Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

crashing - I don't think I've ever left without a concussion," Estok said. "This is the first time in forever I've made it through the weekend without crashing, and 1 broke my cra hing streak." Tilley's H-D's Tripp Nobles ran a close third for the beginning of the race, then faded to an unchallenged third. "I came into this event pretty much not having a chance of any kind of championship, so 1 just came in to throw caution to the wind and ride the wheels off the thing," said Nobles, who finished about six seconds behind Estok. "I didn't have quite enough for them. That's pretty much what we did." Nobles also discovered early in the race that he was having shifting trouble. "Second and third gears were a little hurt; it started misshifting on the downshift from third to second." Following Nobles home was Bartel's Jake Zemke, about 26 seconds back and unthreatened by a good battle for fifth. That battle went to Moroney's H-D's Chris Bliss, in front of Widman H-D's Lance Jones. Bos trom completed the 16-lap, 26mile race in 22 minutes, 7.1 seconds, at an average speed of 69.445 mph - not quite matching the record set last year by Matt Wait. . Five wins, plus extra points for leading the most la ps in three of those wins, puts Bostrom atop the standings, with 178 points. Estok moves into second with 151, with Zemke up to third at 133. Higbee drops to fourth, at 127. From the pole position, Bostrom jetted to the front, taking Estok and Nobles with him. By the second lap, the lead trio had nearly six seconds on fourth place. The winner would come from this lot. It wasn't until about the sixth lap that Nobles ran into any trouble, and by the seventh was about three second back. By then he had over 16 seconds on fourth, and he wasn't moving unless someone made a mistake. That left it to the front-runners to duke it out. Halfway into the 16-lap race, Bostrom had just over a second, with Estok hanging right in there, which he would do until the final handful of laps. Then Bostrom wicked it up as Estok started to fade, and the race was over. "It was more work that 1 thought it would be, actually," Bostrom said. "Finally, in the end, the hard charging paid off. 1 kept my head down the whole time. I had a couple of close calls in the race, because I was riding pretty hard. I cased the bike a few times coming off the hill - the bike just came off, absolutely off the ground. I thought I was going down." "Eric rode a great race," Estok said. "1 have to say this is about his best track, I've noticed the last couple of years of riding with him. He came around me and 1 just hung behind him; he was pulling me along with him." Then Estok began to tire, and his tires got greasy late in the race. "I was stronger in a couple of places than Eric," he said. "But it's so hard to pass here, and 1 wasn't that strong that 1 could get around him and hold him up. I'm just happy 1 didn't crash. 1 almost threw it off the front end a couple of times in turn one and, coming down the hill, the tires were starting to get a little greasy, and we were both sliding around. 1 could see that Tripp (Nobles) was pretty far behind me, and 1 knew if Eric didn't make a mistake, 1 wasn't going to catch him. 1 just wanted to make it out of here without crashing. That's the biggest accomplishment of the week." (Left) Eric Bostrom (20) kept his unbeaten streak alive in the Harley-Davidson TwinSport Series, winning his fifth straight race. (Below) Andrew Stroud alsQ won again in the Formula Xtreme class. Zemke and Las Vegas H-D's Jess Roeder hooked upon the first lap to dispute fourth - Roeder in front, then Zemke at the halfway point. Roeder was in fourth on the 12th lap when he crashed in the final corner sequence, handing the spot to Zemke. From there, it was a matter of marking time to the finish. Chris Bliss was next across, about 16 seconds later, with Woodstock Cycle Barn's Mark Reynolds and Lance Jones in pursuit. Bartel's H-D's Jady Hendley was a secure seventh after leaving Lancaster H-D's Randy Texter behind in the closing minutes. After finishing a provisional sixth, Reynolds was disqualified when he refused to tear his motor down in a post-race inspection. His Woodstock Cycle Barn teammate, Chad Healy, was also disqualified after completing only five laps and finishing 15th. He, too, refused to tear his cycle down and admitted his machine was illegal. Mitchell's Modesto H-D's Robert Bussey and Ramsey's Chesapeake H-D's Jerry Casciero Jr. filled out the top 10 of 11 finishers from 13 starters. CN New Hampshire International Speedway Loudon, New Hampshire Results: Jun!' 15, 1997 (Round 5 of 11) SUPERTWlNS, 1. Eric Bostrom; 2. Dave Estok; 3. Tripp Nobles; 4. Jake Zemke; 5. Chris Bliss; 6. Lance Jones; 7. Jody Hendley; 8. Randy Texter; 9.. Robert Bussey; 10. Jerry Casciero Jr.; 11. James Whitaker; 12. Jess Roeder; 13.leff Eklund. Time: 22 min., 7.100 sec. Distance: 16 laps, 26 miles. Average speed: 69.445 mph. Margin of victory: 5.710 sec. SUPERTWlNS C'SHIP POINT STANDlNGS (After 5 of 11 rounds): 1. Eric Bostrom 079/5 wins); 2. David Estok (ISO); 3. Jake Zemke (133); 4. Shawn Higbee (1271; 5. Lance Jones (124); 6. Jody Hendley (l08); 7. Jess Roeder (103); 8. Shaun Russell (94); 9. lerry C.'sciero Ir. (84); 1O.leffrey Johnson (63); 11. Andrew Nobles ill (58); 12. (TIE) Robert Bussey/Jeff Eklund (SO); 14. mE) Perry Melneciuc/Cary Rogers (46); 16. Chris Bliss (44); 17. Mike Voelker (43); 18. Sean Lollar (36); 19. Robert Brown '(32); 20. lames Whitaker (31). Upcoming Rounds: Round 6 - Brainerd. Minnesota, June 29 Round 7 - Lexington. Ohio, July 20 Pirelli Fonnula Xtreme Series Round 4: New Hampshire Inter'l Speedway _rt)u~" 1!~£Qfi14C ~ 5 By Henny Ray Abrams Photo by George Roberts LOUDON, NH, JUNE 14 t the start of the Pirelli Formula Xtreme race, the view was a little different, with Hooters' James Randolph leading the first two A laps to disrupt the familiar sight of Erion Hondas at the front. By the third lap, it was business as usual, with Erion Racing's Andrew Stroud taking the lead, soon to be joined by teammate Doug Toland. From then on it was deja vu, the swift red-and-black Honda CRB900s leaving the rest behind to take top laurels for the fourth race in a row. "We're on our way to what looks like a number-five championship, and we're really proud of it," team owner Kevin Erion said in the New Hampshire International Speedway winner's circle, and there is precious little reason to refu te him. After four of nine races, Stroud, who has a perfect season of four wins, leads the title chase with a 144 points; teammate Toland is second with 128. "I knew what Andrew (Stroud) had right from the start," Toland said. "He just pulled away from everybody. 1 hung in, but near the end, I checked my la p board and felt I needed to make things look better than that, so 1 picked up the pace a bit. 1 thought 1 could sneak up on him, but it didn't work out that way." Stroud crossed the finish line 2.49 seconds in front, having backed down on the final lap from a lead tha twas more than seven seconds at one point. "I knew where Doug (Toland) was, and 1 just had to finish in front," New Zealander Stroud said. Third place went to DATS Racing's Dale Kieffer, the Suzuki GSXRll00mounted rider about 12.5 seconds behind Toland at the end after belatedly repelling an attack from Mark McDaniel in his first ride on the Hooters Suzuki. "I didn't even know he was in the race," Kieffer said of McDaniel. "He did pass me, but 1 passed him back. I saw the orange bike; he was on one of the Hooters bikes, and 1 thought it was (Brian) Gibbs. So when he came past me, 1 was kind of shocked a bit." Kieffer moved by McDaniel on the 16th lap, with McDaniel sticking to him until the final few laps, when he tailed off. McDaniel finished about 2.5 seconds back, finishing with a wheelie about 12 seconds in front of Hooters' Suzuki GSXR750-mounted James Randolph, the early race leader. Randolph was on his "B" bike, opting to save his "A" bike for the Teamline 750cc Supersport race. "We had two laps of practice on it all weekend," he said. "We didn't have the forks set up properly." Randolph added that he didn't want to jeopardize his chances in the more important Supersport race, nor did he want to crash. Ohlstein Motorsports' Seth Hahn was sixth, not far back, with Fastrax Racing's Dean Mizdal seventh, and Ricci Motorsports' Jimmy Moore eighth. There were 13 starters - 10 on Suzuki GSXR750s - and 11 firJishers, with Stroud lapping every rider up to Moore. L~ New Hampshire International Speedway Loudon, New Hampshire Results: June 14, 1997 (Round 4 of 9) FORMULA XTREME, 1. Andrew Stroud (Hon); 2. Doug Toland (Hon); 3. Dale Kieffer (5uz); 4. Mark McDaniel (Suz); 5. James Randolph (Suz); 6. Seth Hahn (Suz); 7. Dean Mizdal (5U7.); 8. Jimmy Moore (Suz); 9. Lawrence Wolfel (Suz); 10. Roger nell n (Suz); 11. Scott Ford (5uz); 12. James Bronson (5uz); 13. Brian Gibbs (Suz). . Time: 31 min., 13.390 sec. Distance: 24 laps, 38.4 miles Average speed: 73.792 mph, Margin of vidory: 2.490 SL"C. FORMULA XTREME C'SHIP PDrNT STANDINGS (After 4 of 9 rounds): 1. Andrew Stroud (144); 2. Doug Toland (128); 3. James Randolph (112); 4. Brian Gibbs (92); 5, Dale Kieffer (88); 6. Dean Mizdal (66); 7. Scott Ruehle (54); 8. (TIE) Roger Bell ll/Ben Welch (46); 10. Mike Krynock (45); 11. Anthony Johnson (40); 12. Terry Teske (38); 13. (TIE) Mark McDaniel!Akiharu 5higeno (28); IS. raul Munford (26); 16. (TIE) Seth Hahn/Mark Junge (25); 18. (TIE) Jimmy Moore/Mike Sul~van (23); 20. (T[E) Daniel Bailey/David Stanton/Chris Voelker/Lawrence Wolfel (22). Upcoming Rounds: Round 5 - Brainerd. Minnesota. June 28 Round 6 - Lexington, Ohio, July 19 13

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