Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

"We're going to go to some of the shorter tracks now, which is going to put us on a little more equal footing with the more-horsepower bikes. We're going to come off the comers a little easier and maybe save the fires a little bit," he said. Well behind Bames was a three-rider scrap for fifth, Hooters' Mario DuHamel facing off against Fastrax Racing's Dean Mizdal and Yamaha-mounted Greg Fryer of Larson Cycles. DuHamel was at the front of the group from the second lap on and was there at the end. It took until the seventh lap for Fryer to get by. Mizdal, the trio all finishing within about a second of each other. Well back in eighth, and by himself, 0was Marc Chiodo. Road America Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin Results: June 14, 1998 (Round 6 of 12) PIRELLI FORMULA XTREME FINAL, I. Eric Bostrom (Hon); 2. Tripp Nobles (Hon); 3. Mark Miller (Yam); 4. Michael Barnes (Yam); 5. Mario DuHamel (5uz); 6. Greg Fr:yer (Yam); 7. Dean Mizdal (5uz); 8. Marc Chiodo (5uz); 9. Jeffrey Purk (Hon); 10. Curtis Adams (Tri); 11. Eric Seward (Vam); 12. Shawn Conrad (Tn); 13. Brett Boyd (5uz); 14. Devin Battley (Yam); 15. Michael Gage (Tri); 16. Todd Snyder (Suz); 17. Paul Oucato (Yam); 18. Michael Taylor (Kaw); ]9. Anthony Purdue (Yam); 20, Shawn Higbee (Bue); 21. Paul Harrell (suz); 22. Daniel Brody (Suz). Time: 22 min.• 30.130 sec. Distance: 10 laps. 40 miles Ave.rage speed: 106.656 mph Margin of victory: 21.240 sec. AMAIPIRELLI FORMULA XTREME C'SHIP POINT STANDINGS (After 6 of U rounds): 1. Tripp Nobles 087/1 win); 2. Erie Bostrom (185/5); 3. Mark Miller (157); 4. Michael Taylor (143); S. Dean MizdaJ (117); 6. Mario DuHamel (112); 7. Tray B"'ey (110); 8. Cory Call (90); 9. Jack Pfiefcr (85); 10. Chris Voelker (82); 11. Curtis Adams (76); 12. Mike Sullivan (71); 13. Michael Barnes (56); 14. Myron Scott Bigley (54); 15. (TIE) Mike Sm;th/Mike Voelker (S2); 17. Da\;d Perez (47); 18. (TIE) Kevin Holman/Paul Harrell (39); 20. William Scott (34). Upcoming Rounds: Round 7 - Loudon, New Hampshire, June 20 Round 8 - Lexington, Ohio, July 18 AMA Progressive Insurance Pro Thunder series, Round 7: Road America Adams bumps off Harrell By Henny Ray Abrams ELKHART LAKE, WI, JUNE 14 O n the last lap of the Progressive Insurance Pro Thunder race, race leader Paul Harrell thought he'd give his Orange County Triumph teammate Curtis Adams a nudge. Not a hard nudge - just enough to let him know he was there, slow him down, guarantee his win. I But the nudge was more like a shove aJild Harrell thought he'd knocked him down and felt awful. Most importantly, it didn't work. The 6-foot-7-inch Adams shook it off, took the lead, and opened up his biggest gap of the day on his way to the Road America winner's circle. "I've been watching the NBA playoffs out there and I've seen those big guys knocking each other around, so I figured Paul's going to have to do better than that," Adams said after taking his fifth win in six tries. "It was a pretty hard bump. I didn't really expect it. I knew he'd be tough righ t there to get by. But I pushed it really hard and when he ran into me, I got very angry initially and thought, 'Well, I'll just keep my focu·s on what I'm trying to do here: and was able to make my last downshift and get the thing thrown into the corner. And I could see that his bike was a little upset from the collision and I was able to turn it in at the apex and get a good drive up going up the hill and from then on I was able to stick it out in front of him and leave it to the bike." For Harrell's part, he was fairly sure that he had just knocked his rival to the pavement. "Right when I saw his wheel corne up, we both braked late and I moved over on him and hit him - I didn't mean.to hit him that hard," Harrell said. "I thought I knocked him down. I felt kind of bad because I felt something hit me in the back wheel. I thought, 'Oh my God, I knocked him down. That was stupid.' Then here he comes. Once again Curtis smoked me and I'm getting tired of it." Adams completed the lO-lap, 4O-mile race in 24 minutes, 3.170 seconds at an average speed of 99.780 mph. His margin of victory was 1.720 sec<,mds. After skipping the first round in Phoenix, Adams has five wins and a third and has closed right up on Harrell in the championship. After seven of 13 races, Adams trails Harrell by a single point, 212-21 I. "We missed the first round at Phoenix and I've had to kind of play catch-up since then:' Adams said. "I've been really fortunate to be able to be up front in everyone of these events." 'Tm tired of this:' bemoaned Harrell. "Last time I said I was tired of it. I don't know what to do. It seems he's WlstOppable. I know I think I got him, and right when I think I got him, he gets me again. "I knew he was cue-balling me the whole time," Harrell continued. "I thought I was setting a pretty slow pace up front - I didn't want to burn up my tires. [ was trying to just get around the track smooth and then I thought, 'Well, I'm going to try to make a break for it: because I knew he was playing me. I got on the gas, made a few mistakes and (Above) HyperCycle Suzuki's Jason Pridmore (1) leads the 750cc Supersport race ahead of 1-800CYCLEGEAR's Steve Rapp (15) and Barnett Tool & Engineering's Richard Alexander (hidden). Pridmore was dominant, with Alexander finishing second, Rapp third. (Right) Orange County Triumph's Curtis Adams was once again victorious in the Pro Thunder race, taking his slx1h win in the class this season. kind of smoked the tire a little bit, and I knew exactly where he was going to . pass me." From what Adams said, Harrell was right. "Mainly, out there I could see that I didn't have the horsepower:' he said. "I tried two or three turns getting a run out of the last comer up here and seeing where I could pass him. And I just couldn't quite get by him by the time we'd get to the stripe. That let me know that I had to make a plan to get by somewhere before that last-corner. Basically I was hoping that I could push him hard enougll and maybe burn up his tires." This was a two-rider race, the two Triumph riders having early company from Tilley's H-D/Buell's Shawn Higbee - he led the first lap - until he ran into bike problems and fell off the pace. "I wasn't real pleased with the opening lap, because the thing developed a chatter:' Higbee said. "Initially I had a really bad chatter going through the carousel. And as the race went on it got worse and worse and worse. It seemed mainly in the right-handers. I don't know if it was suspension or tires or what it was. It was a new gremlin. We didn't do anything to the bike. We just changed tires. I'm not sure what caused it. Then my rear brake went out and I had some other problems. It was a real frustrating race. When I knew I was in trouble with the chassis, I knew I couldn't carry my speed through the turns just chattering and almost crashing every time I flicked it in there. 50 I tried to brake really hard and get in front of them every chance I could. For the first four laps, if I saw I had an opening to get into the turns and pass them at the apex, I'd do that, ·just to hold them off, because I couldn't get through the center of the turns. It worked for the first few laps, but I could only do that for a few times. As soon as I lost my rear brake, that kind of took the edge off of things. I couldn't get in as hot." Higbee would finish about 20 seconds behind Harrell. It looked like he might be caught from behind. Orange Country Triumph's Michael Gage, who ran a lonely fourth the whole race, seemed to be making ground on Higbee as the race wore on. In the end, though, Higbee had a comfortable cushion of nearly six seconds. Next across were Hal's H-D/Buell's Billy Graef and HMC's Triumph-mounted Shawn Conrad. The two Wisconsin riders went at each other the entire race, Graef in iront early, Conrad passing him on lap eight and appearing to have a small cushion, with Graef retaking the spot and taking fifth on the last lap. Some distance back came MCC Ducati's Monte Nichols, then Miller Electrical Construction's Jess Roeder. f~ Road America Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin Results: June 14, 1998 (Round 7 of 13) AMA PROGRESSIVE INSURANCE PRO THUNDER FINAL: 1. Curtis Adams (Tri); 2. Paul Harrell (Tn); 3. Shawn Higbee (Bue); 4. Michael Cage (Tri); 5. Billy Graef (Bue); 6. Shawn Conrad (Tri); 7. Monte Nichols (Due); 8. Jess Roeder (Due); 9. James Lick-war (Tri);IO. Stefano Bimbi (Due); 11. Mark Zalke (H·O); 12. Kelly Newman (Rtx); 13. Robert Gonzales (Due); 14. Jamie Long (Due); 15. David Hull (Due); 16. Jerry Casciero Jr. (H-D). Time: 24 min., 3.170 sec. Distance: 10 laps, 40 miles Average speed: 99.780 mph Margin of victory: 1.720 sec. AMA PROGRESSIVE INSURANCE PRO THUNDER SERIES CHAMPIONSHIP POINT STANDINGS

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