Practice At High Point

| May 28, 2005

The clouds let loose today delaying practice by an hour for round two of the AMA/FMF National Motocross Series at High Point Raceway in Mt. Morris, Pennsylvania. The good news is the forecast is calling for dry weather for the rest of the weekend.

Most of the top riders elected to sit out practice due to the muddy conditions. Last week’s winner Makita Suzuki’s Ricky Carmichael, Team Yamaha’s Chad Reed, Team Kawasaki’s James Stewart and Amsoil/Chaparral/Honda’s Kevin Windham all watched as riders sloshed around the track. In all only 12 top-20 riders chose to brave the conditions. Of them Team WBR/Suzuki’s Richie Owens clocked the fastest lap time of 2:54.792 minutes. Team Yamaha’s mud specialist David Vuillemin was second quickest with a time of 2:59.778 minutes and Boost Mobile/Yamaha of Troy’s Kelly Smith was third with a time of 3:05.510. Qualifying for the 250 class was also held today, cutting a total of 12 riders.

Among the riders watching from the sidelines during today’s practice was round one 125-class winner Monster/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki’s Grant Langston. After dislocating his ankle last week at Hangtown, Langston has been resting up and trying to heal enough for High Point. Langston is in for tomorrow’s race and he is no stranger to riding in pain. He rode with a separated shoulder two years ago at Southwick.

“It’s [ankle] just sore,” Langston said. “I’ve just been sitting around and stuff. I’ll know more how it feels tomorrow when I ride.” Langston currently has a five-point lead over last week’s runner-up Mike Brown. Pennsylvania native Broc Hepler sits in third.

Coming off of a prefect 1-1 moto sweep Carmichael is once again the man to beat in the 250 class. He holds down the points lead by 10 points over Reed and Vuillemin, who are tied for second.

With no rain tomorrow the track should be in near perfect condition. As of today tomorrow’s schedule is going to be unchanged, with national motos set to blast off at 1:00.

By Freelance