Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

·ROAD RACE .: AMA N ational C hampionshipRoad R Series ace Round 5:Mid ioSports Car Course -Oh Andrew Stroud (130)was the fastest of the fast in the 600cc Supersport final. The Kiwi ended up beating Gerald Rothman J r. (5) and Doug Toland (30) in the ralndrenched race . All three crashed at least once during the race. can bar ely wal k," runner-up Rothman sai d after h is best fini sh s ince Sea rs Point in 1993. " I 'm glad they wai ted and restarted it. It's hard to pick up oil in the rain." The laid-back Stroud was happy with h is first-eve r Supersport victo ry: "It was really good out th ere," Str oud sai d. "I was following Dou g an d I saw him on the grass. It' s quite lucky that we'v e got motocross tires on today. I locked up the front brake a cou ple of times at the end o f the b ac k s t raigh t in p ra ctice, so 1 knew th a t was a problem sp o t. Once you knew where the slippery spots were it was okay." (:\ Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course Lexington, Ohio Res ults : J une 2, 1996 (Round 5 of 11) 600('c SUPE RSPO RT: 1. And rew Strou d (Hon) ; 2. Gerald Rot hman Jr. (H on); 3. Doug: Toland (Hen]: 4. Todd Ha r rin gton (Ka w ); 5. O we n Weichel (Kaw) ; 6. Migu el Dul-lam el (Hon ); 7. Mar cus Hubbar d (Han ); 8. Ma tt Wait (Hon ); 9. Thom as Steve ns (Kaw); to. Ken Melville (H on); 11. Ben Bos trom (Ho n); 12. Michael Luke (Kaw); 13. Chris topher Rank in (Kaw) ; 14. Daniel Bro d y (Ka w ); 15 . Tommy Ha yd en (Kaw); 16. Tom Tra xler (H on ); 17. Harold Wink les (Hon); 18. Harold Hillard (Yam); 19. Michael Conlon Jr. (Ho n); 20. Michael Ma tern (Hon); 21. Brian Parri ott (Hon); 22. Michael Emil Rad ke (Ho n); 23. Jamie Worth ington (H an); 24. Gregory Myer (Ho n); 25. Ru eben Fran kenfield (Ka w ); 26. Dan Kroger (Hon ); 27. David Lloyd (H en ); 28. Mike Smith (Kaw). Tlme: nl a d ue to red flags. Dis tance: 16 laps . 38 .~ miles . Avera ge Speed: n la due to red flags . Margin of Vidory: n I a due to red flags. 600« SU PE RS PORT C'SHl P POINT STANDINGS (A ft e r 5 of 11 rou n d s): 1. Miguel DuHamel (164 /3 wins); 2. Thomas Stevens (142); 3. Doug Tolan d (125); 4. (TIE ) Ger ald Rothman )r ./a.n Bostrom (120); 6. (TIE) Andrew Stroud /Steve Cr evier (111/1); 8. Matt Wait (99~ 9. Mik. Smith (%/ 1); 10. Todd Harrington (91); 11. Christophe r Rankin (87); 12 Ken Melville (80); 13. Jason Pridmore (75 ); 14. Brian Parriott (73 ); 15. Owen Weichel (50 ~ 10 Eq uipped with the Dunlop DOT rain tires in stead of the Bridgestones that sponsor the Erion team, Stroud was the fas test 600cc rider on the day. Still, he too relied on the red flags to get him to th e front. The Kiwi was leading when the first red flag was waved, bu t cras hed in the res tarted race only to remount in time for another red flag. In th e thi rd and final portion of the race, Stroud was untou chable and he splashed his way to wh at wa s hi s fi r st- e ver AMA 600cc Super sport win. Second place went to New Englander Gerald Rothman Jr. on the Moto Liberty H ond a. Rothman h ad al s o cr as he d. Twice. But thanks to th e red flags, he w as able to be th ere when it counted m ost - at the end . Rothman benefited from Toland's off-tra ck excu rsion (he'd also crashed in an earlier portion of the ra ce) in th e fina l run to the che ckered flag to grab the runner-up spot. Toland and hi s Eri on Racing Honda fini sh ed thi rd . Fourth place went to the firs t noncra sh er in the field, 4&6 Cycle's Todd Harrington. The Illinois rider stay ed free of trouble for mo st of the day, steadily improving his position as those around h im to ok to the mud . In th e end, he bare ly h eld off h is Kawasaki-riding teammate Owen Weichel. The Canadian w a s a multi-time crasher on the d ay, ir onicall y riding one of H arrington ' s bikes. Despite closing on his teammate late in the race, Weichel thought the better of risking cras hi ng both of Harrington 's Kawasakis in a single incident. De fend in g AMA Sup erb ik e a n d 600cc Supersport National Champion Miguel DuHamel was a two-time crashe r, to ssing hi s Smokin' Joe ' s Honda down the road twice in a span of five lap s. In th e end, theFrench Canadian settled for a sixth-place finish, his worst Supersport result in recent memory. But even that was better than some of h is ch ampionship ri v al s . Muz z y Kaw asaki's M ik e Smith all but to ok himself out of championship conten tion when he crashed while leading the sec- ond portion of the race, his bike leak ing oil on to th e race track and causing a majority o f the accidents - includi ng DuHamel' s - and u lti matel y the third red flag. Smith ended up being credited with 28th place, a position which drop ped him all the w ay ba ck to ninth in the cha mpionship point stan dings. Kin ko' s Ka w asaki Thomas Stevens rode with a shou lder injury, bravely circu lating to a ninth-pl ace finis h to kee p his hopes alive. The cha m p ions h ip is still bein g led by DuHamel with 164 points, 22 better th an Steve ns' 142. Toland moves up to th ir d with 125 with Rothman m ak in g the jum p to a tie for fourth with Ben Bostrom, 11th tod ay after a cras h whil e leading, with 120 points. Stroud is now tied for s ix th with th e inj u re d Steve Crevier on 111 points. As for the racing, or so-called racing, her e goes: Smith led at the sta rt of the first portion but was pa ssed by Stro ud on the second lap . By this time, Weichel had already crashed for th e firs t time. Ditto for Toland. As the pa ck comp leted th e th ird lap, Ari zona' s Marcus Hubbar d crashed out of a surprising fourth place in the final corner, brin gin g ou t th e fir st red flag of th e d a y . H a sty rep air s were made on pit la ne, with Toland, Hubbard and Weichel all ge tting duct-taped up for the retu rn trip. Th e secon d porti on s ta rte d w ith DuHamel leading into tum one. He was quickly displ aced by Smith, wh o promptly crashed. Rothman alsowent down in a separate incident for his first of the day. Th e race continued with Stro ud at the fr ont, leading Du H am e l, Ma t t Wait, Bostrom and Toland. On the fourth lap, DuHam el had his first race cras h of the da y (he'd alread y crashed twice in practice, once on the superbike the oth er on his 600). The French Canadian remounted in ninth. Stroud was next to depart, the Kiwi crashing but remounting in 11th. By this point, Wait was leading Bostrom and Tol and, with Rothman hold in g d own fourth. Then Weichel crashed aga in. But still no red flags. On th e ei gh th lap, DuHamel was d own agai n, along with Reuben Fr ank enfield, the pair go ing off in Smith's oil in tum nine. Now there was a red fla g, with the AMA ultim ately penalizing DuHamel for bringing it out. DuHamel. though, was already back on pit lane having seen the red flag immediately after remounting. Wait was w inning at the time, wi th Bostro m right on his tail. Mo re re pai rs to bikes followed , thi s time w ith n am es li k e DuH amel a n d Stroud p ainted on th eir fa ir ings . But th ere w as no hurry. With oil and rai n not getting along too sp lendi dly on the track' s surface, racing would be delayed until 3 p.m. - not bad for a race that was sc he d ule d to s tart a t 11 :30 a .m. An improm p tu practi ce session w as attempted earlier, but another cras h an d more oil only caused further delay. Things fin a lly got u n der way at 3 p.m . w ith DuHamel at the back of th e grid. He wo uld eventually finish sixth. "I was a little detuned after crashing in the oil," DuHam el said . "It just took me down. Ther e was no flaggin g th ere at all. They are tot a lly inco m pete nt in that area. I also think it's ba lone y that they blam ed me for the red flag. Comp lete baloney. I crash in some bod y's oil, hit a guy tha t's alre ady cras hed. I get up an d ride away and then they red flag it, but they say I caused it..." The fi na l segmen t was led b y Bo s t r om, t he you ng ph e n om flyi ng away, only to crash on the first lap in t urn seven . Th at gave th e le a d to Toland , who eve ntually gave way to his teammate Stroud. Then Tolan d ra n off the track, han d ing second to Rothman. "I locked up the fron t tire twice at the en d o f the b ack s t ra igh t, " Toland explained later. "I was on the grass and got back on. No body was go ing by me and I thou ght, 'Thi s is great.:" Bostrom, meanwhile, put on a cha rge tha t moved him from dead last to 11th by the end of the race. End of race. Finally. "I've been on the gro u nd twice and 1 Upcoming Rounds: Round 6 - Elkha rt Lake. Wisconsin, J une 9 Round 7 - Loudon. New Hampshire, J une 16 AMA Teamline 750cc S upersport Series Round 5:Mid.Qhio S CarCourse ports Yates in a yawner By Paul Carruthers Photo by He nny Ray Abrams LEXINGTON, OH, JUNE 1 t fina lly became official on June 1 at the Mid-ohio Spo rts Car Cou rse: The AMA 750cc Supersport class is now a spec-bike class for the Suzuki GSXR750. Suzukis filled the top 12 positions, and 21 of th e 28 finishers at th e Mid-Ohio we re GSXR-mounted. Na t urally, the firs t tw o of the Suzukis w er e th e Yoshim u ra-p re pped GSXRs ridde n bv Aaron Yates and Pascal Picotte. Yates won easily, taking the p oint fr om th e get-go an d even tually pulling away to a 5.707-second victory over h is te amma te Picott e. It w as th e team's fifth straig h t 750cc Supersport w in of th e ye a r, with Yat e s winn ing three and Pico tte w inning th e other two. And, aga in, it was EBSCO Su zu ki' s Michael Barnes who was the best of the rest. Barnes held off Picott e for a majority of th e race bef ore se tt ling for th ird place, his still- injured left arm caus ing him problem s. Beh ind Barnes ca me Team Su zuki Sport' s Mark Miller, EBSCO' s Ma rk . McDaniel, Team Suzu ki Sport's Jam es Randolph, H ooters ' Jim Le slie, Dat s Racing's Dale Keiffer, Ohi o Superbike's Daniel Bailey and Factory Tuning Components' Anthon y Lu po . The first non -Suzuki? That would be the Kawasaki ZX6 rid den by Canadian I

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