Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Scott Zemp.ch (Ie.ding) .nd P.ul Bray (559) were this clo...11 weekend' Br.y got two win•• nd • second while Zempach won once. • The stert of the B Production Novice cl... sew Zempach (20) .nd Bray (569) le.d the w.y; Zempach won this one with Bray taking ..cond. The sprints resumed in earnest on Saturday with Ewerth winning the first of his three titles in the A Production Expert race. Ottis Lance's chance to run in the Suzuki GSXR Final came to a bone crushing end on turn five where he crashed his big Suzuki and broke his leg. . Ewerth and Bart Peterson diced for four laps before Ewerth gradually pulled away. Terry Hampton madea beautiful last lap move. to get past Chris Martone to take third. Ewerth made it two in a row when he came out on his Cycle Nuts/ Fine Arts GSXR750 and won the B Production Expert race. Ewerth shook off'a tough challenge by Thomas Stevens to take the win. Defending B Production champ Ed Key turned in a fine performance holding off Greg Tysor and Terry Hampton for third. "These races should get me in tune for the GSXR finals," Ewerth said. "It's also nice to win the championship with such good competition in the Production races." Stevens came back to win the A Superbike title aboard his Ft. Myers Cycle/RSC/Arai/Van50n GSXR750. A sick engine plagued Dean Swims but he still managed to hold on to second. Bray and Scott Zampach met again in the B Production Novice race on Saturday. This time it was Zampach crossing the line first despite a last lap charge by Bray which included an attempted pass off the track in the dirt. Texan Craig Gleason stayed clear of the frantic battle in front of him and cruised in for th ird place. Only two true Formula One machines lined up for the Formula One championship. Martin Morrison was one of those on a Suzuki RZ500 Gamma. Morrison used the superior tOP speed of his GP bike to pull away from the hordes of four-stroke superbikes. A three-way battle for second was won by Phil Berke on his Yamaha FZ750 superbike. Darkness was starting to fall as the C Production Experts gridded for their final. This race last year was a classic as Peterson passed both Key and Greg Tysor on the outside speed bumps to win the race by inches. Peterson, Tysor and Key were all back this year. The first three laps saw three different leaders, first Peterson then Kurt Hall then Tysor. Tysor started to pull away from Hall and Peterson about midrace and went on to avenge last year's loss to Peterson. Peterson took second just ahead of Hall; Key finished well back on his Interceptor. Ewerth successfully defended his B Superbike title and in the process won his third number one plate of the weekend. To win Ewerthhad to stay in front of Steve Nardiello, the same rider who finished second last year. Troy Sorenson finished third after leading the first lap on his Suzuki. The final meeting of ,Bray and Zampach happened in the C Production Novice race. Zampach had never ridden the Yamaha FZ600 he was on before this weekend and Bray was sti II sore from a crash the day before which made them even. Even with those handicaps the two were still able to quickly get away from the other Novices to settle their week-long feud. In typical Bray/lampach fashion the race came down to the last lap. Bray had made a spectacular pass un.der.the Nissan bridge the lap before bnngmg the crowd to their feet. On the white flag lap-lampach attempted the same maneuver, but Bray moved over giving Zampach no room to Ro!, Ewerth won three c.......t Road AtI.nta during the .print race•• taking the A Production. B Production .nd B Superbike cl...... pass. Bray took the win by inches to end one of the best GNF rivalries of all times. . Tom Kipp of Ohio took the C Superbike Novice title on his Wiseco FZ600 after ScOtt Russell and Bray tangled and went down while leading. Roos finished second among all the 600s on his TZR250. Texas riders finished 1-2 in the B Superbike Novice final. Craig Gleason and Steve Plentl have been rivals all year long on the Texas tracks, but it was uzuki-mounted Glea on who rode hi Texas uzuki-sponsored rna· chine to his fir t National title. C Superbike Expert ended the weekend and the race was worth the wait. Kevin Rentzell, Tysor, Andy Fenwick, Hall and Gene Burcham all barrelled into turn one, noone want· ing to shut off first. Somehow they all made it through the turn and it was Rentzell who led the first lap. His lead was hort-lived as Tysor out braked him going into turn one. . The RentzelllTysor battle pulled them away from the rest of the field. On the last lap Rentzell held-on the gas on his Kayo Corp.lYokohama/ DID/Shoei FZ600 to the last possible second and finished just a few feet ahead of Tysor. "I've battled with Tysor all year long, he gave me a good run which makes the victory even more satisfying," said Rentzell. • Results APROD EX: 1, Ron Ewerth (Suz); 2. Bart Peterson (Suzl; 5, Jimmi Lombart (Han). . B PROD EX: 1. Ron Ewerth (Suzl; 2. Thomas Stevens (Suz); 3. Ed Key (Vaml; 4. Greg Tysor (Suz); 5. Terry Hampton (Yam). CPROD EX: 1. Greg Tysor (Vaml; 2. Bart Peterson (Vam); 3. Kurt Hall (Vem); 4. Andy Fenwick (Vam); 5. Gene Burcham (Yam). o PROD EX: 1. Andy Fenwick (Yam); 2. Cliff Bigoney (Yam); 3. Chuck Huneycutt (Vaml; 4. Douglas Henry (Vam); 5. Doug Wilson. CLUBMAN EX: 1. Keith Wakefield (Han); 2. Clif Niclock (Han); 3. Fritz Kling (Hon); 4. Dan Horton (Han); 5. seth Ava.. (Han). (Suz); 3. Terry Hlmpton (Yam); 4. Chris Manone ASUPERBIKE EX: 1. Thomaa Stevens (Suz): 2. Dean Swima(Suz); 3. Mart< Schledorn (Suz); 4. Ph~ Bert

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