Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

eROAD RACE e WERA Pro Series: Round 8 .. ... ,. ~ . -.- Mike Smith's (6) first win of the season came in Memphis, inaeasing his championship points lead over Rich Oliver, 127-107. Runner-up Donald Jacks (left) and third-place finisher Kurt Hall (right) flank Smith in the winner's circle. The race marked Smith's and Jacks' best performances. Smith won't be awinless .champw Memphisvictory ith By Larry Lawrence MIlliNGTON, TN, SEPT. 2 eam Valvoline Suzuki rider Mike Smith finally broke through to victory in round eight of the WERA Formula USA Series held at Memphis International Motorsports Park. In the near lOO-degree heat of Memphis there was no sto pping the series points leader from Canon. Georgia. Smith did it all at Memphis: He set quickest tim e in practice, won his heat race, earne d pol e position, and then dominated the race. Floridian Donald Jacks tu rned in his .best performan ce of the year by finishing second on h is Mitch Marquibuilt Suzuki GSXR ll OO. T h ird was defendin g Memphis winner and FUSA Champ Kurt Hall. It was the first tim e th is season that a single brand (Suzuki) swept the top-three F-USA finish ing po sitions. Coming into thi s seri es round, Smith held a J4-po int lead over T eam Marlboro Roberts Yamaha rid er Rich r 20 Oli ver. With only th ree races rema ining, Smith knew th at if he cou ld finish ahead of Ol iver he could almost cruise home to the Championship. And Oli ver wa sn 't thrill ed with h is prospects. " Hopefu lly, I'll stay close enough in the points to make a run at him when we get a 500cc GP bike for the last two races. It's going to be tough to do well here becau se of the lon g straightawa y," sai d Oliver, who still sounded a positive note: " My riding has definitely improved. Learning to cope with faster bikes (of his competition ) has made me a more aggressive rider. " Scott Gray and Rick Kirk were p resent, but th eir usu al sp onsor Yoshimura wasn 't. Gray picked up a rid e on a Suzuki GSXRIIOO su perbi ke own ed by Ronnie Mcintyre of Suzuki of Corpus Cristi (Texas ), whi le Kirk was given a ride on the Human Race Team Yamaha FZR I000. HRT Captain Dave Zupan's decision to give the F-USA rid e to Kirk instead of to regular rider Andy Fenw ick was a financial one. " Hopefully, Kirk can put the bike in th e winner's circle. The team cou ld really use the money," Zupan said. Gray, on the other hand, just wanted to race. He paid his own way and rented the bike from Mcintyre to make the Memphis event. Gray expressed ho pe that he would be riding the bigboreYosh imura Suzuki nicknamed " Big Poppa" aga in in the final round -_ of the series at Road Atlanta in early November. . In Saturday m orn ing practice, Sm ith was untou chable. He took the Valvoline Suzuki to near-record lap times in the on e-minute, seven-second ra nge. Teammate Hall was second fastest in pr actice, turning a 1:09.32, while O liver, Mike Harth and Gray also turned laps in th e I :09 ran ge. Hall won the first of Sunday morn in g's two five-lap heat races foll owing a tigh t scra p with Moto-Liberty Yamah a rider Tatsuro Arata. Northern Californian Jeff Hagan rode an exceptional race to ho ld off Oliver for third place. T he second heat was all Smith. He beat out Harth and Jacks to win the faster of th e two heats by nearl y five seconds. Harth 's Yam aha FZRlOOOpowered T eam Mad Dog OWOl finished the race, but a nasty sounding rod knock meant he'd miss the final. If there was any question left that Smi th cou ld win the final, it was .quell ed by the second lap. Smith immediately raced away from teammate ' Hall, who in turn was being pressur ed by Arata and Jacks. By lap five of the 25-lap final, Jacks had drafted his way into second place. Ol iver moved up .to join the battle between Hall and Arata. A coup le of seconds behind th e battle for th ird was a tussle for sixth place in volvin g Gray , Kirk , Fritz Kling and Kevin Rentzell. Gray's new ride was p lenty fast, but not nearly on par wi th " Big Poppa." Klin g dropped out of that battle when his bike began to smoke badl y on lap eigh t. Klin g raised his hand in th e air and nursed the bike int o the pi ts. A lap later it was Hagan's 'bike that quit as he battled Robbie Petersen and Wes Cool ey for 10th. Smith's -lead over Jacks at th e halfway point was the biggest of the race, at six seconds. During that time, Smith turn ed a cou p le of laps at 1:07.7, a second faster than the tim es turned by Jacks. . T he n, as Sm ith described it, " All hell broke loose.". First, oi l flags were displayed at hi gh- speed turns on e an d two: th en , Kirk cras hed unhurt in turn eigh t with the bike p lu ng in g th rough the ha y bal es, hittin g the concrete retai ni ng wa ll a nd sp in ni ng back onto the racing lin e. WERA Race Dir ector Jim Sublet deci ded to keep th e bi ke where it was. " T he main prob lem was th at it had a pool of oil under it. I felt th a t after everyone made a lap and saw th e bike the re, it wou ld be safe," Sublet sai d. At that point, Smith wan ted th e race to end. " When I saw the oil flags, and th en the bike on the track, I slowed way down. I figured they would call the race," he said . However, the race continued, and Jacks began to gain on Smith. Earlier, Arata had ran off the ·track when he, Hall and Oliver tried to get by a lapped rider at the same time. Hall was the benefactor of that melee and was now running alone in third, and gaining on Jacks. Arata managed to get back on track but never did catch back up to Oliver. In the end, Smith took a three second victory, with Jacks barely holding onto second in front of Hall. "T he bike wasn't set up just right, and it began dragging the fairing really bad . It was pretty searey in the highspeed sections," Jacks said . Oliver finished fourth after slowing near the end when it became clear that Arata wouldn't catch him. "I felt like leaving some paint on bikes today but there was really no point. As soo n as we hit the stra ight Hall was gone," said a fru strated Oliver. Arata fin ished fifth , followed oy Gray, who battled a spastic igni tion system. "In the middle of the race the engine would just sh ut off. It almost p itched me on ce in turn one. That's when I decided to slow down,'; Gray said. .' i' Rentzell, Petersen , Cool ey and T roy Sorensen rounded out the top 10. • Smith's win gives him a healthy 20point lead over Oliver in the series point standings, with only two rounds remaining. tN Results F-USA: 1. Mike Smi th (Suz); 2. Donald Jacks (SU1); .3. Kurt H all (Suz); 4. Rich Oliver (Yam); 5. T arsurc Arata (Yam) ; 6. Scull Gray (SU1); 7. Kevin Ren cell (SU1); 8. Robbie Petersen (Yam ); 9. Wes Cool ey (Suz); 10. T roy Sorensen (Suz); 11. Sam McDonald (Yam) ; 12. Edw ard Sorbo (Yam); 13. T ommy Sloan (Yam) ; 14. J oe Arias (SU1); IS. J am es Eric Wh ite (SU1); t6 . John Erdrich (Suz). DisWlce: 2S laps, 45 miles A v

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