battle between Mike laRocco (5) and Sebastien Tortelll In the first heat race eftded with the two riders banging bars and Tortelli going down a few yards before the flnlsh. Ward was in this one, too, and he was making a run on Heath when, on the last lap, he went down in a heap in a whoop section and was unable to finish the race_ (See "Briefly... ") Kyle Lewis ended up finishing second, followed by Grayson Goodman, Jason Thomas and BilJy Binkley. As expected, Ward easily won the Last Chance Qualifier, while Heddon rode all alone in second place the whole race, earnjng the final transfer of the night. cue. e n e _ "" • APRIL 5, 2000 7

• Cover