Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

ROAD RACE AMAIMBNA SUPERBIKE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP En Fuefsllubricants 250CC Grand Prix Series Round 7: RQad America Sands rolls on By Henny Ray Abrams ELKHART LAKE, WI, JUNE 14 fter the rough-and-tumble 250cc race at Road Atlanta, this weekend's contest at Road America seemed relatively serene. No bashIDg, on the track or in the .press conference, just a good clean race wHh the only constant between the two races being the winner. Performance Machine's Roland Sands, who only last year was co~sid ered by rus peers as being a bit too wild, held off the constant challenge of World Sport Imports' Chuck Sorensen before pulling a slight edge near the finish to claim rus fourth will of the year. It was Sorensen who many had cited as being overaggressive in Atlanta (he would later explain it was due to machine problems), but today he was the model of civiHty, chas;ng but not catching Sands and taking a secure second when Moto Liberty's TakaNto Mori retired on the seventh lap with a broken spark plug on ills Honda RS250. "We put two races together here (Road Atlanta and Road America)," the Yamaha-mounted Sands began. "We won two in a row and that's definitely helping in our quest for the championsrup. Just trymg to put my head down and will a couple of races m a row and we're doing that and if we can wm a couple more in a row, maybe we can relax a little bit. Rjght now we're going to gb out and try to win every smgle race and I'll just keep going at it as hard as possible." Sands increased his championship points lead over Sorensen to 45 points, 238-193, after seven of 13 rounds. Erion Racing's Kurtis Roberts, trurd today, is a point behIDd Sorensen. Sands, Sorensen and Mori got the jump on the 31-rider field and it was dear within a lap or two that the winner would emerge from among them. Sands led the first lap, then Mori, then Sands for two, Mori again at the halfway flags, then Sands for good. Mori slowed exiting the final turn on the seventh lap with a broken spark plug, leaving the race to Sands and Sorensen. Sorensen was on him until the ninth lap, when it appeared that Sands had a small cusruon. He would add to it and finish 2.250 seconds in front. Sands completed the 10-lap, 4O-mile race in 23 minutes, 15.080 seconds at an average speed of 103.220 mph. "Those guys were right behind me for the first seven or eight laps," Sands said. "1 thought it was going to be a battle to the end, butwe happened to pull a gap there at the end." "After Mori's bike broke 1 just put my head down and tried to put in a few good, hard laps," Sorensen said. "And 1 started to catch Roland again and 1 think we hit some traffic and that's w hen he made a break for it. He had his head down just as hard as 1 did and I was charging for it." As for liis problems in Atlanta, Sorensen was unapologetic. "Last round we had mechanical problems and my bike would 'cut out and 1 was doing everything 1 could to A 12 Performance Machine's Roland Sands (10) leads World Sports Imports' Chuck Sorensen (90) and HRC's Takahito Mori (42). Sands came out on top of his race-long battle with Sorenson. Mori dropped out with a broken spark plug. , save what points 1 could in the championship," he said. "It made it real rough to ride and maybe we got in the way of some people, but when the bike has some problems, you have to deal with what you have. I'm not going to pull off the track just because my bike's hurt. Got through tha t and came here this weekend and by the end of the weekend we had all the bugs worked out and had a decent-running bike come race time." Sands, who was Sorensen's most outspoken critic m Atlanta, accepted his reasonmg. "Like he said, at Atlanta he had bike problems and he did what he had to do to stay in contention for the lead in the top three or whatever. 1 might have disagreed with his riding tactics, but today rus bike was obviously running better and he didn't have to do those kind of tNngs to stay up there. He was going good. And if somebody's right beside me and I've got to lift it up at the last minute and I'm already turned in, that's a problem. 1 didn't notice anything weird going on today. It was good, dean racing, myself and Mori and Chuck. 1 think we had a good, clean race." Third place went to Roberts, who had hoped to stay with the leaders but didn't get away with them at the start and had to shake off fellow Honda rider Bobby Keith to secure his spot on the rostrum. "There's a lot of straights and not many corners, so that kind of hurts," Roberts said. "When someone gets a lead like they had, trying to come from sixth spot to catch them up..." Roberts had Keith on him most of the way. it wasn't until the final few laps that he was able to gain any breathIDg room. Behind them came Erion Racing's Randy Renfrow. He'd been in fourth early in the race, chased by Performance Machine' Mark Foster, only to be passed by Terranova Pamting's Geep Terranova on the fifth lap. Renfrow got back by on the seventh lap, the pair leavmg Foster beNnd. Terranova stuck to him until the final lap when he fell, remounted and rode to a nmth-place finish. Renfrow ended up about 14 seconds behIDd Keith and wasn't happy with rus riding. "1 rode like a pussy," the Virginia veteran said. "I just kept going faster and faster. My last lap was my fastest lap of the race." That left Foster alone in sixth, well in front of the fight for seventh between Ranson Street Racing's Jeffrey Vos and Fabweld's Greg Esser. Esser looked to have some breathing room early in the race before Vos gradually reeled him in, passing on the eighth lap. Esser raced him to the line, coming up just short. Terranova motored in for ninth, with Team Motorrad-Rennsport's Perry Melneciuc getting to the front of a four-rider .pack contesting 10th. . a Road America Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin Resuhs: June 14, 1998 (Round 7 ot 13) ELF RACE FUELS/LUllRICANTS GRAND PRIX Fl At: 1. Roland Sands (Yam); 2. Chuck Sorensen (Yam); 3. Kurtis Roberts (Hon); 4. Bobby Keith (Hon); S. Randy Renfrow (Hon); 6. Mark Foster (Yam); 7. Jeffrey Vos (Hon); 8. Greg Esser (Hon); 9. Geep Terranova (Yam); 10. Perry Me.lneciuc (Hon); 11. Leon COTtes (Hon); 12 Eric Stephens (Hon); 13. John France (Hon); 14. Edward Sorbo (Yam); 15. William Himmelsbach (Yam); 16. Hans Bailie (Yam); 17. David Wright; 18. Bruce Lind (Yam); 19. James Worthington (Apr); 20. Brian Gibson (Yam); 21. James Bonner (Yam); 22. Keith Floyd (Yam); 23. Adam Neal (Yam); 24. Cory Tuchscherer (Yam); 25. Tom Christian (Hon); 26. Andrew Edwards (Yam); 27. Hector Franco (Hon); 28. Takahito Mori (Hon); 29. Colin Gilbert (Yam); 30. Al Salaverria (Apr); 31. Charles Mackay (Yam). Time: 23 min.• 15.080 sec. Distance: 10 laps. 40 miles Average sp~d: 103.220 mph Margin of victory: 2.250 sec. ELf RACE FUELS/LUBRICANTS GRAND PRIX CSHIP POINT STANDINGS (After 7 of 13 rounds); I. Roland 5.'1nds (238/4 wins); 2. Chuck Sorensen (193/2); 3. Kurtis Roberts (192); 4. Takahito Mori (178/1); 5. Gcep Terranova (150); 6. Randy Renfrow (149); 7. Bobby Keith (142); 8. Mark Foster (23); 9. Greg Esser (19); 10. Jeffrey Ves (115); 11. John France (107); 12. AI s..'llnverrio (103); 13. Rodney Fcc (99); 14. Perry Melne'Ciue (92); 15. Edward Sorbo (86); 16. Leon Cortes (75); 17. Michael Montoya (72); 18. William Himmelsbach (54); 19. Joseph Cubbage (48); 20. Gary George'S (47). Upcoming Rounds: Round 8 - Loudon, New Hampshire, June 21 Round 9 - Lexington, Ohio, July 19 Pirelli Formula Xtreme Championship series Round 6: Road America Eric closes in By Henny Ray Abrams ELKHART LAKE, WI, JUNE 13 rion Racing's Eric Bostrom moved to within two points of teammate Tripp Nobles' championship lead by running away with the Pirelli Formula Xtreme race on a s:u=y afternoon at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. As they've done all year, Bostrom and Nobles took off from the flash of the green light, the rest of the 22-rider field unable to keep pace. Soon Nobles would know the feeling. After sticking with Bostrom for a few laps, Nobles made a few mistakes and Bostrom pounced. The lead was about five seconds halfway into the ID-Iap, 4Dmile race, and it quickly grew. By the end, Bostrom was ahead by 21.240 sec- E onds to take rus fourth wm m a row, and fifth in six tries.· Nobles said that the Honda CBR900RRs were mostly equal, though Bostrom was able to get off the turns slightly better. Of trying to stay with Bostrom, Nobles said that he lost time gomg into a corner too fast and "before 1 knew it he was 10 or 12 bike lengths ahead." He made another mistake trying to catch back up. "You just can't do it with a rider the caliber of Eric. Once he slipped away and I lost the draft, then he just put in four or five good laps. Before 1 knew it, I couldn't even see him. So 1 just set in my little groove, saw my lap board - it was like 12 seconds - and had my own little race." Bostrom completed the race in a record time of 22 minutes, 30.130 seconds at an average speed of 106.656 mph. The win gives him 185 points, two beNnd Nobles with six races to go. TNrd in points, with 158, and third today, was Graves Motorsports' Mark Miller. Racing the still-developing Yamaha YZF-Rl, Miller slipped into third place on the third lap by passing Dutchman Racing's Michael Barnes and Canadian Kawasaki Motors' Michael Taylor. Taylor went out with engine problems on the fifth lap, leaving fourth to Barnes. Miller knew his new Yamaha wasn't as straight-line fast as the older Yamaha Barnes was riding, but Miller also knew that rus Rl handled better. "Barney was kind of a target for me for this race because, like I said, his bike is much faster than mine is in a straight line," Miller said. "But when we get on the binders and in the twisty stuff, it's just nigh! and day how well the Rl's workIDg over ills older chassis." The difference was evident on the track. Miller was able to sneak away from the sixth lap on, ills effort adding up to nearly five seconds at the end. Miller was about 12 seconds behind Nobles, whom he knew didn't have the equipment with which to compete. "It handles really, really good; the brakes are really, really good; it's awesome in the corners," Miller said of the Honda. "It's just that we're about 12 mph down a t this track to the Erion guys. We need some basic engine parts from the factory. That's something that the Hondas have been developing over the last four years on those 900s. As soon as we get a litHe more mile an hour, we'll be right there." Taking third on a fast track was the best he could have hoped for, he said, and he was looking forward to the tighter turns of Loudon and Mid-Oruo, the next two stops.

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