Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

·.ROADRACE. R9ad Race. Series' Final Round: Las Vegas Motor Speedway AMA National Championship Rothman Jr., showering the track with oil and metal. The red flag was out with about 12 minutes run. The cleanup took less than 20 minutes and the five-minute board came out with 30 minutes to go. That meant it would be a straight sprint, no rider changes, the second rider deciding the championship. For EBSCO it would be Michael Barnes, for Erion Racing it was Doug Toland, with teammate Andrew Stroud on the Erion Racing Too bike. Toland led the first three laps, then Barnes was by for the fourth lap, ninth Wait squeaks itout By Henny Ray Abrams LAS VEGAS, NY, OCT. 6 ight one thousandths of a second. After 11 races and countless hundreds of miles, that was the difference between winning and losing the Progressive Insurance Harley~Davidson SuperTwins championship. That was the measurement recorded when Bartels' H-D's Ben Bostrom .crossed the line, a wink after the new class champion Matt Wait of Mitchell's Modesto Harley-Davidson. And it took a weaving run to the line for Wait to keep !;tis season-long rival at bay. "1 just came up a little short," Bostrom said, understating the case. 111e final tally has Wait with 351 point arid five wins, Bostrom with 348 points and five wins also. The only other rider to win a race this year was Bostrom's teammate Dave Estok, who was third today, not that many noticed. He was actually fourth on the track, but was moved up when Tripp Nobles was disqualified after finishing third. Nobles had inserted himself as high as second place late in the race before Wait and Bostrom picked up the pace. Wait took the holeshot at the start, followed by Nobles and Bostrom, with Estok trailing behind as the top four split from the l~rider field almost from the start. _ Wait led across the stripe on the first lap, then Bostrom led the next one. But just the one as Wait headed the field from there on out with Bostrom shadowing him - Wait looked over his shoulder every lap - and Bostrom looking able to pass when the opportunity arose. That opportunity would be taken on the last lap, it appeared. So Bostrom was· content to hang back, with Wait slowing down the pace a bit. This slowing allowed Nobles, left behind by the leading pair on the second lap,. to catch back up soon after the halfway point in the lO-lap race. Though he caught them, Nobles didn't hang around long. He moved by Bostrom to take over second on the eighth lap, but Bostrom quickly repassed him on the brakes entering the funnel into tum one. By the end of the lap, Wait and Bostrom lost Nobles, and by then the white flag was showing. The final lap wasn't much different from the others. Wait led across the stripe, Bostrom in his wake, the pair cutting through the infield and onto the run to the banking. Unlike Daytona, where the final push is entirely on the bowl, this run to the flag is on an infield stretch which parallels the banking, then goes onto the 15degree banking just as it eases onto the straight. Bostrom was where he needed to be and Wait knew it. So he began to weave back and forth, Bostrom having to back out of the throttle at one point to avoid contact. The difference wasn't much, but it was enough. Nobles was next across, only to be disqualified. The rest of the field took the flag in a processional finish with Estok well in 'front of Eric Bostrom, Hal's H-D's Brian Gibbs, American Santa Cruz's Matthew Guidera, and Miller Electrical Construc. tion'sMark Black. (N E \.0 0\ 0\ rl \.O~ rl !-< (J) '§ ..... U o 12 (Above) Matt Walt (95) held off Ben Bostrom (11) to win the SuperTwins final and the National Championship. (Right) EBSCO Suzuki (1) holds off Erion Racing (3) in their SuperTeams battle. Las Vegas Motor Speedway Las Vegas, Nevada Results: OCtober 6,1996 (Round 11 of 11) PROGRESSIVE INSURANCE H-D SUPER1WINS, 1. Matt Wait; 2, Ben Bostrom: 3. Dave Estok; 4. Eric Bostrom; 5. Brian Gibbs; 6. Matthew Cuidera; 7. Mark Black; 8. rcdy Hendley; 9. Lance Jones; 10. Shaun Russell; 11. Stephen Vlasblom; 12. Alan Eadje; 13, Richie MoJ!is; 14. Jerry Casciero Jr. TIme: 18 min., 20.312 sec. Dtstance: 10 laps, 24.8 miles. Average Speed, 8).141 mph. Margin of victory: 0.008 sec. PROGRESSIVE INSURANCE H-D SUPERTWINS . C'SHIP POINT 5TANDINGS (After 11 of 11 rounds): 1, Malt Wait (351/S wins); 2. Ben Bostrom (348/5); 3. Dave Estok (287/1); 4. Mirrk Black (235); 5. Brian Gibbs (2lJ7); 6.· (TIE) Eric Bostrom/Hikaru Miyagi (198); 8. Lance Jones (177); 9. Nate Wait (175); 10. Stephen V1asblom (174); 11. Daigoro Suzuki (170); ]2. Richie Mortis (152); 13. Jerry Casdero (125); 14. Tripp Nobles (115); 15. Michel Amalric (114); 16. Scott Zampach (102); 17. (TIE) Matthew Guidera/Jody Hendley (101); 19. Jim whitaker (83); 20. Todd Evans (71). Perlonnance Machine SuperTeams Series .SnperTeams RI.P. By Henny Ray Abrams LAS VEGAS, NY, OCT. 5 he final Performance Machine SuperTeams-race was a rousing cock-up from start to finish, ending on the tracl< with a second red flag and off the track with the possibility of court action deciding the championship some time in the future. These are the facts: With about 10 minutes 'to go in the one-hour race, EBSCO Industries Suzuki's Michael Bames crashed horrifically entering tum one while in pursuit of Erion Racing Too's Andrew Stroud. Barnes came off the EBSCO Suzuki 1100 after apparently losing the front end on the turn one entrance. He slid on his back into the wall, smacking into it with enough force to break the tibia in his right leg. The bike ghost rode itself into hIm one where it nearly passed Stroud at abouf 100 mph, then began to cartwheel in front of him before destroying itself. The race was stopped and Erion Racing Too was declared the winner of the race. Since Barnes was deemed· to have caused the red flag, he was docked a Jap and dropped to ninth place. Erion Racing's Doug Toland, in third at the time of the crash, was moved to second, eaming the final Performance Machine SuperTeams title ever, and with it a $25,000 bonus from Honda. AMA Road Race Manager Ron Barrick said that the results were official and the championship 'was over. Bames was taken to a local hospital where he T was expected to be released by Wednesday. But it doesn't end there. Landers Sevier, the owner of the EBSCO'team, said that he believed the Erion Racing Too team was not, in fact, racing for the championship but was on the track solely to slow down Micha~1 Barnes and not attempt to win the race, a move he believed to be illegal. "He (Andrew Stroud) endangered Michael Barnes' life and he knows it," Sevier said after t

• Cover