Thursday, July 17, 2003

AMA SuperMoto round one.



The event is scheduled for Outdoor Life Network (OLN) Oct.16.



Well the first round of the AMA Red Bull Supermoto was pretty fun to watch. At the start it was McGrath (Honda), Ward (Honda), and Nicoll (KTM) 1,2,3 as close as they could get. It seemed there was not a lot of places to pass on the track and the top 3 looked pretty even. McGrath made a little mistake on the back pavement straight flicking the bike left but the back tire just barely stepped out and he rolled off the throttle for just a second and got back on it. Ward and Nicoll used that error to get past him at the next turn. And that is how they finished. Nicoll got close to Ward on the last lap but was blocked a little by Chandler (I think) on a KTM and he didn't make the pass.



Ward, Nicoll, McGrath were clearly the fastest 3.



There were a lot of Honda 450's but 5 of the 6 the KTM's were in the top 15.

Nicoll 2nd

Kopp 6th

Avard 7th

Fillmore 11th

Pegram 15th

Chandler 21st



The track had (I am totally guessing on numbers here...) A 50 yard fast front pavement straight, a right turn and a 20 yard slow left right dirt section, a right turn to a 40 yard fast pavement back section with some fast flick left rights, to a 180 right, a short straight then a 90 degree left transition to dirt and over a 30 ft tabletop jump. (the only jump) some tight left right dirt sections to a big right hand sweeper and onto the pavement to the front straight. It was kind of like a supercross track in that there were fast straight and a tight turn and a fast straight. I don't think there was anywhere a flat track guy could hang it out or anywhere a road racer could hang off. It definitely favored the MX guys.



At least that's what I saw. I was hanging on the back straight fence and couldn't see the whole track from where I was. The tents and "stuff" were in the middle of the track between the front and back straight so you couldn't really see the whole thing.



Saturday was the KTM Supermoto Unlimited race. I didn't see it. Nicoll won, Kopp second, Fillmore third all on KTM.





The track at Laguna Seca was so small and tight the 450 class ran almost exactly the same times.



450 winner average lap time: 49:209

Unlimited winner average lap time: 49:225



As the tracks get bigger there should be more of a difference. I do think for road race fans to really like it the tracks will have to be faster and longer.



Creative Writing 101 from Team Troy Lee Designs at the racerxill.com webpage:



"Team Troy Lee Designs sweeps inaugual Supermoto"



Well yes Ward is a TLD rider and he won one main event, Nicoll a KTM rider finished 2nd and McGrath from TLD was 3rd. Troy Lee didn't run the race because of injury.



TLD didn't race the Unlimited bike race.



A sweep? "to win all the games or contests of" umm no. Does Racer X just print any press release? I guess so.



Let's rewrite the headline.



"KTM Dominates 4 of 6 podium positions at the inaugural Supermoto."



Racer X interview with Jeff Ward about the race.



sample



Jeff says:



on being in 2nd behind McGrath: "I was a little disappointed I couldn't get him right away - if it was anybody else I would have stuffed it right in there"



on Kurt Nicoll: "He's nice. He's a good guy. He'll say everything is nice and this and that, but he'll be the first one to stuff you and put you over the fence and say it wasn't his fault"



The tracks and riders will get better. It is fun to watch.



Big Rick gives it 2 thumbs up

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