Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

With the lead ing trio pulling away from the field , the battle for fourth was left to Lopez and Fraser. The two diced back an d fort h constantly, one outdriving the other, only to get stuf fed back on the brakes. Lopez led early but missed a shift on lap four, and Fraser flew by. "I got a better driv.. and it seemed he rolled off the throttle," Fraser said. :'1 came out of tum 12 and 1 missed a sh ift ," Lo p e z sa id . "Th is s lowed me enoug h that bot h Fraser and Sado wski went by me. I caught Ski back into one, (Above lelt) Fritz Kling tails sadowski and Fraser. Kling finished third in the first race bUI dropped 10 eighth the seco nd time ouL (Above) Reigning series champion Tray Batey carded a pair of seventh-place finishes. (Left) Race-two winner Eric Wood (ce nter) celebrates his win with Don Munroe (right) and Grant Lopez. and went after Fraser aga in." Lopez and Fraser woul d pass and repass eac h ot he r so much this wee ke nd that they looked like small -tow n neighbor s. " It wa s crazy, a ll right," Fra se r said . "One lap I'd get better traction dri ving out of the comers and the nex t lap he'd get better d rive and get by - it was back and forth, back and forth." Behind the lead ers, Lee Shie rts w as debuting his new bike, a 1997 GSXR750 frame with a 19Q-hp GSXRll OO engine stuffed inside . Worki ng away at Shierts was Zlock Racing's And y Death erage. Wood was gone, with Munroe turning slightly faster an d faster lap times . "1 d o n' t like to rid e ou t o f my co m fo r t zone," Munroe said. "Eric really took off. 1 wasn't comfortable with that an d the un certain ty hf the track cond itions ." The two leaders started to stretch ou t their lead, turning times in the 1:1 6 time bracket. With Wood go ne and Munroe chasing him, Kling set tled into a pace a few hundredths slower than the two lead ers and began to fade by mid race. Meanwhil e, Lope z and Fraser were still figh ting tenaci ously over fourth pla ce and as a result began to draw slowly towa rd Kling . Shier ts fad ed as he acclimated himself to his new mount, and Labelle Racing's Sadowski nursed his torn ankle around Shier ts to take fifth. "My a nkle mad e it th rough 17 lap s and 1 was able to make a few passes," Sadowski said . "Howe ver, a few times I would stomp on the sh ifter and a pa in would shoo t throu gh me like someone was stabbing me with a knife." Beh ind Sad owski was reigning Formul a USA cha mpion Batey, w ho was havi ng problems of his own . "We nor anyone else pr acticed Frid ay, a nd th en Saturday we go t a wet p ra ctice in th e morning a nd then the radiator blew ea rly in the second, so this race was more like practice," Batey said. "Also , there are so me really fast guys here: Munroe , Wood, these you ng fas t gu ys. Fraser and Lopez are really competitive, and I wou ld be happy to w alk ou t of here with a top-five finish under no rmal circumstances ." As the ra ce p rogressed, the riders found their lines and Mu nr oe made his move on Wood . On lap 11, the two came up on a backm arker in tu rn four going up the hill leavin g the speedway. " We ca me up o na la pped rider," Munroe said . "Eric tried to go around the outsid e of him a nd go t held up. I went to the inside and too k ad van tage of the situ ation. Once I go t the lead, 1 had clear track an d worked on putting as mu ch di stance on Wood as possible to the finish." Wood chose the wrong line ge tling around the lapper and stuffed himself. "It's a case of wh en you go by lappers, you role the d ice," Wood said . "1 mad e a guess and it wa s the w rong choice, and Don blew by. I tried to han g but the rear tire was spe nt. At this point, 1 cruised beca use I knew I had seco nd and th e re were al so so me cha nges I need ed to make to the bike in order to have a real ru n at him ." Munroe end ed up w inn in g and Wood took second un contested. Klin g settled for a lone third, thou gh Fraser and Lopez had pushed forwa rd enoug h to h ave Kling in th e ir sig h ts a s th e checkered flag fell. "I broke my hand an d got run over in my crash a t Pocono an d popped so me ribs ou t," Kling said. "I also ha d kn ee and ankle surgery since Pocono, SO my knee is also sor e. I am gla d that I was able to p u ll away wit h th ose guys, which allow ed me to ride a little easier on my body toward the end ." In the ba ttle for fourth between Fraser and Lopez. it was Fraser with a last lap o utbraking maneuve r that put him ahead in turn one. Getting just eno ug h grip to stay ou t front, Frase r outrn uscled Lopez's Suzuki down the front straight to take fou rth by a hair. Lopez too k fifth and we nt stra ight to the pi ts to make suspen sion changes for race two. RACE TWO Race two began u nder drastically different cond itions . Th e sun had co me out and th e tem perat u re jum ped int o the high 70s, bringing with it an increase in grip and a subseque nt drop in lap times. Canada may have scored the first vic- tory, but the determined Wood returned to th e fig h t wi th a new se tu p on h is MOec Kawasaki that wou ld make all the differe nce. Michael Fitzpatrick took the holeshot but cou ld n' t hold the position and by lap two he fell back with the chase pack. Zlock Racing's Wood jumped ou t to first . by the end of the open ing lap and never surrendered the lead . . "We put o n a different tire," W ood sai d . "However, the main cha ng e was that Dale and Dan put in a slipper clutch. I was having a rear-wheel hopping problem in race one. It was exhausting me to fight the bike, and this contributed to my second place. We changed the du tch and I noti ced the cha nge imme diately. Pete' from GMD also d id some stuff with the rear sus pe nsion w hich also helped me get more gri p." Right behind Wood was Kawasaki of Canada's Mun roe again; how ever, this time he fell off the pa ce early. "Eric took righ t off aga in," Mu nr oe said . '1 d idn 't feel comfo rtable with this pace a nd I wa nte d to see what w as going to happen." Fraser had a little more traction in the front end and was able to hold his line a nd ta ke th ird early. Once again, h is ev er-present nemes is Lopez was w heel to wheel wit h him. " It was as if we picked up whe re we left off:' Fraser sa id. " Lo p ez and 1 would pass back a nd fort h - one lap he'd slip the rear goi ng u p the hill and then the next I' d have the prob lem." Be h ind the two yo u ng riders w as Sad owski, who was clearly putting forth more effort in the second race. 1 n the first race I rode conservative," Sad owski said . 'This time I banged wi th him in tum one. This must have kicked o pen the ad re na li ne va lve because I didn't feel as mu ch pain for the first part ' of the race." Dutchma n Racing' s Kling settled in behi nd Sadowski bu t was working his wa y ba ckw ard . "Fritz is ju st hurting:' Team Owner Dave Schlosser said . "He's all b an ged u p fro m ge tting run over, an d his knee surge ry. He collected valuable points in the first race bu t the pa in caught up to him." Emgo Valvoline Suzuki rider Bat ey took adva ntage of Kling's condition and al so passed him ea rly on. Bat ey then shado wed Sad owski. 'The Valvoline Suzuki is fast, bu t on a track like this it is not easy to ride," Batey said . "You need something more like a unicycle." Cha rgin g after Batey in seventh place w as Fit zp atrick, w ho got his act back together and put on an impressive disp lay of riding aga inst the top Formula USA riders. As the ra ce drew to a close, Wood si m p ly chec ked ou t on th e field a nd wo n by a wide mar gin. "Tow ard the end, I started to cat ch Wood ," Munroe said. "The re w as just too big uf a cu shio n an d I co uld not catch him. Eric ran a gre at race and I am glad to have split victori es wit h him." Munroe settled for second place and Lopez nabbed third from Fraser. "I h ad se tu p problems in the first race: ' Lopez said. "1should hav e knuwn not to cha nge th in gs without testing them. We went back to the origina l settings and th e b ike ran perfectly. Plus, my crew chief, Ch ris (Wied l), put his magic wan d over the bike." Fraser settled for fuurth bu t he was battling a bad grip problem a ll weekend . Fraser' s bike would come onto the fro n t straigh taway eve ry lap a nd th e bike wo uld violen tly tw itch back and forth until he would finally get it under control. "The rea r-e nd p ro ble m got so bad tha t I would have to square (off) the corners," Fraser said . 'The fron t was planted, my 'midcorn er speed was excellent, bu t as soon as I would d rive, I' d lose traction and time. I would have to hav e the bike stra ight up and do wn before 1 could get on the gas. This killed me." The injured Sadowski finished fifth . "I tho ugh t we were gonna come in here and possibly finish with the stragglers: ' Sadowski said . "I expected to lose 15 to 20 p oints. Wh o w o u ld h ave though t we'd wa lk out of here wit h more points than Batey? The Lord 's been real good to heal me up . I ha ve b ee n sa ying m y prayers to get some superna tural healin g and He met me right at my prayer." ." ~ a a ~ r-, 0\ 0\ ...... N N .... OJ ..0 o ..... u o 19

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