2004 Phoenix 250cc Heat #1 (A 4-Man Battle for a Heat Win)
1This is the first 250cc qualifying heat from the 2004 Phoenix Supercross.
In 2004, Team Honda's Ernesto Fonseca was the odds-on favorite for the THQ World Supercross GP championship after his Honda teammate, Ricky Carmichael was knocked out for the Supercross season with an ACL knee injury. Unfortunately, Ernesto put himself in a deep hole when he failed to qualify for the first round at Seville, Spain in the mud. Taking advantage of Fonseca's DNQ was Motoworld Suzuki's Daryl Hurley of New Zealand; it was also the first time a Kiwi stood atop the podium in Supercross history. Team Yamaha's Chad Reed, the defending World Supercross champ, also didn't make the trip to Europe because he injured his shoulder playing pool (of all things) the same week Ricky injured his knee.
After his DNQ at Seville, Fonseca turned things around at the next round in Arnhem, Holland and won his first career 250cc Supercross race. It was Ernesto's first Supercross win since the 2001 125cc West Supercross finale in Salt Lake City, UT when he rode the controversial Yamaha YZ250F 4-stroke to 5 of 8 victories. Fonseca later became one of only 3 men to win both 125cc divisional Supercross titles (the other 2 being Grant Langston and James Stewart). Moto XXX Honda's Damon Huffman rode to a 2nd place finish, and 125cc West rider Andrew Short of Motoworld Suzuki took a very impressive 3rd place. As for Daryl Hurley, he finished 13th, which dropped him to a tie with Andrew Short for 3rd in the WSXGP standings; for Fonseca, he jumped to 8th place in the series with his win at Arnhem. Red Bull KTM's Grant Langston led the series with a 2nd and a 4th (40 points) after the 2 European races.
At the last round at the AMA Supercross opener at Anaheim, Fonseca took a 2nd in his heat race behind Chad Reed. Sadly, the main went completely south as he crashed on lap 1 in the whoops; Fonseca came from last to 10th. Unfortunately, Ernesto's luck didn't get any better (save for this exciting heat race). Ernesto's luck ran out in the main event after he broke a shift lever and finished 19th. He finished 4th at Anaheim 2 before a knee injury knocked him out of the series. What a terrible way to contend for a title that looked like his on paper!
With Fonseca out, the World Supercross GP turned into a 4-rider battle between Grant Langston, ECC Suzuki's Tyler Evans, Mach 1 Yamaha's Heath Voss, and Damon Huffman. The Supercross world thought that Langston would take the title for KTM after he won the 2003 125cc Motocross title with just 1 moto win. Unfortunately, Grant finished no higher than 5th in the AMA Supercross series at San Francisco (outside of his 2nd at Seville). Grant led the series after the 2 Europe rounds, but quickly surrendered the lead to Tyler Evans. After San Francisco, Langston was back in the driver's seat for the title, but was DQ'd at Atlanta when he got in the face of an AMA official after semi #2. An injury then sidelined Langston after Indianapolis (round 12) with only 4 races left to go. Grant's run at a Supercross title was over. Damon Huffman led for most of the season, but ended up 2nd in the final points standings. His best finish was a 2nd at Arnhem, and his best in the AMA series was a 4th at Anaheim 3 (after qualifying 2nd in the LCQ).
Only one rider beat the odds to win this World Supercross Championship in the end. That rider was #28 Heath Voss. Although Heath's season was a slight bit more inconsistent, he did show 2 season best 5th places at Houston and Dallas. The hard work paid off for Voss when he came into the final round at Las Vegas with a 21-point lead over Damon Huffman because all he had to do was qualify for the main. He did so, winning the first semi-final. In the end, Voss was rewarded with a 2-year deal with Team Yamaha for 2005 and 2006.
Enjoy.