Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

of sus pense ou t of the Goodridge Form ula II race. The Californian was bett er than seven seconds in front on the second lap, not bothered by the wet track. It w as his race to w in or lose and he chose the former pulling away at better tha n two seconds a lap unti l backing off late in the eight-lap race. " It went the wa y we planned. That's the way we wanted it," Sorense n said in the w inner's circle after his first WERA F-I1 win. Sorensen said that he'd gained a lot of wet track expe rience during five we t races last year, but hadn't had one this yea r. "It took a little getling use d to." Aft er ri d ing the fir st lap, Perfo r- man ce So u th Raci n g ' s Rich O li ver p u lled in a nd watched from pit lan e, w a i tin g to take the fina l la p and the checkered flag. He 'd been denied competing by doc tors, but said he felt fine. " I don't know anyth in g abo u t th e . condit ion. It was more precautionary than anythin g," Oliver said. "I don 't feel normal, but I could have won . I've ridd en with more pain. I've ridden w ith two broken feet," O liver said he fel t " terrible" sitting there beca use he kn ew the crash tha t sid elined him and put Gra y in the hosp ital was nobod y' s fa ult. Gray high- . sided when he hit water coming out of a breather tube of a bike in front of him. On the third lap the field was strung ou t and it was ap pa ren t that one of two riders would take second. It was either Esser or H imm elsbach and they were eq ually matched. Esser had it for laps two and three, then it was H im melsba ch 's with a little extra space as Esser ne arly went d own after getting out of shape in tu m five and running off onto the ru mble strips. "I crashed out of tum five and Bill got by me," Esser said. He gathered it back in and the pair swap pe d spots three tim es on lap six wi th Esser in front starting the final lap. He would hold the spo t the en tire lap until the downhill section between turns 11 and 12. Tha t's where Himmelsbach would sneak insid e for the last right and hold him off at the line by a bike length to take second. "I go t bea t by so mebody doing that to me," Himm elsbach said of his last -lap move. "I knew tha t it cou ld be done. 1 knew Greg rid es well. I knew we'd be safe." "On the last la p 1 w a it e d for th e b rid ge. I d idn't wan t to d o wha t Bill did, " Esser said. Fourth place, all by himself, was the lone fo u r-s troke in the fiel d , Hond a CBR600-mounted Patrick Moor e. Honda RS250-mounted Scott Mar tin followed at a d istance in front of David DeRonne. GOODRIDGE FORMULA III This would be a race of attrition and there weren't a lot of rid ers to lose. The race was shortened to six laps and wa s raced on a wet track, th ough the su n mad e a brief appe arance. The firs t to go wo uld be Greg Tickle, w ho cras hed exiting tum 11 while in second place on the firs t lap. He was trying to keep up with Roadracing World' s Chris Rogers and th at proved a foolis h e ndeavo r. N o on e could keep up and the Yamaha TZl25- Chris Rogers was the lastest 01 the 125cc men at the Grand National Final; Rogers rode his Yamaha TZ125 to the race win In the Formula III class In wet conditions. . display In fro~t cil their pits with a sign oj; it which' read: '"For " .had him in the last comer and he motored by me," Schwaritz , ' Sale, Performance Enhancing Tail Sections, Works wonders. . sa id, Unbel ievable .ga in ~ . Worth 2 laps of speed. Impress .your · ' . . . ' . . . . ,... . . . . . . · friends. Make olle r.... ... . ' . ... . . '".': ; .' ..:.' After class victories each of the past three years, T eam.Pearls Performance South Fiacing's Rich Oliver said he was waiting to , . .. . .. Suzuki's FrankWllson said tie was hoping the team would be · hear from the various racing organizations before he decided on . Inclement w eath eroQ Saturday forced change iQthe Metzel·· . able to sw itch to He avyw ei ght Superbike for t he WERA his plans for .1995, though he'd already heard from the AMA. "I ' er G'1ind National ' Final schedule. .The .fourth race .01.the .day, Endurance .Serie s in .1995. ~I t's up to .(team manager) Peter talked with Tom Mueller and he said he the 250cc class would .·the B Superbike Novice; was red-flagged and shortened from . Jones as to what we're doing . The 'team won Middleweight be back andhe was 100% sure it would run on Sunday. We eight to six laps. because .0f rain;·The Goodridge Formula II heat ' Superstock two years ago. they won Middleweight Superbike . have some corporate stull coming along farther than I thought at . : race was cancelled and the rest of the'races moved up one. The . last year, and we won Heavyweight Superstock this year," Wilth is point, but I really can't s ay any1 hing about it We do 'have, . rain s top ped hal fway into the prog ram ; but soon resumed. .' son said, adding that this was the first year that he'd raced with probably, .double the industry support we had last year. Shoei .' though with tess intensity, and by the end of the day there was a the team ; along 'with Glenn' Saylor and Reuben Frankenfield, ca me up to me at the U.S. GP and complimented me on my .dry line in all the comers, though the track was still damp: Rain "The o nly thing .we haven't done is Heavyweight Superbike. year and said they wanted to support the team next year. They ' also' chang ed S unday's .program with .two races being red ' :' Hopefully we can get a 'prog'ram together for that" Wilson said, . made' an oller that was double what we got this year." It's really" . flagged arid the ' Formula II and Formula III races beiilg short·'· in addition to racing here.ih isresults aboard the Team Pearls f1atte.'ing when Shoei, Dunlo!>, Yamaha" come up andoller you ened. · . .. . .. . . .. . ' , .' Suzuki had landed a ride in Canada for 1995.· He'll be riding a more and you don't naveto ask them for more." Oliver added GSXR1100 in the Supersportclass on a team being put togeth· that EBC, Silkolene, and RK.have also said they would be back Team. Lucky ' Strike Suzuki's Kevin Sch;"'antZ ·m~de. a promo- .' er through Suzuki Canada by Klaus Morley. Wilson will be the in 1995: . .tional appearance althe ·Suzukl Cup . vent signing autographs lead rider on a four rider tearn.,Wilson crashed heavily in the , e in the .Suzuki tent with camouliagErCOvered casts on both wrists. Suzuki 750cc National Cup race' exiting the Goodyea r Bridge . .. The cast on the left wrist had been on for five and a half weeks ' .and the race was red-flagged. He was taken to the hospital,' but · Mike Harth was "hurting all. over': after crashing when a piece of and would be .on· for another two .or three, he said. After that . later released and returned to the track . "' bruised my upper the carbon-flber fronl fender broke oil and' locked up the front .would be two or three viteeks .of rehabilitation. The Monday ' right arm and l'rn.sore and a little dizzy," he 'said, "Coming up brakes on the Team laBelle Honda CBR9oo, Harth said it hapbef ore the GNF ; he'd had a sc rew inserted .into his rig ht ' the hill someone hit me from behind. The bike was going crazy. . pen ed "when I came down .the bottom of the dip, the fastes t · scaphoid because. ilwasn't .heallng .Quickly enough . Schwantz ·; .It got it settled down, then I leaned it over and it went and J went · part. I got hard on 'the bra kes and when I released them ; it said that wrist would be in a cast lor four weeks "just tomake . too" . . stayed down. AU 01a sudden smoke started coming through the ' . sure: Right now'our goal is to have it ready in' January" The' for, . cockp it: I was thinking 'Maybe they'll. break loose, maybe they'll. mer World Champ ion 'was supposed to ride a Superblkers' . Doug Gonda, whose company Protac handles public relations breakloose.' I was skldding .the front tire. I was going about 100 ·event in Bologna: It aly, and was to test in Jerez at the end 01.. a nd med ia for WERA, said he was waiting for the shakeout ' mph and it was gaining traction at thetop of the hill. That's when November:,wlth new teammate Daryl ·Beattle.· Now he11attend . among ·the various sanction ing bodies before announc ing the I bailed." . .. . · the..Jerez test; but .only to help Beattie. Schwantz said the new: WERA F·USA schedule for 1995. "With the GP, Wor1d Super' · prototype wouldn't be ready until the end of December and .that . bike, and the AMA and Roger (Edmondson's) series, we really · Michael Barnes was hoping to return to Europe to ' lest the Beattie would be testing new tires and parts. Depending on his , can't do' any1 hing until things are a little bit clearer. W e're look· " Honda RS125 ·for the Energizer team he'd tested for earflerin prOgress, 5chwan!Z.'may go to Japan to test the prototype dur- . ing at five F-USA rounds with two races each. Eech race would ' the year, but those plans were put on hold when he crashed the . ing .the last w eek of December, though he's 'aware that the : . pay points and a purse" As for tracks Gonda said he believed FastHnelM CM bike in practice rebreaking his right wrist."Barnes weather at that time of the year could be problematic. ; .they would be returning to Portland International Raceway and , fractured the schaphold and metacarpal bones 'and broke the . '. , . . . . " .,.. . Road Atlan ta and may ret urn to Will ow Springs . "Will ow uppermost rib on his Jeft side in the tum-five crash: He'd hoped The day alier the GNF, Schwantz was scheduled to go to Road ' Springs has just been repaved and il' s ,10 feet wider. They put ' to ente r the final Ducados Open rounds , but cou ldn't get an America to inspect the ·track which may be the site of the 1995 1 of money into it and asked that we' come back" Amo ng 01 entry so he was hoping the test would come through: "It's a tryU.S. GP. He was originallys cheduled to go with Wayne Rainey · the other possibllltles are Lagu naSeca Raceway and Road :out, basically. They really want to work with me because I'm an . and Dennis Noyes after the' European GPi but problems' arose . America in Elkhart lake', Wisconsin, Because of a string of.bad . Am erican and their main sponsor is an Amer ican co mpany.". · and they realized the track would need Ii subsequent inspection." weather for .the Grand National Finals, WERA is strongly con· Barnes had removed the cast from his wrist three weeks earlier, "I'm 'lust golrig !o 'go ov'erwhatWayne told themandsee what. siderlng moving it,lhougl) whether it would be earlier or later is the wee k ' afte r th e ' AMA Road Atlanta National. "I ,cu t it oil ' Wayne came up with. Whenever the final drawings were done yet to be decided, Gonda also said that he believed most of this · myself. It was really starting to stink. I started doing real slow was When I would go up. I'm nor sure what niy purpose Is, but . year's .series sponsors woukr be back , "I.can tell you that every· therapy, Then I sent Dr. Kielle~ an X-ray and he said to work it I'll.give them another opinion. I saw the drawings and there 's air body indicated they liked what they'd gotten this year. The only ·hard" But doctors fitted a new cast alter the 'practice spill and fence in' two or.three places and gravel traps where now there's'· . one confirmed at this Point Is Sunoco for the endurance 'series, Barnes sa id he wasn't sureh ow long it would-be on tor or .grass. They're modiliying the Carousel and they're talking about We might possib ly have one new one." For 1994 Goodridge whether he would get the tryout on the Energizer team: "At this ·acnlcane in the back' straight.and another moditlcation at the '. sponsored the Formula II class ; RK Chairi backed the Formula time of the year we'reup against the weather" · end of t he back s traig ht " on t he .approac h toth e b ridge. ' . 11I 'class, Motoport was behind the ' F-USA series, the Super :5c hwanti: said he last raced there in 1987 aboard the Yoshlrnu-. stock classes were Michelin~supported, and Sunoco and Per- · After being disqualifiBd for having illegal bodywork , Coinpetltlve · · ra Suzuki GSXR750 and he .remembers be ing beaten by ' foimance Mach'ine Wheels were the sponsors of the enourance Edge Racing put the ollending Suzuki.GSXR750 tailpiece on · Wayne Rainey who. was .ridIng the Honda·VFR750, ~I .think I class . . ' ". ' . . . ' . Brieflv...· a a '.' -.::t' 0\ 0\ ..... -.D ..... ~ Q) "E 6 Q) z 13

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