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/128624
AMA,/Che vyTr u c k s U .S . rvtococr-oss C h a m p io n s h ips Round 8 : Kenwo rt;h y's Mot.ocr-osse P ark h im hon e st ea r l y in both m o to s before the Kawasaki rider brok e free to cross th e fin ish li ne some fiv e sec on ds ah ead of Windha m in the first m oto, and nine seco nds in the seco nd m oto. It was as sim p le as that. Still , Windha m ro de very well at Troy . "I was abl e to hang with him th ere at th e b eg inn ing [of both rnoto s] ," Windham sa id . "I' ve ju st go t t o g et through th e midd le part of th e race. My end laps seem to be strong and m y beg inn in g laps are ok ay , but the middle of the race is where I' m lacking. I d on 't know what to d o bu t t o get better m ent ally prepared." Fin i sh in g on the pod iu m in th ird p lace for the first time in a wh ile wa s Mi ke LaR o c c o o n th e Com p et it io n Accessories/ Amsoil/ Factor y Connec t i on / Ja c k In Th e Bo x Hon d a . Th e no toriously bad starter ac tually gated well in both motos and was rew ard ed with 4 -3 moto finishes . " Fin all y a podiu m ," joked LaRoc co . "I definitel y started o ff rou gh in th e outdoo rs [series]. and I feel lik e I'm coming around. a little b it th e last few rounds ." Fourt h overa ll went to th e form er series lea der Tortell i. T he 1998 250cc Wor ld Cha m pion di d not have a goo d day at T roy . Tortell i st art ed off strong in th e fi rst moto and fair ly well in the seco nd moto , but wo uld ultimatel y drop back in both, fi n ish ing a distant By KI T P ALMER PHOTOS BY STEVE B RUHN TROY, OH, JULY 23 or once , th is year's nati on al at Ken worth y ' s Motocross Park in T roy , O hi o , d id not feel as th ough it was bein g held in a sauna . Instea d, it took place in near ideal wea ther condi tion s, v er y r a re for Tro y (or f o r natio nals in general , for that matter) . For Ricky Carmichael , this phenome na wasn 't necessaril y a good thing , since h e see ms to onl y g et b etter when it' s hot and humid and general ly m iserable ou t si d e . But toda y at Troy , the only thi ng feeling m iserable was Ca rm icha el's co m petition , all of w h ich w as sound l y beaten b y th e 250cc rookie. Hot or not, Carm ic hael can obviously win. The vic to ry was Carmichael's fifth of the year on hi s Chad Watts-tuned Chev y Truck s Kawasak i , and it moves him bac k into the series po ints lead , d e m o t i n g T eam Honda 's Sebastie n Tortelli to seco nd p lace. " It defi nitely feels go od to be back in the points lead , but th ere's still four races [eigh t m otos] left," Ca~michael said. "I' d li k e to have a bigg er points lead, but I'm going to do wha t ever I can to stay in front and tak e it to the end. I th ink I'm pr epared for it ." C ar m i ch a el won b oth m oto s in commanding fashion at T roy , though Team Ho nda 's Ke vin Wi ndham kept F 6 A UGUST 2, 2 0 0 0 ' c ue • lEI nellY's Ric ky Ca nnlchael (41 led nearly every lap of the Troy, Ohio, National at . Kenworthy's Motocross Park. Here he ho le sho ts the se cond 250cc moto ahead of Kev in Windham (141, M ike laRocco (51 and Heath Vos s (331. thi rd in the ope ner and fou rt h in the cl oser. T he reason ? A badl y twisted ank le. In t he firs t moto , Tort elli t wi ce ca ught a deep rut with his right foo t, yanking it off the footpeg and leaving him in a lo t of pa in. He bit th e bullet , co ntin ue d o n and fin ishe d a n admirable th i rd . T o rt ell i tape d th e an k le and w ent ou t for th e second race, wh ere he abused th e ankle eve n more and en de d up fourth b eh in d Ca rm ichael , Windham and LaRo cco aft er a tough strug gl e with Chap ar ral/Mazda Yam aha ri der Ti m Ferry . Ferry en de d up sc o r in g a ha rdearned fifth o verall. He batt l ed back and forth with de fend ing cham p Greg A lbertyn in the fi rst m oto before settling into fifth ea rly on and k eep ing the Suzuk i ride r at bay for the rest of th e moto , whi ch was no easy task . In the second moto, Ferry found himself go in g around and around with Tortelli be fore physically ru nning out of gas and lettin g the inj ured Fr ench m an go, then lett in g Suzuki's Robb ie Reyn ard go aro und him tw o lap s from th e end. For his efforts, Reynard ended up sixth overall with a 7 -5 tall y. Seventh overall went to Chev y T rucks/Kawasa - k i's Larry Ward (9-7), eig hth overall to Team Suzuki's Dam on Huffm an (8- 9) and ninth over all to Ward's team m ate John Dowd (l0-8 ). A lbertyn rounded out the to p 10 overall , running sixth fo r m o st of th e wa y in the first m oto , but a fi rst-l ap g et - off i n t he sec ond m ot o rea ll y ruined h is da y . He was slam me d into and knocked t o the ground by anoth er rider wh ile bein g held up in a bottleneck , an d by th e time he got his bike uprighted and started , he tra iled the pa ck by some 20 sec onds . All he co uld salvage was 16th. Tea m Ya maha ' s David Vuillemin had ye t another miserable outing . He suffered his second mecha nical DNF o f th e se ries (i n addi t io n to se ve ra l smaller grem lins) when h is bike 's CD I ig nitio n bo x ca me unplu gg ed up on la nd ing from a j u m p on the seco nd l ap . In th e secon d moto , h e we nt down in the second turn and spent the rest of the rac e try ing to catch up , gett ing as far a s 10t h . It wasn 't enough to ma ke him happy. "J ust like last week , ever yth ing is not so good for m e," a very disap po inted Vuillem in said . W ith eight of 12 rounds now com plete, Carmichael ha s an eight- point le a d o ver To rtell i , 3 41 -333 , wh i le W indham is hanging on in third place with 309 po ints. Well back in fourt h and out of title co ntentio n is Vuillem in w ith 249 p oi nts , st ill 18 a h ea d of LaRocco . A cla imed 21 ,000 specta tors took advantage o f th e unu su all y n ice weather at T ro y . MOTOONE KT M ' s Sh ayn e K in g p ut h i s big thum p er t o th e f ro n t of th e p a c k m om en t s after the gate dropped for the firs t m ot o, bu t Windham managed to out-brake him into th e fi rst turn to nab th e hol eshot. Th e two rid ers trad ed places a few times ear ly in the lap b e f o r e Wi nd ham got b y King fo r good. Windham never ha d a c ha nc e to en joy t h e l e a d , t h oug h , b e ca u se Carm i ch a el , who ha d al so ri d d en aro u nd K ing r ight aw a y , st uck h is front w h ee l along sid e W indham 's Honda and th en m ov ed to the fr ont before the fi rst lap wa s over. To rtelli slipped his Honda int o third , m aking the top order after a lap: Carmichael, W indham , T o rtelli , K in g , La Rocc o , A lbertyn , Fer r y a n d Cannondale 's Keith Johnson . Reyna rd and Heath Voss ro u n ded o ut t h e to p 10 . Vuillemin barely made it through th e fi rst lap when his ignition failed . " I was fo urth and I landed [o ff a jumpj, an d m y CDI box , th e plug , j ust ca me o ut ," Vu ill em in sai d . " I pu t it back and I rode for like one lap and it c a me o u t aga i n . So I j us t q uit becau se I didn't want to get hurt." T he race fo r the lead settl ed into a fou r-rider affa ir in vol ving Carmichael , Wind ham , T ort elli and laRocco - one