Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

war'ted. lnstead, I got to watch Kiedrowski and Garrison go by me- I was so pissed.'' Kiedrowski, who had earlier passed Garrison for second place, inherited the lead, pulling Garrison along with him, Hughes now chased in third, but not for long. Hughes pulled out the stops and closed back in on Garrison and Kiedrowski and, before long, he was back out in front and pulling away. Once again, however, Hughes found himself picking his bike up off the ground, the result of another crash. Only this time, he had no one to blame but himself "l went over this double and gassed it right when I landed, and the back end ,ust went away and spit me off," Hughes said- "l lost about 40 seconds on that deal." Once again, Kiedrowski rode past his downed teammate and into the lead. This time, howevet Kiedrowski would never see Hughes again: he went on to win his first WORCS race of the year. Hughes, meanwhile, was unable to mount a second comeback because of a problem with the bike. "l thought at the time I had a flat, but what was really happening was that my rotor was hitting my spokes," Hughes said. "l was iust trying to go through the course at that point and not break my rear wheel, so I just coasted around in second for the remainder of the race." And that's exactly where he would finish. Garrison, meanwhile, ran into his own problems and was no longer run- ning in third. Like Hughes, he also had a run-in with a lapper and developed brake problems. "l got behind a rider and fell tn/ing to pass him,'' Garrison said, "l lost m/ brakes and thought that it was my rotor that wzrs bent; howeveq it ended up being my brake-fluid bolt had come loose, and I had no brake fluid.'' Garrison nursed his "brakeless" Yamaha a€ross the finish line in a disap- pointing I oth place. Garrison's problems left the door wide open for third place, and Bell, Smail and Woods all wanted to come in. Woods just might've been the fastest rider on the track. After his bad start, he was blazing through the field and had caught Smail and Bell, and he passed them both for third place. The defending WORCS Champion wanted more and had thouShts of catching Hughes. But he, too, ran into bad luck - more specifically, a big rock. The impact pretty much destroyed his rear wheel, and he had to pit and replace the wheel - a delay that would cost him several positions. With third place still up for grabs, Bell and Smail engaged in a lierce battle that Smail eventually won. "Smail was all over me." Bell said. "He was panic-rewing his bike and yelling at me. I was just laughrng. Smail was tryinS to force me into a mistake, but he was goinS faste. at the time, so I let him by.'' Smail admirted to his yelling strateg)/- "Oh yeah, I was screaming and yelling, rewing my bike through the whole motocross track," Smail said. "l just was hoping he would get flustered and make a mistake. I didnt want to be behind him again going into the te(hnical stuff, so I was doing everything I could to pass him. Sure enough, on top of the hill, he blew a turn and I snuck past him with a big smile on my face. lt was a lot of fun!" Smail held on to flnish third, but Bell couldn't hold on to fourth - or fifth, for that matter While the Honda rider was keeping tabs on Smail on the last lap, and with Woods not far behind him, Bell stalled his bike while trying to get around a lapper on The Waterfall. With bikes and bodies all around him, Woods then attempted the climb and, iust before los- ing all forward momentum, he tried to launch his bike to the top ofthe rocky hill- climb without him on board. As both Bell and Woods struggled to get goinS again, the wily off-road veteran, Davis, clawed and scratched his wa/ to the top, passing both riders and getting into fourth place, where he would finish a short time later. Woods ouscrambled Bell to the top of the hill and would go on to finish flfth, with Bell finishing sixth. After all was said and done, back in the pits, Kiedrowski was thrilled to get the Honey Lake win- "l'm really happy with my race today," Kiedrowski said. "l tried to just keep the same pace the whole race and not 8et caught up in Ryno's race- I try not to ride out of control, and I think that in the long run it pays off for me. Sometimes things go your way and sometimes they don't. I iust need to be prepared for every race.'' Hughes. however, was understand- ably disappointed with the outcome and will use the Honey Lake experience as lessons learned. ''l was bummed that I didn't win, for sure," Hughes said. ''l want to win every race. I want to win the next e8ht, but you have to go wifi the punches. I'm leaving Honey Lake with a full race lead in the Bobby Bonds had an exciting weekeno. While leading his qualifyin8 race on Sat- urday. he flipped his fiH on The Water- fall, resulting in a spectacular crash. He still manaSed ro get going aSain and win the race despite a severely squashed exhaust pipe. ln Sunday's Pro race, Bonds was running seventh when he crashed and Souged his arm. Despite heavy bleeding, gonds forged on but later had ro pull out of the race. He is expected to ride the next WORCS round in Adelanto, California. All four rounds of rhe rhis year s WORCS Series have been won by former or cur- rent Pro MX racers: Ryan Hughes. Mike Alessi and flike Kiedrowski. This once again brrnts up the subject about llx ra(- ers tettint into off-road racing. "l race because I love comperition," Kiedrowski said about Hughes ioininS the WORCS Series this year. "l think it is greac that HuShes is racint this series. lCs good for me, be.ause it motivates me to go faster I want to be as fast as 'Ryno. He has top- five National motocross speed, so it really pushes the rest of us competitors to really have to up our game, which in tLrrn is good for our sport and the WORCS Series. I feel now that l m faster than I was when I won my two WORCS Cham- pionshipsi however, l'm still rn control. l've always been able to match what my competition is doing, so wi(h Ryno being here, it s just makinS me an all-around better rider." Mike Kiedrowski is a good example of what Ryan Hughes was talking about when it comes to knowin8 when to scale it back a nocch or two. "l wanted to get a good start, which ldid, and I knew I had to just ride my own race,' Kiedrowski said. "On this course, ifyou push too hard, you're going to be lucky not to hit the ground. and you can't win a race like that. [Bobby] Garrison was ridinS 8ood and then started to make mistakes. so I tot by hrm. and then all of a sudden I see Hughes stuck, so I just went by and tried to keep it on two wheels. ' Sounds easy. CYCLE NEWS . APRIL 19,2006 3l l r- .!V.a -t' t", t' 2 i I 8. t- I ,fi .,: 7 r l ^4 t" .t orr." S-oil gol on the podium in rhird. Ryon Hughes (105) hods KiedrOwrLl, but o touple ol

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