(Left) Mike Smith (68) passed
early leader Jam ie James (11)
early in the 600cc Supersport
race and ran away with an
easy win. (Below) James (11)
leads Randy Renfrow (3),
Steve Crevier (4) Smith (68)
and Mike Hale (23) at the sta rt
of the 600cc Supersport race.
(Bottom) Yoshimura Suzuki
teamsters Tom Kipp (16) and
Britt Turkington (1) battled
ea rly in the 750cc Supersport
race. Klpp won, Turkington
dropped to third.
· AMAlCCS 750cc Supersport Series
Round4:Laguna 5eca
Kippback
on track
By Paul Carruthers
Pho to by Henny Ray Abrams
MONTEREY, CA, MAY 21
ineteen months of not winning a
race was long enough, so
•
Yoshimura Suzuki's Tom Kipp
decided to go out and do something
aboutit, The Yoshimura Suzuki rider,
who hadn't won a race since October of
1992 at Texas World Speedway, ended
the drought with an impressive victory
at Lagu na Seca Raceway. The 25-yearold Ohioan battled early wit h his teamm at e Britt Turkington before ho ld ing
off a lat e- r a ce charge fro m M uzzy
Kawasaki's Fred Merkel to take the win
- his firs t eve r in the 750cc Supersport
class .
A hurting Merkel b r a vel y battled
back from a qualifying-lap crash - in
which he broke two toes an d injured an
ank le - to finish seco nd, jus t 2.368 seconds behind Kipp. Ear ly leader Turkington backed off after encountering
some slides mid race to finish a comfortable third. .
The battle for fourth went the distance with Team Suzuki Sport's James
Randolph just getting the better of
Kinko's Yamaha's Jason Pridmore after
a· race-long battle. Valvoline Suzuki's
Chuck Graves, Yoshimura Suzuki's
Donald Jacks, Kinko's Thomas Wilson,
Sport Cycle Products' Jim Leslie and
Team Suzuki Sport's Aaron Yates
rounded out the top 10 finishers.
Turkington's third-place finish further increased his championship points
lead as his nearest rival in the title chase .
going into the Laguna Seea round, Gerald Rothman [r ., crashed out of the race
on the fourth lap and slipped back to
fifth in the standings. Turkington now
leads Pridmore by 16 points, 132-116,
after four rou nds, with Kipp moving up
to third with 110. Rando lph's 107 points
p uts him in fourth and Rothm an slips to
fifth wi th 73.
The race go t underway wi th Turkington getting his usua l holeshot to lead
the pack over the hill and into tum two
for the firs t time. Pridmore was hot on
his heels after flying off the line from the
second row of the grid. By the time they
circulated the 2.214-mile tra ck in the
11
