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running in fourth until he got sideways in the first dirt section and went down. At the end of the first lap the order was Henry, Ward, Burkhart and Fillmore, however, Burkhart received the meatball flag when he crossed the stripe for the first time, for jumping at the start, and would have to serve a stop and go penal- ty because of it. Fifth through eighth positions were occu- pied by Kunzel, Drew, Herfoss and Nicoll. On lap three, Nicoll got caught up with Drew and highsided into the hay bales. Ward continued to press Henry as the front-running pair pulled away from the pack, however, at the midway point, Ward made a mistake of his own, running over the top of a dirt berm and gathering up a string of banners. Luckily for him, the banners were only hooked on his footpeg and he was able to kick them off in the next turn. Meanwhile, Kunzel put on a charge that carried him past Fillmore and into third, a position he would hold until the finish. At the checkers, Henry came home with two seconds to spare over Ward for the win, matching Ward's total of four wins on the year. "We are halfway through the season and anything can still happen out there, so you just gotta keep going out there and winning races," Henry said. "I am hoping for some good luck and some bad luck - hopefully, the good luck will be mine." "I sure would have loved to have gotten by Doug in that last race, but when you are matching lap times, then it is hard to pass," Ward said. "About the only way to pass was if someone made a mistake and I was the one to make a mistake in that last moto, but I was lucky enough to keep it running." SUPERMOTO LITES ACES-backed Dalton Dimick got the jump off the line at the start of the Supermoto Lites race, however, it was Graves Motorsports Yamaha's Brandon Currie with the lead at the exit of turn one. Series points leader Cassidy Anderson wheelied off the start, but still found himself in third when the pack hit turn two. Anderson made short work of Dimick, passing the Coloradoan just before the Urbancross jump after turn three, and then set out after the fleeing Currie. The Utah native didn't have to wait long to have Waterford Hills Raceway Clarkston, MI Round 5 July 8, 2006 JULY 19, 2006 • C Y C L E N E W S 18 AMA Supermoto Championship MY OWN RACE: 7 Troy Herfoss 5/6 Place Troy Herfoss had a relatively good day, despite suffering a variety of misfortunes. The likable Australian finished fifth in the opening race after tangling with Kurt Nicoll on lap five. Then in the second moto, the GP Husqvarna-backed rider worked his way up from a poor start to eventually finish sixth. "The first moto was a little tough," Herfoss said. "I had a little trouble in the dirt with my front brake. It was too touchy for me to push very hard and the sus- pension was a little off, so basically I was struggling - it was killing me and I couldn't hang on. But I ended up getting some points. Then in the sec- ond moto, things could have been a lot better, but I got a really bad start and got going in about eighth. The bike was working really good this race because we made some changes on the bike and put on some new brake pads, so I felt a lot better and was able to push it harder at the end of the race. I came from way back and caught up with Fillmore at the end of the race. I was trying to get around and he stopped short in the dirt and I center- punched his bike and stalled it. So I ended up with sixth." 11 Chris Fillmore 3/4 Place Graves Motorsports' Chris Fillmore had a consistent day, placing third in the first race and then fourth in the sec- ond. "I don't know what happened to Henry in the first moto, but it worked to my advantage. It put me on the podium and I am super happy," Fillmore said. "These guys like to crash and I will take it. Every single race this year I have finished 3-4 and I am going to have to try to break out of that. In the second moto I got a terrible start. I changed my clutch on the line, thinking it was going to benefit me, but I didn't launch well and Pastrana got by me, but I got him back over the mogul jumps. Then things kind of sort- ed out and I was in fourth. Later, Burkhart did his stop and go and he was trying to go by me in the sand section and he tucked it and went down. Then a couple of laps later a lap- per held me up and Kunzel went by me and so I ended up with a fourth." 73 Steve Drew 6/5 Place Steve Drew, riding a Hart and Huntington Tattoo-sponsored KTM 450SMR, got his best finishes of the year in Michigan, with a sixth and a fifth. "The day went really well," Drew said. "We haven't had the greatest year so far. We are on new bikes and we are learning them. It's a little late in the season, but we are coming around and the team has really come together. Some other people had bad luck, but we've had luck during the season too, and we were able to keep it up front and run the kind of race we are capable of and that is were number 73 needs to be. Being a working-class guy and dicing it out with all of these factory guys is good. This is good momentum going into the X-games." 8 Kurt Nicoll 22/3 Place Kurt Nicoll had a rough weekend. The Red Bull KTM HMC-backed rider ran in seventh position for the first four laps of the opening race, but took a nasty fall on one of the fastest sections of the course, when he clipped Troy Herfoss' rear wheel. Nicoll seemed to roll forever before coming to rest in the dirt. In the second race, Nicoll only made two laps before getting caught up with Steve Drew and highsiding into the hay bales while bat- tling for position. At the time, Nicoll was once again in seventh position when he went down, however this time he was able to finish out the race, getting credited with 13th. Micky Dymond (1) leads Benjamin Carlson (45) en route to the Unlimited-class win. Cassidy Anderson (15) won the Lites class.