They're crowning champions at Loretta Lynn's
Aug. 9 - Racers began waving number-one plates in the air at the AMA Amateur Motocross Championships on Friday as the third and final round of motos began, and one of the fastest of them all was Evan Laughridge. The 20-year-old Suzuki rider out of Forest Ranch, California, has
showed several times during the week that he can run with the fastest
racers on hand at the Loretta Lynn Ranch this week -- as long as he avoids
costly mistakes. In the third moto in the 250/Open A class, that's just
what Laughridge did, putting in a silky smooth ride that forced everyone
else into errors trying to keep up with him. Laughridge came into the final moto in the class with a win and a fourth-place finish. In the second moto, he had crashed on the start, moved back up to second, then crashed again and had to settle for fourth. His championship competition was Gavin Gracyk, of Blisfield, Ohio, who had a third and a win in the class.
By lap three, the two were battling side by side and leaving the rest of the field behind. The fight ended a split second after they passed the white flag when Gracyk, pushing hard to catch Laughridge, ran off the outside of the track and slammed into the hay bales stacked against the scoring tower, causing the entire two-story tower to shudder from the impact. Gracyk was unhurt, but out of championship contention. Jesse Casillas, of Jamul, California, moved up to take another second-place finish in the class. Laughridge has a shot at another title Saturday when the final moto in the 125 A/Pro Sport class launches.
Davi Millsaps, of Cairo, Georgia, won two titles on Friday, sweeping the 125cc Stock (12-15) class with three moto wins. Later in the afternoon, in the 125cc Modified (12-15) class, Ryan Mills, of Clintondale, New York, finally broke Millsaps' winning streak, but couldn't stop the Georgia rider from taking another championship.
Millsaps got the holeshot in the 125cc Modified (12-15) race, but Mills pushed him hard from behind. "I was pressuring and he ended up falling over and let me get by easily," Mills said. "I went down back there and it took me a while to get the bike started," Millsaps said. The fall put him back to fifth. "A few years ago I went 1-1-3 and won a championship, so I knew what I had to do," he said. And Millsaps accomplished just what he needed to do, moving up to third and coming withing a few bike lengths of second-place Nick Adams on the last lap.
As the racers lined up for the third and deciding moto in the Women 105cc, 125cc & Up class, the title was up for grabs, with nearly half a dozen female motocrossers within striking distance. But after two laps, it came down to a two-woman race between Kawasaki rider Jessica Patterson, of Tallahassee, Florida, and Yamaha rider Sarah Whitmore, of Cheboygan, Michigan.
Patterson's win and a fourth-place finish in the first two motos, and Whitmore's fifth and a win, made the math simple: Whoever crossed the finish line first would win the moto and the championship.
After two laps, Whitmore led. When the white flag waved, it was Patterson by a bike length. The two battled to the finish, but it was Patterson who regained the title she won previously in 2000 and Whitmore who once again had to settle for second in class. "Three years in a row for second place," Whitmore said after the race. "I need a win!" Patterson said she left her best effort on the track. "I got a little tired, which I shouldn't be, but I just let it all hang out on the last few laps," she said.
Perhaps the most familiar champion crowned Friday was aboard the 47 Kawasaki in the 250/Open A/Pro Sport class. Jeff Emig returned to the Loretta Lynn Ranch 13 years after his last title and added one more to his resume, but the 31-year-old did not walk away with the championship without a fight. His 2-1-2 finishes barely kept him ahead of Josh Hansen, who finished 1-2-3 in the three motos. "You'd think as a veteran I could handle it, but actually, I got a little nervous out there," Emig said.
Another Kawasaki-mounted champion was Ryan Sipes, of Vine Grove, Kentucky, who successfully completed a sweep of all three motos in the 250/Open B Stock class to win the championship by a comfortable margin.
In earlier action Friday, Mike Alessi kept his perfect win streak alive with a fourth moto win in four outings in two 85cc classes. But the second moto in the 85cc Stock (12-13) class wasn't the Alessi vs. Ryan Villopoto rematch everyone expected.
No doubt worried about Alessi getting away, Villopoto tried to make a difficult pass from third to second on the first lap but got tangled up with another rider and went down. By the time he got back up, he was in last place. Villopoto was able to move up to fifth by the end of the moto, but that opened the door for a one-two sweep by the Alessi brothers, as Jeff followed Mike to the finish line.
The oldest champion crowned Friday was Larry Witmer, of Elkhart, Indiana, who eliminated all doubt in the Senior 45 Plus category by winning all three motos aboard his Honda. Racing concludes Saturday. © 2002, American Motorcyclist Association |
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