Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Oil/NCY Yamaha's Matt Goerke, who enjoyed the best finish of his career. Chris Gosselaar returned to racing after an injury and promptly shot into the lead at the start of the first moto. He stayed there for a couple of laps until Short, who round- ed the first lap in third place, slipped past both Motoworld/Yamaha's Justin Brayton and Gosselaar to take over the lead. And he would never let go. Short quickly opened up a small gap over the Lites-class pack and could breathe a little easier knowing that Villopoto had pulled off the track on the second lap with motor problems. "I had some bike problems and coast- ed back down the hill," Villopoto said. "A couple of turns before, it was making some noise and just went to the top of the hill and quit. I'm pretty bummed, but there's nothing I can do about it." No one from Kawasaki would elaborate much on the exact details of the problem other than to say it was engine failure. But the bottom line was that the home-state hero was out of the race, and that Alessi had a prime opportunity to gain big points on the guy with whom he is battling for the championship. "I could hear his bike sputtering going up the uphill right before it blew up," Alessi said. "And then I saw him pull off and I'm like, 'Oh my God, I can't believe this is happening.' I just passed by him and I'm, like, 'Stay right here in third and just get some good points and get back in the points lead.' " Meanwhile, Josh Grant had moved into second, as both Gosselaar and Brayton dropped back a few positions. Grant put on a strong charge and got to within about three seconds of Short, but that would be about it. After getting a seventh-place start, Alessi had control of third by the fifth lap but could never gain much ground on Grant. While Short, Grant and Alessi held down their positions, Goerke was enjoying one of the best rides of his career, climbing up to fourth. He hung in there for a long time, until the last lap when he got passed by Makita Suzuki's Broc Hepler, who had completed the first lap in 14th place. Adams finished about 10 seconds behind Goerke in sixth, while teammate Gosselaar hung on to seventh. "After the third lap, I was hanging on for life," Gosselaar, who hadn't raced in over a month, said. The second moto went a little easier for Short. Another good start had him leading the way after the first lap, while Alessi set- tled into second. Short quickly opened up about a five-second lead over Alessi, who would later have his hands full with Villopoto, who was sixth after the first lap (which wasn't all that bad considering he had last gate pick after his first-moto DNF). "I started way outside, had the very last gate pick and just tried to holeshot, I guess," Villopoto said. "I came out all right and just started working my way up." And work he did. Villopoto quickly got down to business, picking off Grant, then Adams, and then Nathan Ramsey - all by the fourth lap. From there, Villopoto went after Alessi and, by the sixth lap, had overtaken second from the KTM rider. "I got a good start and rode up front and I didn't want to push it too much and crash and do something dumb," Alessi said. "Just get out of here and go into Millville with a good points lead - three points - and that pretty much is all I need right now." Once into second, Villopoto's charge seemed to taper off a bit and he was unable to put much of a dent into Short's roughly five-second lead. The two pretty much circled the track at the same pace right down to the checkered flag. "I just tried to get a good start and sprint," Short said. "I didn't think he'd get a good start with the gate pick that he had, but once I saw him back there, I kind of got nervous there for a couple of laps, but I settled back down and started to inch away a little bit. He's proven that he can be really strong at the end; he's passed me his fair share at the end, so I buckled down and really wanted to get revenge from last week. I felt like I got robbed, but that's racing, and I came back strong this week." Villopoto said, "I started to catch Shorty just a little bit and then I made some mis- takes and could do nothing with it." One rider definitely on the move, how- ever, was Grant. The Honda rider had got- ten off to a second-place start but dropped to sixth on the second lap. From there, though, he buckled down and worked his way up. By the sixth lap, he had climbed up to fourth and then reeled in Alessi, passing him on the 12th of 15 laps. Rounding out the top five was Adams, followed by Ramsey and Yamaha of Troy's Brett Metcalfe. CN WASHOUGAL MX PARK WASHOUGAL, WASHINGTON RESULTS: JULY 30, 2006 (ROUND 8 OF 12) LITES MOTO 1: 1. Andrew Short (Hon); 2. Josh Grant (Hon); 3. Mike Alessi (KTM); 4. Broc Hepler (Suz); 5. Matthew Goerke (Yam); 6. Troy Adams (Kaw); 7. Chris Gosselaar (Kaw); 8. Steve Boniface (Hon); 9. Matt Walker (Yam); 10. Danny Smith (Hon); 11. Robert Kiniry (Hon); 12. Sean Collier (Yam); 13. Paul Carpenter (Hon); 14. Nathan Ramsey (KTM); 15. Brett Metcalfe (Yam); 16. Jason Lawrence (Suz); 17. Jake Weimer (Hon); 18. Justin Brayton (Yam); 19. Ryan Morais (Suz); 20. Brian Gray (Suz); 21. Adam Metzler (Hon); 22. Justin Keeney (Hon); 23. Eric Nye (KTM); 24. Yohei Kojima (Suz); 25. Levi Kilbarger (Hon); 26. Kelly Smith (Hon); 27. Chris Pugrab (Kaw); 28. Anthony Charette (KTM); 29. Levi Reid (Hon); 30. Michael Sleeter (KTM); 31. Charles Castloo (Yam); 32. Tony Sherman (Yam); 33. Brad Kelly (Yam); 34. Bryan Johnson (Yam); 35. Gary Sutherlin (Kaw); 36. Cory Green (Hon); 37. Richie Owens (Yam); 38. Tucker Hibbert (Yam); 39. Martin Davalos (Yam); 40. Ryan Villopoto (Kaw). LITES MOTO 2: 1. Andrew Short (Hon); 2. Ryan Villopoto (Kaw); 3. Joshua Grant (Hon); 4. Mike Alessi (KTM); 5. Troy Adams (Kaw); 6. Nathan Ramsey (KTM); 7. Brett Metcalfe (Yam); 8. Jason Lawrence (Suz); 9. Martin Davalos (Yam); 10. Danny Smith (Hon); 11. Paul Carpenter (Hon); 12. Sean Collier (Yam); 13. Kelly Smith (Hon); 14. Matthew Goerke (Yam); 15. Chris Gosselaar (Kaw); 16. Jake Weimer (Hon); 17. Steve Boniface (Hon); 18. Brian Gray (Suz); 19. Robert Kiniry (Hon); 20. Ryan Morais (Suz); 21. Yohei Kojima (Suz); 22. Eric Nye (KTM); 23. Justin Keeney (Hon); 24. Tucker Hibbert (Yam); 25. Michael Sleeter (KTM); 26. Justin Brayton (Yam); 27. Cory Green (Hon); 28. Adam Metzler (Hon); 29. Tony Sherman (Yam); 30 Levi Kilbarger (Hon); 31. Charles Castloo (Yam); 32. Gary Sutherlin (Kaw); 33. Brad Kelly (Yam); 34. Anthony Charette (KTM); 35. Matt Walker (Yam); 36. Christopher Pugrab (Kaw); 37. Levi Reid (Hon); 38. Bryan Johnson (Yam); 39. Broc Hepler (Suz); 40. Richie Owens (Yam). LITES OVERALL: 1. Andrew Short (Hon); 2. Josh Grant (Hon); 3. Mike Alessi (KTM); 4. Troy Adams (Kaw); 5. Matt Goerke (Yam); 6. Ryan Villopoto (Kaw); 7. Nathan Ramsey (KTM); 8. Danny Smith (Hon); 9. Brett Metcalfe (Yam); 10. Chris Gosselaar (Kaw); 11. Jason Lawrence (Suz); 12. Paul Carpenter (Hon); 13. Sean Collier (Yam); 14. Broc Hepler (Suz); 15. Steve Boniface (Hon); 16. Martin Davalos (Yam); 17. Robert Kiniry (Hon); 18. Matt Walker (Yam); 19. Jake Weimer (Hon); 20. Kelly Smith (Hon); 21. Brian Gray (Suz); 22. Ryan Morais (Suz); 23. Justin Brayton (Yam); 24. Yohei Kokima (Suz); 25. Eric Nye (KTM); 26. Justin Keeney (Hon); 27. Tucker Hibbert (Yam); 28. Michael Sleeter (KTM); 29. Cory Green (Hon); 30. Adam Metzler (Hon); 31. Tony Sherman (Yam); 32. Levi Kilbarger (Hon); 33. Charles Castloo (Yam); 34. Gary Sutherlin (Kaw); 35. Brad Kelly (Yam); 36. Anthony Charette (KTM); 37. Chris Pugrab (Kaw); 38. Levi Reid (Hon); 39. Bryan Johnson (Yam); 40. Richie Owens (Yam). AMA MOTOCROSS LITES SERIES POINTS STANDINGS (After 8 of 12 rounds): 1. Mike Alessi (315/1 win); 2. Ryan Villopoto (312/5 wins); 3. Andrew Short (280/2 wins); 4. Josh Grant (261); 5. Andrew McFarlane (229); 6. Brett Metcalfe (226); 7. Nathan Ramsey (168); 8. Troy Adams (143); 9. Matt Goerke (136); 10. Broc Hepler (133); 11. Paul Carpenter (115); 12. Sean Collier (112); 13. Steve Boniface (109); 14. Danny Smith (105); 15. Jason Lawrence (100); 16. Martin Davalos (Yam); 17. Matt Walker (76); 18. Kyle Chisholm (69); 19. Grant Langston (61); 20. Kelly Smith (59). Washougal MX Park Washougal, WA Round 8 July 30, 2006 AUGUST 9, 2006 • C Y C L E N E W S 28 2006 Toyota AMA Motocross Lites Championship Presented by FMF MY OWN RACE 323 Troy Adams 4th (6-5) Place Monster Energy/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki's Troy Adams had the "results gods" smile down on him at Washougal, where a 6-5 tally netted him a rather high fourth-overall finish. But Adams deserved it after putting in two impressive rides. In the first moto, Adams had a tough first lap. He came around in 15th place but steadily worked his way up through the pack until he made his last pass for sixth place on the 13th lap. Things went much better for him in the second moto, where he rounded the first lap in a much-better fifth place. He spent much of the race bat- tling with Nathan Ramsey and doing his best trying to fend off Josh Grant. Adams ended up finishing the moto where he started. 53 Matt Goerke 5th (5-14) Place Star Racing/Lucas Oil/NCY Yamaha's Matt Goerke - another rider who was treated nicely by the results gods - went 5-14 for fifth overall. Goerke took full advantage of a strong sixth-place start in the first moto to finish fifth. A first-lap crash in the sec- ond moto, however, put him in points-salvaging mode. He came around the first lap in 27th place but never gave up. He climbed all the way up to 14th and was rewarded with fifth overall, the best finish of his career. Josh Grant had a strong performance, finishing second overall with a 2-3 score.

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