Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

, Loudon Road Race Series, Round 8 By John Flory LOUDON, NH, AUG. 24-25 he main news from this season's LRRS series continues to be the virtually complete domination of most of the Unlimited, Heavyweight, and Middleweight LRRS classes by Richard Alexander Jr. and Eric Wood. To date, Alexander has won 29 of the 38 races in the five classes he normally enters and has placed second four times. (He did not even enter some of the five remaining races due to schedule conflicts.) Wood, who normally contests four classes, has 19 wins and five seconds in the 28 races to date in his four' classes. Despite faltering this weekend, the Team Fila/CycleWorks teammates, each heading the points standings in four classes, marched closer to attaining their goal of winning at least eight 1996 LRRS championships. No single rider dominates the Lightweight and Super twins classes. After several rrtiscues early in the season, Brett Guyer has emerged at the top of the Lightweight Supersport and Superbike standings (and wins in both this weekend solidified his position).- Lightweight GP leader Freddy Maruca's win this weekend vs. Guyer's third stretChed his lead over Guyer in that series. Sean Sweeney won Heavyweight Supertwins going away and looks set to take that title. The close Lightweight Supertwins chase tightened even more this weekend, Dan Frisbie's second place on a borrowed bike bringing him to one point behind Jack Aksel while Chad Healy's win brought him within striking distance. The weekend began innocuously enough for Alexander. He won Solo GTO by over 30 seconds, locking up his first 1996 championship with seven wins - the earliest an LRRS championship has ever been clinched. Next he won Heavyweight Supersport handily from Brett Metzger. In Unlimited Superbike, John Scheehser on the Atlantic Motorsports Yamaha YZF750 factorykitted superbike gave Alexander and his ml!-ch less-powerful supersport-spec Suzuki GSXR750 a run for the first four laps. Then Alexander, knowing that a representative from his team's new sponsor Fila Sportswear was watching from the stands outside turn six, made a point. of passing Scheehser there. He outbraked Scheehser on the inSide going in, made an elegant pass and outdrove Scheehser just enough to prevent a repass through turn seven. A last-lap response from Scheehser was foiled when a rubber grommet in his airbox came loose and jammed the carbs open, and he fell hard, so Alexander fended off Charles Small Jr. on the New England Performance ZX7 sJlperbike to win again. Things unraveled for Alexander late Sunday in the Unlimited GP race. Grabbing the lead right from the st¥t, he led the first six laps and pulled a two-second lead over Small and Eric Wood. Disaster struck when he collided with a lapped rider in turn 11 and fell. He was uninjured, but the bike, after several' endos, was unusable. RI :hard Alexander Jr. (54) leads John ! ~heehser (43) and Charles Small in Unllm,~ed Superbike racing during round eigtl of the Loudon Road Race series. Sheehs Ir's throttle jammed in this turn on. the to llowirig lap, causing him to crash, and Alexander went on to win. Metzg•.r· graciously lent Alexander his GSXRf50 for the Unlimited Supersport- race, but Alexander was never a factor in th, race because the bike handled so differently from his. He ended up fifth, losing two positions on ·the last lap when.a waving yellow flag appeared as he was comrrtitted to pass a lapped rider in turn one, forcing him to run straight to avoid making the pass. As a result, the race for the lead was a stirring brawl between Dominican National Champion Aristarco Azcona and Brian Kent, with Eric Gulbransen close behind. Azcona employed unusual tactics, including weaving on the front straight and blocking in the turns. He would look behind and see which side a pursuer was on, move into that rider'spath, park his bike at the apex and then squirt out of the turn. On the last lap, Kent was setting up to go around the outside in turn one. When Azcona moved into his path and suddenly slowed, Kent, already committed, slammed into the back of Azcona's GSXR750 and went down hard, leaving the win to Azcona. Alexander ended up fifth, losing two positions on the last lap when he overshot turn one due to a waving yellow flag which appeared just as he was about to pass a lapped rider, forcing him to back out of the. throttle and lose his line. Alexander's teammmate Wood suffered a loss as well this weekend. It was Jess surprising in his case because he was still recovering from torn ligaments in his right knee suffered in a collision during a race at Bridgehampton three weekends before. Furthermore, his ZX7 superbike had been rebuilt after catching fire at the Brainerd AMA National but promptly blew a head gasket the first time he fired it up this weekend, so he would have to ride his '96 ZX6R in all his races. However, he would not have to contend with Jeff Curtis, who had begun pressuring Wood recently. Curtis suffered a season-ending broken ankle in the first race this weekend when Peter IIlich fell right in front of him (Illich's overheating Honda sprayed water on its rear tire) and he hit Illich's bike. Wood won Middleweight Supersport easily, passing Scott Greenwood for the lead in turn six on the first lap and pulling away with a string of low 1:18s to win by about 10 seconds. Despite winning all seven Middleweight Supersport races so far this season, Wood has not wrapped up the chammpionship. Next, Wood y;on Heavyweight Superbike - on his supersport 600! He was third in the early going behind Small and Sweeney. Sweeney and his Ducati 955 whooshed past Small into the lead at the start of the third lap. Two turns later, Sweeney stuck a wheel into an oil spill in turn three and fell. He remounted in seventh and pushed back up to fifth by the end. Sweeney's exit enabled Wood to go after Small. Wood used the same turn-10 inside pass several times before making it stick. Interestingly, several seconds back Kent was using the same move on Azcona for third and having the same problems making it stick, though he too eventually succeeded. Wood now leads Small in the championship race by just one point after each rider's worst finish is discarded. , The race Wood did not win was Unlimited' GP. The same Wood vs. Small scenario was replayed after Alexander collided wLth a lappe and fell, as already described. This time Small came out on top as Wood nearly fell down in turn 10 after passing Small in turn one. Wood's front end had been tUcking slightly in turn let in the previous race. He adjusted it but went the wrong way so that it was now worse. Small had been holding him up slightly ·in turn 10 ("I'm kinda wimpy goin' through there," Small said) and Wood went in faster now that he was leading. The result was a major front-end tuck, a huge slide which nearly put Wood onto the grass, a repass by Small and a decision by Wood in (avor of prudence, second place and the series points lead. Wood capped his weekend with a win in Middleweight Superbike over Greenwood in a virtual rerun of the Middleweight Supersport race. New Hampshire International Speedway Loudon, New Hampshire Results: August 24-25, 1996 (Round 8 of 11) UIL S/SPRT EX: 1. Aristarco Azcona (Suz); 2. Eric Gulbransen (Suz); 3. Richard Doucette (Suz); 4. Seth Hahn (Suz); 5. Richard Alexander Jr. (Suz). HIW S/SPRT EX: 1. Richard Alexander Jr. (Suz); 2. Brett Metzger (Suz); 3. Aristarco Azcona (Suz); 4. Brian Kent (Suz); 5. Steve Arsenault (Suz). HIW S/SPRT JR: 1. Berbert Zaroogian (Kaw); 2. Brent Campbell (Hon); 3. Tony Iannarelli (Hon); 4. Gerald Provencher (Hon); 5. Ken Tessier (Hon). HIW S/SPRT AM: 1. Michael Matire (Kaw); 2. Chris Olson (Kaw); 3. Robert Donovan (Yam); 4. Tommy Brennan (Kaw); 5. Ronald Wall

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