Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

.ROAD· RACE .. Road America North American Sport Bike series International GP series by ldemilsu and HRC Round 5: Road America I{z~lta invincible: By John Flory ELKHART LAKE, WI, AUG. 4 ~ motorcycle. And believe me, you need the perfect motorcycle out there now, because I'm riding the s-- out of them! Hopefully I can win this championship. I'm sure those guys (Wait and Bostrom) will be in Las Vegas (at the AMA National) the same weekend I'll be at Loudon doing this series. I have the points lead anyway, so third place is great for that." Road America Elkhart lake, Wisconsin Results: August 4, 1996 (Round 4 of 7) HARLEY·DAVIDSON TWINSPORTS, L Matt Wait; 2. Ben Bostrom: 3. Scott Zampach: 4. Dave Estok; 5. Brian Cibbs; 6. Brian Conley; 7. Todd Evans: 8. Jess Roeder; 9. Jack Kainz; 10. Randy Texter; 11. Roger Hendricks; 12. Brian Bodine: 13. Darvin Loyd; 14. Jeff Harding; 15. Darren Conrad: 16. Robert Buffington; 17. Tim Johnson: ]8. Michael Friberg,; ]9. Tripp Nobles In the Buell lightning series, Dave Estok took his third win in as many rounds. Time: ]5 min., 44581 sec. Distance: 6 laps, 24 miles Aver.age Speed: 91.469 mph M.argin of Victory: 0.056 sec. flARLEY·DA VIDSON TWINSPORTS C'SHJP POINT STANDINCS (.after 4 of 7 rou.nds): 1. Scott Zampach (117/1 win); 2. Matl Wait (lOS/3p. Todd Evans (92); 4Ben Bostrom (88); 5. Brian Gibbs (83): 6. Brian Bodine (77); 7. 8rian Conley (74); 8. (TIE) Randy Texter/Michael Friberg (66); 10. Roger Hendricks (65); 11-. Dave Estok (60); 12. Tripp Nobles (57); 13. Ron McGill (SO); 14. Hikaru Miyagi (45); 15. Devin Battley (42); 16. Tim johnson (40): 17. Carvin Loyd (33); 18. Daigaro Suzuki (29): 19. (TIE) Robbie Hermans/ Eric Bostrom (28). Upcoming Rounds: Round 6 • Portland, Oregon, August 11 Round 7 - Pocono, Pennsylvania, September 1 ThiS. was: the first NASB event in 1996 where ·we.ather a'ld schedul" cooperated So that a reason!,ble !,mount of practice ·and qualifying time could·be provided. The track was open for NASB practice most of ThursdayJlnd· Friday, morning, and many NASB . ·racers also entered· CCS everits for additional track time (and, in some cases. contingency money). NASB founder Roger ·Edmonson pointed out the unusual com· .position of .entries for this event. Four of the six classes this weekend had Harley·Davidson-powered machines competing in them: Formula USA and American Sportbike plus lhe two exclu· sively Harley·poWered classes, TwinSports and Buell lightning. An even more surprising statistic was the fact that 40 percent of the total entries for the weekend were Harley·powered machines. oto Liberty's Masahiro Iizuka won his third International GP race in a row by a huge 15-second margin despite facing a seemingly much more competitive field than he had at the previous race at Brainerd. The writing was on the wall from the qualifying session Sunday morning when Iizuka took pole with a 2:33.4, 0.7 second ahead of his teammate Marcello Del Guidice. And the rest of the field? Over four seconds a lap slower. Del Guidice shadowed Iizuka off the start but was forced to pit for a stop-and-go penalty for jumping off the line early. It didn't matter, though, as he quickly made his way back into the runner-up spot by lap four and would remain there to the finish. Running third for most of the race was third-fastest qualifier Vicky Jackson-Bell, though she occupied the second spot briefly when Del Guidice was forced to pit for his penalty. After a nearly race-long battle for the fourth spot, Chirs Ulrich finally prevailed over Mike Himmelsbach, who rounded out the top five. After five rounds, lizuka maintains a 24-point lead over Jackson-Bell, 162-138. Frank Pate is third with 95. With the results of qualifying such as they were, it was no surprise that two laps after the start of the race Iizuka had a 9.2-second lead over Jackson-Bell What was surprising was that Moto Liberty rider Del Giudice, who had been obediently shadowing lizuka, suddenly disappeared, only to reappear well behind Jackson-Bell. The officials had determined that Del Giudice had jumped the start and had assessed a stop-and-go penalty. The penalty affected the race only momentarily. Del Giudice quickly caught and passed Jackson-Bell on lap four and pulled clear, leaving JacksonBell alone in third. A short distance behind her, Ulrich and Himmelsbach were having a long tussle over fourth which was finally resolved in Ulrich's favor in the last half lap. Road America Elkhart lake, Wisconsin Results: August 4, 1996 (Round 5 of 9) INTERNA TlONAL GP B~ lDEMITSU AND· HRe: 1. Masahiro Uzuka (Hon); 2. Maraillo Del Giudice (Hon); 3. Vicky Jackson·Bell (Hon); 4. Chris Ulrich (Hon); 5. Mike Himmelsbach (Hon): 6. John Ulrich (Hon); 7. Lu Larourte (Hon) 8. Todd Bowman (Hon); 9. Jeffrey Young (Hon); 10. John Bickle (Hon); 11. Jason Lamgan (Hon); 12. Aaron Stein (Hon); 13. Todd Nordby (Hon); 14. Bryan Okubo (Yam); 15. joji Tokumoto (Hon) Time: 15 min., 32.574 sec. Di5tance: 6 laps, 24 miles Aver.age Speed: 92.647 mph Margin of Victory: 15.078 sec INTERNATIONAL GP BY IDEM1TSU AND HRC CSHIP SERIES POINT STANDINGS (Aft.. 5 of 9 rounds): 1. Masahiro lizuka (162/3 wins); 2. Vicky Jackson-Bell (138); 3. F"nk Pate (9S): 4. jeffrey Young (81); S. Todd Nordby (SO); 6. Chris Ulrich (77): 7. Stephen Rezmer (72); 8. Marcello Del Ciuctice (67/1 win~ 9. Todd Bowman (Sl); 10. David Jo«lan (49~ 11. Roland Sands (48); 12. Clayton Kwitowski (47): 13. Aaron Stein (45): 14. Lance Yeager (44): 15. Jason Lamgan (43); 16. joji T~kumoto (42); 17. Nobi Iso (41); 18. john Ulrich (40)09. Mark Brown (39): 20. Kevin Murray (35/1win). Upcoming Rounds: Round 6 - Portland, Oregon, August 11 . Round 7 - Pocono, Pennsylvania, September 1 dbgge,fwith mechanical prob!e":'s all·weekend ·Iong. ·Flr.st amis·. Zlock Racino. has worked· the bugs out of its 2mm-pver big.. adjusted sensor for the Ignitlon.cutQut for the automatic shifter bore kits for Z.X7s (to 8S·0cc) ·and ZXgs (to 9S0cc). Increased caused an upshift with the po."!er on. That nicked the shift drum, ·power produces ~ore heat. so they· have installe·d a thicker-, so from then on upshifting tei fifth gave neutral instead because . three·rail radiator on the 9S00c motor and modified the .cooling the ·shift dogs no longer engaged fully: The cure was to install the. . system on the 8S0cG p·owerplarit. .For the laljer, the· stock ZX7 • transmission from the backup· motor. Then the clutch started slip. .radiator has beE'" split into tWo sections for better crossflow. A . ping in the first qua!ifying sessio'!. so Polen pulled in ~fter a few small·RC30 radiator has been added·behlnd the stock one for additional cooling. The net result is a. 1·S.d!i'gree.celslus drop in slow laps to change the clutch. The team thought Ihey had all the necessary parts, b·ut the parts bock do",s '101 show or give. parts the water temperalure. The large:bore kils mea.n special head numbers for two 2mm steel piates (the other plates are 1.6 mm gaskets are needed. The one in the 890 was fine, but the one in thick) ·in the middle of the '96 Suzuki GSXRiSO clutch stack, the 950 failed. As a .temporary measure, th.ey installed a stock though they ·are shown in the service manual. The Parts and ser· gasket and beveled the upper comers of the pistons slightly to vice manuals also disagree as to· which end of the stack should clear the overhanging lip of gasket material. Andy Deatherage have the seal and washer. Poie,!'s crew finally just installed the raced the 850; Ray Yoder rode the 950. . fresh. plates they had and reused the 2.mm plates. They got Polen out near. the .end of the second session. Before he could com· Quote of the weekend: Visiting Canadian Don Munroe said, plete a lap, the session was red·flagged and was not restarted. "It·'s my first time here and I really enjoy the track. I'm not used to That left. Polen with his slipping·c1utch qualifying time, which put a track without bumps. I keep waiting for a bump in the middle of each comer!" . him 27th on the grid. Several Triumph Speed Triple racers reported severe front The reason that Polen does. not get more power by simply bolt· Chris Car'r said, "I was Very encouraged by my progress· oller brake drag due to misalignment of brake calipers with the brake ing in a GSXR1100 motor is that it is several inches toc big to the weekend. This is one of my favorite tracks but it's also the disks. The rules for the class permit either four· or six'piston Tritoughest one for me to learn in that it's so long· it's got 14 turns . fit into the '96 GSXR7S0 frame. So until Suzuki designs aver· urryph calipers to be fitted, and at least in one case the smaller sian of the new frame to accommodate the big motor. the only and (you feel like) you're in a tunnel and even though you're doing four piston calipers dragged less. None of the racers could find way to get more power and still have the great handling of the 170 it feels like you·re doing 270 because everything is zipping the cause of the misalignment, but it was in th!, wrong axis to be . ·96 frame is to enlarge the new 7S0cc motor. Doing so places by, tn the second leg I did a 2: 14.6 and the best I ever rah io an caused by a simple rotation of the lower fork leg. AMA race here was a 2:16.8. This was a great opportunity for us more stress on components than they are designed for, and one can expect failures until the weak points are ide'!tified and cor· to not only work on the bike but work on us as. riders· I obviously Tuner Mike Velasco revealed a few additional details about the rected. The coup de grace to Polen·s weekend was a spun need more work at that then Tom does, especially on this track. I modifications he· has made to the CBR900RR motors used in crank bearing that came after one lap of the first Formula USA was very tentative the first couple of cays and I got a .bit rid ".I the Team ·Labelle Formula USA bikes. Both the bore and the race. that today ·In the race and jus! pUI my head down and started to stroke have· been inc(eased to a (inal displacement of "around learn.." . .. . '1100cc." with an output "in the 180-hp range." The stock cylin· Dutchman Raci.ng was experie.ncing mechanical problems too. der ~pacing. WQuid not accommodate such a large overbore, s.o An experimental motor wilh titanium rods blew early Friday mornSeveral riders ·were upset about ihe himdling of an ';mbulanc,", Velasco made offset cylinder liners and offset the rod beams on ing, oiling. Kling's tires and putting him down in tum si~. Kling said, and a crash truck on track du~ng the first Formula USA ·race. Cur' the· rod ends. T~e largest motor expired in Sadowskts bike during :'Four quar1s of oil went out the side really fast! We were wonder·· tis Adams had .crashed in the Kink and. was pinned beneath his the sec.ond For")ula USA qualifYing session on $aturday, ·so ing' .abou,t the··rod bolts but now we don't have to:: Team bbss .. bike. The corner workers on .site were not able to lift the bike, so Velasco installed "a·slightly smaller on.,." Saturday afternoon for Schlosser installed a more nbrmal molar with Carillo .rods 'the a crash truck was dispatched from tum five. with additional per· Sunday's races. motor Intended for use al Portland· and thera were no ·further . sonnel 00 it and parkec in an exposed position to shield· Adams molar problems. There were, however, brake problems. Kling and the crew working on the incident. The riders felt that the race Doug Polen's 1996 Suzuki GSXR·750 arrived with a much less complained that the brakes were gone after two laJ>s, "I'm just should have ·been. stopped. In a probably related ·incident, an tame motor than it had at· Brainerd: Th.e strbke had· been· using them too hard. I've got all thaI e>nd qualifying session. . . into the: marbles". on·the outside of the tum.·· the output in thehigh IS0·hp range..Unfortunately. the bike was

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