Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Time: 19 min.• 5.601 sec. Distilllte: 10 laps, 25.2 miles . Average speed: 78.561 mph. Margin of victory: 0.040 sees . H-D TWIN SPORTS CHAMPIONSHIP POINT STAN DINGS (After 9 of 10 rounds): 1. Shawn Higbee (276/4 wi ns); 2. Scott zampach (251/ 3); 3. Billy Gra ef (236); 4. Rona ld McG ill (201); 5. Shawn McNary (193); 6. Ch uck Blackmon (I B1); 7. Brian Koh l (179); B. Matt Wait (175); 9. Aaro n Yates (169/2) 10. Andy Fenw ick (169); 11. Don Greene (150); 12. Eric Bostro m (140); 13. Jim Whi ta ker (118); 14. Matthew G uidera (106); 15. Joe Wi nston (87); 16. Eric Lac r uze (76) ; 17 . Ro be rt Cunnington (70); is. Dick Koehler (68); 19. Jeff Ha rd ing (64); 20. Ben Bostro m (59). Upcoming Rounds: Rnd.10 - Braselton, Georgia, September 18 AMAICCSE Brakes U BC nlimited Team Challenge It's no • ourage By Henny Ray Abrams SONOMA, CA, AUG 21 a le Quarterley's Team Mirage was listed as the official winner of the EBC Brakes Unlimited Team Challenge a t Sears Po int International Raceway, but co-rider Scott Gra y had a d iffe rent n ame for the team. "We're team ed up in the WERA Pro Series and we're the Fa rm Te am . I ri d e a duck, Dale rid es a turtle, an d we're both a coup le o f pi gs ," Gra y said afte r th e team cruised to a win in their first AMA competition. "We decided to p ut the team togeth er on Thursd ay," Qu arterl ey sa id. "We wan te d to run th e e n du ra nce for a while. We though t we ' d d o ' it a t th e begin ni ng of th e year, b u t I h a d too ma ny irons in the fir e. Sin ce this is a Kawasak i-s ponsore d ra ce I th o u ght we'd do it here." Q ua rterley we nt out first on his 1993 Team Mirage ZX-7R Superbike, takin g the lead from Mu zzy Kawasaki 's Tiger Sohwa on the third lap . By the ha lfwa y mark in the one-hou r event Q uar terley had a sev en-second lead, hand ing off to Gr ay abo ut se ve n minutes later. Som e though t tha t Qu a rterley's team woul d give way to the Mu zzy tea m, which is locked in the cham pio nshi p battle with Erion Raci ng, bu t Qu art ereley wasn't among them . "We n eed th e money, " h e replied whe n asked if they we re goi ng to pull over an d let the Muzzy crew by. Gray more than doubled th e team's lead, ta ki n g the ch ecke red fla g w ith nearly 17 seconds in hand. Tripp Nobl es brought the Muzzy bike home- seco nd wi th Erion Racing th ird, Larry Pegram cleaning up on the Honda CBR900 for lead rid er Nick Ienatsch. Dutchman Racing's Da ve Schlosser recruited local hero Al Salaverria to team with Scott Zampach on the team's FZRlOOO and the pair was a cl osing fou rth, nearly third. They were chased to the flag by the Dominator Suzuki GSXR1100 of Cal Rayborn and David Emde. Quarterley and Gray com p leted 34 laps of the 2.52-mile tra ck in just over an hour at an average speed of 84.446 mph. The championship heads to the final race at Road Atlanta with Erion Racing 11 points in front of Muzzy Kawasaki, 289 to 278. "We 'll go to Road Atlanta and just cruise and win the championship. Tha t' s what the goal is," Pegram said. Pegram 's teammate Ienatsch led at th e start, with Sohwa taking the lead co mi ng out of the carouse l with Quarterley third in front of Zampach and Rayborn. Tommy Lyn ch was forced to p it the D Fastline / MCM Suzuki on the first la p with a bent radiator cap . The team lost abo ut six minutes in the pits, mostly in getting some water to top the radiator off with after a new cap was fitted. The original cap had been damaged in a low-speed crash in practice. Quarterley was having no problems a t all moving to the fron t, taking th e lead after sweeping past Sohwa in tum nine on the third lap. The two Kawasakis im med iately began to edge awa y and tha t wa s fine with lena tsch. "We wanted to be as close to Muzzy as possible. We still are," Ienatsch said af te r h is 30-minute sti nt. "They're on Superbikes . We w anted t o run 46s, which w e did early. The last few laps were 47s. I se ttl ed into thi rd and put fiv e, six seconds on Rayborn (i n fourth) ." That wa s the margin a t the 15 minute mark, eight laps in the books with Sohwa chasing Quarterley, Ienatsch alone, with Rayborn in fourth in front of Yos h im u ra Suzuki's Donald Jacks, out for practice on his Superbike, and then Zampach on the Dutchman bike. It was about then that Quarterley decided to tum up the heat, putting better than a second a lap on Sohwa so. that when he ha nded off he had seven seconds in hand. " I just decided I'd had enough. It took me 10 laps to get my act together, then I did five good lap s to get away," Quarterley said . The first of the pit stops was right at th e 30-minute mark with Salave rria re placing Zampach, then Pegram got on for Iena tsch, and Nick Felli hopped onto the Keystone /Northstar Yamaha for Gary Lenzmeier. Three minutes later, Nobles took over the Mu zzy Kawasaki from Sohwa and soon after, Cal Rayborn gave way to David Emde an d Gray go t the nod from Quarterley. At tha t poin t there were abou t 23 minutes to go and the order was being settled with the rider changes complete . Gray has been campaigning a Ducati (Top) Sco tt Zampach (1) dices with Billy Graef (8), Matt Walt (95), Aaron Yates (19) and Shawn Higbee (2). Y ates too k the win, his second of the season. (Above) Muzzy Kawasaki (17) leads Erion Racing (1), Team Mirage (32) and Dutchman Racing In the Unlimited Team Challenge . this year, and had to re-acquaint himself with four-eylinder power . "Switchin g back and forth is reall y difficult . I d id five or six laps before the race. It is ha rd to get go ing fast on," Gray said . "It's Da le's bike. I bent one wheel going over a bump in practice:' With 20 minutes left, Gray had a 10s econd cushion and it would g row . Nothing eventful would happen until he got to. spray the champagne in the winner's circle. " We knew I could go fa s t er than Tripp (Nobles)," Gray, of nea rby Santa Rosa, said. "I could just sit right there and cr u ise for cash. Dale did a grea t job:'

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