Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

" I led for about three laps and then Colin came past me," Cobb said. " He's just unbeat able. H e's go t th e best eq uipment and he's a very good racer. There was no way I could hang with. him. I could o u t-bra ke him and I could get him in th e infield , but once we got ont o the banking, his Yamaha TZ250 wou ld j ust run away from me every sing le time." Edwards took the lead on th e third lap of th e Ama te ur H ea vyweight Supersport with Jamie Bowm an ha nging toug h. Bowman used the displacement advantage of his 750 Suzuki to tak e th e lead on the fourth lap, Edwards, on the Honda CBR600 F-2 into the lead on the bra kes in th e ch icane. Bowman powered back in more front, the lead swapping some " unti l the seventh lap when Edwards re-asserted hi mself in turn one and took his biggest adv antage on to the banking for the fin al ti me. Past a backmarker into th e ch icane, Edwards drove out and took the"win , Bowm an second, and Steven Rushford third on a Yamaha FZR600 with backing by Styli n Motosport Products, and Carry Barr Pa inting. Edw ards lat er revealed that he 'd cha ng ed the gearing and leaned ou t the carbu retion just before the race and it paid off. "T he other had the horsepower, so I reall y had to rid e hard to make up for it ," Edwards said. " O n the last lap, I got past Jamie going into turn one of the infield. I knew I could pull o ut a little lead in th e infield. We went into the chicane and that's where he had been catch ing me before. There was a lapped rid er ahead of us and I slipped th rough . I'm sorry, but I probably scared the heck ou t of him." The final win for Edwards cam e in the Amateur Lightweight G P, run wi th the Expert Lightweight GP which was won by Mosley. Winning his class was a cinch; Richard H err ero was second on the Progressive Racing T Z-250 Yamaha wi th Michael Schuyler th ird on the Team America Yama ha FZR-400. But Edwards, despi te starting on the sixt h ro w of th e second wave, was th ir d overa ll beh ind only Mosley and Ch uck Blackm on , mounted like Edwards and Mosley on a TZ250. J ohn France was third in the Expe rt Ligh tweight G P on a H onda RS250. Mosley used the same machine to best Meister in the Expert Middleweight GP, explo iting the horsepower adva ntage for his second win. "The key was Dave H arold helping me out wi th the motor ," Mosley said. I think the 250 has some horsepower on the 600 s and I wanted to ma ke sure that wh en I go t onto the banking I had a clear track in fro nt of me." " That was the way it went, Mosley taking over the lead on the banking and by th e second lap hol ding over four seconds on Meister. He spe nt a lot of tim e lookin g over his shou lder, but no one was there. Meister was second with Lee Pounders, who'd set a record wi th four wi ns in th e RoC last year, a close th ird. Pounders had crashed on Friday and was riding with severely abraded hands. Though he fini shed second in this race on Sunday morning, Dr. Bob had begun winn ing on Friday afternoon. In th e Expert Solo GTU, he was able to hold off J ames Leslie at the flag for the first of h is three wins. Lesli e is Meister 's Orion Ra cing teamma te in " the EBC Endurance GTU class. " Leslie was a little bit better in traffic in the early laps tha n I was. Once I got settled in , then the tra ffic went my way," Meister said. Saturda y's Expert Heav yweight Supertwins race was th e best show of Jimmy Mosley topped the Expert Middleweight GP and the Expert Lightweight GP on hi s Yam aha T Z250. the weekend, Adam o making it so by sticki ng close to Meister instead of pulling away at will. Adamo sat up early going into turn one and wasn' t getting on the gas as earl y o ut of the corners and Meister knew it was a ll a game. But the game turned bad for Adamo at the end when a ga s tank leak caused him to slow. The run to the flag was the best of th e weekend, the pair side by side over the east banking tunnel, Meister high, Adam o low , with Meister .0 10 better. " I really think h e would've won. H e ,,:"as j ust having fun with me," Meister said.. " I th ink he deserves the win. I reall y think any tim e he wanted to, he could have pulled away from me. H e was just making it an interesting race for th e fan s. I was riding as hard as I cou ld." "I may have waited just a bit too long to mak e my move, but I had a leak in the ga s tank. I was losing ga s pressure and the bi ke reall y wouldn't run. I tried to ma ke a das h for the win at the end , but there wasn 't enough gas go ing into th e mo tor to make it go ," Ada mo said. Meister's fi nal win, i n Sunday morning 's Ex pert Middleweight Superbike , was a little less taxing. He and James Leslie left the field behind, though Leslie nearly ended his race prematurely on the opening lap. " Leslie had a spectacular incident on the first lap and literally came off the bike, gathered it back up and got back on the gas," Meister said. T hat occurred as the y exited the ch icane on the openi ng lap. " H e was high-sided off the bike and it was dragging him on the left side, the bike near the wall . All I cou ld say was, what a save." Three seconds was the gap to Mark Sche lli nger in th ird by the halfway point. Bu t on the sixth lap Leslie was o ut of the race, mo torin g slowly th ro ugh th e chica ne a n d cu t ti rig throug h an exit ga te and through the infield b ack to the p its. Mei ster motored on for h is th ird National title. " I appreciate every one and I don 't take anyt hing for granted," Meister said. Orlando's Laney Cobb got hi s first of three wins on Friday and cou ldn't have been happier. " I can't believe I wo n thi s race," he said, after beat ing Shawn McN ary and J ason Clay to th e lin e in the Amateur Solo GT U. " I wor k all day, every day, selling attraction tickets on Intern ational Drive (in Orlando) so I can race on weekends. I've been racing 13 months and I never rode street bikes before that. I j ust rod e dirt bikes whe n I was you nge r. Wow , this is greatI" Scott Zampach won the U.S. Twin Sports race, beating Tripp Nobles (31). It got better. In the Amate~r Middleweight Superbike, Cobb was in the front fro m the start and pulled away quick ly, five seconds in hand at the end of the second lap. The margin didn 't increase mu ch afte r that; it was 6.240 at the end with Anthony Barchetti of Old Bridge, New Jersey, tak ing over second on the sixth lap in heavy traffi c. Ft. Lauderdale's Damian Weber got the best of a four -rider fight for third aboard a Yamaha FZR600. "I finally got it, I got m'y second National championship title ," Cob b said. " I can't tell you how happy I am right now. I just got th e" lead and that was it. I guess the rest were fighting it out behind me. " I've got one more race," he continued. " Now I want to win a third title," which is exactly what he did in the Ama teur Middleweight Superspon. Agai n, he ju mped to the ear ly lead and was ab le to pull out over five seconds by the halfway mark. But soon after that he began to have brak e tro uble and was forced to slow. "The fro m brak e qu i t working abo ut two laps from th e finish so I had to keep dow nshift in g to slow myself," he said. " A couple of tim es, I th ought I was goi ng to run off the track. I didn 't get mu ch warning I was go ing to have a problem ; one tim e I gra bbed the brak e and the lever went way dow n an d the next time there wasn 't any. " I rea lly didn' t th ink I had a cha nce to win this many titles wh en we firs t got here. Now, hey, I'm reall y happy," he said. The fight for second was fierce, Tim Bemisderfer holding it much of the race before bei ng moved ba ck at the end whe n Anthony Ba rcheui an d Jamie Bowman ca me past to take CN second and third respectively. Resul ts FRIDAY AM SOLO GTU: I" La ney Co bb (Ho n); 2" Sha wn McNary (Ya m); 5. Jason Cl ay (H o n); 4. Eric De hs (Yam); 5. Co lin Edwards (He n ): 6. j amie Bowman (H o n ); 7. Anth ony Barch et t i ( Ya m ): 8 . T im Bem isderfer (Ya m); 9. S leven Rushrord (Yam ); 10. Bri an Kcraget (Ya m ). Time 30 min., .04.140 sec, Avmll" sP«d: 99ASI mph" Margin 01 victory: 13.390 sec. AM SO LO GTO: 1. Co lin Edwar ds (H on); 2. Jamie Bowman (5 02); 3. Ralph Rimrolt (Suz); 4. Mik e Nunn (502); 5. Kevin Wiat er ( Ka w): 6. Richard Perry (S uz): 7. j ohn Murph y (Su a): 8. SCOll Dunningham (Suz); 9. And rew T aft (Suz); 10. Cerard Sharkey (Su.). T imr: 29 m in. , 30.040 sec, AvmJe sP«d: 101.367 mph. Margt D01 victory: 40.000 sec. EX SOLO GTU: I. Robert MeiSlcr (H on ); 2. j am", Leslie (H o n); 3" Pa ul Youngma n III (Yam); 4" john jacob (Ya m) ; 5. Bill Hornblower (Ho n); 6" Roy N icho lson (H on) ; 7. Brian Kent (H o n); 8. Glenn Szarek (Yam ); 9. William Whit e (Yam); 10. Evan Scmo fl (Hen). T ime: 29 m in., 22.870 sec. AvmJe sP«d: 101.779 m p h. MargtD 01 vict ory: 1.740 sec. EX SOLO GTO: L Rick Kir k (Yam); 2" Donald Jacks (Suz); , . J o h n Choate (Ya m); 4. Marc MalSOnn eu vf (Suz ); 5. Rick Herndon (Suz); 6. Gerald Ro thman Jr. (Kaw ); 7. Frank Kinsfy (Yam); 8. Dan H ou gh (Yam); 9. Cary Lenzm£ier (Yam ); 10. Mike Karm (Su z). T ime: 27 min. , 34.090 sec. Avmge ,peed: IOM 73 mph. Margin 01 victory: 15"310 sec. SATURDAY AM UW SITW: I. Mark Pa ngborn (Du e); 2. Pa tr ick Vanatta (Due) ; 5. Josh Zacha rias (Hon); 4. Dave Gollon (Cag); 5. Dave Moon (Due); 6. Michael Lesser (Kaw); 7. Arthur Staples (Due); 8. P ierre Lacasse (Hon); 9. Ron ald Peddicord (Due); 10. jim McCa rth y (Kaw). EX LlW SITW: I. J am ", McNulty (H o n ); 2Robert Meister (H a n) ; ~. Daniel Frisb ie (Due ); 4. William Shanaman (Du e); 5. Marcus Day (Kaw); 6. William Atkinson (H o n ); 7. David Karren (BMW); 8" joseph Santa Maria (Due); 9. Michael Belisle (Due ); 10. T om Dahl (Suz). T im e: 15 min., 50.910 sec. 21

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