Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

·.R ADRACE :·:·· Round 2:Pomona Farplex O · . AMA25DccG P series· rand rix Andrew Stroud led Erion Racing to victory In the SuperTeams IInal at Pomona, the ope ning round o~ the endurance series. momentum to do well on an 883 anyway." By the ninth lap, Wait began to get an edge on Bostrom , stretchin g his adv antage' over the Bart els rid er just a littl e more w ith each of the rem ainin g lap s. Bost rom never lost h ope, but even he had to ad mit that th e situ ation looked bleak. "I didn't know if I cou ld bea t Matt (at th at p oint)," Bostrom sa id . " I tried to catch up to him, bu t he just deserve d it today." Meanwhile, Nate Wait app ea red to be closing the gap to the leaders ever so sligh t ly as he cl osed in o n hi s fi rs t National roa d racin g podium finish . "I cou ld see those guys about threequ a rt ers o f t h e w a y d own t h e b a ck straigh t," he said. "That's the only place t ha t I cou l d p a ce m y se lf and t e ll w hether I wa s gaining on them or not. All weeke n d my-.bi ke was set up ju st p erfect . All I had to do was r aise th e sh ifter a little." By th e tim e th e checkered flag fell, Matt Wait had 10 length s on Bostrom at the line, and the 21-year-old pumped his fis t in th e ai r in jubila tio n af ter h e crossed over it. "Th is was g reat, " Wait s aid af te rward. "The fans are great. When you' ve got them beh ind you, it pu mps you up even more. I nee ded this one after the wa y I finished in the 600 race." N ate Wait concurred as he joined his olde r brother on a road race N ational podium for .the first time . "I've been d reamin g: of this d ay," Nate Wait said. "I rode hard, an d I think I did pre tty good." Bostr om was not as happy w ith the resul t, which comb ined with his earlier finish in the 600cc Supersport even t gav e him two solid runner-ups for the day. . "I 'm happy about my 600cc Supersport race," Bostrom said . "But not this one." Gibbs held on for fourth ahead of a tight fifth-p lace battle between Hikaru Miyagi , Daigoro Suz uki and Guy Bertin. ·0 Miyagi got the nod . Pomona Fairplex Pomona, California Resu lts : April 21, 1996 (Round 20f11) SUP ERT WINS : 1. Ma tt Wait; 2. Ben Bostrom: 3. Nate Wai~; 4. Brian Gibbs: 5. Hik aru Miyagf 6. Daigoro Suzuki; 7. Guy Bertin; 8. Mich el Am alric; 9.'Mark Black; 10. Rich ie Morri s; 11. Eric Bostrom ; 12. Jim Rosa; 13. Jod y Hen dleyl: 14. Paul lynch; 15. Step hen Vlasblom ; 16. Jerry Casdero: 17. Donal d Paul; 18. JimWhi tak er; 19. Matth ew Guidera ; 20. Al Salaverria; 21. Tripp No bles; 22. Scott Zam pach; 23. Owen Weichel. T im e: 18 min., 52.105 sec. D ista nce: 12 laps, 25.2 m iles Av er age Speed: 80.134 m p h Mar gin of V ictory: 1.351 sec. AMA IPROGRESSI VE INS UR ANCE SUPE RTW INS SERIES POINTS STAN DIN CS (After 2 of 15 rounds): 1. Matt Wait (72 po int s /l win); 2. Ben Bostrom (64); 3. Nate Wai t (56); 4. Brian C tbbs (51); 5. Hi ka ru Miyagi (50); 6. Daigo ro Su zu ki (41); 7. Richi e Morri s (38); 8. Scott Za m pach (37 ); 9. Tri p p Nob les (32); 10. Dav e E. stok (30); 11. (TIE ) Stev e Vlasblom / Chuck Bla ckm on (35 ); 13. (TIE) Jim Whit aker / Guy Bertin /Mich el Ama lric /Eric Bostrom (24); 17. Mark Black (22); l B. Rob H ermans (21); 19. (11E) Roger Rciman IJ im Rosa (19). Upcoming rounds: Round 3 - Monterey, Californ ia, April 27-28 Round 4 - Homestead, Florida, May 18-19 AMA Performance Machine S uperTeams Erion strikes first By Mark Hoyer Ph ot o by Kinney J ones POMONA, CA, APR. 20 rion Racing' s Kevin Erion really w an ts the AM A Su perTe a m s numb er-one plate back. .. If the impressive opening-round perfo rmance by ' 93 World En dura nce champion Doug Toland and fill-in rider .And rew Stroud is any indication, Erion just might get his way . Stroud made his run across the track and the Le Mans-sty le start a quick one, nearly making it past the '95 championship-winning Ebsco Industries Suzu ki piloted by Michael Barn es off the 1ine . Despite the second-place start, Stroud found his way quickly past Barnes and just started pili ng on the time, handing over ihe bike to teammat e To land at aro und the 32-minute mark with a comfortable 23-second lead . From there on Toland just did the laps and made sure he brought the bike safely to the finish on the 41st lap . " An d re w did all th e work ," said Tolan d. "Just a matter of riding around in circles. No sense in pushing it." Mark McDaniel took o ve r from E Barn es and made a pu sh to try to close in on the leader, eventua lly narrowing the gap to aro und 13 seconds at the end and keeping the GSXRll00 the only bike to finish the race on the lead lap. Thi rd pl ace and one lap d own wa s the Dats Tru cking-b acked Suzu ki of Dax Snow and Dal e Kieffer, the team still se arch ing for so me m ore p ow er fro m their former Tea m Pearls GSXRll00. Fou rth at the end of the 60-minute race w as the Oh io Superbike team of Dan Bail e y a nd M a rk Jung e . Th e te am thou ght they might have faired better in th e re su lt s, bu t Junge crash e d the ir Suz uki 1100 after only four lap s of prac ti ce. Th e cr as h itself w asn't too bad, until the bike caught fire. "I crashed in turn fou r and the bike caught on fire," said Junge. "The corner wor ker there d idn' t have a fire extingui sher and finally a spectator came ou t with a fire extingu isher from his car: ' It wa s too late, th ou gh, as th e damage w as alre ady done. With their regular SuperTeams bike out with a burned wi ring ha rness, Bailey and Ju nge we re forced to ride their 750cc Su perspo rt bike . "We rolled in the bike from the (preceding) 750cc Superspo rt race, changed the tires to slic ks an d we n t ou t," said Bailey . "We were doing fine in cornering speed , but th ey (th e bi gger bikes) we re killing us on drive." Fifth o f th e n ine p oints- scori n g entries on 39 lap s was the Fastrax Suzu ki of Dean Mizd al and Brian Parr iot. Barnes narrowly left th e line in front o f Stroud with the .Keysto ne ra cin g' s Yam ah a 1000 pilo te d by Da ve Esto k close beh ind. Estok didn't last in th ird for long, how ever , as the the Mote-Liberty Honda rid en by Gera ld Rothman Jr. occu pied tha t spot at the end of the first la p. But Rothman w ou ldn' t last th ere either. "I was going do wn the back straight on the third lap when the motor cut off . a couple times," said Rothman. "It went b a ck o n, but it felt e le ct rica l. I go t aro und to the carouse l (turn nine) and it finally just quit." Mote-Liberty worked on the bike in pit lane, tryi ng to get the machine started bu t Rothman would not rejoin the race. Still, all was n't lost for Mote-liberty. There were so few en tries at Pom on a that desp ite.only finishing two lap s, the te a m le av e s th e fir s t rou n d wi th 22 points on a ninth-p lace finish. No t long after that, Estok found him self on the side lines after he high-sided and ended the team's race. Mea nwhile, Stro ud qu ickly made his . way aroun d Barne s to t ake over th e lead , and he built on it from there. "I go t Barnes at the end of the back stra igh t," sai d Stro ud, who is filling in for injur ed Erion ride r Chuck Sorenson. "I,know I h ad a bit up the sleeve, it just took a couple of laps to ge t going and I made the pass and pu lleda gap." Stroud ra n a few quick laps, the n backed the pace down w hen he felt a probl em with the front brake. , "Afte r si x or seven laps th e lev er came in.a bit," said the New Zea lander. "It st ayed where it was, but it to o k a wh ile to get my confidence in the brakes back up : I just started shut ting off a bit early." ' Barn es, who rode for Er ion Racin g last year, did wh at he could to stay with Stroud, 'an d m an a ged to still rem a in within aro und th ree seco nds o f the leader by the 20th lap . "We struggled wi th the setup here," sai d Ba rn es.. "One ofthe p rob lem s is that w e ge t minimal p ractic e. I tr ied ha nging with Stroud for a little bit, but the y simply bea t us. We'll have something better for them at Lagu na ." Strou d handed off th e bike with an over-20-sec ond le ad to his teammate Tol and at around th e 32-min ute .mark and felt he could have don e more if he had to. "I probably could ha ve go ne a secon d a lap faster if I had to," said Stroud. "The (Bridgestone) tires we ren 't hardl y sliding at all. It's just that at this track, you always have to have a reser ve. If . you hit a series of bu mps when you're on the ragged edg e you' ll be all over the p lace:' Whe n Barnes' teamma te Mclfaniel took ove r, he wa s faced with deficit of some 20 sec on ds to try to close. Th e Santa Rosa resid ent took a few laps to get settl ed in and com fortab le with sliding the bike and set to work. "Ou r fastest laps w ere three or five laps from th e end," said McDaniel. " I was just working to cons tant ly improve, improve." In the .closing stages the Ebsco Indus-' tries rid er started closing the gap and fo u n d n e w moti va ti on to pu sh even ha rder. "Watching my minus board go from minus 19 to m inus 18 really motivates you to jack it up. It' s a rea l incen tive:' In the end; McDaniel closed the gap on Toland to 13.032 secon ds, finishing se cond behind th e vetera n end urance racer . The race for third started shaping up between Dat s Racin g and Ohi o Superbike aroun d the time o f th e teams' respec tive p it stops. Kieffer had gotten th e team off to a six-p lace start at the en d of th e first lap, bu t just a few laps later fou nd himself su ddenly in fourth. " Keyston e h igh-sided on, I thi nk, th e third lap between (turns) two and three and I almost ran over him (Estok)," said Kieffer. "That moved u s to fift h an d th en Moto-Libert y b roke. Ohio Superbike w as in front of us by like 12 seconds and I closed the gap at almost the 40-mi nute mark when I h an ded off to . Dax (Snow) ." Ohi o Superb ike had pitted the previous lap bu t had to sp end extra time to dump fu el in th eir 750cc Supe rsport m ach in e an d th a t a llowed Kieffer to hand off the bike with a 10-second lead . "We dump ed two ga llons to mak e sure w e'd go the distan ce an d tha t cost us Some time," said Bailey. . Snow took a few lap s to settle in to a goo d pace and started turning laps and kep t Oh io Superbike's Ju nge at bay for the rem ainder of the race. Su dd en Force Racing w as lis ted in eigh th p lace in the provision results bu t w as d isq u alified for wh at w as termed an d illega l rid e r cha nge by an AMA o. spokesma n. Pomona Fairplex Pomona, California Results: April 20, 1996 (Round 1 oj 9) SUPERTEA MS: 1. Erio n Racin g (Hon); 2. Ebsco Industt:ies Suz uk i (Su z); 3. Dats Racing (5uz); 4. Ohio Su perbike (5uz); 5. Fastrax (Yam); 6. Oh io Superbike II (5u z) ; 7. Tw o D u d es From Ca li Ra cing (5 u z ); 8 . Keyst on e / North st ar Racin g (Ya m); 9. Mot e-Li be rty Honda (Hon ). T im e: 60 m in ., 50.2121'oec. Distance : 41 lap s, 86.1 m iles. Aver age Speed: 84.9 16 m p h Ma rgi n of Victory: 13.032 sec. SU PERTEAMS CHAMPIONSH IP SE RIES POINT STAND INGS (After 1 of 9 rounds); 1. Erion Racing (35 ); 2. Ebsco Industri es Suzuki (32); 3. Oa ts Racin g (30);, 4. Ohio Su pe rbi ke (28); 5. Fastrax (26); 6. Ohi o Superbike II (25); 7. T w o D udes Fro m C a li Ra cin g (24); 8. Ke ystone / N orthstar Ra ci n g (23); 9 . Mote-Libert y Honda (22): • Upcoming Rounds: Round 2 - M onte"rey, California, April 28 Round 3 - Homestead, Florida. May 19

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