Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

I - . ~ ~~~o " • behind by Shane Turpin on the Network Centre Kawasaki 600. Michael Luke and Eric Kropp .filled out the top 10. {N Daytona International Speedway Daytona Beach, Florida Results: October 22, 1995 EBC BRAKES AMERICAN SPORTBlKE, 1. Ken Krebs (Kaw); 2. Ben Bostrom (Hon); 3. Owen Weichel (Kaw); 4. Brian Gibbs (Hon); 5. James Bronson (Kaw); 6. Jeff Williams (Hon); 7. Russell Katzenberger (Kaw); 8. Shane Turpin (Kaw); 9. Michael Luke (Kaw); 10. Eric Kropp (Kaw); 11. Thomas Coccia (Kaw); 12. Shawn Conrad (Kaw); 13. John Scheenser (Hon); 14. John Blessed (Hen); 15. Anthony Johnson (Kaw); 16. Eddie Mimgelio (Kaw); 17. Kris Clubb (Knw); 18. Bret.t Metzger (Hon); 19. Dustin Sperber (Hon); 20. Chris Bliss (Hon); 21. Jeffrey Curtis (Kaw); 22 Dean Hayes (Kaw); 23. Steve Blackburn (Kaw); 24. Mark Sdunidt (Hon); 25. Ron Howard (Hon); 26. Michael Wilson (Hon); 27. Eric Gray (Hon); 28. Christopher Borgman (Kaw); 29. Eoc "Bostrom (Hon); 30. Ouis Pauli (Kaw); 31. Ricardo Glock (Hon); 32. Soott Ped"""", (Hon); 33. Jon Schroht (Hon); 34. Steve Karson (Hon); 35. Joe Wolfe (Kaw); 36. Ricey Parton (Hon); 37. Matt Drucker (Kaw); 38. Harold Hillard (Yam); 39. John Overton (Hon); 40. Kenny Phillips (Kaw); 41. Matt Wait (H.on); 42. Alexander Glock (Hon); 43. Kevin Rentzell (Kaw); 44. Robert Presby (Hon); 45. Sean Goff (Kaw); 46. John Weiss (Kaw). Time: 20:15.190 mlns. Distance: 10 laps, 35.6 miles. Average speed.: 105.465 mph. Margin of victory: o.O(n sees. FiNAL EBC BRAKES AMERICAN SPORTBlKE CSHlP POINT STANDLNGS (Afrer 4 of 4 events): 1. Russell Katzenberger (91/1); 2. Shane Clark (70); 3. Brian Gibbs (S8); 4. rohn Sheehser (S3/1 win); S. Shawn Conrad (51); 6. Charles Chouinard (50); 7. Thomas Coeda (48); 8. Quenni King (48); 9. Ken Krebs (44/1); 10. John Blessed (42); 11. Brett Metzger (39); 12. (TIE) Jeff Sneyd/Kris Oubb/Chris Bliss (3S); 15. Dustin Sperber (34); 16. (TIE) KevIn Rentzell/Ben Bostrom (32); 18. (TIE) Glenn Curtis/Owen Weichel (30); 20. Jeffrey Curtis (29). Harley-Davidson Twin Sports Wait and wait some more By Henny Ray Abrams DAYTONA BEAOf, FL, OCTOBER 22 itchell's Modesto's Matt Wait was nearly unstoppable on the track, but was stopped dead in his tracks off the track by N ASB tech officials. After winning his third HarleyDavidson Twin Sports race of the day, and sewing up the Twin Sports World Championship, the machine Wait rode to victory in the second World Final leg was tom down and found to be illegal by NASB officials. The officials claimed that his deck-height measurement was 25 percent above the allowable limit and disqualified him from the second race. That gave the win, and litle, to last year's winner, Tilley's H-D's Scott Zampach, pending the outcome of Wait's appeal of the disqualification. "We are going to appeal it," said Wait's father, John Wait, after being told the engine was illegal. Interestingly, Wait won Sunday's U.S. Twin Sports race, a Championship Cup Series (CCS) race, as well as the first leg of the World Finals, on a different machine which NASB officials chose not to tear down. The 883 he won the se~ond leg on was the one found to be in violation of the rules, which meant that only the second race win would be taken away. The piston-protrusion debate centered around which rules the race was being run under: CCS, NASB, . orevenAMA. At the end of the day what mattered was the racing, and it was superb. Zampach, who had finished second to Wait by narrow margins in both races, retained his title, but he wasn't around to enjoy it. The "Z-Man" had left the Daytona paddock before the decision on Wait had come down. Pending the outcome of the appeal, H-D of Savannah's Tripp Nobles and Bartel's H-D's Ben Bostrom move up to a tie for second, five points behind Zampach. The pair M I i . ; ..3:~ . x: I Ben Bostrom (11) leads the way in the Super Twins final; his brother Eric Bostrum (36) and Matt Wait (95) give chase. had swapped third- and fourth-place finishes in the two World Final races. The only title not in doubt is the NASB Harley-Davidson Twin Sports Championship, which was clearly won by Nobles by better than 50 points, regardless of how Wait's results are tab.ulated. Zampach is second and Daytona's own Richie Morris is third. RACE ONE The first seven-lap race got started with Ben Bostrom in the early lead, then Bartel's H-D's Shawn Higbee was out front when the 35-rider field hit the banking and the pack gobbled him up by the chicane. Nobles was first into turn one at the start of the second lap, with Wait second, then Ben Bostrom, brother Eric Bostrom on the Bartel's H0, Higbee shuffled back to fifth, and Zampach. Wait led the second lap, Nobles thethird and fourth, and Higbee the fifth, the riders going five-wide into tum one with only two laps to go. Higbee relinquished the lead when he low-sided in the West End Horseshoe, handing the lead to Wait, with Zampach next, then the rest. Nobles was again in front for lap six, with Wait working his way by in the infield and leading onto the banking, then trying different lines out of the chicane. "I was testing it during the race," Wait said. ''I'd go way up and four of them would go under me and I'd only get three of them, so I didn't go quite as high (on the last lap)." Like most Harley races at Daytona, that's what it would come too - the last lap: Five riders running as one, hitting the chicane for the all important run to the flag. Zampach has won his share of races in this stretch of track and knew where he had to be. "1 found out early on th.at no matter how hard I attacked the infieJ-d, how perfect of a lap I put in, it basically didn't mean anything," Zampach said. "Because these guys could be so far behind and they could draft right up to you. Vice versa, if I was third or fourth co~ng off, I had no problems that I could draft up into the lead. "Coming out of the last lap, Matt, he didn't want to lead. He backed way out and pulled over. I thought at least he figured it out. I looked at Tripp to see if he was going to find Matt. I thought, . "Who's going to pull the whole load?" I thought it might as well be me carrying the number one-plate. I know I'm so strong through the chicane that if I run through there with the perfect line and come out with super speed I'd have it. I! almost worked. I flew out of there and I was way ahead of them. I didn't even feel their draft. I just about hit the trioval and I could feel it. They said I had about 15 bike lengths, I can't go any faster." What Zampach was feeling was Wait tugging at the air behind him. By then there's nothing you can do but hope, and that didn't work today. Wait hit the stripe first by 0.290 second. "When you come out of the chicane, no one knows who's going to win and you got to have some kind of strategy," Wait said. "My strategy before I went in was I was going to be up on th.at wall and get a run at them and have a little more momentum than they would when I went to draft them:' I! worked and Nobles saw it corning. "1 knew Scott had a good line through the chicane. He always has," Nobles said. "I! almost cost Matt the race by letting him' get out that far. We got by him in the west-end banking and we got back by him in the chicane and he didn't have near the drive out of it that Scott had. 1 really thought Scott was going to pull that one off. But Matt was able to pull around us. Heeled over on the left side of the bike, his dirt track instinct came out on him. We all do it; he let it hang out a little farther." The Bostroms came next, Ben then Eric, then a gap to Kersting's Cycle Center's <:;reg Hutcheson who moved up to sixth on the last lap to stay in front of Hal's H-D's Andy Fenwick. Tim Lee came from Coventry, England, to finish ninth, with Nate Wait, Matt's younger brother, 10th.. As soon as the race was over, Zampach was plannlr\g his strategy for the second one. "I may just stay in line, stay second or third the whole race and let them pull me. Let my bike rest. Keep my bike fresher so the last lap I got a little bit more to go. Ws so easy on your equipment when you're second or third," he said. RACE TWO Eric Bostrom got the jump on the field in the second race with Wait second in front of Zampach, Ben Bostrom, and Higbee. By the end of the first lap it looked like a carbon copy of the first race. Five-wide onto the banking and into the lri-oval; Wait led into turn one, the positions behind him changing constantly and the lead pack pulling away from the others. Wait was dropped to fifth on the third lap, then made a few spots up to. cross the line in second behind Ben Bostrom. tampach took the lead into the chicane on the fourth lap and Nobles eyed him exiting, taking the lead at the line only to find himself in fifth in tum one. The top six were on their own and, as the race wore down, no one wanted to lead, especially on the last lap. "Ben was talking on the last lap that nobody wanted to lead," Zampach said. "Everybody was looking back. I went into tum one 'and someone passed me and I thought, that's good. That's when it gets dangerous when you back off and go away from your 110 percent charge, you can clip somebody's wheel. But we had a clean race:' The race came down-to the final lap, the final run through the chicane and to the flag. The wild card here was a lapped rider who the field caught in the middle of the chicane, though Zampach knew they'd catch him there. "1 saw him right when we came out of the infield," Zampach said. "I looked way up the track an·d saw him. I thought that maybe I could put him to good use." "We all came in there and none of us caught him at the entrance of it. We must have scared the hell out of the poor guy. We all caught him and freight-trained him," Wait said. From there Wait said that he "didn't go as far up on the wall," but slid his way out. "Doing dirt track - th.at's all we do." The formation of bikes coming out of the chicane was 2-3-1, but the pack bunched up running down to the flag with Wait again the winner, Zampach again second, and Ben Bostrom third this lime. "I thought I had perfect position through there. There were the two Bartels bikes and then Matt and me," Zampach said. "I carne out right on Matt, next to him, I thought 'I'm in perfect position, I'll get the pull off of you then I'll get the pull off of those guys and I've got this one won: Matt accelerated right up to them off Nascar three and four. In that last run he got such a good tow off Ben and Shawn and I was way overrevved:' Zampach explained that he'd added a tooth to his gearing for the second race, but the change was negated by a strong tailwind. "You get in a situation like that and you don't know what's going to happen" Ben Bostrom said. "I tried to set myself up coming through turn three and I led going through there, but it just wasn't enough." "It feels awesome to be the numberone Harley rider," Wait said. "I was going for the National Championship and had some bad luck earlier this year, so winning this race really makes up for that. The feeling is really indescribable. This is what racing is all about." Nobles, Bostrom, and Higbee were quickly across the line, then Chuck Blackmon, who passed Andy Fenwick at the end of the race, both passing Randy Texter. Nate Wait was 10th. rN Daytona International Speedway Daytona Beach, Fla. Results: October 22, 1995 HARLEY·DA VIDSON TWIN SPORTS RACE ONE: 1. Matt Wai~ 2. Scott Zampach; 3. Tripp obles; 4. Ben Bostrom; 5. Eric Bostrom; 6. Gerg hutcheson; 7. Andy Fenwick; 8. Randy Texter; 9. Tim Lee; 10. Nate Wait' 11. Graham Atha; 12. Dean Mizdal; 13. James Whitaker; 14. Roger Reiman; 15. Alan Eadie; 16. Chuck. Blackmon; 17. Dave Arthur; 18. Lance Jones; 19. Todd Evans; 20. Steve Blackburn; 21. Brian Bodine; 22. Tony brumby; 23. Frank Stroman; 24. Jeff Harding; 25. Mike Hacker; 26. Michael Friberg; 27. Jon Stauffer; 28. Shawn Blackburn; 29. Devin Battley; 30; Jerry Casciero; 31. David Marvo; 32. Shawn Higbee; 33. Eric Lacruze; 34. Richie Morris; 35. John Long. Time: 15:47.910. Distance: 7 laps, 24.92 miles. Average speed: 94.647 mph. Margin of victory: 0.290 sees. RACE TWO: 1. Matt Wait; 2. Scott Zampach; 3. Ben Bostrom; 4. Tripp Nobles; 5. Eric Bostrom; 6. Shawn Higbee; 7. Chuck Blacbnon; 8. Andy.Fenwick; 9. Randy Texter; 10. Nate Wait; 11. James Whitaker; ]2. Roger Reiman; 13. Todd Evans; 14. Steve Blackburn; 15. Alan Eadie; 16. Brian Bodine; '17. Graham Atha; 18. Lance Jones; 19. Jeff Harding; 20. Jerry Casciero; 21. Dave Arthur; 22. Tony Brumby; 23. Mike Hacker; 24. Frank Stroman.; 25, Michael Fribert; 26. Shawn Blackburn; 27, Jon Stauffer; 28. David Marvo; 29. Tim Lee; 30. Dean Miroa1; 31. Devin Battley; 32. Greg Hutcheson. Time: 15.51.470 mins. Distance: 7 laps, 24.92 miles. Averse speed: 94.288 mph. Mugin of victory: 0.414 sees. HARLEY-DAVIDSON TWIN SPORTS CHAMPION· SHIP POINT STANDINGS (After five of five round,): 1. Tripp Nobles (155/1 win); 2. Scott Zampach (99/1); 3. Rkhie Morris (80); 4. Todd Evans (78); 5. (TIE) Brian Bodine/Matt Wait (70); 7. lames Whitaker (66); 8. Ben Bostrom (58): 9. Mich,el Friberg (56); 10. Billy Graef (53); 11. Eric Bostrom (52); 12. (TIE) Steve Blackburn/Greg Hutcheson (51); 14. Andy Fenwick (47); 15. (TIE) leff Harding/Randy Texter (4$); 17. Nate Wait (42); 18. Chuck Blackmon (39); 19. Frank Stroman (37); 20. Roger Reiman (36).

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