Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

.R American Sport Bike series Road Atlanta O AE ADR C .North (Left) Masahlro IIzuka was simply untouchable In the wet as he easily won the International GP race at Road Atlanta . (Below) Tripp Nobles leads David Estok In the ir Bue ll battle; Estok won . International GP Series b yIdemitsu a R ndH C Round 3: Road Atlanta MasaHERO! By Henny Ray Ab rams Photo 'by George Roberts BRJ\SELrON,GA, ~R. 31 oto Lib e rty' s Masahiro lizu ka pulled the same disappearing act he had at Daytona, but this time he didn't crash . Instead , he finished the job and made a comp lete mockery of the field. To describe it as competition would be inaccura te. On a cold, wet, and miserable day, the Japanese rider sped aro un d the 2.5-mile Road Atlan ta circu it bette r than seven seconds a lap faster than anyone else to win the Intern ation al GP by 1de mit su and HRC 125cc race by a few tenths less than a minu te after only eight laps. "1 hate rain," the Honda -backed rider said with a big smile in the win ner' s circle, but you never would have known it. "Bridges tone rain tire is very good ," he added, and, on that count, there was no deb ate. As soon as he was unl eashed, lizuka served notice that this was his race and his alone. Jetting away from the sparse, all-Ho nda, 13-rid er field, his lead bu ilt quickly and p redictably. At the en d of the second lap it was close to 18 seconds, then 25, and each lap would see abou t ano ther seven or eight second s heaped on the cou n t. The fina l margin, 59.694 seconds, at the end of the eigh t-lap, 20mile race, would surel y have been more if Iizuka hadn't slowed and sat up at the end of the race, wa ving to the crowd on the front straight. He average d 85.608 mph in winning the race in 14 min utes, 7.774 seco nds . More telling was his av erage lap tim e compared to second place. Iizu ka averaged 1:45.972 per lap with second-placed Steve Rezmer averaging 1:53.434 per lap on his Honda, a difference of about 7.5 seconds a lap. His win, along with a sixth at Daytona - after remounting - and a second at the ,......, season-opener at Willow Springs, solidil-< fies Iizuka 's spo t at the top of the cham0... pionship tally. After three of nine races, he lead s Vicky Jackson-Bell, 92-76. Jackson-Bell w as in a spirited fight for third when she crashed into the mud near the M ..... < 18 end of the seventh lap, slightly injuring th e ring finger on her left hand. After restarting, she rod e to .a ninth-place finish. Rezmer Racing' s Steve Rezmer took over second on the second lap and was un challen ged , thou gh he didn't pull as qu ickl y away as Iizuka had . By the halfway point he had a little better than two seconds on the fight for third , but the field wou ld come back to him. When the checkers fell the gap had narrowed to less than a second and a half, David Jordan closing fast. "This is my second na tional race an d I'm sec ond. 1 co u ldn' t be h appi e r, " Rezmer enthused at the end of the day. He said that toward the end of the race two thin gs we! e happen in g: The tr ack was getting more slippery and his lead was sh ri nking . But the re was enough there to hold off Jordan. The fight for third was the first real sign of competition on the track. Rezmer, Jackson-Bell, Mark Brown, Just for Run Raci ng' s Fra nk Shockley, and Jorda n hoo ked up on abo u t the se co nd lap . Rezmer inched awa y leaving the fight to the others, with Jordan having to come from the back of the pack. At the halfw ay point he was up to sixth, then fou rth a lap later where he dogged Jackson-Bell for the better part of two laps before her get-off. When she wen t ou t, he was abo ut .17 seco nds in fro nt of fourth-p laced Shockley, w ith Brown taking himself out of the equ ation on the seventh lap. _ "1 wasn' t expect ing to catch up with her," Jordan said of his pu rsu it of Jackson-Bell. "I caught up to her in the last three laps." Lance Yeager hold off all.comers for fift h, So meti n' Extra Cycles Cla y to n Kwitowski making a late run, with Frank Pate seventh. Road Atlanta Braselton, Georg ia Results: March 31, 1996 (Round 3 of 10) INTERNATIONAL CP BY IDEMITSU A1'o"D HR Q 1. Masahi ro Iizuka (Hon ); 2. Ste phen Rezmer (Han); 3.0avid Jord an (Hen); 4. Frank Shockley (Han); 5. Lan ce Yeager (Hon ); 6. Clayton Kwitowski (Hon ); 7. Fra nk Pate (Ha n); 8. Tod d No rdby (Hon); 9.. Vick y Jac kso n -Bell (Ho n); 10. Larry Locklear (H on ); 11. Jeffrey Yo ung (Han); 12. Mark Brown (Ho n); 13. Ch ris Pyles (Hon ). Time: 14 min., 7.774 sec. Distance: 8 laps. 20 mi les. Average speeds 85.608 mph. IN TE RN ATI O N A L CP BY ID EMIT S U A ND HRC C'SH IP POINT ST ANDIS C S (Afte r three o f nine r....)' 1. Ma sahiro Iizuka (92/1 win); 2. Vicky JacksonBell (76~ 3. Frank Pa le (67~ 4. (11E) David Jordan /Chris U1ridl (49 ~ 6. (TIE) Stephen R..zrner/ Roland Sands (ol8~ 8. Clayton Kwitowski (47); 9. Lance Yeager (.j.j~ 10. Nobi L (41); 11. Todd No rd by (40); 12. Mark Bro w n "" (39 ~ 13. (TIE) Kevin Mu rra y /Ma rcello Del Giu d ice (35/ 1); 15. Jeffre y You ng (34); 16. (TIE ) Bobby Keit h /Wesl ey Totsubo (30); 18. (11E) Todd Bowman /Frank Shockley (1St 2O .}oji Toku molo (26, . Upcoming Rounds: Round 4 - Brainerd. Minnesota, May 19 Round 5 - Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, August 4 Buell UghlningSerie s Round 2: R oadAtlanta Estok again By Henny Ray Abrams Photo by George Roberts B RJ\SELrq. l,GA, ~. 31 \ n th eory, h avin g everyo ne on the same machine, with tightly controlled rules, should promote d ose racing. In reality, that's often not the case. Today, at Road Atlanta, it was. The same sort of dose racing that has been the hallmark of the Harley-David son 883 TwinSports cl ass for ye a rs m oved up about 300cc to th e nascent Buell Lightning Series to provide th e most compelling racing of the day. The downside is that so did the rule-bendin g that has forever plagued the 883s and has begu n to creep into the Mobil 1 Triumph Speed Challenge series. I The difference at the stripe was 0.102 second, with Bartel' s Harley-Davidson's Dave Estok edging Tilley' s H -D's Tripp Nobles by abou t a bike length at the end of the eight-lap, 2D-mile race. They were the class of the field and had the measure of each other the entire distance, the race only rea lly decided in the final corn er w here the y came u p on lapped traffic within sight of the finish line. What had . helped put Estok in that position was his Metze ler rain tires and a move down the backstretch on the final lap. Estok got the better line in the final comer and a compa nion w in to the one he ea rned at the season-opener in Daytona. "That's wh y 1 think I won it," Estok said after thank ing Metzeler tires. "Tripp was getting all over me going down the Gr avity Cavity and he was hitting the wat er streams . 1 could go down through there real good and that's wh y I won the race. I'm looking forward to all of them. These Buells are a blast to ride." "1 think after the next Natio nal we're going to have something for them in the rai n," Nobles said of an expected new Dunl op DOT rain tire. "When we come up on those lappers 1 thought 1 might get a shot on him. But coming down the back straight he had a good draft on me and he was able to pull it off." It took Estok 13 m inutes, 57.822 secon ds to compl ete the race at an average speed of 86.625 mph. . His second consecu tive win gives the Da yto na Beach resid ent a perfect 70 points and a commanding 19-point lead after the second of five rounds of the Buell Lightning Series. American H-D's Roy N icho lson, 10th today, is second with 51, with New Castle Harley-Davidson's Brian Bodine in third at 48 after taking a seventh toda y. Third place, and the first disciplined cheater award, wen t to Lancaster H-D's

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