By Steve Cox
Photography by
Steve Bruhn
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van
Tedesco has never been known for his outdoor prowess. Much like Chad
Reed, outdoors doesn't come as naturally to him as does Supercross.
All that means is that Ivan has to work harder at it. In 2006, he did.
And it paid off - big time.
The funny thing is, Ivan wanted so badly
to win the Dave Coombs Sr. 125cc East/West Shootout in Las Vegas that
he got way behind on his outdoor testing coming into the season, and
it got him off to a slow start outdoors.
He finished fourth at the season opener at Hangtown, seventh at round
two at Mt. Morris, and then fourth at Southwick. Then his results began
to look up. At Budds Creek, he finished a career-high second overall,
followed by a lackluster sixth at Red Bud, then third at Unadilla before
he finally broke through at the new Colorado National. He won the event
with a perfect 1-1 score. He followed that with another win at Washougal,
and then he was firmly in the driver's seat for the championship.
From there, he just had to be smart, and his first-ever National Championship
would be on ice.
"The game plan hasn't changed. I'm just going to
go there doing the best I can," Tedesco said after round 11 at
Steel City, after which he headed into Glen Helen with a 35-point lead
in the championship over Mike Alessi. "That's what's
worked for me this season. I haven't done the math for what I've
got to get to win or whatever, but I've got a decent points lead.
If I can win, great. If I get on the podium, great. I just want to wrap
the title up and get it out of the way. I like Glen Helen, and last year
I rode pretty well there, so it should be all right."
But Ivan couldn't have counted on what would happen at Glen Helen.
He went down on lap one of moto one after landing on a downed Broc Hepler
and had trouble starting his stubborn (and fast) KX250F. Despite racing
hard the entire moto, he finished one spot out of the points while championship
rival Alessi won. That meant Ivan had a 10-point lead going into the
final moto. No matter what, 5th or better in the moto would win it for
him.
But it wouldn't get that far.
Late on lap one, Alessi got a run on Tedesco and took him down. But that
wasn't the crazy part.
Alessi then ran straight for Tedesco's bike and stood on it while
he tried to pull his own bike closer, eventually dropping his KTM 250
SX/F's handlebar into Tedesco's front wheel. After an initial
minor shoving match, Tedesco calmed down and kept his eye on the prize.
Tedesco's teammate Matt Walker saw the fracas and then turned
around on the track to get Alessi off of Tedesco's bike. Then
Tedesco took off, finishing 12th in the moto and winning the championship
while Alessi failed to score any points. The incident was one of the
craziest things to happen during a race since who knows when...maybe
ever! When all the smoke had cleared, Alessi was fined $5,000 for his
actions during the race and received a 12-month probation. He also became
ineligible for the AMA Pro Racing Rookie of the Year Award. Walker was
fined $2,500, was disqualified from moto two and also received a 12-month
probation.
Here's what Ivan had to say after the race..."The
second moto, I got a good start like I needed - I was in third, I believe,"
Tedesco said. "And going down that mud straightaway into a right-hander,
I was kind of in the middle, and he [Alessi] went to the inside and started
clicking gears and never shut off. He just aimed for me and took us both
down. I'm pretty sore from that, and when I tried to get up, he
was standing on my bike trying to keep me from getting my bike up, trying
to push me down and stuff. It took every ounce of everything to try not
to hit that kid - to uppercut him up his helmet. But I knew I didn't
want to get disqualified and I held back. I kept it running the whole
time. I just wanted to keep my bike running because those things are
so hard to start, and he was standing on top of my bike. I pushed him
off of it once and then I just tried to focus on keeping it running because
I saw that his wasn't running. I just waited for him to do whatever
he had to do, then I got up."
"It feels good. I kind of flew under the radar coming into the season," Tedesco
said of his first AMA National title. "I just kept getting better and
better and got a couple wins, then got a good points lead. It was hard for
me to push it and Steel City was pretty hard for me, but I was focused on the
title too much. It ended up working out all right for me, and it feels good
to be the National Champion. I guess I wouldn't have put my money on
me either. A lot of people wouldn't have bet on me at the beginning
of the season."
Look for Tedesco in the 250 class in 2006 aboard the #9 Makita Suzuki.
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