Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

E ls in o re Gra n d P r ix (Left) Ty Davis led the Hamel 100 for the first 12 laps, but dropped back to finish fifth. (Right) Joey Lanza finished eighth in the Hamel 100. (Below) Oakley Lehman rode to a th ird-place fi nish in Saturday's Open race and then took sixth in the Hamel 10 0 on Sunday. c ha nces . I went ahead and took o ne rig ht where I shouldn 't ha ve , but it was e arl y in the ra c e a nd I went ahead and did it." Th e pa ss worked , but two laps later the course's only muddy section cla im ed the new leader. "I dum ped m y front e nd in the mud pu ddle , and that 's when he [Ab bott] got by me : said Esposi to . "I di d n 't go down , I just we nt off the course." "That was the only way I could pass him , " confessed Abbott. "He went back a few seconds and that was kind of it, but that was one of the funne st tim es I've had in a long time. We we re dicing so hard . We'd jump the ta bletop next to each other. It wa s cool." Abbott took th e checkered flag at the end of seve n la ps with Espos ito s till ru nni ng a close second. Ba k e r ke pt his YZ426F out of tro ubl e to stay in th ird th e entire time , but his fo urstroke cohort, Tracy Meeks , suffered a rear flat while ru nning fourth, handing th e spot to Myers , who made up im p re ss ive ground after his crash. "l crashed in the Unclassified race too ," sa id Myers . "So fa r it hasn 't been a spectacular da y, but what are yo u go ing to do? Let' s s ee if I ca n turn it around. I need to calm down a litt le bit : Be h ind Mye rs , T e a m Green /Price Ra c in g - b a c k e d O akley Lehm an rounded out the top five. An hou r later, th e usual suspects took to Main Street aga in to c onte st the Open race , and it was then that the massive crowd would finally c atc h a glimpse of some of th e speed from underneath the Yosh imu ra /Suzuk i semi, however, the KTM 380 of Watts' was just a little bit faster. Ba tt e red an d b ruised from h is crash in the 250cc race , Watts p re pare d for the O pen race by wa tc hing Mart y Moates b e a t Brent Walling s fo rd, J im Be au c h a m p a n d 31 other racers in the Legends rac e . By th e end of lap o ne it was evident tha t Wa tts was riding s ensation a lly , and s o wa s ra ce lea der Myers . 8 NOVEMBER 29 , 2000 ' cue T h e two KTMs led S m ith , Lehman , motoc rosse r Ryan Terlecki and Hatch un til m idwa y th rough the second lap when Mye rs' throttle-side gri p be ga n to tw ist off. As a result, he fe ll back to 12th in th e Open Exp e rt cla s s . Wa tts we nt on to win, but Sm ith wa s never too far be hind. "I'm try ing to get the bike dia led in for tomorrow : sa id Smith about placing second to Watts . "We had som e p robl ems earlier. The cl utch went o ut. T hat 's th e only re a s o n I rode this afternoo n , to see if I could get tha t fixe d. Now I hav e to do a little bit better gearing . Th e y're pu lling m e bad in the a cc eler ati on part. I've got eno ug h power , I jus t o ve rgeared it, and I'm s lugg ish . Th e y'r e pu lling me two to three seconds." KX500 -m ounted Lehm an w as pull ing Smith toward th e end of the ra ce , but it was .too little too la te a nd Lehman had to settle for third . Ha tch and Terl e ck i rounded out th e to p five. Te rlec ki a nd the thumpe r m ass e s returned on Sunda y morning to race the 8 a .m . Four-Stroke ra c e . Th e onl y problem wa s Watts was e nte re d as we ll, and so was Ryan Dud ek . Watts e n d e d up with th e win wi th both Ryans - Du de k a nd Terl e ck i - fille d out the podium . Or ig inally s ig ne d u p to ra c e the Hamel 1 DO , Watts s ki pp ed tow n a ft er t a k in g h is s e c on d wi n of th e weekend with nothing left to prove. The Austral ian fin is he d last year's I ... n eVIls Ham el in second aboard a 1 2 5. Ac cord ing to KTM boss man Scot Ha rd e n , Watts was in a lot of p a in and he was already pla nn ing o n go ing bac k to Austra lia , s o h e just le ft a littl e early . S m ith h ad to prove th at h e had worked the b ugs ou t of his S uzu k i and h e did just tha t in the Over 30 rac e a s he moved past anothe r strong Mye rs s ta rt a nd a fre s h Ty Dav is to w in the e ve n t. Mont cl air Yamaha YZ426 F -mou nted Da vis e ntered th e ra c e to b e com e fam ili ar w ith th e cou rse, as did Kiedrows k i, wh o did not c o m pete th e da y b efore. Dav is held on to second place th e entire 45 m inute s , wh ile Kied row ski fin ished fou rth behind Myers . E igh t y -on e rid er s e n t e re d t h e Hamel 1DO , but to no one 's s urp rise , it was th e fast-starting Mye rs who led th e first two la ps . "I tried to just find a good pa c e : s a id Mye rs . "I wasn 't reall y sure how fast to go. I' ve ridden 10 0 miles o r more in Mexico , but you're just cruising . You 're riding like 80 pe rcent. It's a little differe nt here . They get it on pretty much the whole time. At first I was pushing a littl e to o ha rd and I kicked ba ck a little a nd waved Ty by: On lap three , Davis inherited the lead a nd set out on his own blistering pa c e . Pat Garrahan discovered what the pace woul d be like throughout the 1DO-m ile ' event as soon as he hit the first straighta way . "I borrow ed Watts ' b ike : s a id Ga rra ha n, of the 520 E/XC that he raced. "I got on the pa vemen t road the first ti me and I was g o ing , ' Wo w , th is th ing goes fast. Let m e just s ee if it's got on e more ,' so I cl ick e d it a nd s a id, ' Uh oh , I'm go ing places now." Not everyone had an exh ilarating first loop like Ga rraha n . Apparently Abbott had to sto p and get new gog gles in the e a rly going , and Hatch didn 't even make it more than a la p before he started having problems. "I had a little trou ble with dirt in m y ca rb uretor, so as soon as I got halfway dow n the firs t straightaway the b ike q uit on me ," sa id Hatch. "It wa s lik e someone hit the kill sw itch. I though t I wa s going to get plowed. Te n gu ys wen t b y me . I t houg ht , 'Not al ready. T h is is the worst place to hav e tr o u ble .' 1 was getting pelte d b y ro c k s . I just kept it pr ett y s moo t h a n d tried to stay ca lm . I could n 't see much . There was a lot more dust tha n ) thought t he re was going to be . Ab out halfwa y through th e first lo o p 1 ended up slid ing the f ront end ou t a n d crashing and a bout three o r fo ur guys e nded up go ing ba c k by me . 1 kind of pu t m y h ead do wn a nd ease d in to it a nd tho ug ht, 'Yo u ' re not go ing to win it th e first lap , but you m ight los e it if yo u kee p rid ing like th is .' '' S m ith , Hatc h' s Suzuk i teammate, wa s also h aving p roblems a s h e crashed on the opening lap and then fell victim to a flat tire end ing his da y on lap five . Hea ley 's Pr ice Racing KX500 cam e to a screech in g ha lt a fte r onl y three laps due to a seized piston . It wa s on Healey's last lap that the field of riders began to spread out. Davis' lead over Mye rs was also grow in g , but it was th ird placed Kie drowski that was really moving , a nd , by th e seventh la p , Da vis ' lea d was shrinking . "I got around Myers a nd s tarted ca tc hi ng Da v is a nd then I p itt ed : sa id Kiedrowski. "I s tarted c a tc hi ng him [Da vis] a nd then he had to pit, so I got a pretty good lead:

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