Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

eEVENTS ~ (Left to right> After the National, runner-up Mickey Fay, winner Andy Tresser and third-placed Matt Wait celebrated on the podium. It was Tresser's first National win. D IRTTRACK AMA 600cc National Championship Series: Final round T tops resser Bellingham S T By Dave H oenig BELLINGHAM, WA,SEPT.ll nd y Tresser finally lived up to the promise he had shown since his Junior years by winning the last round of the AMA 600cc National Dirt Track Series on his Joe Carrers/Richard Braquet /Mot ion Prof Arai/Micatec sponsored Wood-Rotax. "I've waited a long time for this. It comes down to the end of the year and yo u don't expect to win, but this is great," said Tresser of his win at the Mount Baker M.C.-promoted, Steve Baker Kawasaki/Suzuki-sponsored event at Hannegan Speedway. Unfo rtunately, much of the cheer was taken from Tresser's post -race celebrations, as the race was stopped by a horrendous front straightaway crash w ith two laps to go in the 25-lap National. Rob Damron was running eighth in a tight pack of riders when he hit the wall exiting tum four. Damron's bike went spinning down the straight where it was struck by Kirk Strong. Strong shot high into the air, did a slow roll and fell heavily on his back with his bike on top of him. The race was called complete as EMT's loaded Strong for his trip to the hospital. Strong suffered two broken femurs and a shattered pelvis. Tresser's win left him in second in the series point standings behind none other than Team Harley-Davidson's Chris Carr, the only champion the series has known. Carr opted to skip the round since he had already sewn up his sixth-consecutive title at the previous round. During time trials, loca l rider Rick Hocking set a new track record of 15.627 seconds on his Rotax. Rookie Matt Wait . was just a tick back at 15.688, while Dan Stanley, Tresser, Rex Fisher and Randy Roose were the top six qualifiers and would sit on the the pole positions in the six heats. Those six riders would make up the fie ld for the Michelob Golden Draft Shoot-Out, with $1500 up for the win. With only 47 Experts in attendance, the six 10-lap heats were all short-handed. Mickey Fay, Wait, John Wincewicz, Tresser, Fisher and Gary Strode topped A 32 the heats and would sta rt th e main event on the fron t row, while Chris Fitzhugh, Ted Taylor, Randy Roose and Jeff Annen won the four semis. When the six-fastest qualifiers were lined up for the five-lap Michelob Golden Draft/Sound Beverage Distributing-sponsored shoot-out, Wait ripped off the line and led lap one, only to have Sta nley scoot by and power away. There was a sign at the start/ finis h line proclaiming Hannegan Speedway as Stanley's home track, and the local favorite made his large following proud as he powered his BBRP/ Bell/Maxima/ Cou gar Gulch Dist/ Steve Baker Kaw /Energy Release/Mills Electric-sponsored Rotax into the winner's circle over Wait and Andy Tresser. Wincewicz had the fastest clutch hand at the start of the 25-lap Nat ional and led the field into turn on e, but Tresser quickly stormed past on the outside and started to pull away. "I could make time on the outside, but as soon as 1 took the lead 1 felt 1had to ride down to protect my position. There were some bumps, and the ones in tum one almost got me in the dash, but you could ride around them. The - track was great," said Tresser. . Wincewicz had his hand s full, as Fay was all over him . Fay dov e to the inside on lap six and took over second, but Wincewicz's problems we re not over. Wait was next to go to work, and got by Wincewicz on lap eight. "The track was great, there was so much traction it was like riding asphalt, . bu t a little rougher. 1 go pretty good on asphalt," said Wait. At the halfway point, Tresser began to pu ll away. Wait pulled to Fay 's rear tire, while Wincewicz fell under attack from Stanley. "I had pretty much settled for second. 1had that kid (Wait) right behind me so 1 had to protect my position. You just .can 't always ride the race you want if someone is right behind you," said Fay. "After 1 caught Mickey all I could do was wait for a mis take, but he sure never made any," said Wait. Just when it appeared as if everyone was settling in for the end of the race, all hell broke loose. The red flag flew quickly as Strong lay in a heap in the entrance of tum one. It was obvious that it would take quite some time to tend to Strong and the race was called with Tresser the winner. "I just wanted to stay smooth after I got out front. I stayed clear of the bu mp s an d it was surprisingly easy. This has been a long time coming," said Tresser . Andy Tresser was the winner at the Hannegan Short Track 600cc National. Unfortunately, the winner's circle was delayed unti l after most of the fans had left for home, because of the crash . " I feel sorry for Andy. That first National win is really special. It's too bad there weren't many fans left for his celebration," said Fay. Results 600 NATIONAL: I. AndyTresser (W-R); 2. Mickey Fay (Rbc); 3. Malt Wait (Rtx); 4. Dan Stanley (Rtx); S. John Win ce w icz (Rt x); 6. Aaron Hill (Rtx); 7. Ga ry Strode (Rbc); 8. Rex Fisher (W-R); 9. Rick Hocking (Rbc); 10. leff Annen (W-R); 11. Randy Roose (Rbc); 12. Paul Iwanaga (Hon ); 13. Chris Fitzhugh (Yam) ; 14. Ted Tay lor (W-R); 15. Kirk Strong (Rbc); 16. Rob Damron (W-R). Tim~ no time - red flag. MICHELOB SHOOTOUT: 1. Dan Stanley; 2. Malt Wait ; 3. An d y Tresser. 4. Randy Roose ; 5. Rick Hocking; 6. Rex Fishe r. Time: 1:19.62. AMA 600« NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES POINT STANDINGS: I. Chris Carr (80 /4 w ins) 2. Andy Tresser (56/1 ); 3. Aaron Hill (43); 4. Dan Stanley (37) ; 5. M ick ey Fay (33); 6. Mall Wait (26); 7. Rick Hocki ng (21); 8. (TIE) Rex Fishe r/ Kris Kiser (18): JO. (TIE) Brian Tillso n / Ben Bostrom /Ricky Graham (16); 13. Will Davi s (13): 14. (TI E) Brett Lan d es /Steve Mo reh ea d (11); 16. (TI E) John Win cew icz /B ry an McDo well IJa mes Hart ( t o); 19. (TI E) Kenny Coolbeth/Dan Ingra m (9). PRO-AM: 1. Jeff Rister (Ho n); 2 Eric Rickman (Rtx); 3. Jason End erso n (W-R); 4. Tro y Dona ld (Hon ); 5. Noa h Kirkl and {Rtx): 6. Dar ren And erson (Rtx); 7. Denn is Arm st rong (KTM); 8. Tom She rma n (W-R); 9. Fran k Ma rk e r (H a n) ; 10. Dave Ste ri n g (Rt x). 11. Jerry Brow ning (Rtx); 12. Mike Harritt (Rtx). Time: 2:47.46 ROAD RACE W Power-Mist/Performance ERA Machine National E ndurance S eries:R ound10 Northwest Honda tops at Texas World By Mickey Hun t COLLEGESTATION, IX,SEPT. 11 n a hot and humid day, the WERA National Endurance Series visited the remodeled Texas World Speedway with many fast Texas teams joining the competition. One of those teams, Northwest Honda, ended up takin g the o ve rall victory and th e Heavyweight Superbike class win, with Ronnie Lunsford, Greg Abbott, Matt Maschmann and Gordon Miller turning in 276 laps of the 1.9-mile race track in the six-hour race. With the final round of the CMRA Endurance Championship being run in conjunction with the WERA even t, Northwest's win also gave them the CMRA title over Plano Honda Racing, which finished seventh overall and second in Middleweight Superbike. With 42 entries, the WERA regulars were positioned at the front of the grid O with Team Pearls Suzuki on the pole . Plano Honda Racing wa s part of that first wave, thanks to their upset class win a t the prev iou s round held in Memphis..A notable absentee was Team Suzuki Endurance; the Valvolinebacked team had decided to skip the event after wrapping up the championship in Memphis. At the end of the first hour of racing, with 48 laps on the books, Virginia Breeze (Craig Caver, Glenn Szarek, Charlie Gafely) held the lead on their Yamaha FZRI000 with the Honda CBR900RR of Northwest Honda sitting in seco nd pla ce. Plano Honda Racing had their Honda CBR600 F-2 positioned in third. The Arclight Racing Honda CBR900RR held down fourth with Track & Trial 20/20 filling the top five on their Kawasaki. During th e second hour, Plano Honda had their first crash of the year, dropping them back to 18th place and 12 laps down on th e lead er s. Plan o wou ld fight throu gh to an eventual seventh-place fin ish , bu t all hopes of an upset win at home were thrown out the window. At tha t point , Northwest Honda took a lea d they would never relinquish, turning in 96 laps in that first hour of racing. Virginia Breeze dropped to second, with Arclight moving up to third . Force Racing moved into fourth with Track & Trail holding their place in fifth. Many of the WERA tea ms were already finding out about the abrasive surface of Texas World Speedway, and the day would be filled with many a tire s top . At the end of th e fourth hour, Northwest Honda continued its flawless race, taking a two-lap lead over Arclight Racing. Force Racing wa s another lap down in third with Track & Trail fourth and Virginia Breeze dropping to fifth due to a tire change. Plano Honda had charged back to eighth pl ace, right behind class leading Royale Racing. At the end of the fifth hour, with 231 laps completed, Northwest Honda had a opened up a five-lap lead over Force Raci ng, who with riders Jeff James, Dean Hayes, Chris Hughes and Ron Crum had moved up to second. R.A. Racing was third on their Suzuki GSXRllOO with Royale Racing and Plano Honda, meanwhile, continuing their battle for Midd leweight Superbike honors - both had completed 222 laps ~ with an hour to go. At the end of the six-hour race, 'Nor thw es t Honda had six-lap lead over Force Racing, record ing 276 laps for the event. Virginia Breeze came back to take third, with 270 laps, R.A. Racing a

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