Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

ROAD RACE North American Super Bike Series Final round: Daytona International Speedway Pin ~ta ear (Left) Keith Pinkstaff (49) leads the peck Into tum one In the NASB Superblke race. Pinkstaff went on to finish third, enough to give him the overall tRI8. (Below) Tripp Nobles ended up winning both legs of the North American Super Bike finale at Daytona International Speedway, but It wasn't enough to take the tRle from Pinkstaff. By Henny Ray Abrams DAYTO ABEAG!, FL, OCT 22 en the North American Super Bike (NASB) season started, who would have guessed that the superbike title would be won by a 39year-old lawyer from Portland, Oregon? But by finishing consistently in the top 10, and suffering only one non-finish, Keith Pinkstaff, who passed the Oregon bar two months earlier, grabbed the title and the $10,000 bonus by riding a pair of smart races on his Zlock Racing Kawasaki ZX-7 on a sunny, warm, and windy day at Daytona International Speedway. Pinkstaff carded a pair of thirds and finished the lO-race series three points in front of runner-up Tripp Nobles, the Georgian who won both races today aboard the ZEFCO Kawasaki. "It was a heck of a battle all year," 'said Pinkstaff, who's been road racing for 19 years, in the winner's circle. "The Zlock bike just ran beautiful and it was a rocket ship. I'm really happy with two third-place finishes and the championship. It's great. There were only about 14 laps worth of near-misses." Nobles knew coming in that the odds were s~cked against him. Then he had a chain come off in practice, nearly cracking the cases. Still, he went out knowing what had to be done, and he did it. "1 want to say first of all that none of this would be possible without the help of Vic Fasola and Bill Zearley of ZEFCO Incorporated. We came and ilid exactly what we were supposed to do: come down here and win both races and let fate have its way," Nobles said. "If it wasn't meant to be, it wasn't meant to be. We'll be back strong next year" Nobles dominated both 14-lap, 49.84'mile races, taking the lead early and running strong all day. In the first race, Ducati-mounted Shane Turpin came second, the Utah rider the best of a f\Jurrider fight with Pinkstaff, Floriilianjohn Ashmead, and Valvoline Suzuki's Chuck Graves following. Nobles crossed the line 2.867 seconds before the rest, though his lead was close to seven seconds at one point. The second race was a little faster, though the combatants were the same. ~ ~ ....., ..... 0\ l-< OJ "S OJ ;> o z 6 Nobles won by 4.667 seconds, Ashmead was second, and Pinkstaff third. Turpin was running in third when his engine expired with just over a lap to go and Graves highsided spectacularly while going up onto the banking while running in the top five on the 10th lap. The final point standings have Pinkstaff with 238, Nobles with 235, and one-time series leader Pablo Real third with 222. Real had an off weekend, crashing in a heat race on Saturday and reinjuring the ankle he broke at Loudon two weeks earlier. He finished eighth in the first leg, after having to start at the back of the pack due to his heat crash and hitting ignition troubles, and sixth in the second. On the day, Nobles earnings were $4000, plus $6000 for finishing second in the series. Pinkstaff added $2000 in race winnings to his $10,000 title bonus. Real earned $3250 for finishing the year in third, plus $1150 in purse money. Another $50,000 will be ilistributed to the top 10 finishers from this year's series as start money in next year's series (see Briefly's). RACE ONE The weekend had been one of highs and lows for Shane Turpin. He had won a number of the CCS races, but suffered a few serious setbacks with his Ducati 955. He spent Friday night at the American Motorcycle Institute putting a new crank in his motor and had to put in a new clutch basket on Saturday moming. He had also had electrical gremlins when his ignition fell off and rotated 180 degrees. Yet he won his heat on Saturday from the ninth row and took the lead at the start of the first race with Pink'staff second, Graves third, Canadian Superbike Champion Don Munroe fourth, then Nobles.. Nobles started moving up on the third lap, but Michael Barnes had a similar idea, taking the Blais Cycle's Kawasaki to the front with Nobles second, the pair edging away. The fourth lap en.ded with Nobles in front, Barnes close by, but not for long,. his engine holing a piston in the chicane. . Tha t left the Georgian in the lead, and when he crossed the line ending the sixth lap he had a 4.5-second lead that was never in danger of shrinking. Though it was less at the end, the result wasn't in doubt. "We had problems this morning," Nobles said. "We broke a chain and it cracked the cases. Thank God for Kotex Ught Days. We lined the motor up with them and the belly pan and Vic (Fasola) sealed her up and she didn't leak and get any oil on the tire. We were able to lay down some 55s and get away early in the race and build up a lead. I just got to ride harder and hope for the best, some of these guys finishing between me and Keith (Pinkstaff). He's kind of counting points here for the Championship; I've got nothing to lose and everything to gain." Graves and Turpin swapped second, with Ashmead behind. Turpin took over second on the ninth lap and appeared to break the draft going up onto the banking, only to get sucked back in, in the chicane. Again, on the next lap, he outdrove the rest, but this time used traffic to gain some brea thing room. A fler that he was able to stretch his legs and take second over Graves' by about 2.4. seconds. "They had horsepower on me," Turpin said. "The only way I could even stay with them is to get in the draft. They had a big top-end advantage. I was catching them on the brakes. The only way I was making up time was in the infield on the brakes." The final lap started with Graves leading through tum one, with Pinkstaff in front of Ashmead. Ashmead was out front going onto the banking, Pinkstaff leading out of the chicane in front of Graves and Ashmead. Normally that doesn't work, but this time it did, though just barely. "Starting the last lap I was in fifth and outbraked him (Ashmead) into tum one and Chuck (Graves) took a really wide line into the horseshoe, that was his typical line," Pinkstaff said. "So I just went underneath him, got a wheel in front of him, so when he was getting a drive out I was blocking his exit. I led the rest of it from there. Just got as good a drive out of the chicane as I could. And Ashmead drafted up to me, but he didnJ quite get me at a line." The difference was about half a wheel, according to Pinkstaff. "I wasn't trying to run wide in the horseshoe, I just couldn't get the bike turned," Graves said. "We're having problems with carburetion so we're working on that before race two." Munroe was sixth, well in front of Kawasaki-mounted Andy Deatherage, but lacking the motor to stay with the leaders after being held up by Pinkstaff's teammate Joe Pittman early on. Real was eighth, losing a spot to Deatherage on the last lap, with Pittman ninth and Damian Weber 10th on the LDM Technologies Ducati. RACE TWO Pinkstaff was in front at the start of the second leg, then Graves took over leading at the end of the second lap, but not for long. The Southern Californian overshot turn one, and Nobles was out front and moving. Ending the fourth lap, his gap to second - Ashmead now was about two seconds, and it steadily grew to over six seconds at one point. The race was in the bag, which was somewhat surprising since he'd stiffened up the front suspension and it turned out to be a turn for the worse. "We made a little adjustment to the front," Nobles said. "Getting in and out of the chicane it was a little rougher. It was a seat-of-the-pants change I wanted to make." The Kawasaki that Nobles was riding for Bill Zearley had a 1991 chassis with u pda ted ki t parts throughou t. "The Kawasaki ran great all year, but it was just a couple bad-luck happenings that's

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