Race Day

This weekend Washougal MX Park celebrates its silver anniversary, 25 years on the AMA Outdoor National Circuit. The 25th running of the Washougal National was also preceded by one of the biggest Amateur Motocross events in the country, drawing over 2,300 participants to the Oregon/Washington border.

Washougal is perhaps best known for its beauty. The track is situated in a hilly area above the Washougal River. Interspersed with grassy infields, rock outcroppings and tall pine trees, it is picturesque. The lower portion of the track is in a relatively flat area and consists of lots supercross type obstacles. The upper portion of the track is on a steep hill, known as Horsepower Hill. It is aptly named as it is long and steep, and robs horsepower. Coming back down the hill is even more daunting as there is a "Ski Jump" towards the bottom of the hill that riders cannot see over until they launch.

Washougal is a little slice of MX Heaven Photo: Michael Mansfield

This weekend is Round 8 of the AMA FMF Outdoor National Series as well as Round 4 of the WMA National Series. In Saturday's WMA race, 2005 Season points leader Jessica Patterson ran a strong 1-1 to take the overall and to extend her point lead over Sarah Whitmore, who finished 3rd overall with a 3-3 and Tarah Geiger, who crashed hard in the whoops in the second Moto and sustained injuries that will keep her off of the bike for at least the next three months. New Zealand's Tania Satchwell took 2nd overall with strong 4-2 Moto finishes.

Jessica Patterson with a huge lead in WMA Moto 1 Photo: Michael Mansfield

Three of the fastest women in the world Photo: Michael Mansfield

The WMA also sanctioned the women's classes at the Amateur event that preceded the National at Washougal. There was good turnout in the women's classes, which bodes well for the future of Women's Motocross in general.

As for the AMA FMF Series, two of the top riders in the 250 Class would not race this weekend. Kawasaki's James Stewart is still suffering from the effects of his crash with Carmichael at Unadilla and will miss his second event. Kawasaki announced Thursday that James had not been cleared by his doctors to race on Sunday. In addition, Yamaha's Chad Reed suffered a hard crash while practicing at Glen Helen on Thursday and it was announced late Thursday night that he would not be racing at Washougal.

Jaoquim Rodriques takes 2nd in his Saturday Qualifier Photo: Michael Mansfield

While Stewart is not in the points chase, Chad Reed could lose his 3rd place standing to teammate David Vuillemin if DV can pull off a 2nd place overall finish on Sunday. DV will have to find a way to get ahead of Kevin Windham, who has been the only person other than James Stewart to come anywhere close to running with Ricky Carmichael this season. Either way, Chad will certainly find it hard to catch Windham in points after missing this race.

In the 125 Class we have a new points leader, Ivan Tedesco. Ivan has been putting in very strong finishes, and pulled out his first overall Outdoor National win last week at Thunder Valley. Tedesco has a seven point lead over former points leader Mike Brown, who usually finishes strong. In addition, there are still a large number of riders that could pull out a win at any time, which makes Tedesco's handle on the points lead tenuous. Of course, another strong finish by Tedesco and another poor finish by Brown could change all of that.

125 Moto 1

There's a reason why they call Ivan Tedesco "Hot Sauce". Really, it is mostly because his last name rhymes with Tabasco and he is from New Mexico, but when he is on fire, he is hot, and he was on fire at Washougal. Coming off of his win in Colorado, it was obvious that Tedesco was confident and ready.

As the gate dropped on 125 Moto 1 it was Andrew Short with the holeshot. Short has been steadily improving his results this season. Since moving to Team Honda he has proven to be a worthy investment for Big Red. Behind Short was Josh Grant, and behind Grant was Ivan Tedesco.

Through the first few laps Short was able to pull a small gap, but once Tedesco had gotten past Grant in the third lap, he slowly but surely began to reel in Short.

Grant Langston makes a charge towards the front in 125 Moto 1 Photo: Michael Mansfield

The other points contenders were further back in the field. Grant Langston had finished the first lap in 9th place and was also slowly making his way through the field. Mike Alessi had started in 6th place, but quickly slipped to 7th as Broc Hepler made his way up to the front. Mike Brown got a 9th place start, but slowly began to lose positions. On the seventh lap he had some sort of problem and was unable to finish the Moto.

At this point the pack had settled down and the running order was Short, Tedesco, Grant, Hepler, Millsaps, Langston, Kelly Smith, Alessi, Lawrence and Danny Smith. In an unusual move, the 125 pack ran in a consistent order for several more laps.

On lap ten things started changing again. Hepler, who had been hounding Josh Grant for several laps, finally found his way around. On lap 11, Tedesco, who had finally caught Andrew Short, managed to get by, and Langston had found a way past Millsaps.

Tedesco showed increased confidence and speed after last weeks win at Thunder Valley Photo: Michael Stusiak

Then on lap thirteen, Short bobbled and let the hard charging Broc Hepler get by. Short quickly got himself back under control and was able to get back by Hepler in the next lap, when Hepler's front brake assembly began to fall apart. Hepler soldiered on in an attempt to hold as many positions as possible, but lost several positions in the process.

While this was going on, Langston was able to gain one more position by getting past Josh Grant. The top ten at the end of the 125 Moto 1 was Tedesco, Short, Grant Langston, Josh Grant, Hepler, Millsaps, Alessi, Lawrence, Paul Carpenter and Kelly Smith.

Short later reported that not only had his front brake caliper come apart as the mount had cracked, but he had also lost the use of his clutch late in 125 Moto 1, so salvaging a 5th place finish was more of an effort than anyone had realized. It also turned out that the dangling front caliper was somehow cut loose during the last lap, so Hepler was able to give it a bit of a charge right at the end to salvage more positions.

250 Moto 1

RC at speed in 250 Moto 1 Photo: Michael Mansfield

If Tedesco is hot, Carmichael 's temperature must be something akin to the surface of the sun. The last time that Carmichael lost an overall in the AMA Outdoor Series was at Washougal in 2003. Kevin Windham gave him fits that day and bested him for the overall win. So Carmichael comes to Washougal looking to extend his record overall win streak.

The start of 250 Moto 1 was all that anybody needed to see. Carmichael pulled the holeshot and was gone. Windham, on the other hand, was very slow off of the gate and ended up with an uncharacteristic mid-pack start. But Windham showed his speed early in the first lap by moving all of the way up to 9th by the time he had reached the finish line jump.

As the laps clicked off, Carmichael extended his lead. Windham was also showing his speed and managed to go from 9th to 2nd by the end of the fourth lap. Unfortunately for Windham, Carmichael was too far out in front to catch. Both riders began racing the clock and Windham turned lap times consistent with Carmichael's for the rest of the Moto.

Travis Preston showed consistent speed at Washougal Photo: Michael Mansfield

It looked like there would be better action in 250 Moto 1 further back in the pack. David Vuillemin, Ernesto Fonseca, Travis Preston and Michael Byrne were all running very close lap times throughout the day. Early in the Moto it looked as if there might be some passing among this group, but as the Moto wore on the gap between riders just got bigger and bigger.

At the finish it was Carmichael, Windham, Vuillemin, Fonseca, Travis Preston, Michael Byrne, Nick Wey, John Dowd, Ryan Clark and Matt Goerke.

Windham would later relate that he had gotten a chunk of dirt thrown into his mouth at the start and had run the entire Moto with it lodged in his throat. Apparently adrenalin had taken over and it really didn't bother him too much during the race, but once the race was done he went through some serious gyrations to get his throat cleared.

125 Moto 2

The start for 125 Moto 2 was almost identical to the start from 125 Moto 1, except that Tedesco was a bit further back in the field this time. Once again, Team Honda's Andrew Short pulled the holeshot and was followed by the Amsoil Chaparral Honda of Josh Grant. Behind them it was Hepler, Tedesco, Metcalfe, Millsaps, Matt Walker, Paul Carpenter, Ryan Sipes and Joaquim Rodriquez.

Andrew Short takes the early lead in 125 Moto 2 Photo: Michael Mansfield

As in 125 Moto 1, the pack once again quickly sorted itself out and began running in a very consistent order. This is really the first time in the 2005 series that we have seen this in the ultra-competitive 125 class. The other odd thing is that some of the early front-runners seem to have dropped off of the pace a bit, while some of the hopefuls are now running in better positions.

The real action in this Moto was towards the front as both Hepler and Tedesco made their charge towards the front. On the fifth lap Hepler managed to get past Josh Grant, and then in the seventh lap Tedesco did the same. This would also mark the point at which Josh Grant began to make his backwards slide. It is unknown whether this was due to Grant tiring or some sort of mechanical issue, but Josh managed to drop a position every two laps until the end of the Moto.

On the tenth lap Hepler would battle with Short and eventually pass him. At this point Hepler began to slowly put distance between himself and Short. Tedesco, who was already too far back to catch the two leaders, steadied himself to maintain his position until the end of the Moto.

Tedesco gets more practice on his spray technique Photo: Michael Mansfield

Former points leader Mike Brown started in 15th position and was able to slowly make his way up to 10th, and in an unusual turn of events, Grant Langston, who has suffered a horrible start and seemed to have his problems in the first lap of the Moto, ran at the back of the field throughout the Moto. Langston ended up with a 34th place finish, which will seriously hurt him in the points standings and surely eliminate any possibility of him being a factor for the championship.

At the end of 125 Moto 2 it was Hepler, Short, Tedesco, Millsaps, Walker, Carpenter, Ryan Sipes, Josh Grant, Robby Kiniry and Mike Brown for the top ten.

250 Moto 2

After falling asleep at the gate for the start of 250 Moto 2, Kevin Windham was looking to redeem himself with a much improved start. Windham has been pulling consistent good starts lately, along with the Honda's of Ernesto Fonseca and Justin Buckelew. It is interesting that the Honda CRF450 is consistently at the front of the pack off of the start, especially considering that the three Honda pilots who are getting such good starts are all on different teams.

As the gate dropped on 250 Moto 2, it was once again the Honda of Ernesto Fonseca with the holeshot, followed closely by Windham, with Carmichael just a couple of bikes behind. Fonseca was pushing as hard as he could and managed to hold his position through the finish line jump.

RC takes on a downhill section at Washougal Photo: Michael Mansfield

As the front runners approached the bowl turn section after the finish line jump, both Windham, and a charging Carmichael began to close up on Fonseca. As the riders came past vendor row and into the mechanics area turn, Windham began to make a move to pass Fonseca. Both riders took an inside line going into the turn, while Carmichael did a classic inside-outside-inside move and roosted past both of them in the same turn.

Windham later commented that he knew Ricky was setting them up two turns previously, but could do nothing to stop him from making the move. RC actually got his drive in the outside fluff at the entrance to the turn and took the inside while both KW and Fonseca were both pushing to the outside.

Kevin did manage to make his move on Fonseca, and the three front runners began racing the clock as Ricky took off and began to make his customary gap.

By the fourth lap, 250 Moto 2 began to become a real yawner. Without Stewart and Reed in the mix, the speeds of the top ten guys seem to be very static and predictable. The top 8 finishers were determined by the fourth lap, as the top 8 didn't change. There were a few points where one rider or another began to make some time on the rider in front of them, but this was mostly due to small bobbles, which were quickly corrected and the gap reestablished.

Fonseca runs a solid 3rd in 250 Moto 2 Photo: Michael Mansfield

The perfect storm of Carmichael vs. Stewart that everyone was hoping for has turned into a long sleepy season in the 250 class. While Windham has picked up his pace and is matching RC's lap times in later laps, he still isn't able to run RC's pace in the first few laps when Ricky sets up his gap.

Unless something dramatic changes in this class in the next couple of weeks, we will likely be looking at more of the same. It will be interesting to see what happens next season when a few of the current 125 front runners move up to the 250 class. Hopefully Stewart and Reed will get back into the fray and make things interesting before the season is over.

At the end of 250 Moto 2 the top ten running order was RC, KW, Fonseca, Dowd, Byrne, Vuillemin, Wey, Preston, Clark and Tim Weigand.

Wrap-Up

The big winners on the day were Tedesco and Fonseca. Tedesco picked up his second

overall win and extended his points lead in the 125 class. Fonseca pulled 4-3 Moto finishes to get his first 250 class podium. He has steadily improved his speed over the last couple of years and this was a well-deserved step for him. It will be interesting to see what this does for his confidence going into the next race at Spring Creek MX Park in Millville, MN.

The AMA FMF Outdoor National Series takes a well-deserved break this weekend. There are a lot of riders in both classes that will be looking for that next level of speed during the break. While the 250 class title is all but decided, the 125 class still holds the potential for some drama. Unless Tedesco puts up another couple of wins, there is still a chance that Mike Brown could pull off a couple more wins and make up the gap between himself and Tedesco. We also have to keep in mind that there are still ten or more riders in the class that are capable of pulling of a win in any given Moto.

In the press conference after the race there was an interesting tidbit about Carmichael that came to light. It turns out that he is personally sponsoring John Dowd at Millville. Because this is Dowd's last full season and because Carmichael is starting to look at ways in which he can give back to the sport he loves, he decided to go ahead and help Dowd out. I wouldn't be surprised to see this go through the end of the season.

Ernesto Fonseca takes his first walk on to the 250 podium Photo: Michael Mansfield

RC and KW are getting good at this   Photo: Michael Mansfield

Dowd also managed to pull out a fifth overall on the day at Washougal and is currently running 7th in points, which is very impressive for a guy who just turned 40. It is unprecedented for a guy his age to perform at the level that he is performing in one of the toughest sports on earth.