Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

for me. I did no t wi n Ph o en i x and M in ne apo lis because it was t he Triple C ro w n , [I won] bec au se I wanted to win as m any race s as I cou ld." B ut Vu ill em i n n ever re all y had a c ha nce to win t his one. Right fr om the ge t- go, h e was l e ft b ehin d o n t h e sta rt ing g at e, and two of th e ri d ers h e le as t wa nted t o see up f ro n t w er e th ere: W in dh am and Mc Grath , not to me n t ion t he h a rd -t o -p a ss L a Ro c c o , a nd Yah o oS p ort s . c om Holes ho t Award w inner Seb asti en T ortelli. " Kev in an d I locked [hand lebars ] a littl e b it d o wn th e straightaway and g av e T ort elli t h e ro om , a n d we all ca me o ut togeth er : M cGrath sai d of th e start. " I h ad a grea t ju mp b u t didn 't c los e h im [ W i n dh a m ] q ui te enoug h ." By th e second lap , both Windham and M cGr ath had ridden around T ortel li , whil e Vuill emin tried desperatel y to get around laRocco on the Amsoi /jCompetition A ccessories/Jack in th e Bo x/Facto ry Conn ecti on Hond a. In th e ba ck sec t ion o f t h e tr a ck that a ctua lly we nt outside th e stadi u m and out of vi ew of th e sp ec ta tors, Vuillemin tr ied an outs id e m ov e on L a Ro c c o on l y to g et push ed off th e tra ck. " I tr i ed so man y t im es to pass him,' Vu ill em in sa id, " b ut I coul d no t get the movement d own . I we nt off t he track , on the c o n c r e t e, and h ad t o co m e b ack in and coul d not j u m p the dou bl e , and R ick y [Ca rm icha e l ] p assed m e." Vu illemin quic kly g ot bac k arou nd Carm ichael but lo st valuable time on th e leaders . He slowly ca u ght ba c k up to LaRocc o and m an y were expecting an inte resting d ic e b etw een t he two, but it n ever rea ll y panned out. " I ca me b a c k in beh i nd LaRocco and w e p as se d T o r te ll i ," Vuillem in sai d , " b u t a lapp e r staye d o n e l ap ahe ad of me and sta yed o n th e line , an d I cou ld not pass h im , ei ther. " A t th e h alfwa y po in t , Vu illem in st ill h ad a sl im sho t a t the $ 500.000 . Ev en t hough he was in fourth p lace , he wa s j ust seven sec onds beh ind the leader Wi ndham, who was h avi ng h is w ay w ith M cG rath , j us t like he did in (Above) M ike laRocco was tough, as us ual, at Las Vegas. He survived early pressure by David Vulllemln, and then went on to pass both Sebastien Tortelli and Windham to take second. (Right) Windham led most of the 250cc final, but la ppe rs broke his rlIythm and concentration, which ultimately a llowed McGrath t o catch and pass him, their earlier heat race. Bu t w hen t he lap p er held Vuillemin up just aft er th e h al fw a y poi nt , it all bu t en de d any re ma in ing c ha nce he h ad of w inni ng the race. W h en i t b e cam e c lear t h at Vu illern in's b id for the half-mill ion do llars wa s over, the near sell -out crowd cha n ged its foc us o n W in d h a m and McGrath . T he Hon d a r ide r was leadin g McGrath aro un d the t rack just like he d id in th e hea t rac e, and it lo oked as thoug h Wi nd ham wo ul d h ave hi s way ag ai n . H e ap pea red t o b e i n t o ta l [jj]@@[fffJliDDfJ[;3 UffJfZ@ @[JD liDD@ Z?d@@@ @E @@[fD@[;3 After all was said and done at Las Vegas. seven-time Supercross champion Jeremy McGrath spok e about how he thought this year's Supercross season went for him and who he thought were his biggest rivals. "I th ink I was probably a litt le mo re confident the fir st half of the season, maybe because everybody wasn't quite up to speed and I knew I was fine: McGrath said. "I know that David [Vuillemin] learned a lot, and I can't say that I wasn't think ing about him from time to tim e, every other race or whatever. You know , he's learned a lot; he's really fast. "Kevin [Windham I started to pick up the pace. so you can't say I wasn't not thinking about those guys, they were riding awesome. I j ust had to work harder to get my wins towards the end of the season; I had a couple of races there I lost to David. "Obviously David is the guy right now," McGrath will compete at the Glen Helen National and then call it a year. "After Glen Helen I'll be taking a vacation: McGrath said. "This year I'm going to try and take a little more tim e off. Last year I was a little busy doing some promo stuff. I'd like to sit home a little more, play a littl e golf, surf a little bit and maybe relax. I'll be back next year strong and ready to try and win the title again." The off-season could be a littl e interesting for McGrath, though. since his contract with Chaparral ends this year. c harge , but that wou ld all change w he n th e le a d d uo began e nco u n te r i ng lap pe d traffic. W ith six lap s to go , the slower ri de r s he l d up W indh am mome n t arily , bu t t h at w ould b e all McGra th n eeded to reel in th e Hond a rid er and be gin c hall engi ng h im for th e lead . T he s u d den c h a n g e o f e ve n t s seemed to fluster Wi ndha m w ho m ad e a few b o b b l es , and t h en th e c ha mp saw hi s c ha nce a n d a t tacked , an d W indham had no answer for McG rath . Inste a d , W indham no w h a d a v e ry ag gressiv e LaRo c co to contend w ith, cue I e and he didn 't have an answ er for h im, ei t h er. W hen W indham we n t w ide , laRocco we n t inside and int o sec on d p lace. McGrath cooled his eng in es the la st few laps , letting LaRocco cl ose to w ith in about three sec ond s of h im before taking th e checke red flag in fro nt of the 38 ,856 -stro ng c ro w d an d a live Pay Per -Vi ew tel ev ision aud ience , end ing t h e 16 -ro u n d Su perc ross serie s j u st li k e it began: w ith McGrath w inn ing . " I k ind o f ha d to rev ert to plan B afte r we we n t t h e f i rst t h ree la p s , ' Continued 011 page 10 n e _ S • MAY 1 7 ,2000 7

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