Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

later, taking third place overall and first place in the 250cc/Open A class. Fourth and fifth place overall went to Robbie King and Froman, two seconds apart. _They were followed by the Four-Stroke A winner, Jason Wofford; this was his third FourStroke A race and his first win. "I got second on the start and passed Robert Lich about a mile into the woods," Wofford said. "I came in first place on the first lap. I went down a couple of times but recovered and finished the race in first place." Other riders who made top 25 included Vet A winner Greg Roberts, who came through in eighth overall, and Senior A winner Phillip Barker, who was 18th overall. The first 250cc B rider was Ronald Skipper, in 22nd overall, and David Dougherty, the Four-Stroke B winner, came through in 24th overall. Ted Presson came in first in the Super Senior class. He is tied for first place in the series with John Giles, who was close to victory until he got caught in some barbed wire. "I was in the lead going into the fourth lap by two minutes," Giles said. "Then I got held up trying to get that wire off." Presson said he got lucky, though he did admit to hitting' two trees. eN When the green flag flew, Allen jumped a full bike's length in front of Dustin Gibson and Ricketts just off the start. As Allen gained more ground, Ricketts moved into second. "I got the holeshot, and Shad passed me right away," Allen said. "I flew back by him when he let me by. He was just playing with me." Two other AA riders, Lance Smith and Chad Froman, went down, so the last two AA riders made a quick pass around them. Froman wound up dead last once Smith picked up his bike and left. On the 250cc/Open A start, Timmy P'Poole led six other bikes to the holeshot, while Senior B rider Donnie Smith went down in the same spot as smith - but Donnie got back up to claim first place in his class. On the first lap, the riders stayed fairly close. Ricketts and Allen were in front, and Gibson, Froman and King followed. The AA riders were all withjn a minute of each other. Ricketts put in the fastest lap at 20:36, while Allen followed within 10 seconds. No one else made a lap under 21 minutes 'for the entire sixlap race. "I tried to keep up," said Allen, "but I got arm pump. It went away during the second lap." On the second lap, Gibson fell back two places, and Froman moved into third. "I hit a root, went over the bars, and twisted my right thumb in the process, so Froman and King got around me," Gibson said. Froman picked up the pace and came through in third place. "I never did catch Shad and P.A.," he said. "King followed me for a lap. I realized that I wasn't pulling away, so I waved him by." Meanwhile, 250cc/Open A leader P'Poole came through the score tent behind Gibson in fifth place on the end of the second lap. The class leader tried to take it easy on the first lap. "I tried to get to know the track on my first lap," said P'Poole, "and I noticed Cooper [who was second off the start in 250cc/Open A class 1 was closing in on me." P'Poole grabbed for the throttle and lost Cooper in a tight section. While doing so, P'Poole picked up his speed, passed many of the AA riders, and made preparations for a better overall finish. Ricketts and Allen remained in first and second place for the rest of the race. The other leaders bounced back and forth quite a bit. During the third lap, Gibson went over the bars again and did damage to his left thumb; he had broken his right thumb on the previous lap. With two lame thumbs, he moved backed to 10th place overall on the last lap. Ricketts a'nd Allen came through in first and second place overall. P'Poole followed a minute and a half 54 APRIL 19, 2000' cue I Batey Farm Charlotte, rennessee Re.ults: March 26, 2000 [Round 121 O/A: I. Shad Ricketts (SUl): 2. P.A. Allen (SUl); 3. Timmy P'Poole (Kaw): 4. Robbie King (Han); 5. Chad Froman (KTM); 6. Jason Wofford (Yam); 7. Lance Smith (Yam); 8. Greg Roberts (Suz); 9. Billy Cooper (Kaw); )O. Dustin Gibson (Suz). AA: I. Shad Ricketts (SUl); 2. P.A. Allen (SUl): 3. Robbie King (Han); 4. Chad Froman (KTM); 5. Lance Smith (Yam). 250/0PEN A: I. Timmy P'Poole (Kaw); 2. Billy Cooper (Kaw); 3. John Howell (Hon); 4. William Short (Hon); 5. Mark Barton (Kaw). 4-STRK A: 1. Jason Wofford (Yam); 2. Robert Lich (Yam); 3. Marty Michels (Hon): 4. Cody Maxwell (Yam): 5. Neal Vanwey (Yam). 200 A: 1. Kevin Brandon (Yam); 2. Jerry Castlemlln (Kaw); 3. Jeff Titzer (KTM). SR A: 1. Phillip Barker (Hon); 2. Paul Michels (Han): 3. Gary Copeland (Kaw); 4. Matt Jones (SUl); 5. Robert Kirchner (Suz). VET A: 1. Greg Roberts (Suz); 2. Jack Bailey (Yam), 3. Mark Guy (Yam); 4. Tim Baker (KTM); 5. Scott Martin (Kaw). 250 B: 1. Ronald Skipper (Kaw); 2. Jason Dickey (Suz); 3. Jason Elrod (Yam): 4. Jerry Hughes: 5. Bradley Hicks (KTM). 4-STRK B: 1. David Dougherty (Suz); 2. Mark McKenzie (Yam): 3. Joel Gibson (Yam); 4. John Rye (Yam). OPEN B: 1. Dean Grewe (Hus): 2. Steven Lambruno (Yam): 3. Aaron Davis (KTM): 4. Roger Little (Yam); 5. Stewart Lich (Kaw). 200 B: 1. Derek Bratcher (KTM): 2. Kimball Clayton (KTM); 3. Adrian GervaIs (Kaw); 4. Josh Graves (Yam); 5. David Ridgeway (Kaw). VET B: 1. Greg Elrod (Kaw); 2. Richard Working (Kaw); 3. Ruel Jones (Yam); 4. Tom Haines (Yam); 5. Greg .Brannon (Kaw). SR B: 1. Dennie Smith (Kaw); 2. Tommy Todd (Hon); 3. Paul Allen (Yam); 4. Marty Rittenberry (SUl); 5. Clyde Schmidt (Yam). S/SR: 1. Ted Presson (KTM): 2. John Giles (KTM); 3. Leon Parker (Yam); 4. Don Rye (Kaw); 5. Chuck Rhoten (KTM). 4·STRK C: 1. John Davis (Yam); 2. Boyd Cartwright (Yam); 3. William Dudley (Kaw); 4. Terry Russell (Hon); 5. Bub Nicewinter (Kaw). 250/0PEN C: 1. Brad Riley (Kaw); 2. Michael Stolz (Hen); 3. Jeremiah Perry (Hen); 4. Kevin Casey (Kaw); 5. Matt Wilson (Yam). 200 C: 1. Danny Bir (Yam); 2. Charles Jaghab (Kaw); 3. Russell Green (Kaw); 4. Sean Sanber (Hon); 5. Shawn Butler (Yam). VET C: 1. Tom Sorrels (Suz), 2. Chance Blackwell (Hon); 3. James Gates (Kaw); 4. Brent Jones (KTM): 5. Bryan Phelps (Kaw). SR C: 1. Jim Sorrels (KTM); 2. Terry Bush (SUl): 3. James Millican (KTM); 4. Mark Wall (SU2:); 5. Rick Wall (Han). BEG: 1. Mark Wimsatt (Hen); 2. Greg Campbell (Kaw); 3. John Hix (Han). 80; I. Cody Miller; 2. Chaz Green; 3. Geoffrey Sanders; 4. Timmy Sanders; 5. Jesse Sorrels. 60: 1. Luke Robinson; 2. Buddy Wall; 3. Jeffrey Ketchum; 4. Justin Conners; 5. Justin Harris. 50: 1. Beau Nicewinter; 2. Jonathan Ridgeway; 3. Michael Wright; 4. Hannah Suiter; 5. Jacob Ready. e n e _ s _Missouri Hare Scrambles Championship Series Round 1 He's Leivan Try to Stop Him By FRANK LEIVAN STEELVILLE, MO, MAR. 19 t the opening round of the 2000 Missouri Hare Scrambles Championship, despite a few early miscues and starting the final lap with a oneminute deficit, seven-time and defending champion Steve Leivan pulled out all the stops on his SCR/Yamaha WR400 and uncorked a last-lap charge that carried him to within striking distance of racelong leader Chris Thiele. With just two corners to go, Leivan used lapped traffic to his advantage and moved ahead to claim his fourth consecutive opening-round victory. "I dug myself a pretty deep hole the third lap, but I kept digging my way out and never gave up," said Leivan. "I got close enough there 'near the end to make something happen and took advantage of the opportunity. It wasn't a real pretty ride, but it was effective." Although a storm dropped up to 12 inches of snow across the Show Me state the Friday night prior to the event, a total of 291 riders showed up Sunday morning to do battle on an 11mile course laid out by the Nasty Creek boys. The gritty-terrain trail held up well. The top-placing riders completed four laps, and lap times for the leaders measured around 33 minutes. Thiele took the holeshot. Tim Gibson, Chris Nesbitt and Brandon Forrester also got off to good starts. Leivan got going in seventh but was quickly up to fifth. While Thiele began to pull away, Gibson gave way to Nesbitt, Forrester and Leivan midway through the opening lap. Thiele had established a lead of more than a mjnute by lap's end. Nesbitt held second. Leivan A maneuvered around Forrester just before the scoring tent but surrendered the position when he stopped for a fresh pair of goggles. Immediately after the checkpoint, Thiele thought that he had missed part of the course, so he backtracked, only to find that be had not missed the trail. Nesbitt took over, but Thiele retook control and set the pace. Leivan once again overtook Forrester. When the leaders encountered lappers on an off-camber hill, Nesbitt chose a safer, longer line, and Leivan followed. Forrester took a straighter approach, and when the two trails reconnected, he and Leivan collided. Nesbitt's day came to a premature end when he was ejected on a fourthgear fire road. Thjele had a 25-second lead after lap two. Leivan had come out on top of another "contact session" with Forrester, but he was again overtaken while' getting a splash of fuel and new goggles. Chad Busenbark had moved steadily into f-ourth, while first-year AA rider Bobby Duncan was fifth, exactly three minutes behind Thiele. Leivan bailed off hard at the start of lap three and almost saw his day come to an early end. "I was hammering through the creek whoops and got a little out of sync and dropped the front end into a square edge." Leivan explained. "It sent me straight over the bars and I drove my head into the ground. The bike was pretty bent and my visor was hanging down in front of my goggles, but everything was still functional and I wasn't hurt, so I got back after it." Forrester had closed the gap on Thiele to just six seconds when the Missouri Hare Scrambles Championship Series: Steve Leivan (314) rode to his fourth consecutive opening-round victory In Steelville, Missouri.

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