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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127846
ROAD RACE
Round 3: Road Atlanta
NORTH AMERICAN
SUPERBIKE SERIES
rou nd . For th e third tim e this vea r he
won ma in taining a perfect record in
bo th th e NAS B, w here he won his third
Harley-David son TwinSports race in a
>
row, as w ell as the AM.A series, wher e
he's won all five races . Th is time , his HD 883 sa iled throu gh the post-race teardown with the same eas e with which he
sa iled through the race and, d espite the
lon e blip on his record, he' s sailing back
to the top of th e cha mpio ns hi p standings.
"It's the fastest bike ou t th ere. What
can I do but get on it and ride around?
I'm up her e again," Bostrom sa id after
taking his cus tomary spot atop the win ner's rostrum.
He co m p leted th e nine-lap, 22. 68mile race in 14 minutes, 30.156 seconds,
at an averag e speed of 93.831 mph. His
margin of victory wa s 4.354 seconds, bu t
it d idn't come until the final three laps.
Up to tha t point, liMC Hansen Racing's Billy G raef was hangin g to u g h.
The Wisco nsin rider had broken away
from th e 19-rider fie ld, a lo ng with
Bost ro m. on the seco nd lap, tu rn ing it
into a two-rid er ra ce . For th e first four
la p s the m ar gi n d idn't apprecia bl y
change - abo ut 10 bike lengths across the
s ta r t-Finis h s tr ipe. The n it wi de ne d slightly at first, then noticeably.
Bos trom b rea ch ed th e o ne-second
gap on the seventh lap, ho ldin g 1.3
across the line. The next lap , he doubled
it to 2.6, a nd nea rly d oubled it a t the
checkered flag.
'1 thought Eric might pick it up at the
end ," Graef said . " I wa s pushing hard
and slid ing a bit. I thought I'd better be
happy with second ."
With by far hi s best fini sh of th e
year - his previous best was a fifth a t
Will ow Sp r in gs - Graef ju m ps to th e
top of th e cha m pio ns hip point stand ings with 78 p o ints, two better than
Shawn Con rad .
Con r a d, a nother from the HMC
Hansen Racing stable, ended up fourth
today, after being passed with less than
four laps to go . He was part of a sevenrider snake that swapped head to tail on
every lap, the final tour being th e one
that would matter.
Conrad wa s third when he took the
white flag, with Ker stings' Cycle Cen ters ' Greg Hutcheson just behind. Then
Hutcheson mad e his move to take third,
leaving Conrad to lead five others in a
grad ually unraveling pack.
Hal's H-D's Todd Evans - who fin ished the first lap in second - ended up
fifth, just in front of New Castle H-D's
Brian Bodine. The tw o are also linked in
th e ch a m p io ns hi p point standings :
Evans has 74, one beller than Bodine.
Bostrom move> quickly to third with 70,
and the promise of more to come.
,:Road Atlanta
Braselton. Georgia
Resulls: June 22. 1997 (Round 3 of 8)
HARLEY·DAVIOSON TWIN SPORTS: I, Er ic
8of,tro m; 2. Silly Graef; 3. G~ Hut cheson; 4. Shawn
Conrad; 5. Tod d Evans; 6. Brian Bodine; 7. J<1h Zemke;
S. U rM.....Jones; q . Brian Coni?,; 10. Michad Fn~ 11.
l<..,.. G iJlt-Lm.J; 12. Jud y Ht"ndWy; n . j.l!OOll Kt-Ning; 14.
MolI tt tww Jt'n~ 15. Ch ris ShT It>; 16. Soott Komi; 17.
Stev e john'loOft; 18. Arthur Wagner; 19. Shawn ~ cN.ary.
Ti mr: 14 mm. , JO.156 sec.
Di8tancr. 9 tepe, Zl.6tl rniJn.
Anuge'sp«d: 93.S: 1 mph.
3
M,ulin of vidory: 4354 sec,
HARLEY·DAVIDSON TWIN SPORTS C'SH IP
POI NT STANDINCS (At ler 3 of 8 rou nds): 1. Billy
Cral..f (78); 2 $h.iwn Conroad 0 6); 3. Todd Evans ( 4); 4.
Br ilin Bodi ne (73) ; S. Er ic Bost ro m (7 0); 6. C reog
H u tcht'!iiOI\ (60); 7. J.ake Zemke' (.54); 8. Micha el Friberg
(53,); 9.
Shawn RU!>!OeIl /Unce Joneil (46); 11. Moltt
Guidera (4.1); 12. Scutt Korul (42); 13. Jody Hl"fId (41);
k-y
14. (TIE) Sh.aw n McNa ry !Ja so n Kersting 0 4); 16.
Stephen Vla5blom (33); 17. Shawn High« (32); 18.
Arthur Wagner (28); 19. Robert Bus.. iCY (25); 20. Brian
<
mE>
Conll.Y (22) .
'
24
Upcoming Rounds:
Round4 - Portland. Oregon. July 20
Round 5 - Elkhart lake, Wisconsin. Augusl3
NASBIBuell Ughtning Series
Round 3:Road Atlanta
(Right) The 125cc
Grand Pri x race was
dominated by
Masahiro Iizuka (1)
Whil e his teammate
Vicky Jackson-Bell (2)
fi nished second.
By Henny Ray Abrams
BRASELTON, GA.)UI\'E 22
T
illey's H-D's Tripp No bles held off
a n ea rly cha ll en ge fro m C h uc k
Graves, an d then took advantage of
Graves' misfortune to cru ise to his firs t
Buell Lightning Series "in of the year on
a hot and sunny day at Road Atlan ta. For
the Georgian from Maron it was also the
first Buell race that he's finished this yea r,
and it was made eas ier wh en his closest
pursuer, Graves, ran into a fuel-tank -vent
prob lem on the Motorcycle Online Buell
Lightning.
That problem dropped Graves to third
be hind Miller Electrical Cons truction' s
Eric Bostrom at the finish.
"We'll take what we got," Nobles said
in the wi nne r's circle. "Th is is Don