NOV 2–HENRY TAKES FIRST AT IRWINDALE
SUPERMOTO CLASS
It didn’t take former AMA 125 and 250 National champion Doug Henry long to find race winning speed and his first Supermoto win in the sports newly formed Supermoto series. As the series hit Irwindale, California for round five, the sport saw several newcomers who were more than ready and willing to take a podium and qualify themselves for the final race in Las Vegas. Two of those racers were Superbike rider Ben Bostrom and world supermoto racer Jrgen Knzel.
A GAME OF CHANCE
Who had the better luck? While Bostrom started out pretty well, he took an asphalt sample on lap 13 and dropped back to fifth for the day. It was Germany’s Knzel who nearly swept the Supermoto class and Unlimited class, which was until he hit the deck towards the latter stages of the Supermoto class. On lap 11 and with a 17 second lead over Henry, the KTM rider went down and gave up all but a two second lead. As we’ve seen many times in Doug’s career, give the guy hope and he’ll capitalize. The newfound opportunity for Henry to overtake Jrgen Knzel was beaming through his Scott goggles, and he did not disappoint. On lap 13 Henry leapt past Knzel for the lead and motored away while Jrgen suffered from a defunct rear brake that was caused in an unrelated incident (Knzel apparently hit a tire on the inside corner of a turn). ‘The Godfather’ Mike Metzger nabbed third place with a smooth ride after an eleventh place starting position.
REDEMPTION
In the Unlimited class, Jrgen Knzel found redemption from the Supermoto class loss by absolutely smoking the field. It only took a few laps for the German to sweep by Ben Carlson, and Jrgen never looked back. Perhaps he should have though, because the battle for second was the most spectacular of the entire race day. Carlson was set to battle with Joe Kopp, and the battle for second went down to the wire. In the end, Kopp snuck around Carlson for the runner-up position.
TLD HONDA TEAM?
Where were Jeff Ward and Jeremy McGrath? Ward was in attendance and racing, but unfortunately for the Honda rider he retired on lap 10 after crashing and stalling his bike. As for McGrath, he had prior engagements that he could not break, those engagements being racing in the Grizzly supercross in Fresno, California.
Supermoto class:
1. Doug Henry – Yam
2. Jrgen Knzel – KTM
3. Mike Metzger – Hon
4. Ben Carlson – KTM
5. Ben Bostrom – Hon
6. Joe Kopp – KTM
7. Mark Avard – Suz
8. Larry Pegram – KTM
9. Josh Chisum – Hon
10. Mark Burkhart – Yam
Supermoto Unlimited class:
1. Jrgen Knzel – KTM
2. Joe Kopp – KTM
3. Ben Carlson – KTM
4. Steve Drew – Hon
5. Chris Fillmore – KTM
6. Leonardo Bagnis – Vert
7. Ryan Hughes – KTM
8. Micky Dymond
9. Mark Avard – KTM
10. Gary Trachy – KTM
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