Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Harle -Davidson TwinS orts Series: Round 7 ROAD RACE G Howard (Hon); 31. Todd Cuncan (Hon); 32. Dave Rosno (Hon) . Time: 27 minutes, 59.447 seconds. Di st.J,ncr. 19 laps. 47.88 miles Av erage speed: 102.364 mph. M . rgin o ( vi ctory: 0.080 sees. 600« 55 C SHIP POI NT STANDINGS (Afte r 7 of 10 rounds): 1. Miguel DuHamel (230 /4 w ins); 2. Britt e Tu rkington (196fl) ; 3. Steve Crevier (186); 4. Rand y Renfrow (185) ; 5. Mike Smith (156 /2) (TIE ) Ge rald Roth m an Jr. (156) ; 7. (T IE) Owen Weichel /Mark McDan iel (120 ); 9. Tom my Luncy (118); 10. Jaso n Pridm ore 9113); 11. Tom Kipp (lOS); 12. Mike Murphy (77); 13. (TIE) Thomas Steve ns/Robin HolidayI james Rand olph (75); 16. Aaron Yates (68); 17. Jamie Bowma n (67); 18. Robe rt Meister (61); 19. Chuck Downie (55); 20. Ma x Autry (48). ROAD RACE AMAICCS 'T:XJcr Superspoit Series: Round7 Sohwa takes second in arow By Paul Carruthers Photo by Henny Ray Ab rams BRASELlON, GA, JULY 17 a r ly in th e season, M u zz y Kawas aki ' s Tad ahiko Sohwa wasn't to be taken seriously. In his first season of AMA racin g the Japanese rid er did little excep t enhance his rep utation as a crasher. That was then, this is now . Suddenly, Sohwa has become the man to beat in AM A /C CS 750cc Supersport racing, thanks to his second su ccessiv e v ictory " this one comi ng a t Road Atlanta. Much li ke at New Hamsphire Intern a tional Raceway nearly a month earlier, Sohwa started slowly, opting to tra il championship le a der Britt Turkington and th e Yoshimura Suzuki GSXR750. But on the eigh th of 19 laps, Sohwa made his move, charging up the inside of Turkington into tum one. From there he was never headed. At the finish line he was 3.192 seconds a head of second-place finisher Jason Pridmore, who ended a personal streak of bad luck in the class. Pridmore rode hard and moved past Turkington shortly after Sohwa to take the runner-up position on the Oass Racing Kawasaki. Third place went to Turkington, the championship leader stru ggling with a front-end push and opting to settle for a high-points pay ing posit ion. Turkington's teammate Gerald Rothman Jr. and Team Suzuki Sport's Mark McDaniel filled the top five places on a hot and sticky day at Road Atlanta. With his seventh rostrum fin ish in seven starts, Turkington's point lead over Sohwa is still a large one. The Texan leads th e Japanese AMA rookie by 48 points with three races to go in the lo-race series, 227-179. Sohwa' s disqualification from the Road America round (he finished second) is under appeal and the outcome could close the gap consid erably. Rothman is third in the ch a m p io n sh ip w ith 173 p o ints wit h Cl a ss Racing team m a tes Fritz Klin g, ninth today, and Pridmore filling the top five with 159 and ISO points, respectively . The fas t-sta rtin g Tu rkington led the wa y into the first comer at the start of the 19-1ap race, leading Rothman and Sohwa into the righ t-hander tha t leads to a series of esses on the fast an d challenging Road Atlanta race track. At the end of the first lap, Rothma n wa s tucked nea tly in behind h is teammate w ith Sohw a, Pr idmore 'and McD a n iel also in tow. Those five had alread y opened a gap to the rest of th e fie ld as the 28-en trie s strung out aroun d the 2.52-mile course. Soh wa moved by Rothman on the second lap as Turkington had op ened up almos t a second as he at tem pted to pull cl ear of th e fra y behi nd h im. Suddenly it was Pridm ore in seco nd E Shawn Higbee (5) leads And y Fenwi ck (6) and Scott Zampach (l) in th e Harley TwinSports final ; Higbee won hi s first race of the year. place as they e xited from under the b ridge on the fo u rth lap, but Sohwa quickly .retalia ted . Tu rki ngton, meanwhi le, was " now 1.36 seconds ahead and look ing dominan t. . Two lap s later, tho ugh, and his lead had evaporated, th e hard-ch a r gin g Sohwa suddenly l ocked onto the Texan's rea r wheel. At the sta rt of the n inth lap, Sohwa took o ver with a n insi de move into tum one. "I had to ease up," Turkington sai d later. "I heated th e fron t tire tryin g to ge t away. I jus t had to fin ish and get points. That 'w as better than coming back in a crash truck." A lap later and Pridmore was also pas t the Texan as the leaders encountered traffic for the first time. That was as far as Pridmore could go, however, as Sohwa began to pull away to his eventua13.192 second win. "I'm not whinning, but their bikes were so much faster," Pridmore said. "I needed to finish and make some money. I didn't know what to do when I saw the white flag - I hadn't seen one in so long: ' With Turkington a lonely third, Rothman and McDaniel were equall y a lone in fourth and fifth as the race reached its closing stages. Kling managed to battle through to finish nin th, d espite racing with a broken ankle suffered at the Nel so n Ledges 24-Hour endurance race two weeks earlie r. Through an interpreter, Sohw a explained that his plan was to follow the more experienced Turkington until Pridmore started catch in g up. At th a t point it was time to get going. And get going he d id. (N Results 7SOc< SS FINA l.: 1. Takahi ro Sohwa (Ka w); 2. Jason Pridmore (](aw); 3. Britt Tu r kin gton (Suz); 4. Geral d Rothman Jr. (Suz); 5. Mark McDaniel (Su z): 6. Ja mes Lesl ie (Suz); 7. Ja mes Randol ph (Suz); 8. Joseph Prussia no (Kaw); 10. Robert Meister (Suz); 11. Ernie Kicklig hter (K a w) ; 12. Mark Blac k (Kaw); 13. Steve Co ttrell (Suz) ; 14. Da ve Rosno (Hon); 15. Aaron Yates (Suz); 16. Dennie 8ur ke (Suz); 17. Ron Ewerth (Hon); 18. John Murp hy (Kaw); 19. Lome Banks (Ho n); 20. Stev en Tice (Kaw); 21. Phi) Schilling (Han); 22. Dea n Mizd a l (Kaw) ; 23. Danny Sewell (Suz) ; 24. Rod Borsche (Suz); 25. Ray Yoder Jr. (Suz) ; 26. Robert Marsh (Suz); 27. Max Autry (Hon) ; 28. Jack Dupree (Suz). T ime: 27 min., 44.071 sec. Di st.1nce: 19 laps , 47.88 miles . Aver..ge Speed: 103.562 mph. Mngin of Victory: 3.192 sec. 7SOc< SS CSH1P POI NT STA NDI NG S (Aft.r 7 of 10 rounds): 1. Britt Turkington (227/3 wins); 2. Takahiro Sohw a (179/2); 3. Ge ral d Rothman Jr. (173/1); 4. Fritz Kling (159); S. Jason Pridmore (2SO); 6. James Randol ph (142); 7. Mark McDaniel (140); 8. Dean Mizdal (122); 9. Da ve Sadowski (90/1); 10. Aaron Yates (88); 11. Robert Me ister (86) ; 12. Dave Rosn o (72); 13. (TI E) Chuck Grav es/ Robert Wright (60); 15. Lome Bankds (59); 16. Robin Holiday (57); 17. Kurt Hall (56); 18. (TIE) Chuck Dowrue/Ken Greene (55); 20. James Leslie (SI). Higbee g hisfirst ets By Henny Ray Abrams BRASELTON, GA, JULY18 fter three years of trying, H-D of . Jam estown's Shawn Higbee w on his firs t H arle y-Da vid son Twin Sports final, co m ing out on to p o f a wonderful fo u r-ri der battle in the op pressive heat of Road Atlan ta. "I ca n't believe it," the 22-year-old New York er said. "It's been a long time. I've been racing for three years now and this is my first National win." Higbee swapped the lead back and forth with H al's H-D's Andy Fenwick and Low Country H-D's Chu ck Blackmon before taking the lead for good on the final lap with a draft-pass a few turns from the end. He held it open to the line beating Fenwick by 0.167 seconds. Tilley's H-D's Scott Zampach was th ird, one half bike length back, with Blackmon two lengths back in fourth. Higbee set records for both time and d is tance in the Hl-lap, 25.2 mile race completing it in 16 minutes, 25.549" seconds at an avera ge speed of 92.0SO mph. The win also enabled him to cut into Zam pach 's championsh ip points lead. Afte r seven of 12 round s, Zamp ach leads Higbee 275-266. Blackmon's third place finish moved him up to third with 179 poin ts. Fou r rid er s bla st ed into th e su perhea ted air in the first race of th e day, Higbee lead ing Blackm on, Za mpach, and Fenwick wi th the quartet making the race their own. Zampach mo ved up to second, on th e second lap, th en back to third as ' Blackmon took the lead fo r the first time. Over the course of the next thr ee laps the top four would run nose-to-tail, no one ha vin g any d iscernible edge a nd everyone waiting for the fina l lap to see who would ma ke the move first. Higbee m oved to the point on th e fifth lap, at the ha lf w a y p oin t, and pulled away abou t a five la p ma rg in over the course of the ne xt lap . But he could n' t make the break and the pa ck ran him down, Fenwick taking the lead ou t of tum eigh t on the ninth lap. Starting the final lap it was Fenwick le ad ing Higbee and Za m pach, with A Blackm on well within striking d istan ce as Higbee pl ot ted his move. It wou ld co me as the y m ove d down the h ill between turns 10 and 11. " I kind of set it up to wait and draft down the hill," Higbee said. "I used the in side li n e comin g down from t he bridge and held on." As the pack came down the hill they encountered a backma rker who would cause the order to shuffle. Higbee and Fenwick were past cleanly, but Zampach and Blackmon were held up , ending any chance they had at a run for the lead. . "I was just set deco ration out there," Zampach said after finis hin g third. "This is the clo sest race I' ve run in a long tim e and I'd like to cong ra tul a te Shawn Higbee for his first win." " It w as just a ma tt er of drafting," Fenwick said . "We were all about the sa me speeds and everybody had their bes t parts of the trac k. I'm happy w ith thi r d consid er ing w h ere I started from. " Ra y Yoder Jr. mo ved throu gh the pack to take ove r fifth on the eighth lap and just hold off Moroney Cycle's Jim Leslie at the finish. Suburban Motors H -D 's Richard Koehler finished seve n th in fr ont of Hansen's H-D's Billy Graef, Texas H-D's Larry Locklear, and Orange Coun ty HD's Joe Winston. ow Results H-D FIN Al.: 1. Sha wn Higbee; 2. And y Fenwick; 3. Scott Zampach; 4. Chuck Blackmon; 5. Ray Yoder Jr.; 6. Ja mes Leslie; 7. Richard Koehler; S. BilIy ,Graef; 9. Larry Locklear; 10; joseph Winston; 11. James Whitaker; 12Brian Kohl; 13. Shawn McNary; 14. Tho mas Lechner; 15. Robert Mei ster ; 16. Jon Stauffer; 17. Devin Battley: 18. Jos e p h Sa n ta M a ri a; 19 . Tr oy Ro berts; 20 . Ervi n Lys kawa Sr.; 21. Ernie Kicklighter; 22. Scott G ray . Time: 16 minutes, 25.549 seco nds. Dlseance: 10 lap s. 25.2 miles. Anrage speed: 92.050 m ph . M.arg in of vict ory: 0.167 sees. H · D T WI NS PORT C'SHIP POI N T STA ND IN G S (After 7 of U rounds): 1. Scott Za mp ach (275/2 wins ); 2. Sha wn Higbee (266/1); 3. Chuck Blackm on (179); 4. Mike H al e (163 /3); 5. Scott Gray (161) 6. Richard Koe hler (lS9) ;; 7. An d y Fe n w ic k (146); 8. Shawn McNary (143); 9. Joe WInSton (130); 10. Billy Graef (126); 11. James Whitaker (124); 12. Jay Springsteen (121); 13Ricky G raham (108) ; 14. jeff Heino (10 1); 15. James Leslie (99); 16. Robert Meis ter (97); 17. N igel Ga le (81); 18. Jon Sta uffer (75); 19. Bri an Tillson (11); 20. Jason Fletcher (68). 15

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