Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

~hil Collins cuts ~o t he inside of St eve Lucero on his way to the win m the Scratch mam at Costa Mesa. Collins also won at A scot. ' Gary .Hicks. shown here going outside of Alan Christian won both the Handicap and Scratch mains at Speedway USA. • . Fishba ck, another rider wh o was in the hunt for third; crash ed 'i n tum two on lap five. Ahead of a ll th e m ech anical problem s and cras hes wa s the Rovazz ini El ectric/Reebok/STP/ J T Racing/ Bell Weslak e of Collins. H e set a sizzling p!1ce a nd nothing was goi n g to stop him. Steve Lucero , who had ch arged from th e rea r of th e field a nd Bro wn took a run a t Larsen an d th e second place spo t over th e final two circuits, bu t Larsen managed to h old th em back for th e number two spot. Results SCRATCH: 1. Bobby Ott (Wes); 2 . Bobby Schwanz (Wes): 3 . Bart Bast (Wes); 4 . Scotty Brown (Jaw). HOCP: 1. Phil Collins (Wes) ; 2. Keith Larsen (Jaw); 3 . Steve.Lucero (GM); 4 . Scotty Brown (Jaw). 0-2: 1. DaVid Perry (Wes); 2. Johnny Walke' (Wes); 3 . Josh La!sen (Wes) . • Hicks tears up Speedway USA By Scott Daloisio V I CTO ~VILLE, CA, JULY 23 Gary Hicks won both th e Handicap an d Scratch mains tonight at Speedway USA. . . Hicks motored off th e pol e and mto th e lead aboard hi s Modular Casew ork Systems/Quaker State/ STP/Milne Brother s Weslake wh en th e Scratch main took off. Bobby Schwartz came off gate four and m omentarily stuc k a fro nt tir e ahead of Hicks in th e fir st tum but before h e could get down to the pol e, Hicks hooked up on the groove a nd retook the point. Once Hicks was on groove, th e remainder o f th e field was in trouble. Going to th e outside wa s fruitless so Schwartz tucked in behind Hicks and hoped that th e yo u n gs ter would ' bobble. It never came and for th e fir st time in 1988, H icks took th e Speedway USA Scratch m ain. Schwartz stayed in seco nd for the duration with Walt Farnum ga rneri n g third ahead of Bart Bast. In th e H andicap ma in H icks had to come a ll the way from th e 40-yardline. Aftc:r three restarts J osh Larsen set a ql:ll ~k . pace earl y in hi s firstever DIVISIOn One m ain even t. B?wers found his way past Tony Biener for second with Jim Fishback a lso getting through. ~rsen had a bulging lead but !"I1l;ks wa s slipping by riders on th e Ins ide. He got past Fishback and when Bowers parked in tu m three on the third circuit, Hicks took full advan tage and drove in side of h im. Hicks went to the inside of Larsen o~ lap four but was fought back. Finally, on the last lap, Hicks found a h ol e and shot into first. As Hicks him. Finch fought o ff Bast and Schwart z to take seco n d. Results crossed th e line just in front of Larsen, Bow ers, Fishback and Keith La rsen all went down in tum three. Results SCRATCH: 1. Phil Coll ins (Wes); 2. Bobby Schwanz (Wes ); 3. Bart Bast (Wes) ' 4 Steve Lucero • ' HOCP: 1. Brad Oxley (Wes); 2. Jessee Finch , (Wes); 3 , Bart BaSl (Wes); 4, Bobby Schwanz (Wes) , 0 ·2: 1. Josh Larsen (Wes); 2. Don Ambrose (Wes); 3 , Wayne MancheSler (Was) , 0 -3 : 1. Rob Barnum (Jaw) : 2. Mike Pinedo (Jaw); 3. Nelson Coleman (Wes). ~ML SCRATCH: 1. Gary Hicks (Wes); 2. Bobby Schwanz (Wes); 3 , Walt Farnum (Jaw); 4, Bart Bast (W es), HOCP: 1. Gary Hicks (Wes); 2. Josh Larsen (Wes). 0 -2 : 1. Mark Hannah (Wes); 2. Charles Ermolenko (Wes); 3 , Brian Pappalardo (Wes) 0 ·3 : 1, Louis Trotechaud (Gdn); 2, T~m Moffett (J aw ). Collins cooks at Costa Mesa Speedway larsen I?ays tribute with ' MS win . By Sc ott Daloi sio By Scott Daloisio SAN BERNARDINO, CA, JULY 20 J ~s~ . Larsen . won a very special DIVISIOn Two main event a t John LaDou ceur 's .' Inl and Motor Speedway. . When start er Jim Jantz th rew th e wh ite fla g signalling one lap to go, Larsen suddenly slowed th e Vision Street Wear/Bell /K&NlTuna Enter- · prises' Weslake to a crawl, Don Ambrose, who' was running secon d did th e same when h e flash ed unde; th e wh ite cloth, and so did th e o ther four rid ers in th e field. It was th eir way .o f p aying tribute to a fallen friend, Ken Berry, who crashed a t IM S th e previous week and suc cumbed to injuries th e ni ght before. Phil Collins led the Scratch m a in from th e tapes to the chec kered. The En glish bo~n rider drew th e pole an d got a beautiful gate o n th e Rovazzini El ectric/Reebok/STP/ JT Racing/ Bell Weslake. Bobby Sch wa rtz and Steve Lucero chased h im into th e first bend before .they tangl ed. Both' rider s bobbled With Schwartz recoveri n g first, but h e had lost quite a bit o f ground. Bart Bast took adva ntage of Lucero's part of th e bobble ~nd slid. into th e number three spot Just behind Sch wartz. Lucero riding th e outsid e line, moved back up to challe n ge Schwartz and Bast on lap two but th e deep dirt bit h im and dragged him to th e wa ll before he co u ld get another shot. Everything went Collins' way and he was nev er seriously threaten ed in ~ is first IMS. win. Schwartz ended up in secon d with Bast third. J e. see Finch used th e short yardage s to his advan tage and took th e initial lead over Keith Larsen a nd Bast in the Handicap main. Brad Oxley, on th e Coors/KLOS/ STP/Malcolm Smith/DMC Wes lake, ql;1i.ckly sliced his way by the competition an d wa s hunting Finch by the start of the seco n d go-around. Two laps later, h e ca ugh t him a nd raced by for the point. Oxley quickly expan ded o n his adva n tage an d for th e second consecutive week the Handicap trophy went home wit h • COSTA MESA, CA, JULY 22 Phil Collins continued to be the hottest rider on the southern Californ ia speedway circuit as he earned his third m ain event vic tory in 48 h ours at the Orange County Fairgrounds. In the Scratch main Collins pulled ga te two for th e Rovazzini Electric/ ReebokiSTP/JT Racing/Bell Wes- • lake an d he got one of th e best gates o f th e season when the tapes were re lease d. By th e time the pack hit tum one , Collin s was a length and a h alf in front. G ary Hicks , Steve Lucero a n d Alan Christian gave chase to th e leader Collins but 'it was a fruitless effort . Christian wheelied off of tum four the fir~t time and cu t directly , mto Lucero s line to take the third , spot awa y. That was the only pass in th e four-lap rac e and when th e even t ended, it was Collins by a comfortable margin over Hicks Christian and Lucero. ' Trinon Cirello, on th e Hawaiian Punch/Bell /Oakley/Cirello Racing Wesl ake, .had to out-gate Bernie ~usko twice at the openin~ of th e eigh t-lap Handicap main sin ce his first effort was cut sh ort due to a multi-rider crash in tum two on the opening lap. . . Cirello, off the inside of the 20 yard . line, aga in edged Tusko to the first bend. Keith Larsen made his wa y past Tusko on the first circuit to take sec o n d . At ' the sa m e time Tuff McBride looped out in th e first bend and called it a night. Christian ' moved .u p to ch allen ge Larsen for seco nd with an inside m ove a t th e end of lap two, but in th e next turn he did two 360s and dropped from second to last. At th e front, Cirello ran away and ended up winning by four lengths with Larsen surviving Scotty Bro wn 's onslaught to ta ke second. Fourth went to Jim Fishback. Result s SCRATCH: 1. Phil Coll ins (Wes); 2. Gary Hicks (Wes); 3. Alan Christian (Wes); 4 . Steve Lucero (Gdn). ' HOCP: 1, Trinon Cirello (Wes); 2. Keith Larsen (Jaw) ; 3 . Scotty Brown (Jaw); 4. Jim Fishback (J aw ), 0 -2 : 1. Bobby Cody (Jaw); 2. Tony Bie~ert(Gdn)' 3 . Tony Gomez (Jaw). • 0-3: 1. Alex Mansfield (Wes); 2. Don Ambrose (Wes~ 3, Robbie Heath (Wes) , Hopperstad t riples at Pueblo Road Ra ce By Judith Dominick · P UEBLO, CO, J ULY 10 Yamaha-moun ted John Hopperstad clai me d victory in three classes 450cc Superbike, Open Superbike and ~ce of th e Rockies - during th e fifth round of th e Mountain R o adrace Association Series at Pueblo Motorsports Park. Hopperstad 's fifth co nsecutive win in the Race of the Rockies gives him an almost insu rmoun table points lead in the clas s, patterned after Formula USA and virtually guarantees him th e prestigious yellow number one plate aw arded ex lusively to th e class champion at th e en d of th e season. Riding his FZR750 Superbike sp o ns ored by Boulder Yamaha/ Motorcycle Parts Center South/BG Lubricants/Shoei /Walt Schaefer/ Michelin Tires, Hopperstad h eaded for tum one with K&K R acing Suzuki GSXRIIOO-mounted Aaron Turner and Lo veland Yamaha Suzuki Motorsports-sponsored Dan Turner followed closely by Boulder Motorsports rider Geoff Cesrnat, both on GSXR750s. The on-going battle between th e lone Yamaha and th e mighty Suzukis was shaping up again. After diving under Dan Turner on the secon d lap, Hopperstad began to reel in Aaron on the b!g 1100. On the straightaways, the big-muscle Suzuki was dominant in its ability to out-motor the Yamaha but in th e comers, the lighter, mor~ . agi le Yamaha had th e advantage,' usmg th e horsepower to its fullest potential a n d really getting the power to the ground. Hopperstad an d Turner battled until th e fifth lap when, coming out of tum nine and heading toward th e ~ower turn, Hopperstad pulled out in front, never to be challenged to th e ch eckered flag. Meanwhile, Dan TUI?er and Cesrnat were having a ternftc dice for thud and fourth with Cesmat coming out on top. The most im p ressive ride of th e ra ce was by David Old on his Honda RS500 puchased from HRC and previously ndde~ by MikeBaldwin. Starting far back m the grid, Old rode his wa y to fifth , beating several 750 and larger full -blown Superbikes. Hopperstad's second win of th e meet came in 450 Superbike on his Y!1maha FZR400. Living up to the nickname h e earned in his RZ350 days, " H olesh o t Hoppy" grabbed the lead and nev er looked back.

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