Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

RCA Dome lndionopolis. lN eOO6 Amp'd Mobilc World Supcrcnoss 6PlAmp'd Mobile AMA Supercross S€Pi€s Mv Oww RRce: I 3 Heath Voss I 4th Place Heath Voss returned to action in lndy after missing tlvo rounds of the series because ofan iniury to his hand and wrist that he sustained at round six in San Diego. The Team Yamaha rider won his da),, qualifier and went on to win the first semi after finishing I lth in his heat. ln the main, Voss started well, finishing lap one in fourth, but he faded to l4th by the linish.'ToniSht was the most Supercross I ve ridden since Ive been off, so my timing is a little off," Voss said. "l was so excited to be racing that lwas shaking. My doctor told me the inlury was like a sledgehammer hitling my hand, but my bones didn't break. They are badly bruised, and my ribs and my back are pretty sore, but I am glad to be back. I got the holeshot in the semi, and I almost got the holeshot in the majn and came out of turn one in founh. I just held on from there." 27 NictWey Sth Place MDlqMotospod/Honda's Nick Wey continues to give the factory boys flts. He parlayed a Sood start into a fifth-place finish in the main event to further pad his lead in the race for the U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Pro Privateer Challenge Award. which pays $100,000 to the series' top privateer Wey ran in second for a bit part of the race and gave Chad Reed fits when Re€d tried to pass Wey for second at the halfway mark. The lndy race war prett,, close to home for the MichiSan native, and he had lots of friends and family at the races, che€ring him on. "l got a tood rtart, and I iust tried to ride aggressive," Wey said. l gor around Ernie [Fonseca] early and I think the whole pack wa5 kind of behind me - James and Chad - but I just wasn't able to tet away. Those Suys are used to runnin8 up front, and I think I learned a lot toniSht. I was stoked to sta),, in third for so long, though. A lapper went down, and I lost a couple of spots, but I was able to get Ernie back. I just didn't look back and tried to stay on my line. When Chad got me, I was able to get back around ham, and it took him another lap ro get back by me," 9 lvanTedesco 4th Place Makha Suzuki's lvan Tedesco .ontinues to be the "best of the rest ' and holds down a solid fourth overall in the series standings, behind the bit three. At lndy, Tedesco started slowly, finishin8 founh in his heat afier a fall, but he came on strong in rhe main to take fo!fih. "l was struttling allweekend, kind of the same as last week, brrt I ended up tood in the main," Tedesco said. "ln praclice and the hear races, I am terrible, but in the main, I s€em to be able to pull it together I didn't get the best stan in the main, but I made stuff happen in the first three corners and put myself in position to have a good result. Tonight was a tough track to pass on, and Wey held us all up. but he rode a good race - he wasn't gNing an inch out there. l'm struggling with thir [softer] din. l'm ridint back in Southern California on hard-pack every day, and I feel so tood during the w€ek; then I get here and it s frus- trating. But, I am going to to to Florida for the next two weeks and practice with Ricky, and hopefully that will help me out a little bit. Those top three guys are riding back eait and riding on a little different dirt, and obviously it is helping rhem, so hopefully I can be in the I I Travis Preston 8th Place Travis Preston spent most ofthe main event bat- tlint with Team Kawasaki's Michael Byrne before endinS up with an eighth-place linish. Preston made it into the main event b), finishint fourth in his semi after spectacularly throwint away his factory Honda during his heat race while running in second place. "Leave it up to me to do something stupid like that." Preston said. "l just came up a lirrle short going into lhat turn, and I cased it really hard, and it (hrew me forward, and I hit my chest on the bars so hard that it bounced me back on the bike and my hand jusr slid righr oII rhe throttle and twisted it. There was a berm right lhere. and I just launched it almost into the stands. You should have heard the noise that thing made when it hit rhe ground. k ended up hitting a banner and tettinS stuck. In the main, I iust didn't ride too good." Reed advanced easily to the main event b/ winning heat number two, and so the stage was set for another hyped- up meeting of the "big three," However, the main-event hype became somewhat watered down when Carmichael squirted through the first turn safely behind Team Honda's Ernest Fonseca, while Reed got squeezed out in sixth and Stewan picked himself up in last place after yet another first-turn crash- Stewart has to be getting gun shy about starts. as this marked the second straight week and the fourth time this year that he has gone down in the first turn. "lt was kind of like in Toronto," Stewart said, "ffhe track crew] went out in the first corner and pushed allthat loose stuff back on the track, and there were a few rocks in there, and ljust leaned over and the next thing I knew I was picking myself up- I iust hit some- thing and fell over. lt iust happened so quick." Stewart, who desperately needs to get a win streak going if he wants to move back into contention for the title, immediately got back on track and start- ed picking off riders. By the end of lap four, he had moved from dead last into sixth, on what he considered a difficult track to pass on. "l think the track sucked," Stewart said. "flt was] so one-lined that it's hard to pass. Once you get into lappers - and those guys are going their own pace - you can't get around them- That was the most frustrating thing - the lappers." ln the meantime. Carmichael was enjoying a relatively uneventful race up front, while MDl(/Motosport/Honda's Nick Wey battled with Carmichael's Makita Suzuki teammate lvan Tedesco over second. On lap nine, Stewart passed both Tedesco and Wey to move into second, but he was still more than eight seconds down from Carmichael, who had been keeping an eye on Stewaft's run through rhe pack. Stewaft closed to within four seconds when Carmichael hit lappers, but lost most of it back when he encountered them himself. By lap 14. Reed had worked his way into third, where he would remain to the finish, while Wey held off Tedesco for the founh spot until the two-lap board came out. At the finish, Carmichael took a well- deserved win, while Stewart's amazing run toward the front came up three sec- onds short. Reed finished third, with Tedesco and Wey rounding out the top five. The win was Carmichael's 45th Supercross victory, and it was perhaps a bit anticlimactic after all of the pre-race controverq,/ over the AMAS latest rul- ing. "lt was pretq/ uneventful for me," Carmichael said. "l got a really good 20 MARCH 1s,2006 . CYCLE NEws sUPERCROS5 Rounds I l/9 ,vlor.h 4, 2OO5 Erncalo Fontead w.ts fort in the beginning but fioded to rirth. I E: I s I t -t- --\ ( I --.r 7 l- \ -! {l ?77 I

• Cover