Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

.R ADRACE O '. , AMA National C hampionship Road Race Series Round 5: Road America (Left) Fred Merkel ran away and hid Inthe 750Cc Supers port final, beating rivalTom Klpp by over seven seconds. (Below) Tom Klpp finished second in the 750cc Supers port final, but Is In jeopardy of losing his championshi p points due to Yamaha's homologation being revoked by the AMA. I until the last few laps that Renfrow was able to gain some breathing roo m. "Nick passed me near the end going into tum 14, but he went in so har d that he didn't have any speed coming ou t of th e corner," sa id Renfro w . "My d rive coming out was at least five mph better, a nd I jus t sho t rig h t back past h im . I cooled it on the last lap and was able to d istance myself a little ." Oliver, meanwhile, began to wo rry in the later stages of the race. "It started to get cloudy and a couple of drops started to fall," said Oliver. "My bike s ta r ted to g et a little hot because it was running lean. I was a little worried, thinking that we might not make it." As it turned out, Oliver ' s concern was a wa ste. The lea der could have slowed his pace dramatically, and still raced home th e w in ner. So ren sen reported no simila r troubles and had a relativ ely uneventful ride. "A lot of people ask me, 'Well, when a re you g onna b eat that gu y:" said Sor en sen. "I tell them that it' s a slow learning process. I've gotten to where I am pretty quickly, and to get from here to wh ere Rich is tak es a while. There' s still a couple of steps that I have to take to get to Rich's level." 0Road America Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin Results: J une 11, 1995 2SOcc C P: 1. Rich Olive!' (Yam); 2. Chuck Sorensen (Yam); 3. Randy Renfrow (Hon): 4. Nick lenatsc h (Yam ); 5. Roland Sands (Yam) ; 6. Andrew Trevitt (Yam) ; 7. Mike Sullivan (Yam); 8. John France (H onk 9. Micha el Barnes (Ho n); 10. Jeff Vas (Ap'); 11. Leon Co rtes (Yam ); 12. Jason Paden (Ya m ); 13. Bobby Keith (Ya m) : 14. William Himmelsbach (Yam ); IS. Greg Esser (YaQ\); 16. Rid Bullock (Yam); 17. Tommy Hayden (Yam); 18. Joe Skrocki (Yam); 19. Ma r k Orcha rd (Ya m ); 20. David Deron ne (Ya m ); 21. John Froboese (Yam); 22. Der ek King (Hen): 23. Jim Bonne r (Ya m ); 24 , Joshua Ada m Graham (Yam ); 25. Ch rist opher Rankin (Yam ). Ti me: 27 mins.• 53.073 sea. D lstan ce 12 laps, 48 m iles. Averag e speed : 103.283 mph. M .argin of vict o ry: 23,490 sees . 2SO« G P C S Hl P SERIES POINT STANDlNGS (Aller 5 of 10 ro unds): 1. Rich Oliver (172 / 4 wins); 2. N ick Ienatsch (144); 3. Chuck Sore nsen (28); 4. Mike Sulliva n (26); S. Ra ndy Renfrow (18); 6. Greg Esser (07); 7. Christopher Ranki n (93); 8. Jeff Vas (89); 9. Jason Paden (86 ); 10. Bobby Ke it h (83); 11. Jo hn France (82); 12. Rola nd Sands (n ); 13. Takahito Mcri (61/1); 14. Ma rk Foster (59); 15 . WiJJiam Him melsbach (56) ; 16. Leon Cortes (44); 17. Joe Skrocki (43); 18. Andrew Trevitt (41); 19. Derek King (40);20. Dave Avery (33). 16 Upcoming Rounds: Round 6 - Loudon, NH, June 11 Round 7 - Brainerd. MN, July16 Suzuki Sport' s Aaron Yates, Jacks and Wilson . Both Jacks and Wilson mo ved aroun d the cha mpionship points lead er, and by the end of th e third lap Kip p ap pea red to be fad ing. Then jus t as qui ckly, he reestablished himself, and on the sixth lap he was by bot h Jacks and Wilson and into second place - aga in. From there Kipp managed to p ull free, wi th Jacks able to do likewis e in his race wit h Wilson. "1 got off to a poo r start," Kipp said. ''We've been battling setu p throughout the w eekend , and w e m ade so me cha nges w hich ended up w o rk ing. It took a few laps to really get acqu ainted with it. Don (Jacks) a nd Tom Wilso n were running stro ng . These guys were making it d ifficult for me, but I was able to do a couple of hot lap s and put some d ist a nce b et w een m y self a nd th ese gu ys." A 750Cc Supersport Series MA Round 5:Round America Merkel wins, Kipp may lose points By Pa ul Carruthers Photo by George Roberts ELKHART LAKE, WI, JUNE 10 oshimu ra Su zuki' s Fred Merkel . won the battle on the race track at Road America. Van ce & Hin es Yamaha's Tom Kipp may end up losing the war in a boardroom. Merkel was sim ply su peri or in th e 750cc Supersport final on the four-mile Road America rac e tr ack, winning th e race by 7.380 seconds after lead ing from the drop of the green flag to the waving of the checkered. Second place went to Kipp, wh o got the better of a d ual with Yoshi mura Suzuki' s Donald Jacks a nd !Cinko's Kawasaki's Thomas Wilson , bu t it ma y end up being for naught if a n AMA d ecision to void all of his championship p oin ts is n' t r e versed b y an Appeals Board. Kipp , w ho has won tw o races en rou te to ope ning up a 17-po int lead in th e ch a m pio ns hi p p oin t s tandi ngs, s tands to lose all of hi s 160 points if Yamaha ca n' t pro ve tha t its m e t homol og ation req ui rements with it s 1996 YZF750. "The '96 Yamaha YZF750' s homologatio n has been revoked ," said AM A technical director Merrill Va nd erslice. "The hom ologation requiremen ts ha ve not been met. Any rider accruing points with tha t bike will have his points voided . Right now it looks like there is only one rid er (Kip p) affecte d . Bu t we' re expecti ng Kipp to file an appea l." "The y say th ere' s not eno ug h nu mbers," Yamaha 's Larry Griffis explained. ''We' re going to appeal. The ride r has to Y a p peal so Tom will be d oing th at. I'll kno w a lo t m ore afte r a m eet in g at Yama ha on Monday." Although mum seemed to be the word regarding the homologation violation, ap parently Yamaha missed a deadline of Ju ne 1 to provide proof that there were ind eed 500 of the YZF750s available. AMA Pro Racing's Tom Mu eller sa id a n A ppeal Board would m eet quickly in an effort to quickly end the controversy. "There are so m e p olitical thing s going on between the AMA and Yam aha :' Kipp said . " I' rn n ot sure that I understand all of it. My job is to go out there and rid e th e bike th e best that I could - the bike tha t th ey give m e to rid e, which is the bike I've been riding all season. I've just got to try and pu t it in the winner's circle." Back to racing. Merkel led from th e ge t-go, pulling away to lead by two second s after two laps; he would lead by 6.5 seconds after four laps; nin e seconds afte r six laps. The ga p would grow to eig ht seco nds before Merkel eased the pace, wi nn ing by 7.5 seco nds for his thi rd victory of the seaso n. "Ther e wa s pl an A an d pl an B," Merkel expla ined. "Plan A w as to go hard on the first lap if I was in the lead and see h ow much di s tan ce I co uld make. Plan B was if I d id n't get a good start, to race wi th this guy in blu e right here (Kipp) and try to do what I did at Mid-Ohio, But we did great on the first lap and I figured it would be two-thirds of th e race befo re we e nc o u n te re d lap ped traffic - so I just took ad va ntage of it and went. You can go so fast here, I'm still lookin g for the edge of the race track." Behind him things were a little more in teresti n&- Kip p held d own second pla ce after the first lap, leading Team Th e ba ttle between th e tw o Suzuki riders - McDaniel and Yat es - beh ind th em continued to th e very end . Ultima tely, it was McDani el getting the better of Yates for fifth place. A third Team Suzuki Sport rider, Gerald Rothman [r., Kinko' s Kawasaki' s James Randolph, Kawasaki-mou nted Mark Miller and Factory/ Wheeismi th Racing's Ant hony Lupo rounded ou t the top 10 finishers . "Kipp was going really good off the Carousel and the fast corn ers ," Jacks said . "I seem ed to be able to make up a little time on brakes in the last couple of laps. I didn't ha ve th e brakes adjusted far enough ou t, and they started fading. Tom (Kipp ) r ode a good race and I learned a lot ou t there." 0Road America Elkhart Lake, Wisco nsin Resuns : J une 10, 1995 750cc SUP ERS PORT ANAL: 1. Fred Mer kel lSuz) ; 2. To m Kip p (Yam ); 3. Donald Jacks (Suz); 4, Thomas Wilson (Kaw); 5. Mark McDaniel CSuz); 6. Aaron Yates (Suz); 7. Gerald Roth man Jr. (Suz) ; 8. James Randolph (}(aw); 9. Mark Miller (Kaw); 10. Anthony Lupo (Yam); 1I. Hikaru Miyagi (Hon ); 12. Dam McGrath (Yam); 13. MikA. Murphy (Kaw ); 14. Oavrid Stanton lSuz); 15. Dale Keiffer (Hon ); 16. Owen Weich el (Ka w): 17. Mik e Himmelsbach (Yam ); 18. Dax Snow (Su z); 19. Russel l Kat zenberger (Kaw): 20. D.1Vid Roy (Kaw): 21. Jim Lester (Ya m); 22. Ben Welch (Yam ); 23. Glenn Curtiss (Kaw); 24. Mike Krynock (Kaw); 25. Ray Litton (Kaw); 26. Kell y Lacount (K.1w); 27. R.3d Greaves (H o n); 28. Ma rk Barlow (Ya m); 29 . Brett Metzger {Suz): 30. Po korny Mira (Ka w ): 31. Matt Cus umano (Suz); 32. Fritz Kling (Ya m ); 33 . Dennie Burke (Su z); 34 , Joe Kniesly (Yam); 35. Walter Sakow ski (}(aw); 36. Stephen Vlasblom (Yam ); 37. Seth Hahn (Suz); 38. Dane Whal ey (Yam ). Ti mee 28 min., 16.322 sec. Di st.ance: 121aps. 48 miles . A verege Speed : 101.867 mph. Ma rgin of Victory: 7.380 sec. 750c c SU PERS PO RT C'SHIP POINT STA NDI NGS (Aft e r 5 of 10 ro un d s): 1. Tom Kip? 060 /2 wins); 2. Thomas Wilson (143); 3. jam e Rando lph (35); 4. Fred s Mer kel (130 /3 wi ns); 5. Dona ld Jacks (116); 6. Ma rk Mc Dani el (107 ); 7. Ge ra ld Rot h m an Jr. (88);' 8. Frit z Kling (79); 9. Hikaru Miyagi (77); 10. David Stanton (74); 11 . Dale Kieffer (73); 12. (TIE) Mike Murphy /Aaron Yates (57): 14 . Dax Snow (49); 15. (TIE) Jim Lester I An tho ny LuI'" (47). Upcoming Rounds: Round 6 - Loudon. NH, June 11 Round 7 - Brainerd. MN, July16

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