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/1542340
a/ Team Yamaha's Heath Voss was back in action at Anaheim lll after having missed the previous two rounds while recoveriog from iniuries suflered in a practice-day crash. "l'm all ri8ht," Voss said before dre iac€. "l can't blow rny nose or anylhing because my ribs are bruised so bad that it hurts-" Voss said that he physically felt okay during practice but that he was far Irom teeling the way that he did at Anaheim l. "l was on top of my t:rne, and I felt like Superman then," Voss said. "8ut l'm ready to race. lt hurts worse to sit at home than it does to be here and race." Prior to Anaheim lll, Boost Mobib famaha of Troy s Br€tt Mct alte said rhat thahks to hii runner-up finish in San Francisco, moth/etion durint the week was a litde easier to come by. "This yveek wes a little easien" l'4etcalfe said. "Training went good. lt kind of spark you up a linle bit when you tet on the podium, and this week is the besr I've felt so hr. I m looking for- w:rd to tonight. l'm readl to get serious." After basiGlly sralling out of the race in San Fmncisco last we€kend, BooKoo Energr Honda'. David rfuillemin suffer€d rnore bad luck at Anaheim lll when his bike refused to run durirE first practice. 'l massed first practice," \tuillemin said. "l rode arourd half ot $e Fack and then pulhd ofr. lt's kind of a bummer" vuillemin got his bike workirE for rhe second practice and finished out fie niStt in ninth. Speaking ot BooKoo Energy Drink, the brafld has signed another athlete into its sta- ble- American Honda's Andrew Short was sportint BooKoo graphics on his helmet for Anaheim lll. After Anaheim lll, Paul Carpenter credited his trainet former Al'lA National Enduro Champion Steve Hatch, for his improved performances at the past tlvo rounds. 'l have a great trainer behind me in Steve Hatch," Carpenter said. "He knows how to work with me. and he has been workint with me not only on some physical stufl but some riding stuff and some mentalstufi. He has really tumed my outlook around, and that has really helped me a lot." Anaheim lll was like the charye ofthe wheelchair brigade, as no less rhan three players in the sport were attendint th€ir flrst race since being injured, and all ot them were in wfieelchairs. McGrath was not happy. "l was all right until he blatantly killed me," McGrath said. ''l was turning the corner, and I iust got so late-nailed. What are you going ro do? He didn't slide, there are tire marks on my radiator shroud and on my forks. so rr's prety blatant - obvi- ously he's not championship marerial yet, or he wouldn't have even thought about doing something like that. I thought ir was an idiotic move." Stewart said of the incrdent: "lwas going through the corner; lwas taking it - thought I had the corner the whole way, riding a lit- tle high - and when I came down McGrath was there and we came together." Stewart 8ot going first, while Mccrath took his rime gettrng his 450 started again, all the while reportedly giving Stewan the finger as he rode down a parallel section of the track were they had fallen. But Stewart's problems weren't over yet. A few turns later, Stewart went down a third time - all alone. "When I ran into l,lccrath, my front brake was down a little bit, and as I was bringing it back up, as I came off that iump. I grabbed my front brake, came down and the front end washed out again." Stewart said. After the second lap, Stewart was lSth and Mccrath 20th. Up front, Carmichael had already opened up a small lead ahead of his team- mate Tedesco, and Reed, who had quick- ly gotten around Vuillemin- The same, however, could not be said about Tedesco. lt took Reed l0 laps to run down Tedesco after which he put a nice block-pass on the Suzuki rider to take conrrol of second place. Reed said that he wasn't worried about catchinS Tedesco. "No, just tr/ and make the pass, and try and make it stick. so he can't come back at me," Reed said. 'And then just try and run my race. I sat on him for two or three laps and just put a pretty good move on him. There was no contact, I ,ust tried to make a good pass and iust tried to go on." Reed said that the Anaheim lll track was difficr-rlt to pass on. ''lt was tough to pass out there," he said. "l knew [the pass] had to be aggres- sive, and I ,ust had to throw it in there." Tedesco didn't let Reed have second easily, though, The Suzuki rider fought back for a while before losing track of Reed. "Chad was riding good tonight, and he put a good block-pass on me, and I tried to stay with him," Tedesco said. "But he iust had a little bit more than me in a few sections and just 8ot away.'' By this point, Carmichael enjoyed about a lO-second lead on Reed. who opened up a small cushion on Tedesco. Holding down a distant fourth was SoBe/Samsung/Honda's Mike LaRocco, followed by Kawasaki's l''lichael Byrne, neither of which were a threat to third- place Tedesco. Despite backing it off in the last lap. Carmichael still finished l0-505 seconds ahead of Reed and is the only rider to have finished on the podium in all frve races thus far. "Fortunately, I've been the only guy to be up here [on the podium in every race], and I know that every ra.e that I have won hasn't been on iust raw speed," Carmichael said. "lt's been just a lirtle bit of luck and a little bit of patience and iust a little bit of being strong. I think this has been the first year that I haven't really looked too far ahead of me. I've jusr kind of been enjoying every weekend. l've had some Sreat battles and we've kind of been spoiled the lasr rhree weeks, We had a good ra€e with Chad there ar Phoenix, it was really, really close and, obviously, the second Anaheim and then last weekend between James and myself in the mud.'' For Reed, getting second isn't good enough right now. "ljustgot to win," he said. "Gefting sec- onds and thirds and fifths really isn-r cutting it. I iust know that lgotta get it done. l',ly bike is good, and I feel good on the bike, bur it is just up to me to put it together." Tedesco was obviously thrilled to get on rhe podium for the first time. "lt's been a goal of mine all year to get on that box, and I finally put it together tonight," Tedesco said. "l think I rode pretty well. I didn't get the greatest jump at the start, but I made some moves in the first two corners and just went from there. The track was real slick, and I iust tried to put 20 consistent laps together." Tedesco said that he tried to hang with his teammate and learn some of his lines. ''l was just trying to stick on him as long as I could," Tedesco said. "He was riding good tonight, and he had some good lines, so he showed me a Iew things and it helped me out a lot. I'm not used to running up front yet. I am getting more and more comfortable with it, but tonight I started to get tight around lap number five or six. But I loosened up after Chad got by me and I started to ride better." Carmichael said thar he was stoked to see his teammate behind him. "l didn't really know who it was until the second or third lap," Carmichael said. 'At first I thought it was Chad, then I real- Brief fhingr ttoded onroveling f,or Jomes Stewort (7) in lhoirsl turn when he ruffered hic firsr of rhree folls. o q o a o o I ei rt I \ .D t I t I t F F , ? a) {1 I I I EWS FEBR 1s,2006 I5 aaa Red Bull KTM rider lefi Al.ssi (above) was rolling around Anaheim lll in a wheelchair after having broken a navicular and an ankle, thouSh he was obviously in a good mood, "Yeah, toing down the rough downhills at Continued on pdge t7 f i-r I I I I I \ I tl '! Paoor,Egr,lE: I rY , l1 I t I , t