Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

ROAD RACE AMA National Championship Road Race Series R ound 3: Lagun aSeca Raceway tie faste r than him . So just going under the bridge, I don't know what comer it is - like eigh t or something - I knew I was a lot fas ter than him so I went by him. Just before the start, I though t I just wanted to pull awa y and put a gap like four or five seconds, then I would hold it. That's exactlv what I did. After five seconds, I just ':"aved to my mechanics which mea ns that everything is fine everything is und er control now." Picotte' s five-second lead would disappear by the end of the race, bu t only because he' d opted to cruise around for P rogressive Insurance S w Series uperT ins Round3: Lagu seta Raceway na Bostrom's revenge By Henny Ray Abrams MONTEREY CA, APR. 28 , ft e r fi n is hi ng s econd in th e op en in g two r o u n d s of th e Pro g es si ve In suran ce SuperTwin s s e r ies, Bartel s' .H - D' s Ben Bostrom turned the cards on Mitch ell's Modesto H-D' s Matt Wait to tak e his first SuperTwins race of the yea r with a flag-to-flag romp on a sunny day at Lagu na Seca Raceway. Afte r getting out fron t on the opening lap, Bostrom quickly established a three-second lead before Wait made a late-race run at him . Wait, however, had lost his rear brake lever on the second lap and couldn't ride his H-D 883 as ha rd as he wanted . As the laps wou nd d own Wait closed it down to less than tw o seconds in traffic, but Bostro m, who was slidi ng the rear tire fro m th e firs t lap on, had eno ug h in hand to wi n by 1.795 seco nds . "We come u p on some lappers and I was getting r eal worried . I kn ew Matt w as only a cou ple of seco nds behind me : ' Bostro m sa id . "O ne la p the y coul d hang me up for one second 'a nd a nother lap another seco nd.and he could b e right on m e and it could come d own to a finis h. We put some rea l go od passes on some tappers and we we re a lit tle st re tched out. It was comin g righ t do w n to the end , th e re were only a cou ple of la ps left and it end ed up working ou t for the better." Bos t rom co m p le te d t he 12-la p , 26.86-mile race in 20 minutes, 28.085 m p h a t a n ave ra ge s pee d of 78 .725 mph. W ait had ta ken o ve r seco nd fo r good on th e fou rth lap and by the fifth wa s puttin g Bart els ' H -D ' s Da v id Est ok we ll behi nd him . The gap from second to third g rew st ead ily, Est ok was un chall eng ed , a nd th e pod ium was se t. "I go t a grea t sta rt, I believe I was ' seco nd off the s tart. And on the second lap goi ng in to tu rn 11 I noticed I had no rear brake, th e rear brake lever had fallen off," Wait sai d . "I hate to make excuses fo r m yself, but w hen you 're use d to rid ing with that rear brake to help you stop, and it's gone, it's ha rd to drive it in as hard as yo u d o with t he r ear bra k e, wi t h jus t t he fro n t brak e. Tha t kind of made my momentum, I lost my mo men tu m on tha t one a n d Ben go t away fro m me . Th en Esto k caught me and passed me, so I had to d eal wi th him ." A three-way battle for fou rth raged lat e into the race before Ben Bostrom' s yo u nger brother Er ic go t a way from Matt W a it ' s yo u nge r s ib lin g Nat e. Tilley' s H-D's Tripp No bles, a t the tail end of th e trio, took sixth. Citru s H e ight s ' H-D ' s Ma tt he w Guidera nearly caug ht th e trio late in th e ra ce be fore se t tli ng for se ve n th , well in fro n t of Mill er Electrical Construct ion ' s Mark Black , CCS ra cing's Daigoro Suzuki, and Gu y Ber tin. D efendin g a tio n al Cha m p io n Scott Zampach had a n off d ay on the Suburban Motors' H-D . Zampach was forc ed to pit on th e second la p when his ga s cap came off. "We cl ick ed it o n tight a nd eve n A and he appreciates it. It'll be a tough job, but I'm up for it, I believe." With Pridmore a lonel y fourth and Bostrom an equally lonely fifth, the only race behind th e Sm ith /DuHam el / Ste vens feud was th e on e for sixth between Crevier , Stroud and Weich el, with the Smokin' Joe's rider getting the bes t of it ·at the finish. Laguna Seca Raceway Monterey, California Results: April 28, 1996 (Round 3 of 10) 600<. SUPERSPORT F1NA[., 1. Mike Smith (J(aw); 2. Mi.guel DuHamel (Ho n); 3. Thomas Stevens (Kaw); 4. jason Pridmore (Kaw); 5. Ben Bostro m (Hon) ; 6. Steve Crevier (Hon): 7. Andrew Stroud (Hon): 8. Owen Weiche l (Kaw): 9. Doug Toland (Hon); 10. Brian Parriott (Hon]: 11. Gera ld Rot hman Jr. (Hen): 12. Ken Me lville (Hon): 13. Matt Wa it IHon): 14. C hristopher Rankin (Ka w): 15 . Tho mas Montano (He n) : 16. Tod d Harrington (Ka w): 17. Mark Foster (He n}; 18. Eric Shnackenberg (He n ): 19. Marcus Hu bbard (Hen): 20. Mik e Murph y (Kaw): 21. Mike Mit ch ell (Ka w): 22. Akiharu Shigeno Il-lcn): 23. Davi d Wasso n (Hon) : 24. Dusti n Sperber (Ho n): 25. Michael Co nlon Jr. (He n): 26. Russell Stopper (Han); 27. Mike Klei n (Han); 28. Jeff Theis (Ho n): 29. Brian Bart low (He n): 30. Paul Alle n Wrig ht (H on): 31. Mark ~emicky (Hen): 32. Rob Lewis ( Hon): 33. Cli nt McBa in (Hen) : 34. Da v id Wheele r (Ya m); 35. Dale Whelan (Ha n). Ti me: 26 min .•54.663 sec. Dis tance: 17 laps. 38.046 m il e . s Ave rage Spee d. 84.826 mph. Margi n of Victory: 0.229 sec. 600 " SU PE RS P O RT C'S HI P P OI NT ST AND I NGS (Afl e r 3 of 10 ro und s ): 1. Mi guel DuHamel 0 03 / 2 wins); 2. Mike Smi th (93 /1 wi n); 3. Th o ma s St ev en s (88); 4. St eve C re v ie r (S l) ; 5 . Ben Bostrom (79 ); 6. Doug Toland (69); 7. Gerald Rothman Jr. (65); 8. Matt Wait (58); 9. Cbns topher Rankin (52); 10. Andrew Stro ud (SO); 11. Jason Pridmore (47); 12. Bria n Pa rriott (43); 13. Todd Harrington (39); 14. Ken Melv ille (37); 15. Th omas Montano (31). Upcoming Rounds: Round 4 - Homestead. Florida. May 19 Round 5 - lex ington. Ohio. June 2 AMA T eamline 750CC Supersport Series Round 3:Laguna Seca Raceway Picone, again By Paul Carruthers Photo by Henny Ray Abrams M ONTEREY, CA, APR 27 ascal Picotte con tinues to strike wh ile the iro n is hot, winni ng his second successi ve Teamline 750cc Sup ersp ort final w hile his biggest challen g er , Yosh imura Suzu ki teammate Aa ro n Yat es, conti nues to recuper at e from a broken collarbo ne. While Yates man ag ed to keep hi s cha mpio ns hip hop es alive wi th a seco nd- p lace fi nis h, this o ne s im p ly belonged to Picotte. The French Canad ian pu t his Suzu ki GSXR750 out front on th e seco nd of 17 la ps an d was able to cruise to his second straig h t win, keeping Suz uki's perfect 1996 750cc Su pe rsport record intact. P (Above) M McDaniel ark (10) got the early Jump on the 750cc Supersport field, but it was Pascal Picotte (21)who ultimately earned the victory. (Right) Ben Bostrom won his first HarleyDavidson SuperTwins race of the 1996 season at Laguna Seca. "With Aaro n (Yates) injured it makes my job a little easier," Picotte said . "I know wh en he gets back in good shape it's going to be really tou gh. I'm goi ng to have to keep my head down and still lead the cha mp ionship. I'm just going to try and win as many races as I can. We ha ve a reall y good bike. The Suzuki GSXR750 is just a wond erful bike to rid e and es pecially when it 's prepared by Su zu ki Yoshimura. I th in k we have a m ajor ad va n tage th is yea r w it h th e Suzuki , and there' s a little gap betw een the factory bik e and th e pr ivateer. It' s me and Aaron on the really good equipment so I th ink the cha mpions hip will be between me and him." With th e two Yosh imura bikes up fro nt , third place fell to early lea der Mark McDaniel on th e EBSCO Med ia Suzuki GSXR750. McDaniel was able to ho ld off the a dvances of Muzzy Kawasaki' s Doug Chandl er in the closing stages of the race . Team Suzu ki Sport's James Rand olph finished fifth. Picotte now lead s Yates by 10 points in the championship, 104-94, after three ra ces. McDaniel is th ird in the se ries standings with 84 points, five clear of a tie between Chandler an d Mark Miller, wh o finished ninth at Laguna. Rand olph got the best jump from the sta rt, but it was McDaniel lead ing th e field out of tum tw o and into tum thr ee fo r th e fir st tim e, s tre tchi ng a lead of almos t tw o seconds after only one lap. Randol p h was second across the stripe, but.Picotte was third and charging. Nex t ca me Ch andler, Jason Pridm ore, Yat es and Jim Leslie. Pic otte qu ickly closed th e ga p to McDani el, passing the Californ ia n on th e second lap. The Fre nc h Ca na d ia n was never threa tened aga in. "I was a little bit afraid because on th e warmup lap my eng ine sta rted to mak e so me reall y strange noise, like a bad rod or something:' Picotte said. "So I was a little bit afraid. He (McDaniel) had a better s ta r t than m e and I just tried to hold the pace. I knew I was a lit- the final few laps . At the line he was half a seco nd ah ead of Yates, the Dayt ona winner s to rm ing th rough the pa ck to finish second d espite his recen tly broken collarbone. "I d on 't really feel much pr essure," Yates said. "I kind of look at it as I see how we ll I can do (based on his Daytona w in ). I fee l li ke , 'Well, I ca n go th at goo d, so...' Hopefu lly, things will go w ell and we wo n' t hav e an y m ore m isha ps th is yea r. I'm ju st tr ying to keep in the points chase right now . After H omes tea d I think we'll be read y to charge pre tty hard ." McDanie l was able to hold off Chandler at the line. "It was doing big tankslappers over the hill," Chand ler said of his Muzzy Kawasa ki. "I just could n't do anything excep t wait for him to make a mistake." Laguna Seca Raceway Monterey, California Results : April 27, 1996 (Round 3 of 10) 750c( SUPE RS POR T FI NAL: 1. Pasca l Pico tte (5oz); 2. Aaron Yates (Suz); 3. Mark McDaniel (502); 4. Doug Chandler (Ka w) ; 5. James Rando lph (Suz); 6. Mic hael Barnes (Suz); 7. Mark Black (Suz): 8. Jaso n Pridmore U

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