"We had a new motor for qualifying
da y - yes terd ay - and we had a new Amotor and we had so me pa rts, finally a
couple of little parts for this engi ne, that
we' re tr yin g to d ev elop and we were
only 4 mph down at that po int. We were
p retty excited about that because the bike
handles grea t right now and we're jus t
waiti ng for a little. bit more horsepo wer,"
Miller sai d. "Unfo r tu na tely, the th ing
had a little incident, a little mech ani cal
failure just before qua lifying, so we had
to throw all the suspension pieces on the
rain bike, which is a full su perspo rt-spec
mot or cycle, which ha s noth in g but a
valve job and an exhaust pipe. "We were
pretty lucky to ge t second today, being
that we'r e grossly down on horsepower.
Like I said , the YZF-Rl handles so good
that we can make up in the corners what
we lose in the straig htaways - just not
eno ugh to ge t Eric tod ay."
Miller said he never gave up, hop ing
that his Michelins would last bett er late
in the hot race than Bostrom's Dunl op s.
He knew he was faster in a couple of corners a nd th ought he might be able to
exploit the advantage late in the race. It
neve r happened. Instead, he was under
only very slight pressure from Taylor.
Tay lor sai d he wa s m o tiv ated all
weekend long because he knew Eric
Bostrom was ridi ng the American Honda
RC45 Superbike for the first time and
might not pay as mu ch atte ntion to the
Xtreme machine. It looked like he might
be righ t in qualifying, but Taylor dug
himself into a hole by being slightly disorganized.
One of h is mechan ics had recently
quit, so he was short-staffed for the race.
Weighing hi s Canad ian Kawasaki
Motors' ZX-9R was not a priority, espedally since he d idn't know that the AMA
weighed the machines after qualifying .
He was found to be five pounds under
the limit an d was forced to the back row
of the g ri d. And then he didn 't eve n
make it there.
'We figured superbik es are just coming back in the pad d ock, and th en we
went d own to the grid and everybody
was already gone, " Tay lor said. "So no t
only did we start in the back bu t we had
to start fro m a stop. Ther e's no rew ard
for stu pid ity and I certa inly learned tha t
this wee kend ."
Once away, he had to work his way
through the 29-rid er field. He was 12th at
the end of the first lap, seventh at the end
of two, then fifth after thr ee. He moved
into fourth on the fourth lap and inherited third whe n Nobles went out.
"I knew that if the tires stuc k to the
gro u nd as m uch as possible, we could
get some good lap times in," Taylo r said .
"I just concentrated on slaying clean , tha t
was the main thing . I know from experience: I go t into comer one here in a T:>Occ
Supersport race once and I was off in the
grass at a hund red miles an hour. It's real
easy to get bumped off line here so I concentrated in the morn ing practice on riding all the craziest lines tha t I've never
rid den before to see what it's going to be
like in the race, and lu ckily a lot of the
riders we re pretty clean. I d idn't have
any ma jor problems. On e guy on an Rl
just messed me up bad d own iii. the back
section. I mu st have lost two seconds . I
kind of lost my spirit after tha t. I lost too
mu ch here and I'm going to cras h if I try
to beat Mark (Miller) now. Just stick with
podium and be happy wi th that."
. Taylor was abo u t 7.9 seconds behind
Miller.
Arou n d a nother 50 se co n d s b a ck
came Fastra x Racing' s Dean Mizdal, all
alone on his Suzu ki GSX-R750.
Then came the first race of the field,
Greenfields Turi's Chris Voelker an d Mid-
Ohio Suzuki/ Honda /Yamaha / Kawasaki' s Daniel Bailey of nearby Mans field .
Voelker managed to ke ep h is Ho nd a
CBR900RR in fron t of Bailey' s Suz u ki
GSX-R7 50 for th e duration , but th ere
wasn' t much in it a t the end . The pair
were abou t 15 seconds behin d Mizdal.
They had a similar gap on Grand Prix
Kawasaki 's Larry Locklear, by himself in
seve n th, w it h M ik e Voelker, a lso o f
Greenfields Turf, eigh th o n a Honda .
CBR600.
J&J Motors Su zuki's James Doerfler
led a quintet of Suzuki GSX-R750s across
the line in ninth , though they were well
spread out.
He had a gap on the pair fighting over
10th, Eric Seward and Keith Marquez,
l~
wit h Sewa rd taking the spot.
Mld-Qh lo Sports Car Course
Lexingt on, Ohio
Results: July 18, 1998 (Round 8 0112)
AMA PIRELLI FORMULA XTREM E FINA l.: 1. Eric
Bostrom CHon); 2. Ma rk Miller (Yam) ; 3. Michael Tay lo r
(Ka w): 4. Dean Mizdal (5uz ); S. Ch ris Voelker (Hon): 6.
Dan iel Baile y (Suz) ; 7. Lar ry Locklear (Ka w ): 8. Mik e
Voe lker (Hon); 9. lames Doerfler (Suz); 10. Eric Seward
(Suz ); 11. Keith Marquez (Suz) ; 12. Todd Snyder (Su z);
13. Da vid N ays mi th (5U2); 14. Rog er &>11 n OOS) 10. Co ry Cal l (90);
;
11. Jack Pfeif er (85); 12. Mike Voelker (75); 13. Mikl"
Sul livan (71) ; 14. Creg White (69); 15. Paul Harrell (62);
16. Mic hael Cage (69) ; 17. Kei th Marq ue z (Si) ; 18.
Michael Barnes (56); 19. Myro n Scott Bigley (54); 20.
Mirnatc'1 Sm ith (52 ).
Upcoming Rounds:
Round 9 • Brainerd, Minnesota, August 1
Round 10 - Joliet, Illinois, August 8
AMA Progressive Insurance P Thunde
ro
rSeries
Round 9:Mid
.QhioSports Car Course
By Henn y Ray Abrams
LEXINGTON, OHIO, JULY 19
is time, Paul Harrell d ecid ed he
would win, at any cost.
"I don't care if I win the cha mpionship or not, I am not going to go this
whole season without winning on e of
these things," the Orange Country Triumph rider decided before the race. So he
we nt out and ran down a fading Shawn
Higbee to lake his first Prog ressive Insurance Pro Thunder win of the year.
"I think today, the reason I won, honestly, is because Pirelli put me on a really
good tire," Harr ell said. "The thin g was
flaw less the whole time."
And the reason Higbee lost?
"I think I chose the wrong rear tire,"
Tilley's H-D/Buell-mounted Higbee said
of his rear -tir e choice aft er d ropping to
th ird . "W e went with the so ft and we
should have had the medium or hard."
In between was Harrell 's teamma te
and fellow Triumph rider, Curtis Ad ams ,
the rid er who diced with Harrell much of
the race befor e both we re ab le to overtake Higbee.
At the end of the day, Harrell for had
extended his championship lead ov er
Higb ee to 10 points, 280-270, with four
races left. Adams is third at 251.
Ha rrell said that because he really
T
w ant s to win the champion ship , he
"played it safe most of the time, had
some bad luck, thought I could wi n a few
times , blew it a cou ple of times. And then
I thoug ht coming into this round , 'That's
it:
Wh en th e race began , on a hot and
mu ggy afternoon, Higbee mad e himself
the rabbi t, jum ping to the fron t immedi ately, wi th Ha rrell and Adams chasing as
the the to p three left the rest of the 19rid er field behind , jus t as they have all
year. '
Higbee was able to build up a thr eesecond lead an d hold it until the 11th of
16 laps. In a single tou r of the 2.4-mile
facility, Harrell cut the gap to a second
and a half, then was on Higbee a lap
later . The pass came on the 14th lap and
Higbee was helpless to stop it .
" I go t out front and put my head
d own a nd th ings were w orking good
until abo u t halfway, and then the bike
s ta r ted gett in g really loose, " Hi gbee
sa id . "So midway through the race the
rear tire was sliding around and, losing
m y drive off the turn . Th ese guys
caught up to me bu t it was real surprising for me because I looked back a cou ple of tim es and didn' t see them back
th ere. So I was ki nd of tryi ng to co nse rve my tire a nd next thing I know
these gu ys are pulling by. I tried to fight
back bu t the rear suspensio n was a little
loose. Didn' t have the damping, I gues s.
The setup just wasn't there to catc h up
with them."
" I was running up fron t and then I
couldn 't cat ch Shawn," Harrell said .
" It looked like he was going to get a
gap on me, Curtis (Ad ams) was rig ht
there , so I sa id , . ' Ma y be C u r t is ca n
chase h im d own, I've seen him d o it
many times ' . I let Curtis drive for a litt le bit a n d Curtis se e med to b e not
going as fast as I could go, so I said I'm
going to try to get this guy myself. So I
just go t on the gas , tri ed to get away
fro m Curtis and try to cat ch Shawn.
Every lap it seemed like it was a little
clo ser, little closer, then I knew 1 ha d
him. And I followed him in a coup le of
corners a nd his tires were really slipping and sliding around and I knew for
sure, because I was still hooked up the
whole time. Drove it out of the corner,
totally the thi ng was really hoo kin g up
good, and just sucked him in real quick
and got him and tried to make a break
for it."
There were less than three laps to go
at this point and Harrell thou ght he had
it in the bag until he go t a little cocky.
"Towa rd th e end th ere, on th e las t
couple laps, fina lly, I' m sit ting ther e,
talking to myself while I'm in the lead ,"
Harrell said. "I go, 'You know what ? you
better sh u t u p , jus t co ncentra te, ge t
through the rou nd: and so I'm happy it's
over."
He said tha t on the second- to-last lap,
rig h t after taking th e lea d , he tried a
sligh tly d ifferent line in a comer that had
been troublesome all weekend and "Bam,
I hit the bump, the thing went full lock,
Triumph-mounted Paul Harrell won his
f irst Pro Thunder fina l of th e season.
Harrell continues to lead the
championship po int standings over
Shawn Higbee.
I' m all, 'Oh m y God, no t aga in .' I just
back-braked a little bit, saved it. Th is
trac k does not see m to be very forgiving."
Harrell com pleted the 16-Iap, 38.4mile race in 25 min utes, 94.320 seconds at
an average speed of 90.999 mph.
Ada ms took a little longer to get past
Higbee. He'd rid de n a cautious race after
falling twice during the weekend a nd
beating himself up. His opening came as
they were en tering the turn-two Keyhole
on the penu ltim ate lap .
"I think the only shortcom ing today
w as m yself," Adams said . This was
Adams' firs t visit to Mid -Oh io and he,
too, found the track to be unforgiving. If
you get off line, it punishes you .
He didn' t want to crash again, so he
didn't push, riding within his limits to a
secure third .
Fourth, all by himself for the duration,
was Michael Ga ge on a no the r Orange
Country Triu mph.
T he b attl e for fift h wa s between
HMC's Shawn Conrad and Hal' s H-D &
Buell's Billy Graef. The pair of Wisconsi n
riders hooked up on th e third lap and
were toget her almost to the end, Conrad
in front, Graef in his draft, u ntil Graef
ma de a m ove on th e 15th la p , go ing
under Conrad between turns 10 and I I.
After that he was able to quic kly pull ou t
enough space that he wasn' t threatened
to the flag.
Advanced Motorsports' Jeffrey Nash
was seven th, unchallenged , with Bill St.
John eighth on the Vee-Two 984. It took
St. John until almost the end of the race
to get by Triumph-mounted James Lickwa r in their battle for ninth.
Tenth went to Mark Cummings on
th e Advanced Motorsports ' Ducati
Supermono.
l~
Mid-Qhio Sports Car Cou rse
Lexington, OH
Results: July 19, 1998 (Round 9 of 13)
A MA PROG R ES SI V E IN S UR A N C E PR O
TH U N D ER FINAL: 1. Pa u l Harrell
