Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

ROAD RACE AMA/MBNA S UPERBIKE NATIO C PIONSHIP NAL HAM (Left) Kurtis Roberts (80) won lhe fi rst AMA 250cc Grand Prix race ot his career, lopping the likes ot Chuck Sorensen (90) and Roland Sands (10). (Above) Eric Bostrom easily won lhe Formula Xlreme tina I, lopping Mark Miller and Michael Taylor. 12 ing , Sa nds s till ho lds a co mma ndin g lead over Robe rts, 304-260. Sorensen is third a t 249. Because the race w as red -fla gg ed aft er three laps, and ru n in two parts, th ere wa s no tim e of rac e or avera ge speed. Roberts won by 1.3 seconds. When the race began, at the end of the day, Robertsgot the jump, but Sorensen was quickly out front, where he'd be when the race was stopped by a three-rider turn-one crash on the fourth lap. The res ta rt aga in went to Sorensen, writh Roberts and Sands just behind, and with Ranson Street Racing's Jeffrey Vos, Per form an ce Ma chine' s Mark Foster, Fabweld' s Greg Esser, Barn ett Tool & Engineering' s Bobby Keith and Erion Racing's Randy Renfrow - again havin g trouble with his starts - following. Vos wa s down a lap later after lowsiding, his bike sp inning alon g the track. It caused a mom ent's hesitation for Foster and the group of four he wa s lead ing , a n d all owed the lea de rs to ge t away . "That's when I lost the gu ys," Foster said. Sorensen maintained his spot at the front through the sixth lap, with Roberts and Sands cha sing. Roberts was insid e at th e en d o f th e b a ck s traig ht' afte r nud ging Sorensen, but Sorense n quickly took it back. . "On the restart I took the point position aga in and th ou gh t ma ybe I wa s goi ng to be ab le to get aw ay," Sorensen sa id . "But I kept se e ing plus ze ro on that, so I figu red they were aro und there some where." At the halfwa y point Sands w as in sec ond, pa ssing Roberts enteri ng th e Carou sel, then took the lead briefly with an insid e mov e on Sor enson, aga in on the ba ck straigh t o n th e n ex t lap, lap nine. Sorensen wa sn ' t having it, though, and took the p ot back im m ed ia te ly . whil e third -p laced Robe rts closed in on the brakes. That spo t on the track wasn' t a good one for Sands as his Yamaha wou ld hesitate exiting the hard righ t. . "Coming out of there, my bike wou ld fall on its face and they'd get right back by m e, e ve ry t im e, after fi ve or si x times ," Sands said. "That' a problem I th ou ght we solved . It o nly s urfaces when yo u ' re rea lly pushing th e bik e under braking." Still, Sands struc k agai n in the same pla ce on the next lap, this time making th e p a ss s t ic k, th ou gh n ot wi tho u t Sorensen pu tting up a fight. The next lap looked like it was going to decide the race. Roberts go t caug ht ou t by a backm arker and lost gro u nd on the lead pair. Getti ng ou t of their d raft s ho u ld ha ve be en fa ta l, bu t Robe r ts foug ht back. "Chuck (Soren sen) had to go on the o u ts ide of th e Ke y h o le and h e g ot arou nd him firs t and he go t it ba ck in time," Robert s said. "As I was bri ngin g it back, my tire go t in the gap ....-ith the concrete and the asp halt and it tucked completely an d I actually thought I was down. My leg was off outsid e and the bike was down until it got off tha t and came back. I lost a seco nd . I was 1.6, I th in k, behind on th e n e xt lap . But I think tha t ju s t in sp ir ed me to come back." Tw o laps later Roberts was back on them , surp rising Sorensen w ith a move toward the end of the 13th lap. "I believe Chu ck d idn ' t really kno w I wa s th ere wh en I p a ssed C h uc k," Roberts said . "He got off the gas really early and I thought he might do that." On e more time around the track and he su rp rised San ds, this time at the end of th e ba ck straight, b efore th e hard right. Ending the 14th lap, with tw o to go, it wa s Rob ert s, Sand s, Sor ensen. Th e order stayed the same for the next lap , with the trio tigh t for the final tou r. Sands sa id it best: "Man, tha t last lap was a ba m-burner." Indeed . Robe rt s was in front on the back straight, knowing his Ho nda was sligh tly down on power to the two Yamahas. So he "t ried the 125 swe rve d own the back straight," Rober ts said . "They had a littl e bit mo re on me, I felt , on th e bikes. Roland kep t comi ng by me and knocking me ou t of the way, tryi ng to ou tbra ke me. I wasn 't going to let that happen. I started swerving an d on the brak es I sq u eezed him off. I we n t in really deep and I saw him and I was n' t going to let him have it." "I tried to go by him on the brak es there and he wasn' t having it and we went in ther e pretty close to each other," Sand s said . "I think we hit four or five tim es that race. It w a s a pre tt y clo se race. I was the hitt er this race, .but fully in control." Going down the n ext loop in g le ft after the ha rd right, Sands tu cked the front end befo re making a race- vin g save. "Tha t last lap, I had a bit of a slide there and thou ght I might go down for a seco nd an d ga th ere d it back u p and really tried to stay ahead of Chuck, but he was push ing for secon d real hard . I wasn't exactly think ing about the championship, I was more thinking 'Try an d win, try and win: an d I just ende d u p settling for third. Tha t's the way it was today." Mark Fos ter had p ut him se lf in to fou rth on the fifth lap , after Vos fell, an d he quickly left th e fiel d behi nd. He'd d one a radical overhau l of his se tup in the morn ing and , for once, he was com for table on the bike. Before this race, he was overriding the Yamaha and cras hing. Then h e : soug ht the advice of Stig Petterso n of Petterson Perfo rma nce Sus pe nsio n and the results were immed iate. "We had a big problem with valving," Foster said . "We hid that problem with other adjustments." Erio n Ra cing ' s Rand y Renfrow moved past Bobby Keith for fifth on the se venth lap . He 'd sta y there to the end , even th ou gh h is a rms were pumpin g u p and he'd burned th e clutch on the s tart. "Ever since Elkhart Lake, I can' t buy a s ta rt," Renfrow sa id . "We ch anged eve ry thing. I do n't know wha t the problem is. I just about ru ined the clutch." "After dealing wit h the clu tch problem, Renfrow found that by the fifth lap his forearms were "as hard as a rock:' as they had been at Loudon. It affected his braking and throttle con trol. He wasn't ph ysically tired, bu t; because he hadn't been able to train as hard during the offseason as in the pa st, his forea rms aren't in racing shape. " It was every thing I could do to hang on to the motor cycle: ' sa id Renfrow . "For the second race in a row I thou ght , 'This is d angerous.'" Keith trailed Ren fro w a t so me d istanc e, with Esser next across, followed by Hond a-m oun ted Brian Gibso n of Dogs Racing in eighth. Team Tri ad ' s Lee Acre e w as ninth, af ter running beh ind Gibson in a fou rrid er pac k for much o f th e race. Leon Co rtes ro u nde d ou t th e top 10 on th e 0, Fab-Tech Honda. Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course Lex lng1on, Ohio . Results :July 19, 1998 (Round 9 ot 13) ELF RAC E FUELSIL UBRICANT S G RAND PRIX FINA L: 1. Ku r tis Rober ts IHo n): 2. Chuck So ren sen (Yam ); 3. Rol.and Sands .(Ya m ); 4. Mark Fos ter (Yam); 5. Randy Renfrow (Hon); 6. Bobby Keith (Hon): 7. G reg Esser (Hon); 8. Brian G ibso n (He n), 9. Lee A ~ (Hun ); n 10. Leon Co rtes (Ho n); 11. Eric Stephe s (Hu n); 12. John Fran ce (Ha n); 13. Bill Himmelsba ch (Yam ); 14. Perry Mel neci uc (Ho n); 15. Jeff Vos (Ha n); 16. Jim Bonne r (Ya m ); 17. Ja mie Worthing ton (Apr); 18. Mile Myers (Ya m); 19. Tom Chri ..tian (He n): 20. Richard Me rh ar (Ya m ); 21. Kevin McCrea (Ya m); 22. David Bcttr idg e (Yam); 23. Bruce Lind (Yam); 24. Adam Neal (Yam). Ti me: n f a d ue to red flag. Distance : 16 Iaps , 38.4 miles Average speed: nf a d ue to nod flag Marg in of victory. 1 .3 ~. EL F RA C E FUE LS /LU BR IC A N TS G RA N D P RIX CSH IP PO INT STANDINGS (Afte r 9 of 13 m un ds); 1. Roland Sands (304/ 4 wi ns); 2. Kurtis Roberts (260/ 1); 3. Ch uc k Sorense n (249 /3 ); 4. Randy Renfrow (204); 5. Bobby Keith (189); 6. Takahi to Morl (178 /1 ); 7. Gee p Terr anova 0(4); 8. Greg Esser ( 63); 9. Je ffrey Vos (56); 10. Ma rk Foster (149); 11. John France (139); 12. Perry Meln eciuc (125); 13. Le n Co rtes (l 0!"!); 14. At Salaverria o 0(4); IS. Edwa rd Sorbo (03); l b. Rodney Fee (99) ; 17. Willia m Him melsbach (90); 18. Michael Mont oya (72 ); 19. Bruce Lind (71); 20. jam e Bonner (57). s Upcoming Rounds: Round 10 - Brainerd. Minnesota. August 2 Round 11 - Joliet. Illinois, August 9 AMA Pirelli Formula Xlreme Series Round 8: Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course Bodrolll storlllS By Henny Ray Abrams LEXINGTON,OHIO, JULY 18 rion Racing's Eric Bostrom continu ed his inexora ble mar ch towa rd t h e Pire IIi Formula Xtre me titl e with yet ano ther do mina ting w in , hi s. seven th in eigh t tries, th is one com ing on a n in termittently su nny day a t the' Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. The H o n d a CB R900 RR-moun ted . rider jum ped o u t fr ont and quickly pulled awa y from teammate Tripp Nob les, the o n ly r id e r other than Bostrom to win an Xtr eme final this year. Then N obles was out, stopped by an engine failure on th e seventh o f 16 laps, an d Bostrom was home free. Graves Motorsports' Ma rk Miller, forced to use a Superspo rt-spec engi ne after his A-mo tor went sour, was a dista nt b ut happy se co nd . Canadian Kawasaki Motors ' Michael Taylo r, who had to sta rt from the pit lan e after losing trac k of when the race would start, was a dis tant third . Bostrom lapped up to eighth place on his way to winning by 14.537 second s. The wi n, a lo ng wit h No b les' DN F, ex te nds his cha m p io nsh ip lead to 39 points, 263-224, with four of 12 races to go. Miller, on the pod ium for the fourth time, is third with 216, and Taylor has 172. Bostr om a lso s ha ttered th e race record , completing the 24-1ap, 38.4-mile race in 24 minutes, 18 seconds , nearlv a minu te under the mark set last yea rby A n d re w Stroud , al so on an Erion Honda . Bostrom av eraged 94.815 mph. As d ominating as hi s performance was, Bostrom had his doubts about suc-, cess before the race started . Taylo r was able to knock him off the pole position in qualifying, though his bike was later found to be five pound s underweight. Even so , the ti mes w ere close a n d it looked like it might not be another Bostrom runaway. c: "From the begi nning and from qu a Iifying, it looked like this was going to be; a really good race. All four of us were in the 30s: ' Bostrom said of the ir qualifying times . "It looked like it was going to, be a really close race. Unfo rtunately, it d idn' t mat erialize. I got ou t there a nd just kind of rod e comfortab le, tried not to pu sh it and tried to cru ise aro und and set a pace that I was happy with. Then we got caug h t up in some backrnarkers and I had to gas it back up." Th a t w as that. Bost rom wa s ne ver headed and pulled nearly a second per lap on Miller . Miller' s problems began earlier in the weekend . Th e team had been d eveloping engine part s for the Yam aha YZF-R1, bu t, just before qualifying , that eng in e d ev e loped probl ems , so th ey w ere ~ forced to imp rovise. I

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