Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

:"* ,ROADRACE·. 1" . . AMA ~ational Championship Road Race ~. Round 5: Road 'Am erica Masahlro IIzuka was an easy winner In the 125cc Grand Prix class at Road America. . sliced through the field . The dirt tracker was up to eighth by lap three, fifth by lap five, an d took control of fourth by th e time the white flag came out. As Bostrom raced past the whi te flag, 15.bike lengths separa ted he and th e battle for second . But thanks to some late-braking tactics, Bostrom was able to close the gap and surprised Zampach and Wait with a lowlie pass in tum five. "Ben smoke d pa s t bo th of u s a nd sca red the hell ou t of me ," said Wa it. "Zam pach and me had been battling all race long and had all of our lines worked ou t. When a third gu y ge ts in there it thro ws everyth ing off." Still, Wait maintained his composure, and drafted past Bostrom on the last lap for second. Zampach followed suit, and despite hi s impressive cha rge through the field, Bostrom was one position short shy of a pod ium finish. Higbee crossed the finish line some 8.886 seconds ahead of Wait. Rounding ou t th e to p five w a s Bostrom ' s yo unger b rother, Eric . The yo u nger Bo st r om passed Mari o DuHamel and Dave Estok with a blistering final lap, and trailed his brother home by a few seconds . 0 Road America Elkhart Laka, Wisconsin Results: June 11, 1995 Progressive Insurance S w series uperT ins R 5 ound :Road America Higbee breezes By Donn Maeda Photo by George Roberts ELKHART LAKE, WI, JUNE 11 efending SuperTwins Champion Shawn Higbee was n' t the fastest rider in timed qualifying, bu t the tall , lan ky rider from Marina Del Rey, California, was definitely the fastest rider on the track during the seven-lap HarleyDavidson SuperTwins National. Higbee established his dominance right from the get-go, grab bing the holesh ot and running away with a start-to -finish romp aboard his Bartels' Harley-Davidson 883 Sportster. "I've always wanted to win a race like that , from flag to flag," said a mod est Higbee. '1 hear that there was a hell of a race behind me. I'm sure that helped me pull away. I was able to follow my own lines and concentra te on comer speed, while th e othe r guys we re bu sy racing each other ." Behind the d efend ing cha mp, a two, then- th ree-rider ba ttle for second saw series point leader Matt Wait emerge on top, ba rely ed ging ou t multi-time series cha mpion Sco t t Zam p ach a nd 1993 Grand National Cham pionship Series Rookie of the Year Ben Bostrom. Zampach and Wa it scra p ped over second thro ughout the race, and were joined by a hard-charging Bostrom on the final lap. Though the dirt tracker surprised them with a sneak at tack a nd momentarily moved into second, it was in tha t same orde r - Wait, Zam pach and Bostrom that they crossed the finish line. In beating h is champions hi p riva l Zampach , Wait gained a ti n y b it of breathing room, extending his slim series point lead to three, 148-145, over Zampach. Higbee sits in third with 134. D 18 Higbee was the quickes t off the starting line, and led fellow front-row starters Da ve Estok, Matthew Guidera and Aaro n Yates through tum one. Row twostarters Wait and Zampach were close behind. All hell broke loose as the pack en tered th e fas t turn five for the first time, as pole sitter Aaron Yates ran into Zampac h and crashed hard . Zampach, Bostrom and Guidera were forced to take brief off-track excursions - Zampach in order to rega in control, Bostrom and Guidera in orde r to miss the fallen rider. "I felt someone T-bone me," said Zampach. '1 almost went down." Up front , Higbee put his head down and began his breakaway, w hile Wait put the moves on Estok and took over second. Zampach recovered fr om his turn fiv e scare in eighth, but quickly worked back up in to third with little trouble. Once into Wait' s draft , Zampach matched his every move. The veteran of the series, Zampach put his experience to good use and displaced Wait for second on lap four. Wait, however, would not give up that easily and stru ck back a few turns later. Th e two riders continued to tr ad e second back and forth, while Higbee silently added to his lead. "I think 1 was stro nge r than Matt in th e fas t ki nk out back an d under the bridge," said Zampach. "That's probably because of my experience here a t thi s track." "My bi ke was geared better than Scott's," said Wait, who was able to put his dirt track experience to good use as he slid thro ugh the comers. "I was able to draft past him pretty easily." By the fifth lap, Higbee had stretched his advantage to nea rly eight second s over Zam pach and Wait, who carried on with their battle for the runner-up position. '1 was sliding all over the place, but the track was real, real consistent," said Higbee. "My plan was to get out fron t and go as hard as 1 could for five laps, and it seems to have worked." Beh ind th e lea d tri o; Bostrom was putting in an incred ible charge 'after his first-lap off-tra ck excursion. After completing lap one in 11th, Bostrom quickly HA RLEY-DAV IDSON SU PER TWINS, I. Shawn Higbee; 2 Matt Wait; 3. Scott Zampach; 4, Ben Bostrom; 5. Eric Bostrom: 6. Ma rio DuHamel; 7. Dav e Estok: 8. Billy Graef; 9. Matthew Guidera; 10. Owen Weichel; 11. Andy Fen wick; 12. Brian Gibbs: 13. Pat Lamb; 14. Jeff Johnso n; 15. Michael Friberg; 16. Roger Hendricks : 17. Michael Crepeau. 18. Dean Mi7.dal; 19. Jerry Casci ero ; 20. Alan Ead ie; 21. Devin Battley; 22 Robert Buffington; 23. Darren Conrad; 24. Ron McGill; 25. Dervin U oyd . T imer 18 mins., 23.678 sees. Distancer 7 laps , 28 mil es. Ave rage speed. 91.331 m ps M ugin of victory: 8.886 sea. SUPE RTW INS C'SHIP SERIES POINT STANDINGS (After 5 of 10 ro un ds) : 1. Ma tt Wa it ( 14S); 2. Sco tt Zampa ch (145/2 wins ); 3. Shawn Higbee (134/ 2); 4. Eric Bos tro m (124) ; 5. An d y Fenwick (112) ; 6. Matthew G u idera (110); 7. Ben Bostrom (100) : 8. (TIE) Mario DuHamel/Owen We ichel (92); 10. Dav e E."itok (91/ l); 11. Billy G raef (89); 12. Dean Mlzd al (62); 13. mE) Brian Gibbs/ Aaron Yates (58); IS . Alan Ead ie (56); 16. mE) Jerry Casciero/ Ron McGill (51); 18. Jim Wh itaker (45); 19. mE) Jay Springsteen /Iim Leslie (42). . AMA 125cc Grand Prix series ound R 4: Road America Notmu~h Mori, lots oflizuka By Paul Carruthers Photo by George Roberts ELKHART LAKE, WI, JUNE 10 oto Liberty's Takahi to Mori wasn't at Road America, bu t his teamma te Masahiro lizuka di d his very best Mori imitation in running away from the 125cc Grand Prix field to score his first-ever AMA victory. With Mori - the championship leader com ing into Road America - sidelined with a broken heel, lizuka picked u p the pieces and ensu red Moto Uberty continued success in the class. But the man who gained the most from Mori's absence was Elf-backed Rod ney Fee, w ho finished third in the race bu t took over the lead in the 125cc National Championship. Fee now lead s Mor i , 125-102, with fo ur roun ds to go, and Mori is expected to be out of action for three to four months follow ing his heel inju ry in last week's 600cc Su pers port fi na l at Mid-Ohio. Randy Renfrow, fourth today, is third in M th e cha m pionshi p with 95 points, five clear of second-place finisher Billy Graef. Fee got the initial jump off the start line, but it was Renfrow leading the way down th e back stra igh t on hi s' Randy Renfrow Mo torsports-b acked Hond a RSI25. lizuka moved by going into tum five, but Renfrow was back in front at the start/finish line to complete the first lap. Fee was third with Graef and Kevin Murray tucked in neatly behind him . lizuka moved aro und Renfrow again going into turn five, and this tim e the pass stuck. The 31-year-old Japanese rider sprinted awa y to eve nt ua lly win by 11.109 seconds. _ Just w hen it looked as th ough Renfrow was just as secure in second place, his exhaust pipe started to fall off the left sid e of his Honda RSI25. Suddenly, the battle for seco nd was being fou ght out between a trio of riders, Renfrow, Graef and Fee. "At the beginning of the race, Randy (Renfrow) an d (Masahiro) Iizuka were pullin g away from us," Graef said. "Me and Rodney, and ano ther rider, seemed like we were balking each other and they were getting away from us. 1 was kind of getting mad because I knew we needed to work together to keep in touch with those two. Then I saw Randy d ropping off the pace and 1 was like, 'Wow, cool: 1 saw the pipe dangling there for two or three laps; 1 wanted to draft him to get some more speed, but I did n' t want to get too close to the pipe. Finally, it did come off and I just had to swerve out of the way:' It all went down to the final lap, with the three riders grouped tightly together. Renfrow, though , wasn' t a part of it at the end. "On the last lap 1messed up three out of five corners," Renfrow explained later. "Tha t was it:' Despite running into tum 14 way too hot and almost crashing, Graef was able to gather it all back in to hold Fee off in the drafting battle to the flag. "You're always excited when you get to race at you r home race track," Graef said . "Of course, 1 don't get to race here any more than these guys do. So 1 don't think 1have an advantage except that I'm sleeping in my own bed at night: ' lizuka was all smiles in victory: "His (Fee's) times were very close in practice," Iizuka said. "1 have the best team, the best motorcycle, the best mechanic, the best tire, the best brake. Everything good. Very good track, very fast track. I like: ' 'The reason I got that lap time was from d rafting this guy rig h t here," Fee said while pointing to lizuka. "My bike wasn' t qui te up to speed this weekend . In order to do those fast times 1 had to be in his draft and, unfortuna tely, 1 lost it. Like Billy said, we were hol ding each other up: ' All 16 starters in the race were mounted on Honda RSI25s. 0 Road America Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin Resu ~s: June 10, 1995 12Sce G RA ND PRJ X, 1. Masahiro Iizuka (Ho n): 2. Bill y Graef (H a n ): 3 . Rodney Fee (Han); 4. Ra nd y Re nfrow (Han); 5. Kevin Murray (Ha n); 6. Sven Bley (Hon); 7. Nancy Delgado IHon): 8. Todd Bowman (Hon ); 9. David Pan! (Hon); 10. Mike Mondo (H on); 1J. Andre Castanos (Hon): 12. Warren Dunaway (Ha n); 13. Tod d N o rdby (Han) ; 14. Joji Toku m oto (Han) ; 15. Mi ke H immelsbach (Han ); 16. Roland Sands (Han ). Time: 17 min .• 44.822 sec. Dis tance 71a ps , 28 miles. Averag e Speed: 94.664 mph. M.ugin of Victory: 11.109 sec. USee G RAND PR IX C'SH IP POINT STANDINGS (A fte r 4 o f 9 ro und s): 1. Rod ney Fee 025 /1 win ): 2. Takahito Mori (102/2 wins); 3. Rand y Renfrow (95); 4. Bill y Graef (90) ; 5 . (T IE) Todd Bow man /Andre w Caatanos (81); 7. Mike Mondo fTl); 8. Davi d Pare (72); 9. Kevin Murray (68); 10. Chris Rogers (62); II. Masahiro lizuka (60/1 win) ; 12. (TIE) Craig AveryIJoji Tokumoto (SO); 14. Wesley Totsubo (43); 15. Warren Dunaway (42). Upcoming Rounds: Round 6 - loudon. NH. June 11 Round 7 - Bminerd. MN, ~uly 16

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