Australia Takes the World Cup of Motocross
| September 30, 2002
Team Australia – made up of AMA regulars Chad Reed and Michael Byrne, and soon-to-be AMA regular Craig Anderson – used sheer dominance on Reed’s part and consistency among his teammates to win the World Cup of Motocross yesterday at Glen Helen Raceway. Reed went 1-2-1 in the three motos, losing only to Costa Rica’s Ernesto Fonseca in moto two.
The American team – Timmy Ferry, Sean Hamblin and Kyle Lewis – finished a close second after suffering a combined total of five crashes and one stall among them during the three motos of racing.
Finishing up on the podium was Team Canada. Blair Morgan was the top Canadian in every moto, and the team, which also included Marco Dube and Jean-Sebastien Roy, eked out the podium spot over the South African team when Greg Albertyn’s RM250 broke down in the third moto.
South Africa finished fourth.
The race was costly for Team France, as Sebastien Tortelli crashed out on the first lap of his inaugural SoBe Suzuki ride and reportedly punctured a lung, while Eric Sorby crashed out of race two.
Another notable crasher was Fonseca, who crashed spectacularly while running third in the last moto. He eventually walked away.
“Today was a good day for me,” Reed said. “I felt good coming into today’s race. I’ve been doing a lot of testing on the [YZ]450, and I’m more comfortable on the bigger bike. It does things that I want it to do, and when I’m ready it’s always ready. I’m really looking forward to next year. This is just a good race to see how that bike is at racing level, and next week I go ride the 250 [two-stroke] and see how good we can make that. I’m just really proud to be a part of the Yamaha team. It’s good when you can have two bikes to choose from.”
