Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

··VINTAGE·:· . . ..-: .. .. . <: ' AHR AH M istoric C SerieslBMW C up lassic Cup Series . Round 5: Grattan Raceway Park s, Roper share RMA spotlight while Richard Fawcett won the Novice honors. In F- l Tw in s , Syd 's Cycles-sponsored, Ducat imounted Malcolm Tuns tall ho und ed Royale Purp le/ Maxoil's jeff Reeves unsuccessfully for the entire 12 laps, wit h Reeves prevailing for the win. Reeves got the jump on the start and held the lead for the first six laps, wi th Tunstall briefly stealing first place for lap s seven, eight and nine. F-3 Twins action included an early battle between th e McNaughton Motorsports-sponsored Kawasaki of Toledo native Eric Kem suzian a nd th e Motul / Avon Tyre-sponsored Honda Hawk of Sam By Jack! Fisher Photos by Nick Devinck BELDIN MI, MAY 21-22 G, H RMA' S H istor ic Cup se ries may not be the World Championship, but it sure seems like it when David Roper and Stephen Mathews are in town, as the two were once again invincible d uring round five at Grattan Raceway Park. In the 500cc Premier race on Saturday, Tea m Ob solete's Roper had h is Matchless G-50 screami ng around the track to ta ke a fre nzied victory. Th e shortened (six laps instead of the usual eight) race began with a fierce battle between se ries rivals Roper and the Barber Vintage Motorsports-sponsored Mathews. Adding to the tension, fellow Barber teammate Charles Honeycutt jetted to third place from his last row grid position within the first lap and shadowed th e two leaders. All three racers were Matchless G-50 mounted, which took the hard ware out of the equ ation. Due to a mix-up at the start/ finis h line w ith the white flag being shown (instead of the crossed green/white) at the halfway point, Mathews pulled out all the stops, and on lap four mad e a ban za i pa ss in the tum-six hairpin to lead on to the straightaway for what he thou ght wa s the final time. In what appeared to be a classic "do uble-take", Mathews slowed somewhat wh en he didn't see the checkered flag, allowing Roper to retake the lead as they crossed the stripe to begin lap five. The hesitation cost Mathews the race, as Roper never looked back and took th e w in with Honeycutt hanging on for third. In Sunday's 500cc Premier race, Mathews' holeshot from the starting line dictated a different outcome from Saturday's rivalry. The race was back to the normal length with Mathews leading all but the fourth of eight laps. At the end of lap three, Roper d rafted past Mathews down the straight, but Mathews wen t inside going into tum one, causing Roper to go wide. Roper fought back but was too hot approaching tum two, letting Mathews take the tighter line and dive under Roper to regain the lead . A 2 I' I I past Myers in the hairp in on lap six. Mathews began to slice his way effectively through the backmarkers, wh ile Myers barely avoided contact with a lapped rider coming onto the straightaway d uring lap seven, causing him to lose some of his momentum . Wi th Myers stuck in traffic, Mathews put his head down and raced a perfect race to maintain first and take. the Open Twins win. Myers finished second with Liebmann never surrenderi ng third place. Local r ider Mark Stewart finish ed four th. Tim McCa rtn ey and Dennis Schiro, both on Ducatis, finished first and second, respectively, in the Open Twins Novice class. Keeping his series points lead intact, Myers won the F-2 Expert class in this combined race , with Eric Kemsuzian making an impressive showing with a second-place finish. Wagenseller ran all alone to fin ish thi rd whi le Matthew (Abo ve) Stephen Mathews (81) and David Roper (1) sp lit wins In the 500cc Premier class at Grattan Internati onal Raceway. (Right) Mathews (81) also rode his Ducatl to victory in the Open Expert division of the Battleof the Twins event. With the -pace cranked well beyond Saturday's level, Mathews almost left the ground exiting the "Bowl", nearly highsid ing in his effort to distance himself from Roper. Never more than second s apa rt for the remainder of the race, Mathews and Roper fought to the checkered flag, with Mathews getting totally sideways coming onto the straigh taway for the fina l sprint to the line for first place. Mathews took the win with Roper a close second and Honeycutt repea ting Sa tu rd ay's performance with a solid third place. SOUND OF SING LESIBATTLE OF TWINS : ROUND 5 Due to a disappointingly small grid for the Sound of Singles, AHRMA combined all of the Singles (except for the Seniors class , which raced later in the da y) and the Fl /F3 and Tw o-Stroke Twins into one race. At the flag, Open Single s Exp ert Da v id Kn app on hi s Rota x simply waved goo d-bye to th e rest of the singles field and proceeded to mix it up with the twins. Bley Racing's Sven Bley took his Honda RS125 to a runaway win in the Two-Stroke light weight Expert class while YUASA Battery / Champion-sponsored Ducati rider Robert Schudick took th e w in in the junior Singles Expert class. The Senior Singles class was combined with the Formula Vintage class a nd Ru ss Ma ttson took first o n h is Woods-Rotax in the Expert d ivision, Wag ens eller with GMA All American Racing' s Pat Conroy on his Ha rle yDavid son XR750. Kem suzian had to take it easy since his bike was overheating, bu t soldiered on to score the win. Gunn ar took second and Conroy hung in for third place. Denn is Schiro scored the F-3 Novice win on his Honda Hawk whil e Kawasa ki -mo u n ted Mat thew Kemsu zian placed second in the class. The Open Tw in s were co m bi ned with the F-2 class for a 12-lap final. Local Novice Louis Lipka, racing with a seriously injured left shou lder from a Sat u rd ay hea t-race cr as h, go t th e holeshot, but was quickly dispa tched by the Michael Myers / Kurt Liebmann / Eric Kemsuzian freight train heading into tu rn one. Lipka hel d onto fifth until a seventh-lap cras h in th e tu rn -fo u r sweeper ended his aftern oon. Gotham Racin g' s best-kept se cre t, Mi chael Myers, took command while Math ews sliced his wa y through traffic to pull within four seconds of Myers by the second lap. Both rid ers promptly upped the pace and began to pull away from Liebmann and compa ny, and were side by side going through the sweeper into the hairpin by lap four . When they came onto th e strai gh taway, Mathews was leading Myers by less than a second. On th e next lap , Myers pulled a smooth inside move in Grattan's notorious off-camber downhill turn three to retake the lead, but Mathews mimicked his Premier 500cc class move and drove Kemsuzian took first in the F-2 Novice class. Other notable winners on the weekend included: Bley, who went six for six, including two heat race wins on Saturday; Blake Wilson, who took his Indian to a sweep of both the Pre '40 and Class C events on both days; and Roper dominated both 350cc GP races on his AjS, while Mathews took five wins includ ing his Saturday heat-race victory. AHRMAIVINTAGE IRON NATIONAL MX SERIES : ROUND 5 Gra ttan spectators and racers were treated to motocross for the first time thanks to AHRMA an d racing legend Dick Mann . On a virgin course designed by Mann, national and local riders raced on a combination grass, sand and woods course reminiscent of GP tracks of the early 70's. Saturday's races, featuring two motos each, saw former Na tional Champion Mann win both the Premier 500cc Expert and the Specialty 50+ Expert even ts. In the Premier 500cc II Expert class, Triumph-mounted Mike Atkins showed Bultaco rider Hugh Weaver and fellow BSA-mounted john Geer how to tame this new track. Starting from the second wave of the combined Premier I and II, Sportsman and P remier Open Twins class, Vintage Iron's Rick Doughty on an immaculate Bill West-prepared Rickman successfully fought his way to the front of both waves in motos one and two.

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