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NASB Buell Lightning series Round 2: Willow Springs Inlemat'l Raceway Higbee alone By Mark Hoyer Photo by Ko Kagiya ROSAMOND, CA, MAR. 16 here wasn't a soul around. Motorcycle Online's Shawn Higbee got out ahead of the field so far the only thing he 'could do was entertain himself by trying to further perfect his riding. "I was having fun out there just trying to focus on making every corner, maintaining my apex speed and hitting my turning points perfectly," pole qualifier Higbee said. "It's kind of a game for me to go out and try to perfect my riding. Not having to deal with another rider, you just have to go out and focus on turning in at the right time and carrying as much speed as possible and making sure you're sliding the rear on the way out and chattering the front on the way in." Nearly 16 seconds behind Higbee at the finish came Miller Electrical Construction's Eric Bostrom, who got off to a slow start to the weekend by qualifying ninth. 'The Buell gave us trouble all weekend," Bostrom said. ''It would not run. We kept chasing problem after problem and in qualifying it wouldn't run and we qualified in back." By race time, Bostrom felt that his crew had sorted the bike fairly well, and he got down to racing. His biggest problem was with Young's H-D's David McGrath, who actually held the second spot for most of the race only to be passed on the white-flag lap in tum one by Bostrom. "I had a little bit of a problem toward the end of the race with Eric catching me," McGrath said. "I thought I might be able to hold him off, but at the very end he got me. He rode a smart race and nipped me at the end." With his twin wins, Higbee now leads the season points race with a perfect 70, followed by Shawn Conrad with 57. Todd Evans and David McGrath are tied for third with 51. At the start of the la-lap race, Higbee jumped out to an early lead and wouldn't ha ve to fuss with any of his "competitors" for the rest of the race. He had, frankly, expected more. "Actually I figured it would be a tougher race," Higbee said. "I figured Eric (Bostrom) would get in there and mix it' up with me. I had a pretty easy race at Daytona and then we came here and I figured it would be a little more difficult." Bostrom was confident in his machine finally and was really simply glad to be able to race. "At the start of the race we finally felt confident that I was going to run because we found the problem," Bostrom said. "I got kind of a mediocre start and I was just really uncomfortable riding the thing because we had so few laps on it. But by the end of the race we started getting a little more comfortable and started dropping our lap times. I was happy to ·finish second, all things considered, which is really rare because I'm never happy to finish second. But 1 T (Above) Eric Bostrom smoked the HarleyDavidson TwinSports field only to be stripped of his points and purse for having too much power on the post-race dyno run. (Left) Shawn Higbee was untouchable in the Buell Lightning Series race, winning by nearly 16 seconds. was just actually happy to be able to race. McGrath had a realistic approach to his race at Willow Springs. "I knew that Shawn, because of his qualifying times was probably going to check out, so I thought if 1 got a really good start I could try to hook on to him," McGrath said. His attention was then shifted from what lay ahead of him to who was creeping up from behind. "The last three laps 1 didn't pull the revs 1 wanted to and unfortunately we ended up getting a lot of oil on the right side of the tire and right-hand comers, to be honest, kind of scared the hell out of me," McGrath said. "I didn't really reflect on the stopwatch, but I really didn't have an answer (for Bostrom). When I looked back and saw him, a couple times 1 tried to pick the pace up but I just got myself out of shape. 1 think 1 was trying too hard, and he just got passed me." American H-D's Roy David icholson and HMC Hansen Racing's Shawn Conrad filled the top five, Conrad after passing teammate Billy Graef early in the race. L~ Willow Springs International Raceway Rosamond, California Results: March 16, 1997 (Round 2 of 9) BUaL.: 1. Shawn Higbee; 2. Eric Bostrom; 3. David McGrath; 4. Jake Zemke; 5. Roy Nicholson; 6. Shawn Conrad; 7. Billy Graef; 8. Robert Bussey; 9. Brian Bodine; 10. Todd Eva.ns; 11. Michael Friberg; 12. Todd Hennessy; 13. Scott Korol; 14. Shawn McNary. Time: 14 min., 46.595 sec. Distance: 10 laps, 25 miles .Average Speed: 101.512 mph Margin of Victory: 15.998 BUELL LIGHTNING SERIES CHAMPIONSHIP POINT STANDINGS (After 2 of 9 roun.ds): 1. Shawn Higbee (70/2 wins); 2. Shawn Conrad (57); 3. (TIE) Todd Evans/David McGrath (51); 5, Eric Bostrom (48); 6. Brian Bodine (47); 7. Robert Bussey (46); 8. Shawn McNary (4S); 9. (TIE) Roy Nicholson/Michael Friberg (44); 11. Jake Zemke (42); 12. Billy CTaef (39); 13. (TIE) Scott Korol/Todd Hennessy (38); 15. David Kieffer (22); 16. Doug Harwell (17). Upcoming Rounds: Round 3 - Toronto, Canada, June 1 Round 4 - Braselton, Georgia, June 22 NASB Harley·Davidson TwinSports series Round 2: Willow Springs Inlemal'1 Raceway Bosrrom ,on rop, rllen nor By Mark Hoyer Photo by Ko Kagiya ROSAMOND, CA, MAR 16 ust like at the opening round in Daytona, Eric Bostrom was the class of the Harley-Davidson TwinSports field. Only this time, he didn't get any points - or purse - for his impressive efforts aboard his Miller Electrical Construction Harley. A post-race dyno run revealed a one-horsepower excess in the horsepower-limited class and the result was the immediate loss of his newly won points and purse. He does get to keep the trophy. 'That race was flawless - until we hit the dyno," Bostrom said. 'We got DQ'd, which is pretty bizarre because we went before the race and put the bike on the d yno, right before, and it was 62 horsepower. We came back in and it was 66. So, we didn't win." According to Roger Edmondson, NASB rules guru, Bostrom wasn't effectively disqualified since he gets to keep his finish placing, just not the money or points. "He brought a gun to.a knife fight," Edmondson said. "He had 66 horsepower, 65 is the limit. So he gets no points and no purse and nobody else gets changed." Shawn Higbee, riding a Mitchell's Modesto Harley-Davidson AMA 883cc J bike, finished second after battling with Bartels' Harley-Davidson's Jake Zemke early in the race. Bostrom rolled off with the early lead, and while there was some early jockeying for the point, Bostrom Simply outclassed and out-torqued his competition. "At the beginning we had a little race going, and then 1 kind of broke clear and had a pretty easy race after that, pretty uneventful," Bostrom said. Higbee was a little frustrated with his efforts to both lea ve Zemke and catch Bostrom, since the 883cc bike he was riding, while equal in peak horsepower, didn't have the torque of the restrictor-plated 1200cc machines - legal under NASB rules as long as the power requirements are met - his competition was riding. "That was a little frustrating," Higbee said. "I knew going in that we were going to be at a little disadvantage with the Mitchell's Modesto bike because I just came here this weekend expecting to ride the Buell, but they had a spare bike and they asked me to ride it, and 1 said sure. Turns out it's an AMA bike that they use, so it's an 883cc - we didn't have the 1200cc - so we were down on power." Todd Evans, who finished 11 th, is now in a three-way tie for first in the points standings with Brian Bodine, who was eighth, and Shawn Conrad, who finished seventh. They all have 48 points. Zemke and Higbee pressured Bostrom in the beginning, but a big slide on Zemke's part let Bostrom get away, and then Higbee got by. "I had a big slide up in tum three (on the third lap)," Zemke said. "It was quite fun. My' bike was sliding around the whole race. It wasn't anything too drastic, just that one slide, and then that let Eric get away from us. Me and Shawn were having a good dice until about halfway through he pulled out on me." After breaking past Zemke, Higbee had aspirations of catching the fleeing Bostrom, but it was simply not going to happen.. "Zemke got in there and we started dicing and he was sliding all over the place," Higbee said. "I was afraid he might toss it in front of me so I was hanging a little bit back, but 1 pushed and got by him, broke away from him and tried to reel in Eric but just ran out of time. If it was a lOO-lap race 1 probably might have been able to catch him, but there wasn't enough time." Well off the pace of the leaders came Bartels' rider Shawn Russell, and wen behind him was HMC Hansen Racing's Billy Graef. CN Willow Springs International Raceway Rosamond, california Results: March 16, 1997 (Round 2 of 9) HARLEY-DAVIDSON TWINSPORTS, 1. Eric Bostrom; 2. Shawn Higbee; 3, Jake Zemke; 4, Shaun Russell; 5. BiJly Graef; 6, Robert Buss'Y; 7, Shawn Conrad; 8, Brian Bodine; 9. Shawn McNary; 10. Michael Friberg; 11, Todd Evans; 12, Stephen Vlasblom; '13. Scott Korol; 14. Matt Guidera. Time: 15 min" 16.630 sec, Distance: 10 laps, 25 miles Average Spt!ed: 98.186 mph Margin of Victory: 4,884 sec, HARLEY-DAVIDSON TWINSPORTS CHAMPION SHIP POINT STANDINGS (Aft.. 2 of 9 rounds), 1. (TIE) Todd Evans/Brian Bodine/Shawn Conrad (48); 4, (TIE) Shawn Russell/Billy Graef (46Y; 6, Matt Guidera (43); 7. Eric Bostrom (35/2 wins); 8, Stephen Vlasblom (33); 9. (TIE) Shawn Higbee/Michael Friberg (32); 11. (TIE) Jake Zemke/Greg Hutcheson (30); 13. Scott Korol (27); 14, Robert Bussey (25); 15. Lance Jones (23); 16 (TIE) lady Hendley/Shawn McNary (22); 18. Perry Melneciuc (21); 19. Chris Bliss (19); 20. Roger Hendricks (17). Upcoming Rounds: Round 3 - Toronto, Canada, June 1 Round 4 - Brase~on, Georgia, June 22

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