Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Motocross d es Nations MCA Moto cros s C ircuit Am er ican would have to settle fo r th ird 12 5 . But o n the final lap , Pastra na soared ov e r Ron cada on a huge downh ill ski jum p, ta king over second 125 and 10th overall . "He went ins ide to blo c k my line," Pastrana sa id , "An d I j u s t jumped right by him on the o utside ." "All year he didn 't do anything like that, " Roncada sa id , when asked if the move surprised him. "He almost landed on me over there, I was more pissed than anything. He ran into me in the corner before that, a nd we both almos t c rashed. He do e sn 't ride like that, us ually . He took t wo b ig chances, bu t it' s the MX des Na tions , a nd it' s his first time . He 's st ill a cool kid." Though it wa s c o m pa ra ti v e ly unnoti c ed, th ere was a ls o dr ama a t th e fron t of th e p a ck , with James Dobb le a ding n e arl y th e e ntir e ra c e after pu tti ng a n early pa ss on Swede Peter J oh ans s on. Th ou gh he o nly had a coup le of hours ' ex perience on th e b ike , Do bb ro de the big KTM fo u rstroke like a man possessed, and it appeared certa in tha t he would take the win . But a rock cracked the bike 's cases, and as it had in that morning 's qualifier, the bike lost its oil, and the Eng lishman was passed by a hard c h arg ing Hughes . As Hugh es cele brated his heroic ride by crossing the finish line with his hands ov e r his head, Dobb went into a tuck down the fina l hill , coast ing to th e finish ju st a hea d of Ita lia n Andrea Bartolin i fo r second pla ce . heat. Pastrana went down in turn one and remounted in d ead la st , and j ust a couple laps la te r, Boll e y was h it b y the fateful ro c k a n d pull ed out. "I t oo k a b ig , b ig stone o n m y nose fro m a roost ," Bo lle y s a id . "It was bleeding a lot, and that's wh y I stopped. There was not a lot of pa in a t first, but a lot o f b lo o d , and I s to p pe d be cause it was like water. Afte r that, th ere wa s a lot of pain." "I started to h ighside , and whe n I started tak ing off to the left, I go t T boned by a bout 10 g uys ," Pa stran a said . "Luc k ily a guy from anoth er count ry la nded on me , and everyone ran over him ." Pa s tr an a went on a te a r, slicing throu gh the pack and· on la p nine of th e 30 - minute- p lu s -two- la p ra c e catching French riva l St eph an e Ron ca d a , wh o h ad also s t arte d p o orly Andrea Bartoli ni (3) grabs the ho le sho t In the final 250/500cc mo to , but Sebastien Tortelli (hi dden) w on it. 14 e S EPTEMBER 20 , 2000' c u e and wa s running second 125 be hind World Champion Grant Langston . " I came back , and I co u ld n' t bel ieve it - all of a sudden I started seeing low numbers, " Pastrana sa id. "I passed a nu m be r one, and th en a ll of a sudden there was Ronca da . I wa s like, 'No, this can 't be.' " With the crowd go ing nuts , a nd a wav e of Fren ch flags fol low ing him a ro und the track, Roncada tr ied desperately to ho ld off Pastrana , but his e ffo rts we re h ind e re d by Finn Miska Aaltonen 's b ig four-strok e , whi ch a ppe a red to be hold ing up th e Yam a ha ride r. Pastra na pulled even at one poi nt, then lost a bit of ground , a nd wh e n so me Op e n -cl a s s riders got betw een the two , it appe ared that the n e uv s "It 's just one of those th ings , " Dobb said. "It would have been nice, but t h a t' s ra cing . I don 't want to make e xcuses, but I've had a bit of a c old for the la st week. It's reall y ta ken it out of m e right now . I just have to re -g ro u p now and get ready for the next mota." J oha nss on he ld on for fourth , with Span iar d Francisco Ga rc ia ro und ing out the top five. In an amazing s ixth overall was Langston , winning the 125cc class on a track clea rly favoring th e Open bikes . "I kind of go t the ju m p on th e 125s o n th e start: Langston said. "T he n I moved to th e left a littl e bit t o get some spa ce, and I was in the middle o f the 500 guy s , a b o u t n inth o r 10th.. .1 passed thre e or four 500s . To be perfectl y hon est, thi s track s hou ld favor th em , but some of them we re a ctually a little bit like fa iries on th e downh ills ." With th e first moto in t he boo ks ' and Carm icha e l yet to ra ce , th e USA led the tea m stan dings at 11 po ints , with Ita ly four points back in second an d Spa in ' in th ird with 20 , Fr a nce was a d is a p p o in t ing 17th with its allowed single throwaway ri de already gone , and the p re ss ure was on Bailey to rid e hi s second mota (moto three ) in severe pain. MOTO 2 [125/250] As his pe rformances in practice and qualifying ind ic a ted he would do , Carmichael absolutely dominated the second mota , snaring the holes hot and check ing out , wh ile French rival Ju st days before the MX des Nations sta rted, France found itself in a bit of a fuel crisis, as striking truck and taxi drivers blocka ded many oil refineries and roads to protest high prices (nearly a dollar per liter). This made it quite difficult to purchase gaso line, and next to impossible to buy diesel fuel. Most riders and team personnel had been advised ahead of time and were able to make it to the site after refueling at the border, but there was some concern that specta tor turnout would be affected. "Unfortunately, in France, when people make trouble, they always get help from the govemment," said Action Group Press Relations Manager Pascqua l Haudiquert on Saturday. "The promoter must pay all the expenses, and to make the balance, they must get 20,000 people. The pre-sale was pretty good with 12,000: we never saw this in Europe. That means we were expecting between 30,000 and 40,000 spectators. Now we know that we will lose minimum 10,000 spectators. Now the goal is to get 20.000, to make the balance, but of course we would like to have more." Haudiquert needn't have worried, as there were 19,000 fans on Saturday alone, with Sunday 's 33 ,000 total putting attendance well over the break-even point, Still, the fuel shortage was felt, with many people sharing rides to the track and some teams even using race fuel in their cars. The U.S. team was affected on Thursday when Ricky Carmichael and Ryan Jiughes were prevented by a road blockade from accessi ng a practice track. Travis Pastrana, who had left earlier, made it to the track and practiced all day , while the other two riders resorted to a back-up track. The strike wasn't the only way that Team USA was affected by European fuel problems. The F1M doesn't allow the use of leaded fuel in race bikes, and since Carmichael and Pastrana had raced all year with leaded fuel (allowed by the AMA), Kawasak i and Suzuki had to do extra testing to get the bikes ready. "Suzuki doesn't have a 125 team in Europ e," said Tea m USA Manag er Roger DeCoster. "We had no reference point. We had to start from scratch, and that's why we came over early and sent a lot of equipment. We sent four engines and two bikes (right) over, to make sure. In testing on Thursday, we had to se e how far we could go, and we burned out some equipment."

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