Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

ROAD RACE SUN CO R EFUELS O AC FORMULA U SER SA IES Round 7: New Hampshire International Speedway fire from yo un g lion Frase r, who is only 10 points beh ind. Wood is fifth with 32l. RACE ONE The first Formula USA race took off und er cloudy s kies and damp co ndition s; there wa s, however, a dryin g line, bu t it still provided onl y moderate tractio n. Wood bl a zed off the line w ith the holeshot, diving into tu rn one pushi ng the front end , and end ed u p w ith the early lead. Lo pez slid in rig ht behind Wood , also igno ring his front-e nd push. "Yeah, it was sli ck going a t fi rs t " Lopez said . "W hen you're s lidi ng the bike, this is wher e the fun is, especially when you're alongside someone else." Fraser als o took it d eep on the first la p, a move th at nearly cau sed him to .tu ck the fro nt end o n his Honda and fo rced him wide in a tu rn. Kli ng witnes sed Fraser' s near miss and profited by moving int o third place. . "It wa s a craz y move," Kling said . "1 saw Frase r was rea lly go ing in hot . I went to the in sid e and b lew o n by . I ha d n ' t made th e box in the la st two round s a nd I rea lly wa nted to get up front fast. And as soon as I got by Frase r, I was a ble to tag al on g wi th Munroe ," (RighI) Loudo n regu lar Eric Wood (10) leads rece nlly crowned Canadian Superbi ke Champ ion Don Munroe In Ihe IIrsl Formula USA race. . The duo Iraded w ins on th e weekend . (Below) Granl Lopez (5) leads Jason Fraser (26) and Dave Sadowski in race one. Lopez and Fraser p ulled away from Sadowski 10 battle f o r fo urth place. , Briefly~--'-.•. rninurn chassis . The resul ting machine is some 40 poun ds lighter t hen an 11OO-fra med bike . and has cons iderably 'more power tha n any bored-out 750 .' As Sheirts explains. getting the co mparatively bulky engine int o the compact There we re several lrqured ride rs at Loud on. Dave S adow s k i rod e with 0 torn Achilles chassie was no easy feat. " W e spent over 200 hours cutti ng, bracing and modifying the' frame tendon , ~ I tore my Ac hilles te~don while train to make the motor fi t ri g ht. ~ S hiert s said . in g wi t h my w ife, " Sadows ki said . ~ lwas Now the bike' is 40 pounds lighter w ith the water-skiing and to ok a fall, and the ski twrsted " my ankle and it tore ,the tendon . ~ Though the ' same pow er (as en 1.100). You can reolly tell the difference when y ou se t the front w hee l injury occurred some three weeks prior to' the down after wheeli ng" ~ something which, as yo u event. Sadowski was still suffering a good deal m'ight imagine.. isa relatively easy thing to do on . of pain and elect ed to si t out the .ESC Brakes Sportb tke final.' Fritz Kling was still suffering ' such a bike. Shlorte plans to market the modifithe after' effects of his crash in Pocono at the ' cation out of his shop. Lee 's Performance Center in Charlotte , North Ceroflna. 704/599- 1507. last round.' Kling was violently hiqh-sided. then 'run over by ano ther racer , Kling raced with a broken hand and still-sore ribs : as well as' hcv- " Do ug Gond a ~ nnounced the clc sse s that will fill out the pro gram fo r the Fo rm u la USA ing "had knee and ankle surg ery in between S e ri e s in 1998 : round s , Le e ' She i rts was also r-----------------~ ·We w i ll st ill ' bcve - . Form u la" o n the injured lis t Y By Aa ro n Mlnlz Pholos by J ohn Flory LOUDON, NH, OCT. 5 fter yea rs of tens ion al o n g th e lon gest unprot ected bord er in the world , Ca na da a nd the United States finally eru p ted int o conflict, the battle coming in the nort heastern United Sta tes in th e so me w hat rural town of Loudon , New Hampshire . Score? Ca nada one, United Sta tes one. Th er e wa s, thankfu lly, no blood shed. It wa s de termi ned , however, that recen tly crowned Ca na d ia n Superbike Cham pion Don Munroe fired th e first shot wit h his Kawasaki superbike, win ning the first confli ct on the damp, 1.6mi le battlefield , with Kawasaki-moun ted Am er ican Eric Wood fallin g behi nd to finish well off the aggress ive Canadian's wi nning pace. When they returned, battIe cond itions had changed drastically to sunny skies and a drying track, and Zlock Racing's Wood, wh o wa s also putting some new technology to work in the form of a slipper clutch, simply fought above the comfo rt level of nearest riv al Munroe and wo uld go on to score one for the locals . Isolated sk irmis hes eru pt ed beh ind the front lines, thou gh some participants coexis ted peaceably . Lansin g, Mi chi gan's Fri tz Kli ng took his Du tchman Yamaha to third place in race one , fightin g only with his own injuries - those A r-, 0\ 0\ ...... N' N .... (l) ..0 o .... u o 18 incurred at the pri or round of the F-USA series at Pocon o Internation al Racewa y. Race two sa w th ose injuries catch up wi th Kling, and all he could mu ster was an eight h-place finish . T wo America ns w it h a develo p ing his to ry of confli ct , Valvoline Emgo Su zu ki rid er G ra n t Lo pez a nd Team La belle 's Ja s o n Fra se r , con ti nued to clash in both outings, trad ing the advantage each time o ut. Fraser came a way with a fourth -place finish to Lopez' s fifth in race one; th en Lop ez retaliated by taking th e final podium spot in the se cond ra ce, leaving Fraser o u t of th e victory celebrati on after being relegated to a fourth-p lace finish. Some gri zzled vet erans of the series fared better than other s, and some also had a bet ter weekend than they thought the y would. Per ennial top F-USA compet itor Dave Sad owski, suffering from a torn Achilles tend o n , took h is Team Labell e Mu zzy Rapt or to eig hth in th e first race but re turn ed in race two to take fifth-pl ace points. An d while th ese were n' t th e m ost sa tisfactory fin ish es fo r the Geo rg ian, his main rival in th e series, Val voline Suzuki rider Tray Batey, fared worse in both races, ta ki ng a pair o f seven thplace finishes and allowing Sadowski to rem ain on to p of the poi nts heap by a comfo r tab le margin . Sadowski n o w lead s Batey, 413-352. Kling is third wi th 338 poi nts, though his po sition is under ·USA. with a broken hand, also s us ta i ne d ' at " Poc ono when he hit the banking in a vic - ', lent high-side crash: Dav e M c G ra t h was added to t he . inj ury list whe n he c ra shed the Grigg Racing's Haptcr [eft vacant by . the injured Steve Gri gg. M cGrath ' came together . wi t h . ano the r rider. Brett . G uyer wa s right be hind .M cG rath andwitnessed .the crash. " Dave was trying to tum in and anot her rider tried to shoot under Dave ," Guyer said. "Then. v M c Grath as leanedIn. the two bikes' ca me tog e th er and they both shot off the tra c k . ~ M cG rDth 's uffered a b roken pelvis jn t he c-rash and as a' -re suit wo n't race again this ,seas on , G rigg, while on. hand for the race in L oudon, was in no conditio n to ride oft c r his ,severe crus h" in Pocono. .Grigg had hit a guard rail and suffered a .compound fractu re o f the' fe mu r. ~W he n I wen t down , I reme mber my leg .going behind 'me and it tearing my groi n. ~ Grigg said: "Then I reme mber my foot kicking the back of my hel- met. I knew I was trouble then. I just tried to , becalm and sta rted to say my prayers ." G rigg was already wa lking . albeit with the usc o f a cane, and expects to ride at the final round of the serie s in Dayt ona. in . . ., . Le e Shie rts d ebu ted hi s c u st om Suzu ki The GS XR l l 001750 in Loud on. bike has a built GSXR t 100 enqine producing in excess of 190 hp. st uffed in a 199 7. GSXR750 twin -spar alu- . of co urse . n G ond a said . • in add ition. we will also have t w o o t her h o r s ep o w e r'. re st ricte d cla sseo. There will be the .102·hp class. w h ic h wi ll 'al so have . a 390 p o und . wei g h t requ irem ent as , ,. wel l. Thi s ' class wi ll b~ sim ilar to a BOOcc Supersport clas s. Then we w iJri ntr odu ce a ·1.23 -hp -re s tric t!on class with the same 39 0-pound we ight limit for .t he bikes vTh is cla s s wi ll be ge are d tow ard 750cc mac hines , -b ut not cl ose d (only) to them ." Tentativ ely . these are the. Pro clas ses " for-Su nda y . In- ad ditio n' to the Pro races : G o nd a wil l d o televis ion ' coverage o f t he events fo r a planned 3D-minute broadcast to' be show n onn sports network. F-USA director of com petitio n Colin Fraser is set to head the' coverage. Gon da wo uld like Formula USA to be a reqion al-friendly "seri es that provides local riders on opport unity to co mpete w ith the top rider. in the F-USA class , ~ We wi ll have a' "three-day' even t we ekend, ". G ond a said.. " Fri· day w ill be open. practi ce with ~ rider school 's u c h as ' t he Suz uki Enduran c e Ad v anced · Rider's Schoo l. Saturdaywill be reg ional races , with th e' organ!zatio n that we , te am 'up with . Then on Su nday th ere will be the pr o -racing · format , Our desire is to 'p rovide regional Expert · riders a chanc e to hevee top Pro se ries co me to their area, Then the y can "see whe re they · stand at the Pro leve l. -' " . u p

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