Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127682
? . ··R ADR C Road Race series Round 9: Sears Point International Raceway O hampionship · •'.: A E· AMAlCCS C (Above) Jamie Jame s (11), Mike Smith (68), Steve Crevier (4) and Jason Pridmore (7) were never further apa rt than this. (Left) Local James Randolph (6) won his lIrst-ever AMAlCCS 7SOcc Supersport final at Sears Point Raceway. Pridmore gives chase prior to crashing. painful and it made it hard to ride. I realized I was in trouble here, but I ended up finishing only two spots behind him (Kipp). It'll be a $25,000 shootout. I have to beat him and he has to beat me . We 're good friends, and we 're just do ing our jobs." C\i Sears Point Raceway Sonoma, California Results : August 20, 1994 blunder, the pair will take their fight onward to Road At lan ta with Suzuki, assured of a championship. Well, there is one more scenario. If Pridmore wins and both Turkington and Kipp fail to score a single point, all three would be tied - but the championship would go to Kipp, thanks to his four race wins. Finishing 8.201 seconds behind Randolph at Sears Point was Team Suzuki Sport's Aaron Yates. The Georgian rode to a lonely second place, comfortably ahead of the second Santa Rosa, California, resident in the winner's circle Mark McDaniel, on another Team Suzuki Sport GSXR750. Gerald Rothman Jr. rode his Kawasaki to a fourth-place finish with Kipp fifth, Kinko's Yamaha's Thomas Wilson sixth and Turkington seventh. Anthony Lupo, Mike Krynock and Dean Mizdal filled the top 10. Pridmore led the pack from the pole position, with Kipp, Randolph, Yates, McDaniel, David Stanton, Rothman and Lupo in tow. Stanton's race was short, as he cras hed on the second lap . Pridmore was able to open a gap to the ensuing pack, until Randolph moved by Kipp and started to give chase. The pair stayed together with Randolph taking the lead for the first time on the seventh lap. It was a position he would hold to the finish . Pridmore stayed w ithin striking distance until crashing in tum four on the 14th lap. By then the race was a rather dull parade with Randolp h clear of Yates, who in t u rn was clear of a battle between McDaniel and Rothman. The top positions didn't change as McDaniel got the best of the New Englander. Sears Point marked ' the debut of the Harley-Davidson-powered Buell Thunde rbolt. Scott Zampach ran m id-pack with the new bike until pitting with an engine failure on the 11th lap. "It 's handling well, but Don [filley) was kind of rushed getting it together," Zampach said. "It started pinging and detonating and blowing oil. We only got eight laps of practice on it and it's a pretty stock motor; but it 's working good." Kipp obviously wasn't happy w ith his fifth-place fini sh, althou gh he seemed confident with the outcome of the upcoming Road Atlanta race: "The gearing was working good in qualifying, " Kipp explained. "But ther e were three spots d uring the race where the rear wheel would lock up . I cooked the rear tire and I was sure I couldn't hang wit h those guys. It was a bad decision on my part, but it was the only gearing I could get to work. It'll all come down to Road Atlanta. It' ll be exciting." Turkington concurred: "I 'm happy. We're going in tied . I'm stoked; couldn't be happier. I go fine at Road Atlanta. H e re, the hand was very 75Dcc SU PE RSPORT FIN AL: 1. Ja mes Randolph (Suz); 2. Aaron Yates (Suz); 3. Mark McDaniel (Suz);·t Gerald Rothman Jr . (Kaw) ; 5. Tom Kipp (S uz); 6. Thomas Wilson (Yam); 7. Britt Turkington (Suz); 8. An thony Lupo (Suz); 9. Mike Krynock (Kaw) ; 10. Dean Mizda l (Yam ); 11. Sean Sweeney (Suz); 12. Mark Miller (Kaw); 13. Tom Aquino (Suz); 14. Dav id Roy (Kaw); IS. Lee Brow n (Hon); 16. Michael Sum mers (Hon); 17. Matthew Brown (Hon) : 18. Steve Myers (Suz); 19. Dax Snow (Su z); 20. Ben Welch (Yam ); 21. Kevin Scott (Kaw); 22. Matt Cusamano (Suz); 23. Akiharu Shigmo (Hon); 24. Jason Pridmore (Yam ); 25. Scott Zampach (Bue); 26. Robert Wright (Kaw ); 'Z7 Cral g Arcuri (Yam); . 28. Dav id Stanton (Suz). T ime: 33 min.• 45.on sec. Disbnce: 19 laps. 47.5 miles. AveRige Spttd: 84.441 mph. M,ugin of Victory: 8.201 sec. 750cc SUPERS PORT SERIES POINT STANDINGS (After 9 of 10 rounds) : 1. (T IE) T om Kipp /Britt T urkington (273/ 4 wins /2 wi ns); 3. Jason Pridmor e (238 ); 4. Ge ral d Rothman Jr . (232/1 w in ): S. Ja m es Rand olp h (224/1 win); 6. Fred Merkel (183/ 1 wi n); 7. Aaron Yates { 176}; 8. Thomas Wilson (175); 9. Dean Mizdal (139); 10. Mark McDani el (126); 11. David Roy (118); 12. Ant hony l upo (I II); 13. Mik e Krynock (94); ); 14. Aaron Lanningham (SO I S. Sean Sweeney (70). Upcoming Round Round 10: Atlanta, Georgia. September 17 AMAlCCS H M a ey-DavidsonTwin SportSeries Yates in a thriller By Henny Ray Abrams SONOMA, CA, AUG 21 n a persuasive argument for quality over quantity, only fourteen riders showed up for the Harley-Davidson Twin Sports final at Sears Point International Raceway, bu t six of those 14 would lead the race at some point, the I "I ten-lap affair awash in leader changes that wouldn't be settled until the very final comer. That's where Moroney's HD's Aaron Yates would stuff a wheel under Tilley's H-D's Scott Zampach for his second win of the year. Za m p ach, trying to defend his national title, was a mere 0.040 seconds behind, with Hansen H-D's Billy Graef, and Mitchell' s Modesto H-D's Ma t t Wait soon across the line . Those were four of the six leaders. One of the remaining two didn't make it to the finish and Zam pach wasn't complaining. Bar tels' H-D's Shawn Higbee, who came into the race with four wins and a 39-point cushion on Zampach, sustained a mechanica l failure a few tu rns from the fin ish and was credited wi th 13th. Th e champ ionship will be d ecid ed at Road Atlanta, Higbee taking a 25-point lead , 276 to 251, into the race. In ord er to keep his title, Zampach will have to win w it h H igbee fini sh in g no better th an 22n d. If o nly 21 bikes s how u p for Atlanta, the title goes to Higbee. The firs t lead e r w as H -D of Jamest own's Brian Kohl, the Ohioan jetting from the second row into the lead, only to be pul led in by AMA officials for a s to p-and-go penalty a ft e r the y' d decided he'd jumped the flag. Graef crossed the line in front on the first lap, the leader in a quin tet tha t would stay together the entire race and also include Higbee, Zampach, Yates and Wait. Za mp ach' s first appearance at the front came at the end of the third lap after outbraking Graef into the final tum. Wait was third across the line in front of Higbee and Yates, but the positions were changing all over the track. Wait, a dirt-tracker from nea rby Lodi, California, took his turn a t the front on the fourth lap, holding onto the spot until the eighth when Zampach, who'd dropped to th ird , began to reassert himself. First he used a bold move up the inside of Yates in tum two to get second , then squeezed by Wait in a fast backstretch kink before the final tum. H igbee, fou rth at the beginning of the nin th lap, moved up inside Wait in the sa me spot to take third behind Zarnpach and Yates with less than two laps to go. Like Zam pac h, he used the kin k un de r the Winston Bridge to move past Yates and d raw up on the leader Zarnpach, only to find Yates braking hard into the final tum to take the lead. The final lap would belong to Yates and Zampach, the "Z " man tak ing the lead briefly, with Yates by as they made their run out of the esses and down the back straight. Again, Zampach used the kink to go around the outside of Yates, but Yates oubraked him in the final tum for the win . . "I kind of knew I could do it," Yates said. Meanwhile, Wait had dropped back a bit to be a non- challenger at the end and H igbee was coasting along the backstretch just past the esses. Team Heller & Owen's Don Greene, sixth from the first lap on and mostly alone, took over fifth when Higbee retired, Ron McGill, also by himself most of the race, cruised home in sixth. Kohl recove red from the stop-and-go to finish seventh, movi ng to that spo t on the eight lap to finish in front of Fletcher 's H-D's Shaw n McNary. CN Sea rs Point International Raceway Sonoma, California Results : August 21, 1994 H~ D TWI N SPO RTS FINAL: 1. Aaron Yates; 2Scott Zampach; 3. Billy G ra ef ; -to Matt Wait; 5. Don Greene: 6. Ronald McGill; 7. Brian Kohl ; 8. Shawn McNary: 9. Eric Bostrom; 10. Chuck Blackmon; 11. Yvon DuHamel; 12. Joe Winst on; 13. Sh.1wn Higbee; 14.. Pete Demas.