Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

ROAD RACE · AMA National Championship Road Race Series Round 5: Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course Doug Polen (foreground) was a surprise entry In the AMA Supe rTeams race at M ldOhio; he and his teammate Dale Quarterley finished third. 2 as both riders opted for upright handlebars and dirt track-style foot-down tactics through the still-wet comers. Lap after lap Bostrom p robed for an opening and Wait repe lled him, the pair all the while pulling away from third place. They had 20 seconds b y the halfway mark. It was on the final lap that the order woul d finally cha nge wi th Bo s t rom finding a gap and shoo ting through it. "I kind of had it planned because I was making time on Wait and I set him up, " Bostrom said. "But I cou ldn't get him. And I was going, 'I'm kind of worried: you know. So 1 was figuring on passi ng him on the brakes coming down the hill because 1 was pretty good on the brakes. Matt kind of got away from me on the straightaway. 1 tried to outbrake h im and I was braking ha rd maki ng time up on him and 1 tu cked the front rea l bad an d I had to get on the rear brake a nd 1 tu cked th e' fro n t aga in . I . though t I was going right off the track. I ju st threw it in wi th ma ybe a foot of pa vement left. I hooked the tum, but he was riding hard and his feet cam e off the pegs. So I got right back up on him. An d in 11 I go t righ t up back besid e him, and in 12 1 jus t threw it in. But then 1 pu sh ed the fro nt and Matt took m e back and we we' re both kind of coming in th ere at an ang le to each othe r and neithe r of us was shutting off. And we just came in th er e an d at e each other, handleb a r to tire, elbo ws ... I just happen ed to be on the inside so 1 got it." "I was sliding aro und a lot. I'm sure eve ryone was," Wait said. "The whole race was kind of an un com fortable race. It was a good race for Ben. He earned it for ha ngi ng in there to the end . I'll get him back next time." An equally co m pelling ba ttle was bein g waged over th ird bet ween Eric Bo st rom an d Ra nd y Te xter with Bostrom in front until the fifth lap when Texter reeled him in . Texter mad e his pa ss, the next time arou nd and edged aw ay, look ing secure for a podium finish when he fell in front of Bostrom on the eighth lap. " I reall y wanted to keep up w ith those gu ys, but they were really riding a good race:' Bartels' H-D's Eric Bostrom said. "I wa sn 't pushing that hard a nd then I got into a race with Rand y Texter and we were kind of going at it and he ended up falling off wh en we were going into the en d of the straigh taway. From then on 1 just cruised. There was nobody real close and I didn't want to fall off." Bostrom was cor rect in say ing that nobody was real close . Tilley's H-D' s Nate Wait was in fourth all by himself and in no peril of being caught by the Gib bs/ Ama lric battle for fifth , which Gibbs had the better of the en tire race. I ~ Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course Lexington, Ohio Results: Ju ne 2, 1996 (Round 5 0111 ) PROG RE SSI VE I NS UR A N C E SU PE RTW INS (Ro un d 5 of 111: 1. Ben Bostr om ; 2. Moltt Wa it; 3. Eric Bo strom : 4. Nate Wait : 5. Bri an Gi b bs; b . Mich el Amahic: 7. Lan ce Jon es; 8. Jeff Hein o; 9. Hik aru Miyagi: 10. Da ve Estok: 11. Mark Black; 12. Richi e Mo rri s: 13. Daigor o Suz u ki; 14. Cha d Heal y; 15. Mark Reyn old s; 16. De vin Battl ey; 17. Bria n Bod ine; 18. Ran d y Texter. 19. Todd Evans; 20. Stephen Vlasbl om ; 21. Gnog H u tcheson . Time: 22 min., 11.&38 sec. Distanc e: 11 laps , 26.4 miles . Aver age Speed: 71.371 m ph. M.ug in of V icto ry: 0.484 sec. PROGRESS IVE INS URA N CE SUPERTW INS C'SH IP POI NT STAND INGS (A fte r 5 of 11 round ,) : I. Ben Bostrom (17 1/3 w ins); 2. Matt Wo1 it (169 / 2); 3. N ate Wa it (130); ~ . Brian Gibbs (120); S. Da ve Estok (116); 6. Eric Bostrom (112); 7. Hi ka ru Miyagi (103 ); 8. Daigor o Suzuki (101 t 9. Richie Morris (88); 10. Mark Black (87t 11. Michel Amalric (68); 12. Stephen Vlasb lom (59); 13. Tripp Nobles (5;); 14. (TIE ) Matthew Gu id era / Lance l one. (5 1) ; 16. Sc ott Zampa ch (SO); 17 . (T IE ) Ji m Wh itaker /Chuck Blackmon (48); 19. Gu y Bertin (45); 20. leff Heino (4-1). Upcoming Rounds: Round 6 - Elkhart Lake. Wisconsin. June 9 Round 7 - Loudon. New Hampshire. June 16 PerformanceMachineSuperTeams Round 5:Mid .Qhio Sports Car Course Moto Liberty for aD By Henny Ray Ab rams LEXINGTON, OH,JUNE 1 a king advan tage of th e mi sf o rtun es of race leader Erion Racing, Mota Liberty H ond a' s Ge rald Rothman Jr. took over the lead halfway into th e one- ho ur Perfo rm an ce Machines Sup erTeams ra ce and pulled away to card the team 's first 'victory of the year. T Lead rider Rothman was in second place wh en Erion Racing's Doug Toland sputtered to a stop exiting tum one just after the midpoint of the race. The Erion Honda CBR900RR wa s pushed backward to the pit s and the problem was diagnosed as a switch on the gas tank which needed to be th rown to res ume fuel flow. Once tha t was done, Andrew Stroud went ou t, four laps down. By then AI Salaverria had taken over the Mota Liberty Honda CBR900 RR from Rothman and, on his first flying lap, had close to 16 seconds on the second-place Yamaha FZRI000 of Dutchman Racing' s Fritz Kling . Salaverria stretched the lead each lap and won by 20.381 seconds . "We were in the lead by 14-15 seconds. By the time I got up to speed it was a 17-second lead:' Salaverria said . "I kep t going ha rd." The team co mple ted 39 laps (93.6 miles) of the 2.4-mile track at an average speed of 92.088 mph . Kling had taken over the Dut chman Yama ha from Ray Yod er a t abou t the 21-mi nute m ark. Th e team d ropped briefly back to sixth, but Kling started picking ride rs o ff o ne a t a tim e a n d moved by EBSCO Industries Suzuki's Dale Qu arterIey on the 21st lap . At the finish he had about 18 seconds on Quarter ley, w ho ha d taken over from Doug Polen in h is inaugural appearance on the EBSCOSuzuki GSXRll00. Fourth was decided on the final lap when Ohio Su pe rbike' s Ma rk Jun ge repas sed OATS Racing's Dax Snow after he'd lost the spo t the pre vious lap. Anaheim Yamah a's Dean Mizdal and Brian Parriott were sixth in fron t of Keys to ne / N orthst ar Racin g ' s Anthon y Lupo and Brett Metzger. The finish shu ffled the order a t the top o f the championship point stand ing s. After four o f nin e ra ces, EBSCO Industries Su zuki mov es in to th e to p spot with 127 poin ts, tw o in front o f Erion Racing, wh o finished 11th in the 12-bik e field . Mot a Lib ert y Hond a moves into third with 118. Right from the start it was Toland in the lead, but with the compa ny of Rothman and Polen, wh o were followed at a distance by Kling and Bailey. By th e fif th la p th e lea d tri o wa s pulling away from the fight for fourth place between Kling and Bailey, wh ich was in turn follow ed b y a lone Dale Kieffer in sixth. Rothm an was keepi ng th e lea der Toland in sigh t un til they came up on traffic. "He step ped it up an d I pu sh ed my time down." Rothman said. "He pulled away in tr affi c. Then we got lu cky. 1 knew it w as go ing to b e clo se ." H e ad d ed th at th e team had fo und new pow er in their Honda CBR900 and had closed the g ap . "The fir st cou ple o f weekends th ey had a dram ati c power advantage. This is a different motorcycle." As it w ould turn out, pow er wouldn't matter because the engine on Toland 's bike quit running . The former Wor ld Endurance champion pull ed off and pushed the bik e backward to the pits to see if his team cou ld so lve the p robl em . Shortl y afterward, Rothm an pitted (at the 36-minu te mark ) with better than 37 seconds in hand over second pla ce, and Sal av erria would ne ver be headed. Dutchman Racing had brought Yoder in earl y to give way to Kling and he was in second when Salaverria took over for Mota Liberty. "When 1got on it 1 went for it," Kling said. "I saw Erion and 1got Qu arterIey. 1 was looking for Mota Liberty, but they had 15 seconds after the changes and that 's a lot to mak e up." Q u a r ter ley had take n over fr om Polen at the 27-minute mark, the team not losing a spot in the exchange. Then Kling m oved pa st on the 21st lap and Quarterley settled in for a very secure third . "We' re losing races, no t the team or the mot orcycle: ' Quarterley, who will ride the next race at Elkhart Lake with Polen , said . "We' re jus t not cutting the m ust a rd. I did the sam e lap s a ll race long. I was able to maintain it, but it was about a second off the pace." O hio Superbike and OATS Racin g hooked up right after the ha lfway mark with OA TS Racin g' s Kieffer in front until handing off to Dax Snow with a minute left in the 40-minute wind ow for rid e r changes . Oh io Su perbi ke ha d swapped Mark Jun ge for Daniel Bailey about six minutes ea rlier. Jun ge held fou rth until being passed by Snow on th e penu ltimate la p, bu t Junge fou ght back to retake the spo t on the final go-a round . 0 Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course Lexington, Ohio Results: June 1, 1996 (Round 4 of 9) PERFORM AN CE M ACHI N E S UP ERTEA MS , I. Moto Liberty Hond a (li on ); 2. Dutchman Racin g (Yam ); 3. EBSCO Industri es Suzu ki (Su z ); -I. O hi o Superbike (Su z ); 5 . OA TS Ra ci n g (S uz); 6 . Anaheim Ya ma ha (Yolm); 7. Key sto ne / Norths tar Ra d n g (yam ); 8. Deg e Racing (Han ); 9. Ohio Superbike n (Su z ); 10. Battley Cy cles (Yam ); 11. Eri on Racing (Hon ); 12. Team 202 Radng (Han). Ti m e: bOm in., 59.118 sec. Dist.lnce: 39 laps. 93.6 m iles. Aver age Speed: 92.088 mph. Margin o f V icto ry: 20.381 sec . PERFORMANCE MA CHIN E SU PERTE AMS C'S H IP POINT STANDING S IAfte r 4 of 9 rounds ): 1. EBSCO In d ustries Suz u ki (127 /1 win ); 2. Erion Racing (125/2 ); 3. Mot e Libe rty Hooda (118 /1 ); 4. Ohio Su pe rbik e (110); 5. Dats Racing (107); 6. Ana heim Yam aha (94); 7. Ohio Superbik e II (91); 8. Keysto ne! No rths tar Racin g (80): 9. Dut chman Racing (32 ); 10. Team Mota Liberty Senior (30); 11. Team Henso n (25); 12. (TIE) Two Du d es from Ca li / Ameri can Flyers (2-1); 14. (TIE ) Big Stick / Dega Raci n g (23 ); lb . (TI E) H ond a o f M o ne tery /Pirat e Racing /B attl ey . Cycle s (21) ; 19 . (TI E) Kamakaze / Lon gevtry Redng (20). Upcoming Rounds: Round 5 - Elkhart Lake. Wisconsin. June 9 Round 6 - Loudon. New Hampshire. June 16

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