After having nary a healthy rider for the ’04 Daytona Supercross, Team Honda/Moto XXX was happy to enter the toughest race of the 2005 series with a pair of healthy racers. Kyle Lewis was still doing some recovering from a huge crash in Indianapolis, but was looking forward to the grueling, outdoor style track in Daytona. After a departure from the 125 East series top ten in St. Louis, Justin Buckelew was looking forward to getting back where he belongs in the super speedway’s infield.

Up against a laundry list of factory riders, Buckelew took to the rough Daytona track aboard his trusty CRF250R. After qualifying safely from his heat race, he had a decent gate pick and was eager to test himself for 15 laps. Unfortunately, he didn’t get the start he was looking for and came out of the first turn in 16th place. “Bucky” rode with confidence, though, and methodically worked his way up in the standings. He took the checkered flag in 10th place. The come-from-behind effort served to boos his confidence, as well as his ranking in the series, which is now 11th.

Kyle Lewis has had one of those seasons that could easily have him looking forward to the outdoor Nationals already. A series of crashes, mistakes and plain bad luck has challenged the privateer icon since the very first gate dropped, but in true journeyman fashion, he approached Daytona with the same work ethic and confidence that he does every race. Once again, he found trouble on the track in qualifiers, but got himself in nonetheless. In the main event, his hard work was rewarded with a season-best finish of 12th. Naturally, “Lucky” was pleased with the progress and plans on using the result as a springboard to even better ones in the remaining rounds.

As for the team itself, the West Coast Customs-decorated big rig and all of the mechanics decided to stay in Florida for the week leading up to the Orlando race. They’ve been able to do all the maintenance, engine work and bike prep on the road that they’d normally do back at the race shop. Team Manager, Allan Brown says that if they get it all done early enough, he might let the crew visit Mickey and Goofy before this weekend’s race.

THQ AMA Supercross Series returns to Citrus Bowl

PICKERINGTON, Ohio (March 15, 2005) — The THQ AMA Supercross Series returns to Orlando‚Äôs Citrus Bowl on Saturday, March 19, for round 11 of the 16-race series. It marks the first AMA Supercross race in the stadium since 1997. Highlighting the return to Orlando is the return to competition of local hero James ‚ÄúBubba‚Äù Stewart from nearby Haines City, Fla.

Stewart, the all-time winningest rider in AMA 125 Supercross history, crashed at the second round of the series in Phoenix in January and broke his arm. The Kawasaki ace has been preparing for several weeks and racing fans across the country are abuzz about seeing the 19-year-old racing phenom back in action.

The final six rounds of the series promise to be attention grabbing. In addition to Stewart’s return Yamaha’s Chad Reed earned a well-deserved victory at Daytona International Speedway last weekend over series leader and four-time Daytona Supercross winner Ricky Carmichael. Reed led from start to finish and Carmichael crashed chasing him.

In spite of the crash Carmichael remounted his Makita Suzuki and finished second to preserve a 32-point lead in the series standings. Carmichael said his loss at Daytona meant the hard working rider would train even harder to maintain his series lead and to earn his fourth AMA Supercross title.
“It’s not easy to win these days with so many competitive riders in the series,” said Carmichael, who won the AMA 125 East Supercross race in Orlando eight years ago as a rookie. “I’ll go back and step up my program and concentrate on being the best rider I can be in order to win this championship.”

Indiana’s Mike LaRocco is the only past winner of the Orlando Supercross slated to start Saturday. The rider known to race fans as “The Rock” won Orlando in 1992 and 1993 and is still going strong in the series at 34. He’s coming off a third-place finish last weekend in Daytona Beach and is in a heated battle with Amsoil Chaparral Honda teammate Kevin Windham for third in the series standings.

The AMA 125 East Series went completely topsy-turvy last weekend in Daytona. Three of the top series riders, Grant Langston, Davi Millsaps and Matt Walker, suffered crashes and lost ground in the series chase. The big winner at Daytona was Red Bull KTM rider Josh Hansen. Hansen, son of 1982 AMA Supercross champ Donnie Hansen, earned the win and the series lead. Langston, of Team Monster/Pro Circuit Kawasaki is still solidly in the series, just two-points behind Hansen.

Tickets are available at all Ticketmaster outlets, all participating Yamaha dealers, at the TD Waterhouse Centre Box Office, or charge by phone at 407-839-3900. The Citrus Bowl also features a special Family Section. When ordering tickets through Ticketmaster, request Family Section for an alcohol-free family atmosphere.

Both the 125 East and main AMA Supercross final from Orlando will be nationally televised on Sunday, March 27 on ESPN2 starting at Noon EST.

KTM factory rider Isidre Esteve has won the Patagonia rally this weekend. Esteve lead home fellow KTM riders Marc Coma and Carlo De Gavardo.

After day five of the first round of the Rally Worldcup 2005, the new course of the Por las Pampas/Patagonia-Atacama rally ended uccessfully in San Pedro de Atacama/Chile.

The overall victory took spanish KTM factory supported rider Isidre Esteve, beating team mate Marc Coma after 17h43min timed special tests by only 3 seconds.

Local hero from Chile, Acerbis gear rider Carlo de Gavardo, took 3rd position on the podium. He finished only seven minutes behind the winner
despite he was racing with a KTM 450 cc rally engine, competing with the over 700 cc bikes of his team mates.

The very technical and difficult track, which took the riders from Bariloche, south Patagonia up to the Atacama desert, the most arid zone of the world, was timed on 1.486 hard special test kilometres.

Spanish Nani Roma finished 4th with his Mitsubishi in the car category. Prominent race support: Franco Acerbis, big supporter of cross country rallies and friend of the de Gavardo family, followed the rally himself together with Carlo’s father in the Acerbis assistance car, to support the most successful South American offroad pilot.

Overall Classification:
1) Isidre Esteve (KTM) - 17h43min55
2) Marc Coma (KTM) - a 3 segundos
3) Carlo De Gavardo (KTM) - a 7min12
4) Francisco Lopez (Honda) - a 1h48min14
5) Jacek Czachor (KTM) - a 2h14min04

(Source: www.mxlarge.com)