Ward Perfect

Once again unpredictable weather was the order of the day at the Fay Myers Suzuki Supermoto Classic in Copper Mountain, Colorado. Superpole was run under wet conditions for the second day in a row, but by the time the field lined up for rounds seven and eight of the AMA Supermoto series the wind had blown the track dry.

The day once again belonged to Jeff Ward who put in another perfect day with a pair of victories on the day and went a perfect four-for-four on the weekend. Ward leaves Colorado with a commanding points lead over Red Bull KTM’s Jurgen Kunzel who had mixed results over the four races. With Henry out Ward leads Kunzel 171 to 144 with two rounds and four races remaining.

At the start of race one it was Massimiliano Gazzarata getting the holeshot after opting to not do a Superpole lap and take the inside position by default. Team Troy Lee Honda’s Chris Fillmore was in second by the second corner with Jeff Ward right on his heels. Two of the front runners came together in turn two with Red Bull KTM’s Jurgen Kunzel and Pacifico GP Husqvarna’s Troy Herfoss going down. Kunzel was able to continue, but Herfoss had a problem with his brake lever and had to pull out of the race.

Gazzarata was still in the lead at the end of lap one but had serious pressure from behind in the form of Ward and Fillmore. The quickest man on the track however was Travis Pastrana on his Suzuki. The first couple laps were chaotic with positions changing back-and-forth every lap.

Once things settled down it was Ward in the lead with Pastrana putting a ton of pressure on him. Both riders were very quick in the dirt but Pastrana ended up making a huge mistake on lap 10, crashing over the triple leading onto the back straight, going over the bars and then almost having Fillmore land on him because he was unsighted on the takeoff to the jump.

That was the story at the front, Ward went onto win by 4.937 seconds over teammate Fillmore. The rider who benefited the most from a series of late race mistakes by his competitors was KTM’s Nicoll. Nicoll had been applying heavy pressure on Gazzarata who eventually went down in final corner on lap 14 handing Nicoll the final podium position. Cassidy Anderson had another great performance and secured fourth over teammate Alex Thiebault, with HMC’s Ben Carlson in sixth, Steve Drew seventh, Josh Chisum eighth and Kunzel ninth after slicing through the field, with Gary Trachy rounding out the top 10 on his Joker Machine Honda.

Race two wasn’t nearly as dramatic with Ward getting into the lead early over Gazzarata and holding the position to the end as did Gazzarata for second. The final podium position of the day went to an excited Fillmore who stated that it was the best weekend of his Supermoto career.

Nicoll had a great weekend as well finishing fourth ahead of standout Anderson, Kunzel in sixth, Thiebault in seventh, Carlson in eighth, Drew in ninth and Josh Chisum rounding out the top 10.

Ward leads the series 171 to 144 over Kunzel with Fillmore in third with 122 ahead of a tie between Anderson and Carlson on 102.

In Supermoto Lites action it was once again Graves Motorsports Yamaha’s Mark Burkhart running away from the field while lapping up to 15th position. The real race was the battle for second between Brandon Currie and Joel Albrecht. The pair of Kawasaki KX250F riders battled hard for most of the race, but a questionable move by Albrecht who nearly ran Currie into the hay bales as he leaned on him gave him second position, with Currie finishing third.

The Supermoto Unlimited event was a good one albeit with out the points leader coming into the weekend, David Baffeleuf who sat out with an injured knee. Troy Herfoss was very aggressive off the start pushing Micky Dymond wide and ahead of Darryl Atkins on the HMC KTM. That was the story right there. Herfoss went onto win ahead of Atkins with Dymond third.