Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

··.R ADR E.. .. O AC . AMANational C pionshipRoad Race Series · ham Round 3:L agunaSeca Raceway (Above) Takah ito Morl (42) leads Nick lenats ch (3), Rich Oliver (1) and the res t of the pack in the 250cc GP race on a soakin g-wet race track. (Left) Master of the wet Takahito Mori ran away from the co mpetition. lenatsch was second early, then he was passed by Oliv er, but the national champion couldn' t ge t near Mori, Both lena tsch and Oliver used Dunlops, a rain front tire and hand-cut slick rear. Even with fu ll rain s, Ol iv er admitt ed h e wasn't going to win today. "Looking back on it now, we probably should ha ve gone full we ts an d let them slid e around if it were to dry out, " Oliver lamen ted . "But we tho ught we'd ge t a little fancy ther e. I tho ug ht it was go ing to stop beca use it was spi tting down earlier in the day and it kin d of stopped an d the track dried rea l fast. I don 't think if I'd had rains I could have won tod ay . Takahito was rid ing beauti full y; he ' s been rid in g beau ti fu lly all w eekend in the rain. I knew we were in tr oubl e in the ra in . I was h op in g it would d ry." "Today we had very d ifficult conditions: ' Mori said . "I ha d to ma ke a very difficult deci sion; rain tire or slick tire. 1 chose Bridgestone rain an d it was a very goo d choice." By the fifth of 22 laps, Mori had better than 12 seconds in hand and expanded the cus hion to better tha n 20 before slowing down la te in th e race. On the finallap he backed way off on the front straight to ackno wledge the win, so the marg in of victory was a deceivin g 9.404 seconds. It was nowher e near that close. Mori com pleted the 22-lap, 48.4-mile race in 39 minutes, 41.590 seconds, at an average spee d of 73.627 m ph. The wi n was the first for a Honda since Jimmy Filice wo n at Loudon in Jun e 1992. lenats ch did we ll to finis h third . Actually, he did we ll to start. The Spo rt Rider magazine editor had a silly crash exiting tum three on a we t track on the w armup lap' and sto rm ed b ack to h is pi ts. When a rain delay wa s called, so that ri ders could make a tire ch ange, lenatsch and his crew retri eved the Zero . Gr avity Yamaha and began fixing the damage. With crew chief Steve Biganski orchestrating th e w ork, th e bike wa s read y for the restart and len atsch mad e th e best of it. But he knew h ow close he'd com e to disaster. "I saw my whole season going counterclockwise down the toilet," lenatsch sa id. " It was stup id. My brain wa s unplugged a t the s ta rt. 1 gave it too m uch thro ttle a nd to ss e d it on the warm up lap . My who le s e as o n wa s gone at thai poi nt ." After rep airs to the right-side brake lever, br ake ped al, exha ust pipe, fairing, and power valve, lenatsch was ready for busi ness . He ran second for twelve laps, th en O li ver ca me b y. lenat s ch h ung close for a wh ile, but couldn't get bac k in front. He would finish third , abou t six se co nds back, but stayed close in the points chase. With three races down and seven to go, Oliver leads lenatsch 102 to 90. Mike Sullivan , w ho b rou ght The Bro thers Honda-backed Ya ma ha home fi ft h tod ay, beh ind Southwest Motorsports' Christopher Rankin , is third with 72 poin ts. Rain h ad been threatening all day and jus t as the 250 field took off on its warm up la p, it began to fall. lena tsch wen t d o wn, but th e res t of th e fie ld ma de it back to the line, only to sit and wait as the rain continued briefly, then s to pped . There was a rain delay tha t las ted nearly 40 minutes, enoug h for the track to begin drying, only for the drizzle to fall again as the second crack at a wa rmu p lap began . The ju m p wen t to Mori, th e rain picked up, and he was long gone. O nly a mist ake, or a track that dried, could stop the Japanese rider, and neither happened. After p ulling ou t 17 seco nds by the halfway po int , he wasn't slowing down and had bett er than 20 seconds on the field after the 13th lap. Fro m there he kep t it pretty constant, only slowing on the fina l lap . Behind him was where the action wa s, though th e re w asn 't much of it. lenatsch was second off the sta rt, bu t was pa ssed by Team Oliver Yama ha's Ch uck Sorensen. len atsch wasn't having any of that, and recl aim ed th e spot on the fifth lap . Rich Oliver joined the fray on the eighth lap, moving past his teammate and maki ng a ru n at lenatsch just past the ha lfway ma rk. At that poi nt it was raining ha rder an d Mori' s rain skill - and correct tire choice - were ever mo re evident. Oliver took over second place on the 13th lap, with Sorense n still fourth. Bu t u nfortunately for Sorenson th at would shortly change. The number-two Tea m Oliver rider crashed in tum 10 - luckily able to remount - and would go on to finis h 10th, a lap down on the leaders. It wasn't until the final stages of the rac e that Oliver was ab le to gain any breathing room and pull away from lenatsch. "Once the track dried for me 1 cou ld keep wi th Nick and 1 knew that eve ntually 1 could get in front of him: ' Oliver said. " I didn't know if I cou ld stay in fron t of him . Fortu nately for me I was rid ing a lot better when 1 wasn 't watching wh at he wa s doing' when I was w atching what 1 was doi ng . I pu t togeth er three or four good lap s, then he caught me up in traffic, and 1 had to put anoth er three o r fou r in ." Bu t Oliver knew that, on this da y, lie wa sn't going to catch Mori, "H e was awesome and made us all look silly. I was the least silliest guy out there," Oli ver said. Like Oli ver, lenatsch was happy to be where he was, all things considered. "To make a mi stake like that, I was so frus trated with m yself," lenatsch sa id, addin g that h e didn 't fe el a n y inju ries. "I was so hopped up on ad renaline, bu t whe n 1 walked up here 1 could feel my hip and my butt were sore, my elbo w. We' ve go t a month to recover. Hon estl y, thi s is a dream to be sitti ng he re after high-sid ing my bike on the warmup lap . I can't believe it, I still can't believe it." After Sorensen crashed, Christopher Rankin mov ed into fourth, all by hi mself, and wou ld not be challenged at all. Mike Sullivan was an equa lly lonel y fifth, with Cine Ca mera Team Turfrey's Jason Paden moving into six th la te in the race . l~ Laguna Seca Raceway Monterey, California Results : April 3D, 1995 250cc GRAND PR IX: 1. Tak ahito Morl (Hon); 2. Rich O liv e r (Ya m) ; 3. N ick Ien at sch (Ya m) ; 4 . Chri sto pher Rankin (Yam); 5. Mik e Su llivan (Ya m); 6. Jason Paden (ya m ); 7. Jeff Leggitt (Ho n); 8. Greg Esser (Yam ); 9. Bobby Keith (Ya m); 10. Ch uc k So re nsen (Yam) ; 11. John Fra nce (Ho n); 12. Clinton Whitehouse (Yam); 13. Dave Avert (Yam ); 14. Derek King (Ho n); 15. Joe Skrocki (Yam); 16. Leigh ton Chalmers (Yam ); 17. Jeff O rt lip (Ya m ); 18. Andy Edwards (Yam); 19. Richard Sno wd en (Hon); 20. Phili p Snow de n (Hon ); 21. Mark Foster (Ya m ); 22. Ra nd y Ren frow (Apr ); 23. Jeff Vos (Ap r); 24. Brian Lefev re (Yam); 25. Dan Cook (Yarn); 26. Christopher Thomas (Yam); 27. Richard Padill a (Hon ); 28. Don Grijal va (Yam ); 29. John Froboese (Yam). Ti me: 39 min., 41.590 sec. Dista nce: 22 laps. 48.4 miles . Ave rage s pee d: 73.627 mph. Mugin of victory : 9.404 Sl'C. 25 0(c GR AN D PRI X CHA M P IO NSH IP P O INT ST ANDINGS (Af le r 3 of 10 ro unds): 1. Rich Oliver (102/2 wins ); 2. Nick le ne tsch (90); 3. Mike Sullivan (72~ 4. G reg Esser (66 ~ 5. Rand y Renfrow (65~ 6. Chu ck Sorensen (64 ); 7. Takahito Mori (61); 8. Christopher Rankin (59); 9. Jason Paden (49); 10. Jeff Vos (46); 11. Bobb y Keith (44); 12. John France (40); 13. Ma rk Fosl er (35); 14. Dave Avery PJ); 15. Clinton Whit eh ouse (31); 16 . Roland Sands (2~); 17. Je ff O rt lip (28 ); 18. Tatsuro Ara la (25); 19. Jeff Leggitt (24); 20. Luis Lavado (23). Upcoming rounds: Round 4 • Lexington. Ohio, June 4 Round 5 - Elkhart Lake. Wisconsin.June 11 AMA 750ccS upersport S eries By Paul Carruthers Photos by Henny Ray Abrams MONTEREY, CA, APR. 29 ,r anc e & Hines Yamaha's Tom Kipp ( not only completely conquered the we t conditi o n s a t La gun a Seca Racew ay, but his win in the thi rd round of th e series may be the race he looks back upon as the one that earne d him a second straight 750cc Supersport Cham- ' pionship. Altho ugh it's still early in the 10-race se ries, Kip p' s victory - combine d wi th h is main riva l Fred Merkel's early-race crash - has -given hi m a 17-point lead over Kinko' s Kawasaki's Thomas Wilson, who finished fourth today, and has a w ho p pi ng 42 -poin t margi n over Merkel, who d rops to sixth in the standings . Kipp lead s Wilson, 102-85. Second p lace in the appalling condition s at Laguna Seca Racew ay wen t to Yoshim ura Suzuki's Donald Jacks, with . the Floridian stead ily climbing through the ra nks as those in fron t of him suffered crashes and mechan ical problems. At the finish, Jacks was some 10 seconds behind Kipp and just ahead of Kinko's Kawasaki's James Randolph after a lastlap, last-tum pass. With Wilson taking fourth, fifth place went to Michael Dean Vince nt of La Crescenta, California, on .th e A t tack Performance Ya maha YZF750. Mark McDaniel, Fritz Kling, Tripp Nobles (who crashed and remoun ted ), Thomas Monta no and Mike Murphy rounded out the top 10 finishers in a race that featured high attrition. Rain was the order of the da y and it d idn't let up for th e 750cc Supersport fina l. Kipp led over the hill a nd into turn two, ch as ed by Merkel and Randolph, wit h the former getting in a huge tank-slapper on the exit of the secondgear left ha nder. At the completion of the fir st of 22 laps, Kipp ha d already establis hed a lead over Merkel and Randolph, with a one- second gap back to the Honda CBR600 of Hikaru Miyagi, the Kawasaki of Nobles and the Suz ukis of Aaron Yates an d Mark Mcfrariiel. Merkel's race ended shortly thereafter w hen he slid ou t of action on the ex it of the fa me d Co rkscrew . Ju st as quickly, Miyagi was up to second, with a gap ove r Rand o lph, w ho was a ls o passed on the third la p by Nobles and the su rprising Mark Black. Yates was the next to rem ove himself as he crashe d in tum nine on the fifth lap; Ge rald Rothman followed suit the n ext la p ; and two lap s la ter it was Black's tum to jump off in tum 10. And that wasn' t all. On the 10th lap, Nobles cras hed in the Corkscrew, but was fortun at e en o ugh to b e ab le to re mo unt, albeit muddy. At the end of the 10th lap, the or der read : Kipp, Miyagi, Rand olph, Jacks, McDaniel, Wilson - with Randolp h starting to ch ip awa y at Miyagi's lead . The crashes resumed on the 12th lap with Antho ny Lupo stepp ing off in tum 11 and McDaniel joining hi m there a lap later. By this point, a crash was ofte n follow ed b y a remount an d top finishes we re s till p oss ib le, as proven by McDaniel's rise back to sixth place. Miyagi's Honda started to fail on the 15th lap and Randolph wen t by a lap later, followed shortl y th ereafter by Jacks, as Miya gi pulled off on the out-

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