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/128616
(Above) Ezra Lusk Is st eadily Improving from his l o ng lay-off. He fi nis h ed out the day fourth overall. entire moto , Dowd wou ld mainta in a s ho rt gap o ver the Hondas o f Lusk and Windham and , towards the very end o f t,he mot o , th e Ya m a h a of Vuill ernin , (Above) Last w e e k h e w o n In the dry, this week he won In the mud; Vuillemin Is p roving his versatility. (RI ght) Flrst-moto w in n e r John Dowd loves it w hen it rains. (Be l ow ) Once again, Kevin Windham came within a tip-over from the overall w in. Lusk and Carm ic ha el - and a pair of four-strokes - o n e fam ilia r and on e not so familiar. The KTM four -stroke of Sha yne King found itself in its first ever battle with a Cann ondale MX400 , as Keith J ohnson pulled off a crowd-pleas ing top -five start in the American- bui lt motorcycle's firs t -ever AMA Nat ional race . Behi nd the leaders was a pile-up of e pic p ropor tio ns on the ins ide of the left - ha nd e d s wee pe r . Vuillemin , Tortelli , Albe rtyn , LaR o c c o , Hondamounted Hea th Voss a nd KTM's Ryan T e rle c k i were s c att ered ac ross th e track . covered in la yers of ooze as they tried to get ba ck into th e race . Carmi chael on ly la sted three turns near th e front o f th e pa ck before falling an d having a problem getting his bike sta rted. O nce unde rwa y, th e mud and th e traffic m ade moving into the top 10 impossible. J o h ns o n ' s surprising start would be wasted on a crash during the third lap on top of the second of four tunnel jumps. After falling out of the top 10 , the Cannondale rider had another spill and los t out o n th e chan ce to score an y points in th e b ik e 's firs t out ing. Johnson would not com e to the line for the second moto . From t he back of the pack , the Fr en ch c o m b o o f Vuill emin and Tor te ll i was on the move . After remounting in the first turn, the two pu t th e ir GP mud skills to work and c ut th roug h the pack tog ethe r. By the ha lfwa y m a rk , they were bo th in the top six . "I was th inking th a t I might be able to make it to the top eight, maybe th e top five ," s aid Vuille m in lat er. "When I s aw wher e I was , I just ke pt trying to move ahe ad an d make more points." Dowd opene d a lead of a bo ut five sec onds a fter a lap . Th roug ho ut th e Form er 500cc World Champi on , King , would lo s e h is goggles ea rly , and t h ro u g h ou t the race he wo uld struggl e with h is vis ion . Regardl ess , th e New Zealand er managed a career-b est s ixth -p la ce fin ish in the first m ot o . Lusk he ld second for m ost of th e 12-la p race before a fall with th re e laps to go a llowed both Windham and a hard -cha rgi ng Vu illem in t o get around him . Dowd never re linquished his lead in the first moto, though he did nearly lose the race on the last lap in la pped traffic . Dowd crossed the fin ish line just one b ike le ngth a head of Wind ham , who in tu rned ha d a len gth o n Vuillemin. "I'm pretty stoked because I did n't expect to be p ulling th is off so soon in th e year with m y ba c k injury a nd all: said Dowd , wh o last wo n a m ot o in the '98 season . "Mud m a ke s it a weird th ing , a nd anythi ng can ha p pen. I actually s ta lled my bike with two la ps to go and I was s tarting to get a litt le ne rvou s . I knew the c heck- ered flag wa s coming a nd I just didn 't wa nt to m a ke any mistake s , I was bei ng a little too tentative, I gue ss ,· "I found some re a lly good line s at the e nd of th e moto a nd I thi nk I can get up there to th e front a little e a sier [in the ne xt rnoto] ," said Win d h a m . "Un le s s the 125s go ou t a nd destroy all of my new lines . In a race like th is you ha ve to spend a lot of tim e loo k ing for new lines as we ll a s c oncent rat ing on jus t stayi ng up. I'm pretty happy tha t I m an a ged to do both ." "I gave it one hundred percent and I passed a lot of riders to make pretty goo d po int s , " s aid Vui lle m in . "It ' s e a s y to los e big points in a ra c e like th is , so I'm pretty happy. But without m y c rashes , I th ink I cou ld have wo n this m oto ." T or t e lli also got pa s t Lusk , who finished a se a son -bes t fifth. King was six t h , foll ow ed b y Ka wasaki 's Larry Ward , J a p a ne s e Hond a rider Ak ira Narita , Chap arral Yama ha 's Tim Ferry and Suzuk i's Robbie Reynard . M OT0 2 King a lm o s t pu lled the hole s ho t , but Dowd pro ved to have a better line through the muck in turn one to take the early lead. Windham . Lusk , Wa rd , Vuillemin and LaRocco all filled in the spots r ight b eh ind the numbe r -1 6 Kawa s a k i, though King di d s uffe r a crash in the second turn tha t wo uld waste his second -straight good st a rt. He wo uld spend th e rest of the moto fighting bac k up thr ough the pack for II th place . Car mi chael had a nothe r d e c ent start but crashed ag ai n on the first la p. "The be st th ing would have been to m a ke it through the first la p and th en s ta rt m oving forward ," sa id the Kawasaki rider. "But I s lid o ut and th e re st is his tor y. I lo s t a lot of points today . I just ha ve to start thinki n g about Southwick." The Cannondale MX400 finally made its long -awaited AMA National deb ut at High Po int Ra cew a y , as Ca nno ndale research and development riders Keith Johnson a nd Scott McGill ente red the 250cc National program. ·We picked the High Point ro un d because it's very close to our Bedford (Pennsylvania) plant and a lot of people from the company wanted to come out and watch th e first ra ce.- said Mario Galasso of Cannondale. The employees certainly saw their fair share of excitement when Johnson's number-BI motorcycle failed to ignite while on the starting gate during Saturday afternoon's preliminary qua lifier. The problem was traced to faulty generator in the starter and was fixed in time for the 250cc Last Chance qualifier, from which J ohnson qualified. McGill, however, did not transfer. J ohnson also qualified on Sunday to earn a spot on the 40-man starting gate, reaching a ma jor go a l for the com pa ny. He nearly holeshot the first moto on the MX400 and completed the first lap in third place behind J ohn Dowd and Ezra Lusk, and rode in the top 10 for se ve ral laps before beg inning a series of crashes in the sloppy conditions that would drop J ohnson and the Cannonda le to 25th by moto's end. With conditions worsening for the second moto, the Cannondale people decided to pass on the second moto and quickly packed up and left the facility before the second 250cc National moto was over. cue. e n e _ S • J UNE 7 . 2 0 0 0 13