Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

duct taped it ," Zampa ch s ai d ab o u t th e cap, which came off ea rly in th e lap. "1 rode a w hole lap with m y hand ove r th e ta nk. Rick Hu tchins ran to Bartels' and go t u s one." Matt Wait c o ntinu e s to top th e poin t s ta nd ing s with 104 po ints, four better than Ben Bostrom . Na te Wait is th ird with 82 after th ree of 10 races. Right fro m th e s ta r t Bostrom was th e man, takin g th e lead and easing away in the ea rly stages. " 1 jus t tried to get a w ay a nd I got away a little bit and I was riding that sa me p ace all race lon g," Bost rom sa id . "I w a s looking back eve ry lap to m ake su re we were m a inta in in g a cu s hion and we wou ldn't ha ve to rid e too over ou r heads and it w orked ou t gre at." That Wait wa s riding without a rear brake h elped Bos trom g et aw ay and handicapped Wait. "After I got used to just riding with the f ront brake I r epa s s ed Da ve (Es tok) a nd I mad e a ch arge to ca tch Ben, bu t it just didn't happen ," Wait said. "I thought I rod e a grea t race for what I had . I also los t one of m y kn ee pucks o n th e seco n d la p a n d t h at about jerke d me off in five. I w as on th e insid e of th e co rn er and my knee ca ught. Right now I jus t wanted to finish the ra ce o u t th ere as good a s I could and get so me p oints, and that's wha t I did ." At the mi d-point of the race Estok was al mos t three seconds back a nd the gap would grow to close to 10 a t the flag . It was procession al, a t best, w ith Estok well in front of the best rac e of the clas s, the fight for fou rt h, N obles had mo ved th er e on the se cond lap, ho lding the spo t until the se ve n t h when he w as s h uffl ed back to sixth behind Bost rom and Nate Wait. Guid era had been in the mi x before running off the track in turn I l on the fifth lap, d rop p in g b a ck to seven t h, where he would finish. The second half of th e race began with Eric Bostrom moving in fro nt of Wait and Nobles, Wait at the front of the pack on the eighth and ninth laps, then Bostrom lead in g the gro u p from the ninth lap on. By the 11th of 12 la ps it was clear he was pulling away and the ord er was set. M ar k Bla ck h ad b e e n a lo n e in eig h th fro m th e seven th lap on, lea ving be h ind a nd int en se scra p for ninth a mong five rid er s, The ord er of th at bu n ch was d eci d e d o n th e penulti mat e lap when Daigoro Suzuki p assed Gu y Ber tin . A l Salaverri a w a s just ba ck o n the Sm all ' s H-D , t he n ca me M ichel A m a l ri c , a n d H al ' s H-D ' s Brian Gibbs. Lagu na Seca Race way Monterey, Californ ia Res ults : April 28 , 1.996 (Round 3 of 10 ) PROG RESS IVE INS URA NC E SUPE RTW INS, 1. Be n Bos tro m; 2. Matt Wa it; 3. Dave Estok; 4. Er ic Bostrom ; 5. Na te Wai t; 6. Tri pp Nobles; 7. Ma the w Guidera; 8. Mar k Black: 9. Daigoro Suzuki; 10. Guy Berti n. 11. Al Salaverria: 12. Michal Amalric; 13. Bria n Gibbs ; 14. La nce Jon es ; 15. Mik e Hack er; 16. Jim Rosa; 17. [o d y Hendle y : 18. Scott Za m pach ; 19. Ric hi e Mo rri s; 20 . Jerry Cascie ro: 21. Paul l ynch; 22. Ji m Wh ita ke r; 22. Lonn ie Pa uley ; 24. Hika ru Miya gi; 25. Step he n Vlas blom ; 26. Pa ul Bergs tro m . Tim e: 20 min .• 28,085 sec.. Distance: 12 la ps, 26.86 m iles. Avera ge Speed: 7B.725 mph . Marg in of Victory: 1.795 sec . PRO GRESSIV E IN SURAN C E SU PE RT WI N S CHA MP IO NS H IP POINT ST ANDIN GS lAfte, 3 of 10 ra ce s): 1. Matt Wa it (104/2 wi ns); 2. Ben Bostrom (100 /1); 3. Na te Wa it (82) ; 4. Bri an Cibbs (69) ; 5 . Daigoro Suz u ki (63); 6. Da ve Estok (60); 7. (11E) Tri p p Nobl es / Hi ka ru Miyagi (57); 9. Eric Bostrom (52); 10. (TIE ) Scott Za rnpach / Ric h ie Morris (50) ; 12. (T IE) G uy Be rri ny M ark Bla ck (45); 14. M ich a el Amalric (43); 15. Ma tth e w G u idera (38); 16. Jim Rosa (34); 17. Jim W h it a ke r (33); lB . (TIE) AL Salaver r ia Zj o d y Hendley (32); 20. Step hen Vlas blom (31). Upcoming Rounds: Round 4 - Homestead , Florida, May 19 Round 5 - Lexington. Ohio. June 2 Performance Machine S uperTeams Series Round2 Laguna SecaRace a : wy EBSCO tops Erion The SuperTeams race gets started with aLe Mansstyle start at Laguna. Andrew Stroud (3) leads the way. By Henny Ray Abrams MONTEREY, CA, APR. 27 he Performanc e Ma ch in e SuperTeams was set to provide a grea t finish, only to be red -flagged with less than a minute to go by a backma rker cras h on the final lap. The sp ill, which sp read debris on the track in tum four, brou ght a halt to the race and handed the win to the EBSCO Industries Suzuki of Michael Barnes , wh o'd led the pr evious, penultimate lap. When he crossed the line for what wou ld be the final time, Barnes was only a handful of bike lengths in front the Erion Racing Honda CBR900 of Doug Toland , wh o would finish second . "I was going to try to set him up and pass him in tu m 10," Toland said when asked if he had a last-lap stra tegy. Even tha t may not ha ve been enough . The EBSCO Industries GSXRll 00 Suzu ki was obvious ly faster on the front straight and Barnes may have been able to retake the lead . In the end, it's academic. " I knew that if I was n' t leading, and I was within two bike lengths coming ou t of tum 11 (the final comer), I had him," Barnes said . "I kind of jud ged him two laps before that. Th ere was major tim e made up out of 11. Coming ou t of there I was keepin g the front end about a foot off the ground." After the. Erion and EBSCO bikes go t away fro m the third place Team Mot o Libert y Honda of Gerald Rot hman Jr . about 15 m inu tes into th e race, it was strictly a two-team duel. Andrew Stroud had run the openi ng stint for Erion Racing, going up against . Mar k McDaniel on the EBSCO Indu stries Suzuki. They pitted within a lap of each other around the 37-minu te mark , Stroud holding a .very narrow lead , ·and on the first flyi ng lap it was Barnes in front of Toland . They went back and forth, the Suzuki showing its legs on the lengthened fron t straight , the Honda ha ndling the turns better. Barnes took over the lead in traffic with about three minutes to go and was in front when they crossed the line on the 36th lap. Doing double duty , Rothman finished third about a minu te bac k on the Team Moto Liberty Senior Honda CBR900 on which San Fran ciscan Al Salaverri a had begun the race in his first ride with 'the team . Rothma n was a lso p a rt o f th e fourth-place entry of Team Moto Liberty, beginning the race before handing off to Britt Turkington who brought the Honda CBR900 home just behind Rothman. In fifth place, a lap back, was the Ohio .Su perbike Suzuki 1100 of Daniel Bailey and Mark Junge. By earning an extra point for leading the most laps in each of the first two races, Erion Racing has a two-poin t lead over EBSCO Industries, d espite each winning one race and finishing second once. Erion has 69 points to EBSCO's 67. Erion led 25 laps today, EBSCO 11, including the one tha t counted . DATS Racing, sixth tod ay wi th Dax Snow and Dale Kieffer riding, is third at 55, one better than Ohio Superbike. Barnes a nd McDan iel com p leted 36 laps of the 2.238-miIe track before the race was stopped in the final minute. Because of the red flag there was no official time of the race or margin of victory. T The race didn't begin all tha t well for EBSCO Industries, wi th McDaniel starting in second gear and watch ing "everybody pass me," McDaniel said . "I though t, wh at did I do that for? I sta rted putting down some hard laps and before I knew it I saw Andrew (Stroud) in front of me." Stroud had started the· race for Erion . Racing for a most peculiar reason . Be ause c his leath ers hadn't arri ved yet, he was racing in an old set an d team mana ger Kevin Erion said that he wa nted Stroud on first so that he could come in and chan ge into a team s hir t for th e p od ium ce remony, assu mi ng they mad e the pod ium. Th at was never an issue. Stro ud was in front from the d rop of the flag all the way through his first stint. At the 3O-min ute ma rk he had about 3.2 se co nds on McDaniel a nd was cu tting through Six minutes later he pitted while in the lead, Toland taking over and . joining the race in secon d place. EBSCO pitted on the next lap with Barnes on, and wi th about 22 minutes to go the race was a two-rider sprint. Al Salaverria had tri ed to kee p up early on, but was handicapped by a duffrunning engine. "Basically, the bike was no t sorted out in time," said Salaverria, who was ridin g wi th the team for the first time. "We had jetting problems and it was breaking up on top . I watched first and second place walk away. There was not mu ch I could do but finish the race." Stroud and McDaniel had cleared out from the batt1e for third between the Moto Liberty bikes. Rothman had come in right at the 30-minu te mark, handin g off to Tu rki ng ton and ge tti ng abo u t a se ve nmi nute breather be for e tak in g ov er the Tea m Mo to Lib erty Se n io r bik e fro m Salaverria. When all four teams had their second rid ers mounted , on the 23rd lap, it was Barnes by about three seconds in front of Toland, then Rothman, nearly 40 seconds back, ·and Turkington ano ther fou r seconds adrift. Toland closed the gap, slicing it to less than a second with 11 minutes left and taking the lead. But Barnes was ab le to take it back on the next lap with a power move crossing the start-finish line. the two . fighting hard, bu t clean. "He w as righ t on m y butt," Barnes said. '1 tried to concentra te real hard and not ma ke an y mistakes. We passed each other a couple of times and we rubbed up against each other a couple of times, but it w as real clean. I kn ew I ha d stea m on hi m ." "I tried to get him anywhere I could," Toland , t he for mer Wo rld Endura nce Ch ampion, sai d . "The handling of th e CBR900 is what enabled me to stay close. Tha t and the tires." The countd own to the fini sh hit the eight-minu te mark with Toland back in the lead, Barnes again powering by on the front straight before Toland we nt by early th e next lap. "He ca me right ba ck an d when he went underneath me he went right to the ed ge of the track. His exhaust pipe was right in my face. I could sme ll the Elf (fuel)," Barnes said . "He usedall of the race track, but left enough for a 3-1/2 inch front wheel." traffic. Laguna Seca Raceway Monterey, California, Results: April zr, 1996 (ROUnd 2 of 9) PERFOR MANCE M ACHI NE SU PERTEA MS, 1. EIlSCO Industri"" Sul:Uki

• Cover