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FEATURE STORY

A2 RACE REPORT
Chad Reed’s trip to the semi and second place finish last weekend made him look vulnerable. Last night he re-established himself as the dominant force in the series and stretched his point lead. Kevin Windham hung tough in second and dealt with the pressure better than I thought he would. Before his 2-year hiatus, Kevin would’ve cracked, but he held up and sent his message as well. This IS a new Kevin! Vuillemin, who rounded out the podium, struggled with a technical triple after the shorter set of whoops all day and got horrible starts in his heat and semi, but during the semi finally jumped it. In the main he got a better start and hounded Kevin looking a little faster in the early going, but he didn’t capitalize. He had his chance, but two mistakes in row through the whoop section that he had dialed earlier ruined his rhythm and he let it slip away.

It looks like those three will be the ones running at the front from here on out. After last weeks’…whatever you want to call it, the stage was set with Kevin in the lead, Vuillemin and Reed all over him for perhaps the best race ever. People always bring up Anaheim ’86 with me and RJ, but that was only two of us and no extra motivation. You just know that K-Dub wanted to prove a point, DV wanted to kick his ass, and Reed wanted to redeem himself after a quiet second place last week. For eight laps it was electric! Then it fizzled as Reed rode right through ‘em and kept on going making it look pretty easy. What made the ’86 race so epic was that I battled with Johnson almost the entire race. I think I finally put him away with only two laps to go. Imagine if those three guys last night had battled that long? I would’ve been standing! I’m a little surprised that David with extra motivation didn’t fight harder to at least get Kevin for second, but that’s the first time he’s been up front in this series and sometimes it catches up with you as Travis Preston said in his post race interview. Those mistakes he made through the whoops were pretty gnarly too, but I still think he should have stayed in the fight. At the pace those guys were running you can’t mess up or it’s over.

I believe we are in for a good series even without RC, but can you imagine how good it would be if Ricky were in it?

The 125 main was pretty good too. Preston finally got off the line and looked like he might hold on, but Tedesco turned it up at the same time Preston was struggling with the pressure of the lead he hasn’t had in a while. As Tedesco made his move, it looked like Preston was either tight or pumped up or tired just as James Stewart said in the broadcast. Roncada snuck in underneath him and made it look like a I-2 sweep for Pro-Circuit. To Preston’s credit though, he fought back past Roncada and actually closed slightly on Tedesco, which had to boost his confidence a little bit. Tedesco was taking it easy the last couple of laps I’m sure, but at least he didn’t run away. Although Ivan is pulling away in the series, it looks like tighter racing is in the forecast.

Final thoughts.

1. As you all know, or should know, I’m a big Windham fan. He is very well spoken, handsome and one hell of a rider. After last week I still remained a Kevin fan although I was disappointed in his…what I would call a desperate move cutting across the corner like that. Still, I wasn’t mad at him, just disappointed that he ruined DV’s chances for a win when DV was more convinced he could win than he was last night. In the end they both lost a lot of ground to Reed. It was water under the bridge. Then I watched ESPN this morning and Kevin was saying Vuillemin ran into him! I wanted to reach into the TV and strangle him. To further piss me off, I was reading his Racer X thingy were he said he put a tape in the VCR that just happened to be a race from 12 years ago of Mataisavich cleaning out Bradshaw in Vegas. What are the odds? Kevin, be the guy I admire and hold your line and tell the truth. If you had said you went home after Phoenix and dug up a tape of Bradshaw and Chicken back in the 90’s and saw some of the same type of moves being made that you made on Vuillemin I would’ve believed you. If my memory serves me correctly, it was the other way around. Bradshaw cleaned out Mataisavich in a stupid move that ultimately cost him the title to Stanton later in LA.

2. I feel for Tim Ferry and Ezra Lusk who both had a lousy week full of crashes that have ruined their chances at the title.

3. Tedesco is on fire! So is Mitch Payton. Congratulations to Pro Circuit.

4. 125’s are almost as extinct as 500’s!

5. As much as I tried to give Cameron Steel the benefit of the doubt and all, his work so far this year stinks! Lose the nicknames, tone it down and quit telling me what I just saw. Let Harris do the play by play and stick to the color. We want to know why? Why is Tedesco running the table, what do you think is going to happen, why do you think that happened etc. and Jamie, it’s just my opinion, but let you hair down. Don’t pose on the cover of FHM wearing paint and then put you hair in a bun. You are beautiful and you know the sport, don’t hide it. And finally, stop talking about 4-stokes vrs. 2-stokes. It is what it is so talk about the racing.

6. Pick up sticks

7. Points vrs. Fines. I think Kevin Windham wears watch worth over a hundred grand. His bonuses for a win are about the same. I think he also owns half the private jet he is flying around in. I’m not positive on this, but you get my point. If Kevin had only been fined, DV would’ve splattered him all over the place last night and paid the fine. Believe me it would’ve been easy. If it were me, I would’ve put him in the hospital! Hannah, RC, Stewart, Rick Johnson, Ryan Hughes, Mike Brown would’ve too. The AMA did the right thing so this didn’t escalate. But it was Kevin’s first offense you say? I say I would’ve broken Kevin’s other leg and it would’ve been MY first offense. The SX title bonuses are well over a million dollars, so let ‘em slap your hand and send the guy some freaken flowers. The team managers and the AMA got together a while back to eliminate dirty moves and they were warned. The riders meeting that Kevin didn’t attend stated that moves like Kevin’s would be reviewed by ALL the team managers and the riders involved and then penalized by either a lap or points. Penalizing Kevin a lap would’ve sucked because it would’ve taken his win away and he deserved to win. In the past the AMA has been too wishy washy and soft, but that was then and this is now. There’s a new sherrif in town and he ain’t bullshittin’.

Reed photo by Steve Bruhn. Stay tuned later today for a gallery from the weekend including some photos from Troy Lee’s open house.

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