Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

(Above) 1997 Peo ria TT winner Joe Kopp showed up at the Butto nwillowSuper TT and hand ily won the Open Dual Sport class. (Left) Chuck Sun (64) had a great weekend at the Buttonwillow Super TT, winning the Super TT and the Open Super Motard classes, and finishing a close second to Don Canet in the Middleweight Supe r Motard race. Buttonwillow Super IT Sungoes two for three By W.H. S pencer BUTIONWILLOW, CA,JAN. 25 orm er SOOcc National Motocross Cha mp ion Chuck Su n we nt two for three at the Buttonwillow Super IT weekend , winning the 12-lap feature on his 60 0cc Hu saberg along with the Open Super Motard class, but mis sin g the slam when he went wid e in the last turn of the Middleweight Super Motard race and gave that win to Don Canet. Saturday' s practice session was run und er p artly clo u dy skies, but great co n d it io ns gree ted rid ers on Sunday. Superbike Nation a l Champion Dou g Chandl e r a nd Supe rb ik e regu la r Tommy Hayd en rode on satu rday, but decid ed no t to retu rn on Sunday. Peoria IT wi nner Joe Koppand his factory KTM 620 were top s in the Open Du al Sport mai n eve n t. Kopp took the lead fro m the outside of the front ro w and pulled so me fancy moves over the IT ju m p and th rough the .6-mile dirt p ort ion of t h e tra ck b efore lead in g Cane r's XR400 to the checke re d flag . John Dav is finished third on an XR600 th at he uses to com m u te to and fro m work in the Oakland ar ea. Flat-trac k er A .J. Herrera h ad th e start of the Middlewei ght Super Motard class di aled with his CR250 dressed in 19- in ch rubber , tw o b ik e le n g th s in front of YZ2S0-mounted Roland Sands 'and Ca net's XR400 as they en tered the d irt. Herrer a di d a neat wide slide on the exit as Sa n d s s lid d own in to th e g rou n d . Ma rk M ille r moved C a n et wi de, allowing both Sun and R--eal Racing-backed Mark Cernicky to move in to seco nd an d third, res pec tively. Cern icky , on a new XR400, go t by Sun on the next lap to take ove r second F 26 _ bu t, when Can et bailed , Sun moved up to second place. Ca net was quickly up and withi n two laps was back up to the fr on t of th e pa ck, p rovid in g th e fan s w ith so me go od- looking IT jumps . As the laps wound down, Sun was rid ing very well, but Caner' s roa d racing abilities were allowi ng him to close up as the white flag flew . "I honestly felt that I could win that even t," Sun said, " bu t I go t to grandstand ing just a bit on tha t last lap and went wi de in the first turn. That allowed Don to ge t und er m e a nd t he re w as nothing I could do." "It wi ll be great fun ," Ca net kid ded , "t o be able to say that I beat the grea t Chuck Sun in on e of these races." Cernicky held on for third ove r Herrera, with road racers Sands and Miller rou nd ing ou t thetop five over Ca rli n Dunne, Paul Kerr , Andre Castanos and Chris Sutherland. Th e co m bi ne d Senior s and Vin tage classes saw Donni e Howard , the former nati on all y ra nked d irt tracker, rid e off with the overa ll w'in on the Marsh Runyan-prepa red 1957 900cc Harley-Davidson . Joe Leo nard was thou ght to hav e finished second a t a Peoria IT on that bike, bu t it is certain that it was the firstev er overall vic tory for the b ike - not bad for 40 years. Runyon had d one his hom ew ork after the first round, reloca ting so me sus pension components, and Howard did a grand job of winning the cla ss ove r Ru ss Fle tch e r' s Hu sa berg. Dewa yne Jones finis he d th ir d on th e CRSOO project bike that Ricky Gra ham was to have ridden before his untimely death. In the 12-lap Super IT, Stevi e Smith took the lead going to the inside of the first run in fron t of Miller an d Sun on the wid e side. Sands stuck his YZ to the inside of Canet as they entered the dirt portion, but Ca net go t him back on the lon g ba ck straigh t a nd w as about 15 . bike len gths ahead in fou rth at the end of the first lap . As Su n m oved aro und Sm i th 's Ducati to take the lead for good, Miller made a mistake, slid ing the infield whe n he grabbed too much tracti on and went off course . Canet and Sands closed on Smi th an d then Ca ne t made all the right moves to take second . Sands was next to depose Smit h , w ho w as ha vin g some handling problems with the Ducati that ultima tely led to a terrible cras h over the IT jump w he n the s tee ring lock ed up. Smith wa lked off u ninjured , but the bike was badl y -bent . Cern ic ky h a d hi s ow n wa y in th e Middlew eigh t Dual Sp ort main even t, eas ily win n in g o n hi s XR40 0, over DR3S0-mo un ted Rod McCollough and Ben Mors e o n a CR 80 . Joe Cannon ended up fourth . Sun and Canet put on a good show in th e Open Super Mo tard class, with ' Su n winning ov er Ca net a nd Do n nie H o w ard on the Pa rts Unlimited IT/ Marsh Runyon crea tion (it has a 4inch piston in it). Kopp was running rig h t with the fro n t-ru nners when his KTM suffered so me rear-brake problem and he had to stop for repairs. A red flag appeared on lap six for a d owned rid er (who was all rig ht), and tha t allowed Kopp to retu rn . With in tw o la ps, Ko p p pa ssed Ca net and was cha lleng ing Sun. The sta rter w aved the w hite flag a t Su n jus t as Kop p mad e a pas s, but he was two laps d own anyway. At the finish, Sun to ok th e wi n by inche s ove r Canet when he tried a "banzai" pass on the CRSOO, albeit cleanl y. Howard took the thi rd -place trophy over Ricky Pearce, who had challenged Su n in th e middle portion of th e ra ce before crashi ng in th e in fie ld . Smith held on for fifth, over Mark Woodward, Stua r t Stratton , Kirk Beyerab ent, Kay r.\ Vetter and Pete Waymire. ButtonwillowSuper TT Buttonwillow, California Results: January 25, 1998 OP EN D /SPT: 1. Joe Kop p (KTM); 2. Don Cane r (Ho n): 3. Joh n Davis (He n). M INI MOT ARD 1: 1. Ben Mor se (Hen): 2. Cole Cates (Yam); 3. Brian Harp (He n). M /W S/M OTARD : 1. Don Ca nct; 2. Chuc k Su n (Hbg), 3. Mark Cem lcky (He n). VINT /SR: 1. Don Howard Ui- D); 2. Russ fl etcher (Hbg): 3. Deway ne jone (Hen) . . s SrIT: 1. Chuck Sun (Hbg); 2. Don Canet (He n), 3. Ruland Sand s (Yam). M /W D/S PT: 1. Mark Ce rn ic ky (Ho n); 2. Rod M cColl ou gh (Suz ); 3. Ben M orse {l-io n). OPEN SIMO T ARD: 1. Chuck Sun (Hbg): 2. Don Canet (ATK); 3. Don Howard (Ya m). CMC Golden State Nationals North,Round 2 Ryan and Smith split the loot By John Silva BRENTWOOD, CA,JAN. 25 ick Rya n and Rod ney Smit h split the pu rse money and Suzuki contingency booty in round two of the CMC /Sunstar Sprockets Gol den Stat e Na tionals North held, at Tom And er so n's Sandhill Ranch. Ryan took the win in the 2S0cc Pro clas s, with Smith second, while Smith topped the 12Scc Pros. A foggy, overcast da y made hot food a n d wa rm h e at ers e veryo ne' s b es t friend s. Alt hou gh temper atures were, on the ave rage, low for the reg ion , they w ere p os it iv e ly ba lm y co m pared to most of the Uni ted States, especially the frozen No rtheast. Also on the pl us side, a lack of rain ma de for nice, tacky track condi tions . Team Suzuki Off-Road -backed Smith led Dean Mat son, Brett Racin e, Tall on Vohland , Carter Gurnee, Daniel Blair, -Todd M cM a st e r, Du stin Bloom fie ld , Kenny Lash and Robb For sberg at the start of the firs t 12Scc Pro rnoto. Gurnee laid his Yamaha over in the farthest corner of the tra ck, returning to the batt le ne ar las t place. Rac in e ran s trong in third for a full lap befor e com mitting a bobbl e in th e s a m e corne r t h at h ad stalled Gurnee, giving Vohl and an offer he couldn't ,refu se: an ope n shot at the pod ium. Vohl and mad e his move and took over third. Pro Circu it / Fox/ Danny "Magoo" Ra cin g -spon s ored Ra ci n e di ced w it h Vo h la nd fo r a few turns before the Rinaldi Yamaha racer moved ou t of reach. Ryan (who had n' t been see n earlier) was spo tted a t th e back o f th e pa ck . R

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