Round 7 - Moto 2, Wardy Does it Again
Jeff Ward completed a vitally important weekend for his 2006 AMA Supermoto Championship hopes on Saturday evening with his third win in four tries at the crucial double-round Denver, CO Invesco Field event.
Combined with his Friday runner-up result that also saw him gap primary title rival Doug Henry, who took third in that race and second in the following three finals, Ward now leads the points race 300-278 with just three rounds remaining on the calendar.
Recap Team Red Bull KTM HMC
Kurt Nicoll got a great start and settled into 2nd. He got tangled up in the dirt section and ended up 5th. J.Kunzel looked very racy throughout the event and came home 4th.
The experienced Ward was never seriously challenged in Saturday’s final race that was contested in tricky drying conditions. The Troy Lee Designs Honda ace got a quick start and put seconds between himself and his pursuers almost from the start as Henry and his Graves Motorsports Yamaha teammate, Mark Burkhart, found themselves caught up in a huge dogfight for second position early on.
While Ward was powering away at the front, Henry and Burkhart worked hard to move up from fourth and sixth, respectively, with Team Red Bull KTM HMC’s Kurt Nicoll and Jurgen Kunzel, GP Husqvarna’s Troy Herfoss, and Ward’s teammate, Chris Fillmore, also jockeying for the runner-up position.
By lap 5 of 14 the Yamaha men had slotted into second and third, however, by that time Ward had checked out. Burkhart took over second on lap 11 but a final lap mistake handed the runner-up finish back over to his veteran teammate.
Ward Controlled the Race from the Front
Afterwards race winner Ward commented, “I got a good start and got through Turn 1 clean. The bike had good grip. If it was Doug or Mark behind me it wouldn’t have been as big a gap early, but it was Kurt (Nicoll) who was a couple seconds off the pace. I saw that and knew I just had to just keep pushing to get a big lead. Once I got it out to about ten seconds I just kind of slowed down to see what they were doing — to see if they were going to catch. It stayed about the same and then the last three laps I just cruised.”
Ward also spoke of the developing title race, recalling the disappointment of last season. “It was nice to beat Doug every race here. That’s what I needed to do. But last year I had a great points lead too and lost it. Unless I have over 25 points going into that last moto, I still haven’t won it yet. There’s going to be 50 points up for grabs at Long Beach and I’m not going to have a 50-point lead going in. I have to stay healthy and finish races. It’s not over.”
Runner-up Henry stated, “The first lap was pretty hairy — there was bumping and sliding and everything. Jeff just happened to miss out on all of it. He kind of squeaked away and came through clean. It was a real challenging race mentally: Where are you going to brake? Where do you have traction and where don’t you have traction? I wish I could have come out on top but we’ll take it.”
Third-placed Burkhart, who won Friday’s first AMA Supermoto race in Denver, said, “I passed Doug in the sharp corner after all the long straights. He spun a little bit coming out and I was able to get by him. I was hoping maybe I’d be able to catch up to Jeff but Jeff was gone from the start. I didn’t get a great start — I think I was sixth or seventh. On the last lap I made a little mistake and Doug got back by. There were some lapped riders but I screwed up myself.
“Early in the race it was like a freight train of us and everyone was trying to run up the inside of each other, which is hard to do when there is only one good line out there. It was mayhem the first couple of laps. But we made it through and got both Graves Yamahas up here on the podium.”
Defending class champion Kunzel worked his way up to fourth in the end. His teammate, Nicoll, just edged Fillmore to the stripe to claim fifth.
Hart & Huntington Tattoo’s Steve Drew came home in seventh while Fredericktown Yamaha Riley’s Jason Conlon, RJ Maxxis Yamaha’s Matt Burton, and KTM-armed Josh Chisum rounded out the top ten.
Press Release: AMA Pro Racing
Photo: amasupermoto.com
By: Larry Lawrence & Chris Martin
