Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

ROAD RACE S NOCO RACE FUELS U FORMULA U SER S SA IE International Raceway (Left) Tray Batey domina ted the F~ USA races at PIR. The S uz u ki rid e r took do uble wi ns In the two legs of racing. (Below) Jason Fraser had a so lid outing, finishing six an d fourth on the weekend. able lead - lea ving the rest o f the field to sort o u t th e remai ni ng fini shi ng p o sition s. Th is time. thing s behind Batey w ere co n sidera bly d ifferent:Both Kling and Sadowski w ere th e victims o f mechanical fa ilu res , w i t h Kli ng ge tti ng knocked out wit h a broken tra n smission; Sad owski, mea nwh ile, suffered a broken chain tens io n e r at th e start. Down tw o la p s after his crew rep laced the b roken pa rt, Sadowski ca me back ou t to ente r ta in t he c ro wd with h is m on s ter w h e e li e s d own t he fr ont st raig h t. H e w a s ultimatel y cre d ited w ith 15th pl ace. With both Kling and Sadowski o u t, Bate y h ad it a ll t o himse lf o u t fro nt . lea vin g th e real wa r to be battled ou t beh ind him. Severa l riders were in con te nti on fo r seco n d , but b y mi dracc it w a s whittled down to t w o : Ba tev ' s teamma te Lopez and Grigg. Lopez fin ally ea rne d t he runn er-u p s p o t, w it h G rigg ta kin g third . Jas on Fraser an d Curtis Adams filled the top five. BUELL LIGHTNING Wi t h m o st of th e top co n tenders absent, Shaw n H ig b ee sa w a g reat By Russ Cazie r PORl1,AND. OR, /Ul Y20 a lvo line Suzuki's Tray Batey led both rounds of the N orth American Sport Bike's Formula USA action fro m flag to flag. crossing the finis h line in both races with some five seco nds in hand. In doing so, Batey was able to make great strides in getting back in th e h un t fo r th e F· US A C hamp io nshi p, than k s in p a rt to poin ts leader Da ve Sad ow ski's non- finish in the seco nd leg at Po rtland Interna tion al Raceway. Batey topped Dut chman Ra cin g ' s F rit z Kling a n d t h e La Be lle H o n d a CBR900RR of Saduwski in the first race, then came back and beat his teamm ate Grant Lop ez a nd the second Raptor in th e race - th is one rid den by N orth Ca rolina 's Steve Grigg . . With Portland in th e books and with five rounds left to be run in th e 1997 se ries, Sadowski con ti n ues to le ad th e cha m p ionshi p stand ings with 229 points - 16 be tte r th an Kling and 23 better th an Bat ey, th e defending class champion, In o ther racing action a t PI R, loca l Oregonian Nobi Iso sto pped Masah iro Iizuka's unbeaten streak in th e 125cc race after a n exciting nine-lap duel. In the end, cruwd favorite Iso drafted past lizuka at the finish line . Then, in a surp ri se an no u ncement, Iso retired fro m roa d racing. RACE O NE Ba tey go t t h e h ol e sh o t to lead th e pack in to turn o n e in the firs t of two Form ul a US A races and, being t he skilled endurance racer tha t he is, he jus t kept cra nking uut fast laps - leaving the rest of the pack to so rt it self o u t. Hi s main co mpetit ion figured to be Sadowski and Kling, but Kling got a ba d s tart and fo u nd himself pinched out in tu m o ne. T h e M ichi g an r id er coul d o nly wa tch as sever al race rs slid by be fore h e could ge t rollin g an d start p ickin g the m off. W ith Batey hold ing a so lid lead over Sadow sk i. Klin g finally worked his wa y around Lee Shierts and int o th ird . He th en began a ni ne -lap push to overtake Sadowski. A little fart he r back, a five-bike d ogfight was going on for fourth place with Valvoline Su zuki's Grant Lopez, Raptor-mou nted Grigg, Jaso n Frase r, Shierts and Andy Deatherage all in close contention. By the n inth of 13 laps, it was a certa in t y th at, b a r ri n g a m isha p , Batey wo u ld win. Second place, though. held plen ty of doubt, with Kling clos ing rig h t (Left) Sh awn Higbee (3) leads Billy Graet (12) an d Shawn Conrad In B u ell Lightn ing rac ing. Higbee went on to win. in on Sadowsk i's rea r tire. H e then fell ba ck a bit, perhaps saving a littl e for the final lap. Kling managed to outbrake Sadowski in to tum one to start th at last lap , but Sadowski was righ t with him, pushing hard and trying to force Kling in to a mistake . Kling didn't o b lige and h e bea t Sadow ski to the flag by Jess than a bike length. Then ca me Lopez , the A la bam a n managing to fend o ff the rest o f .1 fivebike pack to finish fourth. Ba tey's cons isten cy in turning in fast laps w as clear from looking a t the lap sheet. After taking pole position with a 1:07.9 (Do ug Polen was on pole las t year at Portland wi th a 1:07.289), his average lap tim e in the firs t race was 1:09.1. " Be t w ee n Tr ay, Fri tz a n d m y s e lf, there's no be tte r racing anywhere," Sadowski said from th e winner's circle. The assemb led fans agreed hea rtily. RACE TWO Batey, kn owing a good s t ra tegy w h e n h e sees o ne, ag ai n g ra b be d th e .h olesho t and again stre tched a com fort- chance to make up so me ground in the season points chase in the Buell lightnin g class - and he took fu ll advantage of the opportun ity . A las t-m inute clu tch proble m before the race put h im on the g rid with a fres h ly adjusted clu tch; the res ul t w as a big whee lie fro m the line . It w asn't enough to slow th e Ca lifo rnia n, howeve r, a s h e le d th e w a y th rough turn s o ne a n d tw o . Bill y G rae f a n d Sha wn Conrad were rig ht on his tail for the first fo ur lap s, when H igbee finall y ope n ed a little breat hi n g roo m a t the fron t.

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