Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Lightweight GP round, wi th only third, pla ce fin ish er William Quinn even able to s tay near. Struggling wi th old parts after blowing up all his new stuff in two prac ti ce seiz u res, Fra nce was bli tzing th rough the infield whil e Esser had a slig h t edge on the banking. Second out of the chicane, Esser took the win with a low pass that offered a scant .02-of-a-second margin of victory. "He was playin ' me in the infield, but I had a little bit of power on him," confirmed victor Esser. "He s pa n ked me pretty good last weekend at Moroso. I've been coming here for 10 years and this is the first time I've won." Action-Yamaha TZ250-mounted Michael Deblanco led from start to finish in the Amateur wave. Little-known Turpin made a b ig impression in Expert Unlimited SuperSport, getting into a fight for first with Marc Smith's New England Performance Kawasaki 750 after pulling away from Gene Church and Eric Wood . Turpin d r afted by Smith to w in at the line, Wood running straight at the Chicane to hand Church third place. Brank's long- aw aited se con d win arriv ed in.Amateur Heavyweight Superbike, his fast Suzuki too much for the big field to handle. While pulling awa y from the field, a rough-looking (and no doubt st iff) Brank turned several la ps in the 2:02 ra nge. Following some ve ry close racing, Gregory Leffler go t second by wea ving onto the tri oval, with Hammitt forced to settle for third. "I just had a run of bad luck in a few othe r races today," reflected Brank postwi n. "Someone was watching over me in this one. I can' t say enou gh about all the help I' ve had ,.and.l wan t to say than ks to Don at Yosh for putting this motor toget her for me." Setting a blazing pace from the green, Full Spectru m Racing Yamaha rider Ron Perry was over five seconds clear of the field after one lap of Expert Lightweight Su perbike, expecting a challenge from Cha mpion Todd Hen ning's Yamah a RD350 LC. Bu t H en n ing h ad m in o r mot or p roblems, and Yama ha FZR400 pilot Perry wo n by a d ominan t 12 seconds from Jim Brewer and Henning. Following in Perry's footsteps, Dustin Sperber ran a w ay with the Am ateur Ligh tweight portion, working his way up to eighth overall among the Experts. Mark Wh itehurst and Brank had a good fight for Amateur Middlewe ight Su p erbike honors, thi s pa ir ' of Honda pilots d rafting clear of the pack. Brank took first going into the chican e on the last lap and tried to get away, but Whitehu rst passed high on the banking, the n tucked d own low. Although he followed and t ri ed to d r aft a nd repa ss, Brank came up one one-hundre dth of a Second short at the checkered. "I eally didn't think I was gonna win that one," ad m itted Fast Lane Cyclesbacked Whiteh urst, who almost got blown off his Honda celebrating the win . "Brank was all over me and I thought for sure he was gonna pull out some horsepower on me on the bank ing. I was on my slower bike, I blew up my superbike, but I learned in the 400 race that I could brake a little later going into tum one." Murphy rocketed in to the lead pa rt way through lap one in Expert Middleweight Superbike, hooking up with William Luke in an all-Honda fight at the front. Then Murphy gradually pulled away to vi cto ry, Luke a safe secon d while Dam ian Web er edged Sza rek a t the line for third in a good scrap. "This th ing has a killer motor," confirm ed Mu rph y o f his batter ed , bo rrowed machine. "It's fast as hell, and it's nice of Tommy Girard to loan it to me. I tried for a nice constant pace, I d idn't want to throw it away because 1 have a few races left." After sitting out an ea rlier 600 race wi th min or carb problems, Gerald Rothman m ade h is fi rst s ta rt in Expe rt Heavyweight Supersp ort, d etermined to keep the number-one plate he's had for the last two years . Setting a strong pace from the start, Rothman buil t a three-second lead by lap four, turning laps in the 2:01 area . Then Kawasaki-mounted Turpin got in s p i red and s ta r te d to charge, forcing the pace. With a lap left to go Rothman was still a second clear, bufTurpin gave it his all, catching the draft and passing the leader on the way to the chicane . Scoring his second win of the day by almo st half a second, Turpin parked his ZX-7 and rushed to grid for the final Sa turday event aboard h is Yamaha OW01/ FZR10oo. The Expert Unlimited GP round should have been a s trong finish to a smooth day' s racing, but instead it required four restarts, inju red seve ral riders and d ragged the schedule to dusk. Overheating on th e line due to a long de lay for the first start got temperatures and tempers up, and Real had barel y taken the lea d from Smith before a multi-bike incident in turn one stopped the race as the lead ers sta rted lap two. A big mess in the chicane stop ped action a second time, with Real openly questioning how much more abuse his clutch could stand. But Turpin was in worse trouble, clobb ering the dirt bank on the ride r's left trying to avoid a fallen bike. Once Turpin was taken to hosp ital, a st art-line / tum-on e multi-bike pileup produced more red flags, then at th e next launch Rick Shaw stopped the clock when he was forced to pull his rare Bimota-Yamah a 1000 off the track du e to an oil leak. Once the track was checked and confirmed clean, the field launched wit hout a warm-up lap with Real running away fro m Smith. A lthough the field was dep leted, there was some exciting action co mi ng from th e second wave, the Kawasaki superbike fourso me of '89 200 winner John Ashmead, Eric Moe, Harrington and top Can ad ian rookie Pro Jeff Sneyd movin g through the pack. Even th ou gh co ndi tions were fa r fro m ide al and he was running a we llused rear tire, Real turned some imp ressive times on his way to victory, including laps in the 1:57.6 range. Smith was 13 seconds behind for second at the end of a long day - Ashmead, Moe, Harrington a n d Sneyd cl ose behind and closing quickly. "This is my first time with the Ducati since Lagu na ," explaine d winner Real, referring to the AMA Na tional held in April. "I cras hed there, I got hurt and I wrecked the bike. It's basica Ily new excep t for the gearbox, so it was expensive and it took a long time to fix." Expert Solo GTU began Sunday' s p rogram of events, and Mike Murphy was awake bright and earl y, building a big lead to take his second win. Murphy was motivated by a s tr ong 250cc GP en try, but France didn't get up to second from the second wave un til lap six. By the n Murphy had a nine-second lead, al though France d id his best in heavy traffic to whittle that down to six seconds at the checkered. A red flag de layed Expert Solo GTO, and wh en the race got underway Mark Schellinger took control aboard Go ld HiIl Racin g's ve nerable Yama ha 1000. Once again th e threat fro m wave two was major; wi th Harrington, Ashmead, Moe and Sneyd on the move big-time. By lap five H a r ring ton was in third behind leade r Schellinger an d ha rd-rid- ing Suzuki-mounted Cha rles Small, while Moe was fo rced to retire with expensive-sounding engine noises. On lap seven Ha rrington sta rt ed to drop his lap times and took over th e lead, putting ScheIlinger (hin dered by a loose fairing) into second. Running some ultra-fast laps incl uding an unoffi cial 1:57.6, H arrington s tyled aw ay to th e win. Sney d made it fro m d ead-last on row 20 to second at the finish, 21 seconds behind Harrington in a stunning display of ex-Crevier machinery. " I didn't know I won," exclaimed a stunned Harrington when he finaIly got the news in the garage area. "On the third lap, I blew through the chicane, so I really d idn't know wher e I was. I've been ha ving trac tion trouble. It's only my second event with the bike, and this mo rn ing I raised the front end up, p ut on a softer rear Dunlop and tried to be a litt le smoother on the throttle. It works good, it must be the' fas tes t th ing out the re, and the changes he lped . I got by Mo e and Ashmead really easily, and yesterday I couldn't hang with them." The big bikes were back ou t for Expert Heavyweight Superbike during Sunday afternoon's feature presen tations, with Smith gra bbing a characteristic lead as all t he regular suspects charged from back in the pack. Real chased down Smith and took over point . duties on lap five of 10, Smith keep ing second 13 seconds clea r of a fig ht for third betwee n Steve DeC a m p a n d Sneyd, soon to be joined by Ashmead . On lap seven Smith ran off track in tum one, rejoining in fifth while Real continued to pull away ou t front. Ashmea d worked his way through the field an d eventually engaged Sneyd in a dispute for second. Stiff from two crashes over the weekend, Sneyd was struggling with the fact that the '93 Canadian titlewinning ZX-7R had no fourth gear but two fifths. (Top) Todd Brank (210) dives unde r James Bronson (715) In the GTU Amateur class. (Above) Ji m France (19), Mike Murphy (119) and Greg Esser (26) battle In the Ughtwelght GP class ; Esser won. Ashmead even tually passed Sneyd in turn three of the Sup erspeedway on the final lap , the final resul ts rea d ing Real, Ashmead, Sneyd , Smith and DeCamp. Harrington should ha ve been among the front-runners, but his Kawasaki was hindered by clutch trouble, even tually causing Harrington to pull off near the end of theraee. "I' m glad we now kno w the bike is w orking fine," stated Real. "Now I have a better perspective for next year, and I ha ve all winter to get read y for the next ra ce. I hope to w in so me international events in 1995." , The final race of the 1994 AMA-CCS series was Expert Middleweight Grand Prix, with Mike Murphy thoughtfuIly joining in on the regul ar Esser vers us France experience. Once again, France pushed hard through the infield, Esser , seemed to have an edge on accelera tion while Murphy's 600cc four-stroke four produced impressive top speed. It looked like anyone's race, and on , the last lap the GP bikes dec lared their intentions, Murphy trying to protect his leader status with a tight entrance to the Interna tional horseshoe, only to ha ve both France and Esser squeezed underneath. Esser gambled on get ting to the chicane first with France an d the canny Mu rphy in tow, and it paid off, Esser winning by halfa second from Murphy and France. "This was a hard race, but it was a grea t, totally clean race," enthused d ouble winner Esser.''' Any one of the three of us could hav e won it. I want to thank Roger (Ed m ondson, CCS founder) for putting on such a great even t." aI . 0\ l-< OJ ~ 5 z 11

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