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ROAD RACE .
Sunoco Race FlIeIs Formula USA Series
Round 3: Grattan Raceway
would be Frankenfield's race, leading
from start to finish, but not by much at
the end.
At the start Frankenfield was briefly
behind Joshua Kurt Hayes before getting
past to make a clean break, leaving
Hayes and number-one-plate holder
Mike Reed to fight over second. The pair
never lost sight of the leader, though they
were about two seconds back at the
halfway mark.
From then on they chipped away, closing at the end, but never able to get past.
Officially the margin at the end of the 10lap, 20 mile race was .47 second.
"I had the pit board showing me it
was plus-two," Frankenfield said. 'Then 1
(Left) TI'IIY Batey (1) won both the 750 and
1100cc Supemock I'1ICttS lit Gl'lIttIIn. •
(Below) Chris Rogers was the best of the
125cc men lit Gl'lIttIIn •• he .aslly won the
fln81.
Adouble
for Tray
By Henny Ray Abrams
GRATIAN, MI, JUNE 25
eam Valvoline Suzuki's Tray Batey
,
made it patently obvious why he
wears the number-one plate, winning the Michelin 1100cc Superstock race
in a rout and narrowly edging teammate
Steve Patterson in the 750cc battles.
The big-bore 1100s were the first to hit
the track, with Batey taking a flyer and
making the race come to him. It never
did.
He gapped the field on the second lap,
building up better than four seconds on
the third rap as his tires heated up and
from there on it was clear sailing. His
margin at the end of the lO-rap, 20-mile
race was 7S7 seconds.
"The tires on the 1100 didn't come in
until the third lap," the Tennessean said.
'The bike was really running good. I'm
not going to make all the races, but the
ones I go to, I'm deadly serious about. I
want the money."
The race for second was a good one,
Patterson settling in front Yamaha FZR750
mounted Joseph Prussiano ill on the second lap with Suzuki-mounted Daniel Bailey lurking nearby. Bailey made his move
into third just before the hairpin on the
second lap, moving up on Patterson as the
two left Prussiano behind.
Never easing up the pressure, Bailey
made his move on the last lap when Patterson ran too hard into the hairpin.
"My front end was not working too
good," said Patterson, who'd injured
himself with a practice spill on Saturday.
'1 overshot the hairpin and he slipped in
on the inside."
Prussiano had better than five seconds
on Grant Lopez, fifth aboard a Suzuki
GSXR11oo, with Mark Junge sixth.
Batey had to work harder for his next
win, but only for a few laps. Once again
he timed the green light perfectly and,
caught a flyer. Daniel Bailey also got a
good jump - too good, the WERA officials
decided, and brought him in for a stopand-go penalty. He would finish 18th.
Three raps in and Batey had a two-second cushion which only grew slightly to
the halfway point. Then it began to multiply; better than 4.6 on the sixth lap, it ballooned to over seven on the seventh and
would grow to 9.34 at the end of the 10lap, 20-mile race.
'The 750 was dialed in good," Batey
said after his second win of the day.
"Usually with Stevie (Patterson), if you
can get ahead on the first lap and he's
close, you know he's coming. Even if we
broke the lap record, you know he's coming. They showed me plus-one-second
two laps in a row. [t made me nervous
that he was behind me. I made a couple
of little mistakes two laps in a row."
The combination of searing heat and
intense competition took its toll on the
injured Patterson. "At the beginning I
was going to stick with him. I just didn't
have the strength to put in the full effort
to run it in there," he said.
Yet he had enough to clear away from
the field at about the same pace that
Batey was leaving him. From the third
lap on it was obvious that second was his
and his alone, and that was where he
ended.
Third place was a four-rider fight for
the first two-thirds of the race before
Joseph Prussiano III and Joshua Kurt
Hayes, riding a Kawasaki 600 against the
75O's, made their move. Hayes had taken
over fourth with a pass of Team Pearls
Suzuki's Darryl Saylor on the ninth lap,
but by then it was too late to make a run
at Patterson, though he was close to Prossiano at the end.
Saylor was fourth, about 1.5 seconds
in front of Pearls Suzuki teammate
Reuben Frankenfield with Mark Junge
seventh.
The Michelin 600cc Superstock Final
backed off because I was tired from the FUSA race. It got down to one second and
1put my head down."
. Hayes and Reed swapped back and
forth, Hayes mostly in front and there
when the checkered flag fell.
0'
Gr8It8n R8c:ewIIy
Gl'IItI8n, MIchIg8n
Results: June 25, 1995
MICHEUN _
SlJPEllSTOCK FINAL: 1. Reuben
Frankenfield O