Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Ward had caught the pair. trying iust as daring a move on both. Ward went for Nicoll and Kunzel in one shot, trying to go up the inside of both in the dirt section. Ward got past Nicoll, but made contact with Kunzel; Kunzel held his ground, and \ /ard was forced to run wide, allowing Nicoll to slip back into third. Nicoll held off the Honda rider to put two KTM machines on the podium. "That was a good one,'' laughed Nicoll, who thoroughly enioyed the close racing. "Doug ran away, and after Burkhart fell and Wardy stalled it, it left Kunzel and I to go for it. I led him for most of the mce, but I knew he was there. I could hear him. He made a pretty good move on the last lap, hitring me in the dirt section ro get by. Wardy then did the same thing and tried for the both of us. He and Kunzel hit, and Ward came out on the low end, and I was able to get back by. lt was good to get into some real racing ou! there." Defending series champion Kunzel was short and sweet, simply salng in his best broken English: ''ln the last l+, I pass Kun [Nicoll] in rhe dirt and take second in the race, lt was a good race for me. I have very much fun coming back and finishing well." But it was Henry wha stole the show and the hearts of the fans, winning by 4.5 seconds in his first ride back from serious iniury But ir wasn't without some teething issues after his long hiatur from racing, ''l really didn't feel all that comforable this moming out here," said Henry "l haven't sp€nt a whole lot of time on the bike, and there are some things I want to work on with it. So rea.lly I wEsn't lookin8 for agreat result today- I mean, ljust kind of came out here, and I told my wife at home it'd be great if I can just get on the podium twice, you know. And to have $e top spot on the podium is the best you can do," Some 15 seconds behind \rtlard was Baffeleuf in fifth, followed by Dymond, while Burkhart charged back from outside the top l0 after fallingto finish seventh. Yamaha-mounted Mark Avard came home eighth, with losh Chisum, on his Honda, and Gary Trachy, on a Husqvarna, rounding out the top 10. SUP€RMOTO RAC€ A Pace two saw Burkhart jump- ing out to the early lead from pole position, followed by team- mate Henry with Nicoll, Ward, Fillmore, Herfoss, Kunzel and the rest of the Supermoto class in tow. A,Eain the rlick dirt secrion claimed vic- tims right away, with Kunzel almost hitting the deck and stalling his KTM on the sec- ond lap. Kunzel had trouble restarting his machine, getting back in the race neady dead last Burkhart was riding smooth and fast for the first four laps, looking set to make a break from his teammate and the rest of the field, when he again fell victim to the iaws ofthe dirt section. stalling his Graves Yamaha on lap five. Burkhan was unable to get the Yamaha restarted for some time, and it dropped him back to loth. " l got off to a great start, and I was just ridin8 my own race,'' Burkhan said. "l wa5 iust trying to ride smoorh and went off into the dirt and stalled my bike for about the 50th time today. I was mad, and then a couple laps later I did the same thing again, I've definitely had better weekends." That left Henry leading Nicoll, Ward and Fillmore. Henry slowly began to pull away from the KTM boss man. Ward knew he had to get around Nicoll for sec- ond quickly if he had any shot a catching Henry Wardy made the most of a small mistake by Nicoll to get by on the sixrh lap and quickly set off after Henry Nicoll left Fillmore at the same pace that \y'y'ard Sapped him, leaving the top looked back at Fillmore and figured he was like two sec- onds a lap slower than I was. And I thought, 'Tell you what, I'm going to slow down flvo seconds and take anoth- er podium."' "l had barely any clutch and I had no front brake," said Ward of his run to finish second. "l had problems all weekend. I don't know what it is. I'd have to pull on the front brake down the straightaway to get some fluid in it, and half the time I wouldn't have any brakes in this comer or in the dirt. I was riding good. I'm sure at one point he had such a good lead that he probably settled into a conseryative pace, and then I picked it up. and I think caught him off guard. I don't think he wanted me to 8et that close." The 35-year-old Henry was able to hold off the late-race challenge from Ward to take his se

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