Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

GTU, thou gh he wasn't expecting much when it started. "I looked at the grid for the race and thought, 'Th ey should tum this around so we can start at the front instead of the back on the next to the last row.' On the s tar t I decided to go for it, to race as hard as I could. I never really knew I was leading the race until the end," Miyagi said. The rider to catch would be Damian Weber, bu t the Yama ha FZR600 rid er , cras hed in the International Horseshoe on the 11th of 14 laps with better than a lo-second lead . Miyagi had moved up to eighth at the halfway point and took over fifth when Weber spilled. On the next lap he moved into second and then into the lead passing TBR Racing 's David Estok off o f the West End .Horseshoe. Estok to ok the lead back on the 12th lap , but later that same lap Miyagi pulled away on the banking to leave the figh t for second. In order to avoid bein g drafted across the finish li ne, Miyag i needed to break away, which he di d, to w in by 2.13 seconds. He co mpleted th e 50- mile race in 29minutes, 25.310 seco nds a t an average spee d of 101.369 mp h. "I thou ght I might catch the winner on th e last lap," Estok sai d. "He got caught in traffic, bu t then we all did. I got a bit out of shape coming out of the infield trying to catch him and that cost me any chance [ had." With half the laps to get to the fron t in the Expert Mid d lewe ight Superbike race, Miyagi had his work cut out for him and he got right to it. Starting from the 15th of 17 rows, Miyagi was up to sixth on the third lap, then to third a lap later. On the fifth lap he was still in third, trailing leader Aaron Merriman by close to fou r seconds, but he was easily the fastest rider on the track. He took over second on the sixth lap , passing Mike Murphy, then set ou t for Merriman. Both he and Mu rp hy passed Merriman in the infield and Miyagi took the lea d into and out of the chicane. Murphy tried to use the draft to his advantage, but came up .028-0f-a-second short at the end of the seve n-lap race. Miyagi needed 14 minutes, 49.84 seconds to win his second race, averaging 100.807 mph on a track that was still slightly damp. "It was great," Orlando's Eric Mou catel said after winni ng his first race, the red-flag-interrup ted Amateur Heavyweight SuperTwins. "I had a great time. I was worried because my tires weren't scu ffed-in. But the red flag worked out great for me." The flag was thrown while Tampa's Alber to Sosa was in the lead and Mou catel was going to school on him. "We've been racing each other all year. I like to follow Al a little bi t, then pass him when, and if, I can ," Mikmar Motorsports' Mo ucatel said after beating his fellow Ducati-mount ed Floridian . Mo uca te l' s Ducati 750 was fit ted with a Fast by Ferracci engine with Sosa aboard a Ducati 900. Third place went to New Yorker Ian Gunn, also Ducati-mounted - his an 888. Because th e race was in te rrup ted, there was no time of race or margin of victory. But in Moucatel 's next win there was no doubt about his superiority. Racing the sa m e Mikmar Motorsports Ducati, Moucatel took off to an easy w in, be ati ng Ka w asaki KZ500equipped Brad Allan by 39.17 seconds. It took Moucate l 15 m inutes, 14.120 seconds to complete the seven lap race a t an average sp eed of 98 .14 mph . Though it looked easy, Moucatel said he w as fig hting an ill-h andlin g ma chine. "I adjusted the rear wheel this morn- ing before the race and I didn't do somethin g righ t.," Moucatel said. "The handli ng wasn' t r ig h t a nd the b ike was shakin g w he n I was on th e banking. I had to stick my knee out to slow myself d own and steady the handling." Both of Gainesville's John Blessed's wins came on Friday, the first aboard o ... rl l-i (Righ t) Jonath an Bolto n (228) lead s Dav id Olin (75) in Amateur So lo GTO; the order was reve rse d at the finish. (Below) John Hoppe rstad (198) and Don Hough (80) ba ttl e in Expert So lo GTO; the victory we nt to Hopperstad. Q) ~ Q) :> o Z his Sandersons Cycle's Honda CBR600 in the Amateur Middleweight Superbike class. . "I go t a bad holeshot at the start, but I was ea ting them up on the brakes," said Blessed, a 32-year-old video disk jockey. He was racing in familiar territory, dicing with William Brandvold who he finis hed second to in the South Florida region this year. "I was afraid he (Brandv old ) might be able to catch me in the draft, from the chicane to the line, but I ca ugh t some backmarkers and do ve to the bottom of the race track and I d idn't see him after that," Blessed said. Later in the day, Blesssed came back to win the Amateur Solo GTU, a race that was shortened by a red flag on the 11th of 14 laps. "I was gla d to see that red flag," Blessed said after nailing down his second win, a win that did n't come easily. "I got knocked off th e tr ack at the second horsesho e o n th e fi rst lap," Blessed sa id . "I was ta king it kind of easy out there wa iting for the righ t time to make a move." Fast Lane Cycles' Michael Lane was second and also H o nda-mounted, as was th ird-p laced Pau l Sloane on the Hyva c Racing machine. Blessed ad ded a third -place finish to his two wins, fini shing behind Brandvold and McNaughton Motorsports' Dane Wh aley in Saturd ay' s Amateur Middleweight GP. Whaley took the le ad at the start, Brandvold was an early second with Blessed severa l pl aces back and on the move. By the third lap Whaley had a 10- bikelength lead, w ith Brandvold and Jerry Evans Jr. fighting for second, though Brandvold would bre ak free on the next lap an d set out for Whaley. He would catch him going into tum one on the sixth lap, staying narrowly in front for the next lap and a half. With Brand vold in front out o f the chicane, it looked like Whaley was setti ng him up for a d raft-pass, bu t Brandvold go t th e better drive and was ab le to ho ld on by the narrowest of margins. "What a race! I still can't believe it," Brandvold, 29, said after nipping Whaley by .024-0f-a-second. "On the last lap Dane Whaley was right behind me in the infield. The next time I looked back, he wasn ' t there . I can' t believe i t. I won." On the final lap , Blessed went under Evans exiting the Internationa l Ho rseshoe to take over third, where he wou ld finish. In the Amateur Heavyweight Superbike, David Olin jumped out early with Jonathan Bolton a close second as the pair began to get away from the pack. Joseph Gio vinazzo was thi rd ea rly on, before Timothy Hammitt began to make his move. The lead ing pair built up close to an eight-second lead by the third lap and it was obvious that, barring unforeseen circumstances , one of the two would win. Bolton ma de an aggressive mo ve for the lead on the fou rth la p, d ivin g . under Olin in the International Horseshoe, but Olin was soon back in front. The lead would swap again starting the sixth lap, Bolton taking the po int going in to th e fi rs t tu rn . But, again, O li n w o uld re -asser t h im self u n til Bolton used the same late-braki ng maneuver to go in fron t on the fina l lap w he n Olin was hu ng up by a backmarker, With the lead ers so evenly matched , the race would be won from the chicane to the checkered flag and the w in ner would be the rider w ho came ou t of the chicane in second. Tha t wo uld be Olin, who trailed by 15 bikelengths coming out of the chicane. He com pleted the 25mile race in 14 minutes, 39.790 seconds at an average speed of 101.970 mph. "I had a p lan to draft pas t Jonathan (Bolton) at the line," Olin said. " I ha d th e sa me p lan yesterday , bu t it d idn't work. Tod ay I d id a bit of praying that the plan would work this time and it did . Toda y, things went my way . I love racing like this with it going right down to the flag . Joh n Bolton is my kind of guy. He's one of the best. If all the races were like thi s, yo u wouldn't get an ybod y to retire." Timothy Hammitt, Bolton's teammate, aga in finished third. The award for the most dramatic finish we nt to d irt tracker Pegram aboard his personal streetbike, a KK Motorcycle Supply-backed Honda CBR900. On a wet- but-drying track, the Ohioan outd uele d the more experienced Bowman to win the Unlimited SuperSpo rt event. Brett Metzger led the 21-rider pack for the first lap with Ricky Orlando second and Bowman third in front o f Pegram. Me tzger wo uld con tinue to stay in front, tho ugh his lead shrunk when he went wide in the International Horseshoe allowing Bowman, who'd moved up to second the previous lap, to close up . Later on the same lap, Bowman took th e lead on the west banking; Metzger was second with Pegra m clos ing. It would take one more lap for Pegram to displace Metzger and try to close up the nearly one-second gap on Bowman. Pegram would take the lead for the first time on the fifth lap, braking late for th e chicane , th o u g h Bo w ma n answe red back later the same lap . Knowing tha t he wa s down on power, Pegram held his spo t, wa iting for his final shot at th e wi n . It came as they exited the chicane for the fina l time , with Pegram closing th e gap to th e checke red flag. "His bi ke w ou ld p u ll me o ff th e banking, but I could cat ch him a t the end of the s tra igh taway. That's how I . bea t him to the finish," Pegram said. "I knew I could get him at the line and that I had to stay behind him and wait for the right time to make my move. "This is my street bike. I've been riding it for a couple of months and it's got a couple thou sand miles on it. All we d id was put a d ifferent exhaust pip e on it," Pegram ad ded . The seven lap race took Pegram 16 7

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