Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Round 6: New Hampshire Internat!onal Speedway Tom Klpp (16) won his thlrd-stra ig ht 750CC Supersport fi nal, beating his Yosh imura Suzu klleammale Britt Turkington (1). "<:ti 0\ 0\ ,...-( gi Q) § ....... 14 Smith avera ged 72.764 mph in comp leting the 30-lap, 48-m ile ra ce in 39 minutes, 34.812 seconds . More importan tly, Smith regained the lead in th e championship - the closest in AMA road racing - over James, 189-188, after six of 10 rounds . Crevier is th ird w it h 171 points, jus t seven points clear of Hale 's 164. Rothman is sixth with 163 points. Smith, Hale , James, Rothman, Perry, Crevier and Corn well came up the hill ou t of tum six in straight formation at the start of the 600cc final. Jamie Bowman wa s the first to exit, crashing his Honda CBR600on the very first lap . By the third lap, the top four - Smith, Ha le, James and Rothman - had mad e a slight br eak as Corn well tried to work his way ar ound Perry, with Pri dmore and Crevier looking on. Cornwell made his move in tum 10, bu t he was already 2 49 seconds behind the lead pack. . On the fifth lap, Smith held a 1.6-second lead over James, w ho had moved past Hale. Smith would continue to hold that advantage until the 11th lap, when a ll of a sudden it was gone. At this point, Corn well and Crevier had joined the pack with Pridmore having notions of the d oing likewise. Cr ev ier moved around Cornwell on lap 12 as the pack started hitting heavy traffic for the first time. James took the lead for the first time as th ey hit tu rn one on the 17th la p . Thin gs behind were getting tigh ter as the distance between the leader and seventh place was only 2.5 seconds. James' lead was short-lived as three lap s later Smith was back in front. Crevier, meanwhile, wasn't con tent with fifth and he moved past Hale to take over fourth. Cornwell went with him by Hal e a lap later as the pair closed in on Rothman. On the 25th of 30 lap s, Cornwell tried to go up the inside of Rothm an in tum eight. The two touched, with Cornwe ll crashing hea vily into the tire wall. A tire rolled onto the track, s triking P rid more's leg as the pack sud denly sta rted to break up . H (Cornwell) tried to run it in there He and he was carrying too much speed," Rothman said later. HHe hit my bike. I was hoping he was okay for the last six or seve n laps. I tried to put it ou t of my m ind. The thing with Steve (Crevier) gave me a run at Mike. I'm happ y to be here. I was a little disappointed at not being here (on th e rostrum) yesterday (in 750cc Supersport)." Sm ith s uddenly had a lea d th at woul d ho ld to the finish, an d the only su spense was over w ho would finis h seco nd, th ird and fourth. Crevier took himself out of the picture with his crash, leaving the battle to Rothman and Hale. Rothman came out on top . ., HI got into third on the last lap whe n Crevier fell," Ha le said. "But Rothman stu ffed it under me. I went in there as hard as I had all da y. He came in harder an d a li ttl e ou t of contro l. James and Mike (Smi th) rode really good races. I couldn't match their speed here." OJ New Hampshire International Speedway Loudon, New Hampshire Results: June 19, 1994 6OOa: SUPERSPO RT FIN AL: 1. Mike Smith (Hon~ 2. Jamie Jam es (Yam); 3. Gerald Rothman Jr. (Kaw ); 4. Mike Hale (Hon); 5. Jason Pridmore (Yam); 6. Russ Katzenberger (Kaw); 1. Charles Ch ouinand (Han); 8. Jell Perry (Yam); 9. Brett Metzger (H on); 10. Robert Wright (Kaw ); 11. Sean Sweeney (Hon); 12. Jim Lester (Hon); 13. Pete r Dlich (Han); 14. Steve Crevier (Kaw ); 15. Tod d H a rrington (Hon); 16. Owen Weich el (Ho n); 17. 1ohn Scheehse r (H a n); 18. H ika ru Miyagi (Han); 19. Richard Alexander (suz); 20. Chris Bliss (H a n); 21. Donald Berry (Yam ); 22. Ste ve Cooke (Hon); 23. William Ga llag her (Ho n); 24. Ma rk la n nu zz elli (Ho n); 25. Tom Coccia (H on ); 26 . Jam es Mil ro y (Kaw) ; 27. Ge ne Buo no mo (Han); 28. Michael Saia (Hon); 29. Jon Co rnwell (Hon); 30. Erik La rsen (H an); 31. Jim Les lie (Kaw); 32. Do n Munr oe (Ka w); 33 . Rad Grea v es (Hon) ; 3-4. Marco Fe r la nd (Hon) ; 35 . Da vid Estok (Hon ); 36. Ja mie Bowman (Han). TIme: 39 min.• 34.812 sec. Di$t.tnce: 30 laps. 48 miles. Average S peed: 72.764 m ph. M.argi n of Victo ry: 1.756 sec . 601lcc S UPE RSPO RT C'SHIP POINT STANDING S (Afte r 6 of 10 ro u nd s): 1. Mike Smi th (189); 2. Ja mie James (188); 3. Steve Crevier (111); 4. Mike Ha le (164); 5. Gerald Rothman Jr. (163); 6. Jason Pridmore (133); 1. Robert Wright (121); 8. Randy' Renfrow (109); 9. Jo n Cornwell (103); 10. Jamie Bow man (82); 11. T ri p p Nob le s (12); 12. Owen Weich e l (61 ); 13. To d d Ha rrington (65); 14. Ceep Terranova (64); 15. (TlE) Mike Murphy /David Estok (56). Upcoming Rounds: Round 7 - Lexington, Ohio, July 17 Round 8 - Brainerd, Minnesota, July 31 AMAlCCS 750cc SUpersport Series Three straight forlipp By Paul Carruthers Photo by Henny Ray Abrams LOUDON, NH, JUNE 18 he r e w er e effectively two 750cc Supers p or t races at New H ampshire Interna tional Speedwa y thanks to a red -flag stoppage of the race at just past the halfway mark. Tha t gave the rest o f the fi eld two cracks at T Yoshimu ra Suzuki 's To m Kipp. Although they were much closer in the second part, Kipp still mana ged to win by 4.818 seconds. Maybe they needed part three? In the end it was Kip p winning his third -st raigh t 750cc Supe rsp or t final, topp ing h is te a mmate a n d cha mpionship leader Britt Tur kington and the Kinko's Yama ha of Jason Pridmore, to establish himself as a serious con tender . for the championship. When you look at the first thr ee races of the seaso n - Kipp's firs t on a Suzuki GSXR750 - the di fference between the resu lt s o f d efen d ing cl ass cha mpio n Tur kington and those of Kipp are dras- . tic. Turkington wen t 1-2-1 a t Dayton a, Phoenix and Po m ona , r espectiv el y, while Kipp started his season with fifth-, seventh- and sixth -place finishes . Since then , howeve r, Kipp has go ne 1-1-1 whil e Turkington has stayed cons isten t with two thirds and a second-place finish. What it all adds up to is a 14-po int lead for Tu rkingto n, 194- 180, but th e likeab le Texan is likely to be feeling the p ressu re. Kipp is closing, and he's closing fast. And all of this is making for a ru n for the cham pionshi p that sho uld p rove to be quite exciting. Prid more is third in the series stand ings with 171 points, 22 points clear of James Ran d olph, who finished ~enth at New Ha mpshire Internationa~ way . Behind th e Suzuki /Suzuki /Yamaha threesome at the fron t came local hero Gerald Rothman Jr. The New Englander made a valiant effort to pass Pridmore on the final lap, but he came up ju s t short after running wid e in a late-braking attempt in the first comer. Team Suzuki Sport's Aaron Yat es, Mu zz y Kawasaki's Fred Merkel, Rand olp h, New Englan d Pe rf ormance's Marc Smith, Cycles 128's Brett Metzger and Penguin Racing School's Eric Wood roun ded out the top 10 finishers. With temperatu res hoveri ng in the high 90s, the 750cc Sup ersport final got Underway w ith Kipp jumping into the lead off the start . The Ohioan immed iately started to pull away from the pack and he led by 1.5 seconds after two laps. That lead wo uld continue to swell: 5.17 seconds on the fifth lap; 8.27 seconds on the 10th go-aroun d; 13.6 second on lap 13. On the 16th la p, the re d flag w as thrown and the race was stopped wh en a downed rider dropped oil in tum two . By that point, Rothman ha d worked his wa y up to second and led Turkington by over two seconds, wi th Pridmore and Merkel giv ing chase. Tu rking to n had held d own second until he hit a fa lse neutral in tum one, whi ch caused him to run wid e and sacrifice a few positions. But it really meant no thi ng as the race would be restarted with a 14-lap sprin t to the finish. The second part was n't mu ch different - excep t for the fact tha t Tur kington managed to sta y a bit closer this time. For nine of the 14 laps, Tur kington was r ig h t with Kipp, but on the 10t h lap Kipp sta rted to pull clear until he wa s some four seconds ahea d at the finish. Beh ind them, it was a Pr idm ore / Rothma n battle to the finish for the final rostrum spot. The key mom en t in that battle was wh en Rothman tried to outbrake his friendly riva l in tum one at the sta rt of the last la p. Rot hman we n t in "w ay too hot and cou ldn't ge t the bike stopped in time to tum on line, an d he ran wide - allow in g Pridmore the breathing room he needed to hold down third place. Yat es, who sta rted from way back, had a ra ther lonely ride once he disposed of Merkel and Rando lph. H was pretty disappointed ," Kip p I said of the resta rt. H was thinking, 'Boy, I I'd give anythin g if this race would end qu ick.' The n the red flag ca me out. I th ou gh t maybe they'd call it, but they didn't. The first leg was actually tougher on me. I think I wo re myself out trying to get away. In the second part, my teammate Britt was there the whole way so I stayed focused." Turkington 's p roblem s included not only the false neutra ls, but his lack of luck in tra ffic. H co uld p retty much I hang there, but I kep t hitting false neutrals," .Tu r kin gton sa id. "Tha t's what happened in the firs t leg when I ran wide. I was jus t sitting there, but I got balked in traffic." The break seemed to help Prid more, who was able to get going quic ker in the second part of the race. H rea lly put my head down," the I Californian said. H was running it into I the comers so hard I was scaring myself. Third on the Yamaha is good; my season hasn 't been too peachy since Daytona." 0 New Hampshire International Speedway Loudon, New Hampshire Results: June 18, 1994 150cc SUPERSPORT FIN AL: 1. Tom Kipp (Suz); 2Britt Turkington (Suz); 3. Jason Prid more (Ya m ); 4. Gerald Rothman Jr. (!

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