Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

.ROAD RACE·. Round 4: Homestead Motorsports Complex _AMA 250cc G P rand rixSeriespoi n ts and there's seven races left. We're not even halfway in to the season and I think it'~ going to come right down to the wire wi th us swappin g ba ck and fort h . My brother's going to be right in there now . He's go t the speed to run up fro nt. H e ' s h a d so m e h a rd breaks." In w inning his second race in a row, Bostrom a v e ra ge d 78 .580 m ph and complete d th e 12- la p, 26. 52-m il e race in 20 m inute s, 14.971 seconds. Mo re im p o rtan tly, he m oved int o a tie with Wai t at th e top of the points ch art. With six races rem ain ing, the pair are tied with tw o wins each and two ru nner-up finishes at 136. Na te Wa it, Matt's younger brother, fifth tod ay after an o ff-tra ck ex curs io n, is th ird wi th 108. Eric Bostrom, Ben ' s younger sibling; was third today, abou t 2.7 seconds back aboard the Bartel' s H ·D, w ith Dave Es tok fourth , another 1.4 seconds behind. A field of 20 rid ers took to the track on a w arm aftern oon, under cloudy skies. Wait led th e pack in to tum one, Bostrom second in fr o n t of Citrus Heights H -D' s Matthew Gu idera, Eric Bostrom, and Hal' s H- D's Brian Gibbs . Gibbs was quickly up into second and the top three, led by Bostrom from the start of the second lap, wi th Wait in third, moved aw ay from the pack . Wait had hoped to make a move to stay with Bostrom be fore getting nudged out of the way at the end of the front straight. "The fi r s t lap wen t really go od," Wait began. "Apparen tly, the straight is n ot big en ou gh for all o f us because somebod y hit me. That gave Ben that little bit and he got aw ay." It w asn't until th e th ird lap that it was ap parent that Bostrom was getting awa y, and, once he got going, there was no sto pping him. He had close to three seconds endi ng the fifth lap and gained ano ther second when Wait ran wide in the last le ft-bander on to the back stretch on the sixth lap. From then on, he was unchallenged. "Hopefully we can keep this momentum g oi ng throu gh out t he season ," Bostr om said. Wait h ad moved into secon d with a s li n gs hot m ov e in to turn on e at th e beginning of the fourth lap. As soon as he was by Gibbs he qu ickly left him to fend off the advances of the oncomi ng pack. His race was with Bostrom and he cou ld n' t make a go o f it. Still , he w as leavin g the pac k behind, hol ding abou t a th re e-secon d cushi on at the halfwa y point. That gap was now over Eric Bostrom who was recovering from an off-track excursion . He'd ende d the first tw o laps in fou rth before d rop pi ng back on the third lap to sixth. "I just put m y head down and started chargin g," Eric Bostrom said - and that' s wh at he d id. He made up (m e spot by the end of the lap, th en w as up to fou rth en d ing the fifth lap . He moved int o third on the sixth lap and held it to the end, gr adually pulling away fro m Estok and Nate Wait. Th ose tw o go t together on the seven th lap an d Est ok w as able to d raw clear as the lap s wound down. Beh ind wait came Gibb s, dropping back to sixth and well in front of Hikaru Miy agi who ran a m ostly lonely race into seven th place. H ot Shot M otor- works' Ch u ck Blackmon w asequally alone in eigh th, wi th Ma rk Black and Jeff Heino rounding out the top 10. Andrew Stroud whee lles the Erion Racing Honda across the finish line after winning the SuperTeams event. Homestead Motorsports Complex Homestead, Florida Results : May 19,1 996 (Round 4 of 11) PROGRESSIV E INSURANCE SUPERTWINS: I. Ben Bostro m; 2. Matt Wait ; 3. Eric Bostrom ; 4. Dave Estok; 5. Nate Wait; 6. Brian Cibbs; 7. Hikaru Miyagi; 8. Chuck Blackm on; 9. Ma rk Black; 10. Jeffrey Heino; 11. Daigoro Suzu ki; ~2 Richie Morris; 13. Eric Lacruze, 14. Stephen Vlasb lom; 15. Jerry Cascie ro; 16. Jim Whita ker; 17. John Costa; 18. Matt hew Guidera; 19. Michael Luke; 20. John Ashm ead . Ti me: 20 min, 14.971 sec. Dista nce: U laps. 26.52 mi les. Average spee d: 78.580 mph. Margin of victo ry: 5.031 sec. PROG RESSIV E INSURANCE SUPERTWIN S CHAMPIONSHIP POINT STANDINGS (Afler 4 of II rounds): 1. (TIE ) Ben Bostrom /Matt Wait (136/2 wins); 3. Na te Wait (l O 4. Brian Gibb s (94); 5. Dave Estok S); (88); 6. Daigoro Suz u ki (83); 7. Eric Bostrom (82 ); 8. H ika ru Miyagi (81); 9. Rich ie Mo rris (69); 10. Mark Black (67); 11. Tripp Nobles (57); 12. Matth ew Gui dera (51 ); 13 . Scott Zamp a ch (50 ); 14. (T IE) ) im Whitake r / Chu ck Blackmon / Stephen Vlasblom (48); 17. Guy Bertin (45); 18. Miche l Ama lri c (43 ); 19. Je r ry Casdero (42); 20. Jim Rosa (34). Upcoming Rounds: Round 5 - Lexington, Ohio, J une 2 Round 6 - Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, June 9 P erformance Mchine a sSuperTeams R 3: H ound omestead M olorsports Complex Erion clears out By Henny Ray Abrams HOMESTEAD, FL, MAY18 he one-hour Pe rf orm an ce Machines SuperTeam s eve nt was not-so much a race as a procession . From the end of the first lap to the tim e the clock inevitably ran out, the order of th e top fiv e on ly changed during th e rider sw aps, and then not for long . Run on a warm, cloudy, and overcas t Satur- . day aftern oon, this one was over ab out as soo n as it started. Th e win, their se cond o f th e year, went to series leader Erion Racing, with Doug Toland and Andrew Stro ud sharing the r idin g ch ore s o n a Hon da T CBR900RR which had been signifi can tly improved sin ce the team's second-p lace fin ish at la st m onth' s race at Laguna Seca Raceway. Toland was away first, running consi stently better than a second a lap faster tha n th e second ru nn ing Team Moto Liberty Honda CBR900RR of Ge ra ld Rothman to buil d u p m ore th an a 24-second lead by the tim e h e gav e way to the Kiw i Stroud at the 35minute mark, the sam e time that Moto Liberty pitted. At the end of his first lap in the sad dle Stroud h a d n early 34 secon ds in hand and was ab le to crui se to the win, lapping all the w ay through fifth place. "Dou g (Toland) d efin itely gave us a good lead and rod e well," Stroud sa id on the victory stand . "I' ve got nothing to complain abou t." . " It was flawl ess," Toland concurred. "We went out and did the last lap s as fast as the first laps ," Ind ee d , o n un o ff ici a l w atch e s Toland 's last lap was w ithin a second of hi s fastes t lap, -and his worst w as we ll bette r than any ot her. The Erion Racing team completed 40 laps (88.2 mile s) of the 2.21-mile course in one hour, 46.598 seconds at an average spee d of 87.270 mph. Their winning m argin ove r Mot o Liberty w as 43.479 seconds. Afte r three of nine races, Erion Racing extended their championship points lea d to eight p oints, 105-9 7 over th e EBSCO Indus tri es Su zuki team, third today w ith a batt er ed an d pa tched up team of Michael Barnes and Da le Qu arterley . Team Moto Liberty moved in to third with 82 points. Once Erion Racin g cleared ou t, it was up to Mot o Libe rty to ha ng on to second, which they did with ease. Ger ald Rothman Jr. went ou t first, handing off to AI Salaverria at the en d of the 23rd lap. When they cam e in they had abo u t 15 seco nds on the thi rd -pl ace bike and the ga p would widen by the end, Sa laver ria the ca reta ker o f th e position d espi te h a ving a hard time wit h the machine. "It was pre tt y d iffi cul t. The se tup w as qu ite a bit d ifferent from yes ter day," the San Franciscan s ai d . " It kind o f th rew m e o ff ." Sa la v erria _s a id th a t h is charge w as a lso blu n te d somewhat when he caught his foot on a curb. The third-plac e team w as also ri di ng w oun d ed, b u t for a very different rea son . Th e team h a d d rafted D a le Q u a rte rl e y in to action a ft e r re g u la r Ma rk McD ani e l d is lo ca te d hi s ri ght shou lder in a m ounta in bik ing a cci den t. Mc Dani e l was we ll e nough to fi nish eigh th in th e Teamli ne 750cc Su pers port race ea rlier in the day, but not up to th e 60 -mi n ute s p ri nt on the EBSCO In d u str ie s Suzuk i GSXRll O . Qu art erle y was riding O for th e first tim e since severel y inju ring h is hand in a crash during a December Dayto na tire test. The hand didn't give him a problem in his stint, the openi ng one on the EBSCO Suz u ki. The problem was th at Quarterley d idn't ge t enough practice on th e bigbor e m ach ine and fou nd during the race that there were a coupl e of small problems which couldn' t be iro ned out in practice. Barnes' problems were more severe. H e'd been h igh-sid ed off hi s H-D VRI000 Superbi ke d uring the morning p ractice session an d h ad inju red both h is wrists . H ow severely , h e wasn 't sure, but he did say, "I' ve had tw o broken wrists and that' s what it feels like." Barnes ro d e secon d on th e EBSCO bike and brought it home abou t 19.5 seconds behind Moto Liberty. " I'm just h a p p y to ge t so me p oints. Both m y wrists are killing me. I co u ld bar ely h an g on at th e en d ," Barnes said . H e rode the lion ' s sh are, tak in g over from Qu art erley after about 24 minutes. Next in th e parade w as the Ohi o Supe rb ike te am of Mar k Jun ge a n d Da ni el Bail ey. The number-77 Su zuki GSXRII00 was first h and led by Junge wh o pitted at the halfway ma rk so that Bailey could handle the cleanup chores. They were the last team on the lead lap, fin ishin g ab out 21 seco n ds be h ind Barne s on the EBSCO mach ine. Then cam e the OATS Racing piloted firs t by Da x Snow , w h o came in w ith tw o mi nutes left in the 40-minute window a llowed fo r rider ch anges, and gave w ay to tea m ma te Dale Kieffer. n Homestead Motorsports Complex Homestead, Florida Res ults: May 18, 1996 (Round 3 of 9) . PERFORMAN CE MACHIN ES SU PERTEAMS: I. Erion Racin g (Hon); 2. Moto Liberty Hond a (Han); 3. EBSCO Ind us tr ies Su zu ki (Su z ); 4. Oh io Su perbike (Suz); 5. OATS Racing (Suz); 6. Tea m Henson (Kaw); 7. Ame rican Flye rs (Kaw); 8. Keystone /Norths tar Racing (Yam ); 9. Ohi o Superb ike II (Suz); 10. Pir ate Racin g (Suz); 11. Longevity Racing (Suz ); 12. Anaheim Yamah a (Yam ). Tim e: One hour, 46.598 sec. Dista nce: 40 laps, 88.4 miles. Average speed: 87.270 mph. Mar gi n of victo ry: 43.479 sec. P ER FO RM A N CE MA CH I NE S SU P ERT EA M S CHAMPIONSHIP POINT STAND INGS (After 3 of 9 r o u n ds); 1. Erion Racing (1 05 /2 wi ns); 2. EBSCO Ind ustries Suz uki (97/ 1); 3. (J1E) Ohio Supe rbike / Moto Lib er ty Ho n d a (8 2) ; 5. O a t s Raci ng (8 1); 6 ~ (T IE) Ana he im Ya m a h a / O hio Su perb ike II (&9); R. _ Keystone /Nort hstar Racing (56); 9. Team Moto Liberty Senior (30); 10. Team Hen son (25); 11. (TIE ) Two Dud es from Cali / Am erican Flyer s (24): 13. Big Stick (23); 14. (TIE) Ho nd a o f Monte re y /Pir at e Raci ng (21); 16. Kamakaze /Longevi ty Racing (20); 18. Team Racetronics (19); 19. RCS Motorsports (18); 20. Two Husky Racing (17). Upcoming Rounds: Round 4 . Lexington, Ohio, J une 1 Round 5 . Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, J une 8

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