Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

FIM World Championship 1 25cc MX 5eries Round 1 : Spanish GP By ALEX HODGKINSON BELLP(JJG, SPAIN, MAR. 26 Ai career first GP win for ex-AMA ftregular James Dobb, second overall and victory in moto two for Mike Brown, plus top-10 moto finishes for Jeff Dement, Chad Parker and Scott Sheak, were all good news for American motocross fans who are following the GP circuits. The action took place at Bellpuig in northern Spain and was the opening round of 16 in the FIM 125cc World MX Championship. As a grinning Dobb bathed in the glory of his 3-2 moto score in his first GP outing on the factory KTM, he admitted, "I came here this weekend looking for two wins, but I couldn't eat yesterday after being ill on Friday night and would have been happy with a couple of top-five finishes. [My mechanic] Fred didn't board [pit board messages] me that I was going to win, but I realized it as I came round the last corner that I must've done it as [team manager] Kurt [Nicoll] and all the boys greeted me." After 12 seasons riding GPs and AMA Nationals, his first GP win finally came when it was least expected. Grant Langston and Patrick Caps joined Dobb in the top five for KTM, but the Austrian marque did not win either moto; Thomas Traversini took the opener for Husky, while Mike Brown steered the Axo Honda to an overwhelming second-moto success. "That made up for the first moto when the pipe got flattened and I lost power," Brown said. Just one point separates the top three with Langston just four points further back, and half a dozen others waiting in the wings to possibly snatch a victory. The action was so vivid that Kurt Nicoll, Dobb's boss at KTM, shook his head with amazement. "This is real racing," Nicoll said. "Just one missed gear and a rider loses three places. Whew'" And that was the story of the first moto. Not surprising that the winner was Traversini; the immaculate Italian has learned not to make mistakes. Langston took the holeshot and immediately made a break, only to be pulled back temporarily on lap two by Brown, but the American fell on lap three when the front wheel washed out, and Brown was down to sixth in a flash. Brown's pipe had been flattened in the fall and, despite the American's stoic defense, Dobb was already past the now-gutless Honda before Austrian teenager Michael Milanovic, running fifth for 15 minutes, slipped off his Yamaha, dropped to 10th and eventually crashing out big time. '" never got my rhythm back after the first fall," he said. Langston's once healthy lead had already been decimated. 32 APRIL 12, 2000' cue • a: r-;::;-:::------:-;~:::J'IiI';7"~i~g w >w ::; u. u. o w Cl >- lD o .... o I Q. James Dobb (5), here passing TM-moun1ed Trampas Parker, started the season off right, scoring the first GP win of his career. "' overshot a turn and bogged in some mud they had bulldozed off the track," Langston said. For several laps, an uncommonly aggressive Traversini was taking the block-pass Jines while trying to keep back a determined Jeff Dement. Meanwhile, Kenneth Gundersen inched closer and Dobb stormed up to them all like a freight train, once he had a clear track. Suddenly the KTMs were in trouble. "I rode three bad corners in a row and was down to third," admitted Langston. Gundersen said, "I decided to cool my pace after I hit the ground hard and lost my rhythm." The amazing Dement put his front wheel under Traversini time and again until he ended up in a situation he couldn't save. "The little finger of my throttle hand is separated from the hand, and I can only operate the throttle with two fingers taped together," he said. "I just couldn't hold it when the front wheel went away." So Langston inherited second, and Dobb's challenge ended four corners from the end. "I tried a pass and it didn't work out," Dobb said, "but it was getting more and more difficult to pass on the track as the race went on." e nevws Overall winner James Dobb celebrates on the podium, along with moto winners Mike Brown (left) and Thomas Traversini (right). Leon Giesbers, on the factory Suzuki, broke his shoulder in a collision on lap three, and Carl Nunn had a horrific exit. "The front wheel broke up on the big downhill double," Nunn said. Sandro Puzar exited 12th with a big crash, as the sputtering Magic Bike Yamaha finally cleared its throat. Scott Sheak was just one of the riders who allowed himself the luxury of a fall on the way to 10th, while Trampas Parker had to ride through the pack to 12th after gating fourth but getting pushed out in turn three. Langston took the holeshot again in race two, and again Brown was soon putting him under pressure. ""d have passed him anyway,"

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