Ferry and the pacemakers
By TMX Archives on 1st Aug 07
THE ultra-competitive roller-coaster ride that has become the AMA Motocross class championship since the departure of Ricky Carmichael, was thrown another curve-ball at the stunning Washougal, the setting for round eight of the championship on Sunday.
Amid the tall pines of the scenic PacificNorthwest track, already injured championship leader James Stewartsuffered yet more misfortune - and after running to a convincing win inthe opening moto, the Kawasaki rider suffered a freak slow-speed fallin the second heat, damaging his knee in the process and putting himout of the running for the overall.
It wasn't all bad news for the Kawasaki squadthough, as up stepped his veteran team-mate Tim Ferry to save the daywith his first overall victory in six years, a second in the openerbehind Stewart, backed up with another runner-up finish in heat twobehind first-time Motocross class race winner Grant Langston handinghim the victory by a point over Langston. Meanwhile Honda's AndrewShort claimed the final podium position. The fearsome battle forsupremacy in the Lites between Pro Circuit Kawasaki teamsters RyanVillopoto and Ben Townley was no less fraught either with the pairagain splitting the wins as they dominated proceedings.
On his home track, Villopoto was clearly thefastest but the reigning champion was also the unluckiest and, aftereasily winning the first moto over Townley, he hit the deck twice inheat two and was limited to third place despite setting lap timesalmost three seconds faster than victor Townley.
That third also gifted Townley a slender two-pointlead at the top of the championship standings after being tied for pasttwo rounds.
Fast and with very slick dirt, the Washougal trackis unique on the AMA tour, but Stewart seemed to be pretty much overhis whiplash injury and had the track dialled-in during practice,setting fastest time again.
He backed this up with the opening Motocross heatholeshot, but his lead lasted only half a lap as he tipped over in ans-bend section and dropped to fourth behind Windham, Ferry and Short.
He was clearly the faster man though and quicklyworked his way back around the trio to establish a lead of almost 10seconds which he would hold to the flag as Ferry worked around Short toclaim second, while Langston took fourth from Mike Alessi and Windham.
TOYOTA AMA MOTOCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP
Rd 8 - Washougal Motocross Park, Washougal
Motocross: 1 Tim Ferry (Kaw) 44, 2 Grant Langston(Yam) 43, 3 Andrew Short (Hon) 38, 4 Kevin Windham (Hon) 35, 5 MikeAlessi (KTM) 30, 6 Davi Vuillemin (Hon) 28, 7 Ivan Tedesco (Suz) 27, 8James Stewart (Kaw) 25, 9 Kyle Lewis (Hon) 23, 10 Troy Adams (Suz) 21,11 Michael Byrne (Suz) 20, 12 Jason Thomas (Hon) 17, 13 Shaun Skinner(Hon) 17, 14 Davi Millsaps (Hon) 14, 15 Gavin Grayck (Hon) 11.
Series Standings (After 8 of 12 rounds): 1 Stewart290, 2 Ferry 283, 3 Short 275, 4 Langston 256, 5 M Alessi 254, 6 RickyCarmchael (Suz) 241, 7 Windham 238, 8 Vuillemin 192, 9 Millsaps 186, 10Byrne 148.
Motocross Lites: 1 Ben Townley (Kaw) 47, 2 RyanVillopoto (Kaw) 45, 3 Ryan Dungey (Suz) 42, 4 Josh Grant (Hon) 33, 5Brett Metcalfe (Kaw) 32, 6 Martin Davalos (KTM) 29, 7 Broc Tickle (Yam)23, 8 Jake Weimer (Hon) 21, 9 Broc Hepler (Yam) 18, 10 JoaquimRodrigues (KTM) 17, 11 Ryan Sipes (Hon) 16, 12 Kyle Chisholm (Kaw) 14,13 Kyle Cunningham (Yam) 13, 14 Thomas Hahn (Hon) 12, 15 Jason Lawrence(Yam) 12.
Series Standings (After 8 of 12 rounds): 1 Townley357, 2 Villopoto 355, 3 Grant 286, 4 Lawrence 258, 5 Dungey 254, 6Weimer 162, 7 Hahn 141, 8 Andrew McFarlane (Suz) 132, 9 Josh Hill (Yam)128, 10 Tickle 127.
For full story and pictures see T+MX NEWS, Friday, August, 2007.