Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

'R A SeriesA E, ' Final Round: Road Atlanta O D: R C , WERA Pro Chuck Sorensen dominated the Formula II final at Road Atlanta , winning easily over William Himmelsbach . I I I I I I I I Then cam e Adams' turn -five crash which littered the track with debris and brought ou t the red flag. Wit h scoring reverting back to the ninth lap, Rent zell would be declared the winner until the post-race ins pection. By then it was about 9:00 p.m . and the titl e wa s giv en to McDa niel, who praised his fellow competitors. "TI l tell you it 's grea t to be ridi ng with th e li kes of Ch uck Graves and Kevin Rentzell," the 20-year -old California n said. , " I was d o ing the best job 1 could witho ut tossing it on the gro und," said Graves, who was moved up to second. Ada ms was credited with third, Patterson fourth a nd Sta nt on fift h, with Aaro n Yates right on his tail when the race ended. 750cc SUZUKI NATIONAL CUP FINAL weIl in front of teammate David Stanton, both GSXR750-m ounted. Stanton was on Martin 's 1993 bike. "M ichael (Martin) was gone, gone, gone ," Graves said. "My job was to stay on the motorcycle. 1 knew one of them would ma ke a mistake th e wa y th e y were banging. 1 let them go and here 1 am." -g, 0"\ rl -.D rl I-< Q) S Q) 5 Z 12 Stanton had gotte n a bad sta rt and moved past Virginia Breeze 's Gl enn Szarek and in to fifth on the third lap. Szarek repassed him, but Stanton was by for good on the fifth lap, despite the disparity in power. "His bike was really fa st orrthe straightaway," Stanton said. "1 could pull up on his rear wheel from turn one to tum seven, but 1couldn't pass him." By the eighth lap, Stan ton was leaving Szarek to the ad vances of Andrew Stroud . Because Stroud had replaced Gray on "Th e Farm Tea m," he 'd borrowed a set of Quarterley's leathers and had covered the Fastline/MCM Suzuki ' GSXR1100 in green and red gaffer's tape to try to match Quarterley' s pa int sche me. But no amoun t of cos metics could cover up Stroud's machine troubles. "The bike kept cutting out. It would do it anywhere," Stroud said, describing the "i t" as feeling like som eone hit the kill switch. " O n ce it d id it on the straight and just about spi t me off. 1 was standing up on the pegs. 1 was catching them up the last three laps." Valvoline Suzuki's Tra y Batey was alone in seventh, as was David Davis in eighth w ith Paul H arrell n inth and David Klassen rounding out the top 10. The se co nd le g w as held several hours later and by then the weather had changed a littl e. The rain had stopped and there was a semblance of a dry line in various parts of the track. The choice of tires was mostly full wets, though Stroud w ent wi th slicks, a move he would come to regret. The jump went to Martin again, this time with Gr a ves, Quarterley, Szarek and Batey dose behind. Szarek was the first to drop out when a breather tube got caught in his carbureto rs and his throttle stuck wide-open on the back straight. He would rejoin the race and finish 15th. Starting the fourth lap, Quarterl ey went up the inside of Martin going into turn one and took over the lead . Graves was no w in third and there were gaps emergin g among the top six with Stanton, Batey, and Harth dropping slightly as the track dried out and nigh t began to fall. By the midpoint of the 12-lap race the lead th reesome of Qu art erl ey, Martin and Gr av es had begun to edge away from the p ack. With th e EBC Brakes Triple Crown Chall enge money on the line th e Valvoline Su zuki tea m ma tes kne w they had to finish, bu t that didn't stop Martin from taking the point back from Quarterle y in the sa me p lace where he'd lost it. And on the next lap Graves would make a move in tum one, the ride rs going thr ee abreast on a drying track with Quarter ley in the lead, though just briefly. Exiting the Esses the Team Mirage bike got out of shape and dropped back to third, with Graves in front for the first time and Martin second. Quarterley was qu ickly into second behind Graves, then Ma rtin dra fted them both fo r the lead o n the back straight when Graves made a small mistake on the 10th lap. On the nex t lap Martin would lose the fro nt end and Quarterley was again in front, losing it ' later in the lap with Martin and Quart erley gaining a slight cushion on Graves to start the final lap. For half of the final lap Martin was in front until theycarne out of tum seven for the run back to the flag. That's where Ma rtin said Quarterley forced him off the track and the race was decided. '" "There was a litt le rough rid ing on 'the last lap," Martin said. "1 did my best and came up a little sho rt. It's up setting to race hard and some guy runs me off the track. That's the way Dale is." "1 wouldn't say we were that over , the ed ge . We were r id ing at 105 % in stead of 130%," Quarterl ey said. " I won the battle and lost th e war," he added in reference to the Triple Crown. " All they had to worry abo u t wa s not faIling down." As in th e fi rs t r ace, St anton w as fourth, a spot he took over on the fourth lap and immediately made his own. At the end he was about 11 second s behind the leaders, but about eight seconds up on Harth, the fifth-p lace finisher. Stanton, who ro de the Suzuki 750cc Cup race just before the F-USA leg, chose to go with rain tires on the d rying tr ack, thin king th at if they overhea ted he could ride thr ou gh the puddles to cool them down. Tha t was until he nea rly high-sided out of tum five. "I just took it easy after tha t," he said. , Behind H arth ca m e Bate y, then Stroud, one of the few riders to go with full slicks in the second leg. "We only had one set of wheels," he explained. David Davis, Paul Harrell and David Klassen filled out the top 10. 1100cc SUZUKI NATIONAL CUP SERIES FINAL Three riders vied for the lead at the start of the 1100cc Suzuki Nationa l Cup Series Final , with Team Suzuki Sport 's James Randolph crossing the line first at the end of the first of 12 scheduled laps. " The seco n d lap had a different lead er, th is tim e it was RK Racing' s Kevin Ren tzell, bu t Rentzell would drop back a spo t when he was kicked out of the saddle exiting tum five putting Rando lph back in the lead. By the third lap there was a five-rider b reaka w a y w it h Rand o lph leading Rentzell, Team Su zuki Sport's Mark McDan iel, C urtis Adams and Graves. Gr aves moved up a spot exiting tum five just as Randolph began making his move on the fourth lap. He was ab le to open up a bit of br eath ing roo m, as the quartet behind him tight ened up, McDaniel now leading it as they left the rest of the 19-rider field behind . The pace he was running proved too sw ift because on the sixth lap Randolph was off the track and into the gra vel ou tside of turn six; moving McDaniel into the lead . Ran d olph rejoined the race in fifth p la ce in front of Farmington Cycle Wo rld /Va lvolin e's Steve Patterson, be for e cr ashing ag ain for th e second time on the eighth la p, th is time for good . McD aniel was s till in fr ont, but Rentz ell found a way to use backmarkers to take over the lead to end the ninth lap with Gra ves and Adams jus t back and Patterson all alone. A cra sh in turn thr ee on the second lap of the 750cc Suzuki National Cup final bro ught out the first red flag and a half-hour dela y. The second try end ed on the first lap with Frank Wilson crashing hard into the hay bales on the ou tside of tum 11, knoc king himself ou t as his bike, and ' some hay bales, caug ht on fire, Another half-hour delay ens ued and by then it bega n rain in g . By th e ti me th e ra ce began it was rain ing ligh tly an d the track was comple tely wet. ' James Ran dolph got the holeshot in fro nt of Graves, McDa niel, Yates and Batey. ' The pace tha t Randolph and Graves were run ni ng was taking th em away from the pack, and by the fourth lap of 12 sched uled laps, they were better than six seconds in fro nt of McDa niel, the Ca lifornian bein g p ressed by fourthplaced Yates of Team Suzuki Sport. At w ha t shou ld ha v e been th e halfway mark, Randolph had about a 25-yard lea d on Graves, w ho w as unab le to close the ga p at th e tim e, though th e d uo was we ll in front of McD an iel: By now Patte rs on w as in front of Yat es with Stanton and Noel Brown catchin g them . On the eig hth lap Graves went into the lead in the Esses , hold ing the spot for a lap before Rand olph took it back. H e w as in fro nt w h e n the ra ce was stop ped for the third time, this time for good, on the 10th lap. "He (Graves) and 1 ha ve had some epic battles a t Willow Spr in gs," Rand olph said of hi s fello w Californian . "There's not a better guy to race with for the Suzu ki Cup." "That's racing, " Gr aves agreed . "I shouldn't have let him get back by me. 1 d idn't think he'd ge t ba ck by. 1 was usin g a stra tegy for the end of the race. It was prett y stup id. Neither one of us got as hairy as we could have. Neither one of us wanted to take too man y chances. There's a lot of money on the line." McDaniel, a lonely third, said hewas "just taking it easy in the rain. It was a little slick. Chu ck (Graves) and Games) Randolph put on a hell of a show. 1 was keeping my eye on the gu y behind me." Tha t would be Yates and he woul d get in front of Palterson on the eighth lap with Stant on moving up to sixth in the tightl y packed bunch. GOODRIDGE FORMU LA II In very little time Performance South Racing's Chuck Sorensen took any hint

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