Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

ROAD RACE AMAIMBNA SUPERBIKE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP AMA Elf Race FuelslLubricants Grand Prix series;Round 11: Pikes Peak Inn Raceway Roberts' race, . Sands' title By Henn y Ray Abrams . AMAITe amline7 ccS 50 upersport Series R 11:P PeakInterna l Racew y ound ikes tiona a Hayden, comfortably By Mark Hoyer Pho to by Hen ny Ray Ab rams FOUNTAU'J, CO, SEf'T. 5 here were a few certai n ties tha t fans of the 750cc Supersport Series had grow n com fortable with th is year. .O n e w a s th a t o ne o r b ot h of Hype rCy cie Suz uki's team riders would be lead ing the p ack a t th e end o f the ra ce; th e o the r w as tha t o ne or both of th em just mi ght be d isqua lified a fte rwa rd . Wh ile the team rem ains, now call ed Tea m Suz u ki Sp o rt , the H yperC ycle n ame. is go ne . So is teamm ate Ja son Pr id m ore , w h o e lec te d to withdraw fro m th e 750cc Super sport class rat her than perhaps end up w ith a somew ha t q uestionable second consecutive champion ship. All tha t's left is Nicky Ha yden - and if you ' re lookin g fo r ce rtai n ty , her e' s one : He wi ns . It took seven laps for the AMA road racin g rookie to turn his fo u rth- p lace st ar t in to a lead , but once he d id , It stu ck that wa v w ith a certa in certainty . By th e end of 'the race, H ayd en had jus t over six seconds in han d - and his fourth win of the seas on - ove r ea rly leader an d second-place finish er Steve Rap p . "I sa w Steve ge tting awa y and I knew I had to get by those guys in a hurry or he was just go ing to be gone," Hayd en said . "I got around th em a nd I caug h t Stev e and he made a little mistake and I w as a ble to ge t by him pr etty quick. I just got ou t front and put my head down an d put in some qu ick la ps, trying no t to take too man y chances in traffic " Ra pp, ad m itt ed ly , had other fish to frv A w in w ou ld su re ly be nice, bu t a cha m pions hip m ight be nic er . Th e San Ga briel Mountain Sp ri ng Water rid er led the series co rning to Co lorad o by 12 p oin ts o ver Barn ett Tool & Engi neerin g ' s Ric h A le xand er [r. , and leav es le a d in g b y 15 . He n eed e d to bea t Alexander to s tay wher e he was in the points tabl e, an d beat Alexan d er he d id . Rap p w as off, the line we ll rid ing a bike wi th a " bo ne s to ck " m otor after his good one went sour, and qu ickly pulled out a gap over the rest of the field . After bei ng displaced by H ayd en , Rapp rode . a smart race, timing his mo ves through the heavy lap ped tra ffic wisel y to end up with abou t a seco n d over t h ird placed Alexander. T A tj ~ ~ ~ 12 (Above) Nicky Hayden (69) rides around t he outside of Steve Rapp (15) in their battle for victory in th e 750cc Sup ersport cla ss. Hayden wo n, but Rapp 's second pla ce puts him in line to win th e championsh ip at the fina l round. (Right) Roland Sands celebrates t he fact tha t he's w on t he AMA 250cc Grand Prix Champ ionship with a third-place fini sh at Pike s Peak. "Sti cking w ith N ick y wasn ' t reall y m y main goal," Rapp sai d . ':1 m ea n,. I always want to w in, but at this poin t m th e game it ' s like, yo u kno w , I' m not going to hang it ou t to try to wi n and los e th e cha m po ins hip over it. Nicky w as riding good , and good for him . "I had a g reat start," Rap p added. " I didn't look a t my pit board, I was Just going. I didn' t kno w ho w far Rich wa s un til about halfway thr ough the ra ce. I . kn ew wha t I had to do and I feel good tha t I finished ahead of him ." Alexander might have been more of a factor fo r Rapp had it not been for 'an .ea rly-race incide n t wi th Cycles of Pal m Beach ' s Jami e Bowm an th a t dro p ped him from fourth to at Jeast eighth. One of his ma in obs tacles to getting back into a podiu m position w as now a heat ed ba ttle for third that involved Ze ro Gravit y' s Jak e Z em ke, Bo wma n and Ricci Motorsports' Jimmy Mo ore. "It w as a really goo d bat tle wh en I was catching up," Alexander said a bout his charge ba ck to third after nea rly tag ging Bowman .in the braking zo ne fo r th e turn en te ri ng th e infield . "Those g uys (Z e mke , Bo wm a n an d M.o o r e ) were go ing back and for th . I saw It wa s a go od ba ttle and I tho ug ht that when I got up there, it w as go ing to be tough . I just w ent through one each lap and Just picked them off. I figured after I got by, I knew I was go ing to pull away because they were kind of hold ing me up . I ,:"as ass u m ing th e y wo u ld ke e p battlm g pr etty harsh ." They d id keep battling after A lexan . d er w as past, and it w as indeed pretty harsh . It wa s har sh eno ug h, in b et, that it left one of them on the grou nd . "I had a lit tl e incid en t w it h Jim my Mo ore the re - he hit me go ing int o the esses over here and knocked my pipe in and scre we d m e up fo r a lap or tw o," Ze m ke sa id . " I w a s ge ttin g read y to ben d it in to th e rig ht tow a rd the hay bales (in turn seven) and he hit me right there and thr ew me u p stra igh t. I tried to throw it in the corne r bu t I just had way too mu ch speed , .so I just we nt straigh t through the grass. I looked ba ck and saw no one was corning and ou t I carne." Moo re wa sn 't so lu ck y - he hit the ground, though he wa s abl e to rem ount and finish the race in 12th place. "I didn' t want to let Alexander get by and take off, so I tried to put my move on Ze mke and he carne down on top of m e a n d we to u ch e d ~ litt le (i n turn five )," Moore said . "We carne into the next tu rn and w e touc he d a littl e more and I ac tually r an into th e ba ck of his bike. In tryin g to keep from running o ff the track, I tucked the front end and cras hed . In hi nd sigh t, I just shoul d ha ve run stra ight ru n off the track and joined in the next turn. I guess that's what happe ns w he n you' re pumped ." . Pole q ua lifie r Ja m es Rando lph WItne ssed th e mel ee ahead of him , unim pressed, but unlike Al exand er he w as never a ble to muscle his w ay throug h and he ended u p fifth a fter Moor e left thepar ty , . . "Seemed like those guys w ou ldn' t let up o n each o ther - th ey jus t ke p t o n ban ging in to each o the r," Ricci Mot ors por ts -s po nso re d Rand olph sa id . " I w ou ld mak e tim e on th em when th ey would do that , then I'd get in there and they'd slam th e door on me ag ain. Th ey were goofing themselves up and eve rybod y u p . You see wh at happens. Zemke rod e off the tra ck and rod e right back on in fro nt of e veryb od y ; M oor e , h e cras hed; the n "Bowman rode straight off. That's racing..." Bowma n recovered from his off-track excursion to finish seven th be hind Don ne ll's Mot orcycl e' s Shan e Clarke , wh o m o ved 'u p in the fiel d fr o m a lon el y eigh th to a lonely sixth on the e rro rs of those ahead of him. H oote rs Res taurant' s Paul Ha rrell trailed teammate Mari o DuHamel until arou nd the 14th lap to take ov er eighth p la ce unt il the en d of the ra ce , w it h DuHamel finishing ni nt h. Yama ha Suz u ki Sports Cen ter's Erik Schnackenberg, rid ing a GSX-R600, w as f ~. 10ili. Pikes Peak Internation al Raceway Founta in , Colo rado Results: Septembe r 5, 1998 (Round 11 of 12). 75 0('c SU Pl::RS PQ RT FINAL: l. Nic ky Ha yde n (Suz ): 2. Steve Rapp (Suz) : 3. Rich Alexander Jr . (Suz) ; 4 Ja ke Zem ke (Suz) : 5. Iarn cs Ra nd o lp h (Suz): b. Shan e Clark (Suz) : i . [ a mie Bowman (SIlZ); t!. Pa ul Ha rrell (SU1); 9. Mar io Du l-lemcl (Suz ): 10. Erik Schn ac kenbe rg (SU7.); 11. Bryan Clu.. -sser tHo n): 12. Jimmy Moo re (5 U2) ; 13. Ryan Burke (Suz ): "14. Steve Tesc h kc (Suz) ; 15. Joh n Ja co b i (S u a ): l b . J u s li n Gcvagc (S uz) : 17 . Bra d Mck iernan (Suz) : I H. Davi d Duprey (5U2); 19. Ma~k Cer n icky (Kn w ): 20 . Keith W il ~ on (Su z ): 21. D il V l,d Wasson (Suz): .22 . Bry a n Ko varic k (S uz): 23 . Denni s Burke (5 U2); 2·1, Bryce G ross (Suz); 25. willia m Bush (Suz) : 26. Stu a rt Stra tto n (Suz): 27. Brett joh nson (Suz ): 28 . Sco tt Ac ke rm a n (5 uz) ; 29 . G rC'~ White (S uz ): 30 je ffrey Pur k (Ho n ): 31. Pl'tl' ~ Mo nso n (Suz): 32 . Dal e Kleffe r (Suz) ; 33. Todd Harrin gt on (Ka w): 34 . Jos e ph Gi ll ( Kin ......); J5 . Tersu lma nish i (Suz) . T ime: 28 min ., 8.317 Sl' C. Di st an ce: 29 laps, 37.2 miles Average sp eed : 81.31ti mp h Marg in of v icto ry: 6. 161 st'<' . AMA TE AM U NE 7S0 " SU rE RS rO RT C'S H I!' SERI ES (Aft er 11 of 12 ro unds); 1. Steve R.lPF' <327/2 wi ns); 2. Richard Alexande r (312 / 1); 3. James R.. ndolph a (27 0) ; 4 . Ma r io D u l-lam el (2 fJ ~ ) ; 5. N ic ky Ha yd e n ( 2 /4 ) ; ~ . Pa u l Harrell (228); 7. [a son Pridmore (223/ 4); 14 8. Jim m y Moo re (206); 9. Joh n ja co bi (I 77?; 10. (T IE) [amic Bo w ma n / Jak e Ze m ke (73); 12. Dall' Kl df~r 0 6:8); 13. Steve Tes chkl' ( 33) ; 14. (T IE) Sea n Ko wal ski / Keith Wi lso n (102 ); 16. Eri k Schnackenberg (100) ; 17. Mikt> Su llivan (86); 18. Ch arles Cho ui nard (67); 19. (TIE) Greg w hi te /Ma rk Ce micky (64). Upcoming Round: Round 12 - Las Vegas, Nevada, October 4 FOUl\'TAIN, CO, SEPT. 6 t th e end o f th e hot C,olo ra d.o a fte rnoon, Enon Racin g s Kurti s Roberts had his seco nd Elf Race Fuels /Lubricant s 250cc Grand Prix wi n, a n d Perform an ce M a chin es ' Rol and Sa nds had his first 250cc titl e. Neither ca rne ea s il y, but o f the tw o , Sa nds ' resu lt, by virtue of him finishi ng third , w as th e more inevita ble. Roberts' resu lt, though , wa s the more thrilling. • First, the race. Th e boys were at it again on a su nny d ay a t Pikes Pea k Intern a tio nal Rac eway . W or ld S po r ts Impor ts ' C h uc k Soren sen and his Yamaha led all but the fi na l tw o la ps , w he n Roberts u sed a lapped rid er t o tak e o v er th e lead . Sorensen d idn' t wait long to stn ke back, bu t Robe rts used h is head , blo cked the move, and added this w in to the one he took at Mid- Ohi o back in July. So rensen was second , just .256 of a seco nd back. That' s the short ve rsion. The lon g version shows tha t the race wa s ru n in tw o legs after a red flag on the nin th lap brought the 22-rid er field to a hal t. Sorensen was ou t front at the tim e, with Roberts nipping int o his lead . "I go t a bad start and I think we still coul d've caught him," Robe rts said . "He w asn ' t much more farther ahead on tha t s ta r t than th e o th er one, bu t I w as in fifth , and I carne fro m fifth , and I had to ge t p ast Rand y (Renfro w ), w hi ch took fo re ve r. And I had to get past Roland (Sand s), which took forever . The y just held me up. Then, o nce w e got around th em , we s ta rte d ca tc hi ng C hu ck (So re nse n) a littl e bit. We took it from 2.6 (seconds) to 1.8, so w e w ere ca tching him. An d w e finall y go t the red flag and go t a better sta rt ." Th e seco nd leg w ou ld begin a fte r onl y a IS-m inute delay and would be 22 laps. The rid ers we re gri d de d from the ir positions at the end of th e seventh lap, the last one the en tire field comp leted. Sore nse n aga in got the jump, but th is time Erion Racin g's Rand y Renfrow w as second, in fro n t of team m a te Roberts (w ho'd botched turn on e), Mot a liberty' s Tak ahito Mo ri (w ho' d had a vicio us high -side tumble in his heat race ), and Sands . Rob erts go t around Renfrow on the 10th lap , three lap s in to the restart, and se t off for Sorens en. At th e midpoint of th e race he had it d own to abou t 10 bik e leng ths , and he kept the' pressure on. By la p 20, h e w as r ight o n h im , a nd Sorense n kne w it. "When you 're leading som ebody like that, and you kn ow yo u ' re go ing tenten ths, you 're just w aiting for some thing to happen ," So re nse n said . " Becau se you ' re looking a t yo u r la p board and you ' re go ing faster tha n yo u 've go ne bef ore in prac tice and q ualifying , and you know you' re just wa iting for something to happen ." A

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