Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

"-------_ _---'--It woul d happen, bu t it wo uld take time, un til th ere were less tha n three laps to go . Roberts saw his opening on the final, tig h t left- ha nd bend lea ding on to t he fro nt st raight. The re w a s a lapped rid er there and Rober ts mad e his decision to go on the insid e. -r sq ua red it off," Rob er ts said. "He (Sorensen) went to the ou tside. I kne w it wa s the w ro ng move. There was a lapper ther e, he went on the outsi de, I went on the insid e, I squa red it off and just moved up over on him . You' ve just go t to do it." "It was kind of frustrating, leading it for so long and th en ma ybe I m ade so me wron g d ecisions w ith some lapper s, but I was just trying to be aggr essive and ge t by them as quick as possible," Sorense n sa id. "I we n t und ern eat h a lapper and went wide. [ kn ew he was go ing to ge t me on the exit and [ came into tu rn seven with the wheel ahea d of him , bu t his wheel was righ t ther e an d it was li k e , wit h the wheel th e re , it wou ld have bu mped off and taken hi m out." There were more than two laps [eft and Sorensen wasn't finished. He tried Roberts again at the tight left at the end of the back straight on the next lap and made a final pu sh in the same place on the fina l lap . His b est ch a n ce would ' -co me in the en suing co r ne r, a 180degree right, but Roberts anticipated the move. "I actuall y planned on him coming back bv me ," Roberts said. "He tried to pass ni'e, actua lly on the brakes - missed the corner a little bit , and I got him on th e drive. Th is was on th e last lap . I moved out when I passed him, to the whi te line, so he had to go to the outside of me , so we we re even . And he 's not go ing to do nothing from there . I just kept it stra igh t up and moved him off the line. My bike was lacking a little bit this weekend . It ran the best it has this weekend . It wo rked out. " Rob ert s cred ited so me m ea su re of th is w i n to t he wo rk t ha t Amer ican Hond a had d on e to his Hond a RS250 recently. "The bike has a Showa front end . The front end 's bee n cha nge d, the geo met ry - we have an insert tha t we can change it now ," he said . " We ' v e a lso go t the swinga rm ; we' ve actua lly go t angle on it, w hich the Ho nda d oesn ' t have. It's kind of a flai swingarm, w hich hu rts. It's actually got five in c h es of rid e he ig ht. They didn' t change the p ivot, they cha nge d it by u sing an RC45 shock; th ey raised it up just wi th linkage. Tha t's the only different parts on it. It's not nigh t-and -d ay bet ter , but it's more feeling, which helps. It' s mo re feeling, so you can feel w hat's goi ng on. You can feel the front end now, you can feel the rea r, you can slide. Like I was squ aring all the corn ers off by sliding it, jus t picking it up and sliding it - w hich you've been able to do o n a Honda . We still m ight wa nt to ge t mo re traction in it, but it's a lot bette r." The race for third was as good as, if not bett er than, the race for the lead . It began wit h three rid ers - Renfrow, Mor i and Sands - goi ng afte r th e s po t, and en ded up as a fight between Renfrow a nd Sands after Mori cras hed out in turn thr ee on the 18th lap. At that po in t he w as a co mfortab le third, with Renfrow and Sands beh ind . Performance Ma chine' s Mark Fo ster wa s a t th e tail end o f the tri o and not m a king a ny m ove s . Fo st er , wh o is Sands' teamma te, kn ew that Sands had to finis h fourth or bett er to get the title and w asn't go ing to get in the way. " I d idn 't really w ant to be th ere becaus e I kne w Roland had to finish fo u rth," Foste r sai d. "And there was times when [ almost had both of them on the brakes a nd I was like, ' I don' t eve n want to be here; Roland's my best friend.' The cha mpions hip means more than me ge tting third. I ended up backing o ff. I didn ' t want to be there. It meant a lot to me tha t he won the cha mpion sh ip b e cause w e' re su ch good frie nds." With Mori ou t, Sand s was mor e o r less assured fourth. In addition to winning five races th is yea r, he 'd been on the podium every other outing, excep t for a fourth a t Sears Point, so getti ng fourth didn' t seem like a stretch, thou gh he was awa re of it the wh ole time. "As mu ch as I w is h ed I co u ld've been up there with them, I jus t di dn 't wa nt to take the chance," Sands sa id . "I reall y did want to fin ish on th e bo x, be cau s e fi nis h ing fourth wo u ld've suc ked ." . Fourth wasn ' t easv - no t wit h Renfrow in front. Sands took the spot on lap 22 an d looked to be pulling away befo re Renfrow reeled him in. He we nt by on the 26th lap and held him off until the last tour of the 1.3-mi le facilit y. That's when Sands made his move. " I saw Randv, and I saw Mori crash and Rand y's rig-ht the re, and I was pretty sure if I set him right there in on e, I cou ld ge t him," Sands said of his early turn -one pas s . " I did get him and I thought I cou ld pull awa y and the n [ got tweaked by a rapper a nd kooked out and didn't make a pass when I sh ould have, because I wa s [us t ki nd of being too carefu l. Randy caught me aga in and passed me ba ck again and I was like, 'Man I've got to get him , I've got to get him .' I was just happy to make that pass on the last lap to get thi rd. Sounds like I was lucky I did." For his part, Ren fro w said he wasn't ab le to get through the infield sweeper as well as he shou ld have. "I slid throug h the sweeper every lap," Ren fro w said . "I could n ' t ma ke myself go any faster through there." The sweeper wou ld be whe re Renfrow would make his move on the last lap . "I gav e Rola nd a shot , but [ cou ldn't ge t my d rive ," Renfro w said. He mad e one final pu sh to the line, bu t carne up sho rt. "I started comi ng up on him and thought I had him." "l feel relieved, mostl y," Sands sa id of his firs t title. "This weekend I was pretty stressed out. I think it showed in my rid in g . I was ki n d of sca red this weekend . I wasn' t doing it like I usually do it. I was having to try hard to go fast. This week end I kind of had to do that. I'm ha ppy to have finished third tod ay. These guys we re ridi ng real good today. I had abo u t fou r or five hairy mom ents. Tha t first lap, everybody trie d to outbra ke eac h ot her go ing int o one an d [ was just kind of han ging back, thinking , 'Don't get in the middle of this , so me thin g' s goi ng to happen.' I was kind of just wai ting for so methi ng to happen . Everyone went wid e and I just dove for the insid e a nd Rand y (Renfrow) carne back across the track right into m y front wheel a nd I h ad to to ta lly b end th e thi ng in. He s mas hed me a nd I almost went down, and it was pr ett y ha iry. " Fr o m what I kn ew, I h ad to get fou rth , a n d th e re w a s n o wa y I w a s g oing to fin ish tod a y a n d n ot get fou rth," Sands added. Sands ended the da y wi th 362 poin ts, 40 better than Robert s an d 43 mor e than Sorense n. Behind Foster came Geep Terranov a, all alone in sixth on the Terran ova Paint- ~1 in g Yamaha . Then carn e Rans on Str eet Ra cin g ' s Je ff Vo s, w ho disposed of Lon gh orn Motorsports Ryan Landers in th e final s tages a fter passin g him just b ef o re th e halfwa y mark . Both w ere Ho nda-mo unted. Behind Landers, in succession, carne Fabweld 's Greg Esser a nd Team Motorl:\ ra-Rennsport's Perry Melneciuc. Pikes Peak International Raceway Fountain, Colorado Results: September 6, 1998 (Round 11 0112) ElF RACE FUElStlU BRICANTS GRAND PRIX, 1. Kurtis Robe rts (Ho n): 2. C huck Sore nsen {Yarn}, 3. .. RoI,m J Sands (Y.1 m ~; 4. Randy Re nfrow (Hon): 5. Mark F oster (Y.1m); 6. Ceep Terranm '., (Yam ); 7. je ffrey vos Il-ion ]: 8. Ryan Land ers (He n): 9. Greg E!'ser (Hem ); 10. Perry Melneouc IHonl; 11. Leon Cork'S (H en): 12. Chris Ulrich (Ya m); 13. Ben So lis (H on): H . Tv Dav id Piz (Y.lIn ); 15. And re w Ed wards (Ya m ); 16. Wili i.lm whelan (Ya m ); 17. Joh n Fran ce (Hon ): 18. Richa rd Me r ha r (Ya m); 19 . Takaht to Mort (Han) ; 20 . La rry Robe r ts (H un) : 21 . Tra ci Schalow (Ya m ); 22 . To m C hr ist ia n ll-lonl . Tim e n / .,. du e to red nag Di stance: 29 laps , 37.7 miles Average speed : n/ a, du e to red ftag Margtn of victory: 0.236 ""-'C. ELF RACE FUElS /L UB RICANTS GRAND I' RI X C' SHII' STANDINGS (Afte r 11 of 12 races): t . Roland Sands (302/5 wins ); 2. Kurtis Robe rts (322/ 2); 3. Chuck So re nsen (3 19 /3); 4. Rand y Re nfro w (263 ); 5. G l'l'P Ter ranova (2 )7); 6 . Bobby Ke ith (2 12); 7. C rl'S Esser (210); S. Ma rk Fos te r (203); 9. Jeff Vos (202) ; 10. Takahito Mo ri (1l}()/1); 11. Pe rt}' Melncciuc (16..-'1); 12. Jo hn Fra nce (l tl1) ; 13 . Leo n C o rte s (101 8 ); 14 . (T IE ) A l Salave rria / Edwn rd Sorbo (103); 16. Rod ney Fee (1)9) ; 17. WilIi.1m Himmelsba ch (YO); IS. Bru c Lind (B7); W. (TIE) e Lunes &lI\l1l·r /Mich .ld Mllllh) y .l (72.> . Upcoming Round: Round.12 · Las Vegas, Nevada, October 4 AMA P lliFormula X ire treme S rie e s Round 10: P ikesPeak Interna ona Raceway ti l It's iller time By Henny Ray Ab rams FOUNTAL\I, CO, SEPT 5 ra ves Motors ports' Ma rk Mill er too k h is first-ever AMA pro fessional roa d race win in the Pirelli Formula Xtre me cla ss, but it wasn' t eno ugh to s to p Erio n Ra cin g ' Eric Bostrom from taking the class title on a hot an d su nny af ternoon a t Pikes Peak Internation al Raceway. "I' ll ta ke it," Miller sai d after co m pleting 29 laps, run in two seg ments due to a n ea r ly red fla g , on th e 1.3-m ile course. ':1'11 ta ke th is w in for Yamaha a nd G raves Mo torsports an y w ay w e can ge t it right now , and go on to Vegas and see if we can't do it with everybody finishing the race healthy." Miller was referring to the problems faced by both riders on the Erion Racin g tea m. Eric Bostrom's Honda CBR900RR ove rhea ted while he had a' com ma nd ing lead, dropping him to third, and Tripp ob les was forced ou t wi th overhea ting G Eric Bostrom (17) and M Miller (24) ark keep Xtremely close company during the Formula Xtreme linal at Pikes Peak. Miller won the race, but third place was enough to earn Bostrom the championship. problems. Miller had p ro b lems o f his ow n. Miller 's job was made more difficult whe n he los t his left knee pu ck on the first lap of the restart, lap five of 29. It was a considerable loss on a track which is weighted h eavily with le ft - h a n d turns. lt didn't stop him, though, from taking his first win by nearly sev en seconds. "T his whol e tra ck is left-handers except for one turn, and I didn't hav e a left knee puck," he said. "I was trying to turn the bik e w it h the regular lines . A lot of really slow, reall y high -lean -ang le corn ers - especially the bus stop, I think it's three. You 've got to really hang off it, ju s t p ick the bike back up on you r knee and I couldn't do it. So I basically was pushing all the weight on my bike . I was p ushing the front wit hou t the knee pu ck on it." , Because t h e race h a d been redflagge d on the fifth of 29 laps , there was no officia l tim e or a ve rage speed. The ma rgin of victory was 6.986 seconds. What Miller said helped hi m was the continu ed develop ment of the Yama ha Rl. "We' re really happy w ith the Yamaha and the Rl , and Graves Mot orsp orts have jus t been wo rking their butts off to get tha t bik e faster," Miller said . "There is n ' t a si ng le co m po nen t on t ha t mach ine that isn ' t a stock co m po nen t. They've reg ro und a n in tak e ca m a nd rewo rke d so me stuff, bu t it ' s a stock engine. So this is the fastest it' s been all yea r. We actually ra n CV ca rburetors ins tead of our flat slides to make it a little more tractable around a short trac k like this. So tha t took away from ou r top speed jus t a hai r, bu t it go t u s off the corne rs pretty good ." Wha t th ey're working on the most, he said , is acceleration. "We d o n 't have a lot of co m pressio n, we d on ' t ha ve a lot of the pa rts tha t we do need for thi s ope n-liter ki nd of unlimited class," Mill er sa id. "And w hen w e co me off t he corn ers , t he m a in th in g we're o ff o f right now is acce lera tio n. At a sho rt track like this, we d on 't ha ve a close- ra tio gea rbox, w e don't have an elec tric shifter. And tho se two things right ther e I gua rantee you is half a seco nd . Because you ca n ju s t s lide a ll th e w ay up to the bankin g . Th e way I'm doing it right now , ou r gearbox is spaced ou t so far I litera lly h a ve to u se th e clutch fro m second to third , which mak es a s pinnin g motorcycle ve ry abru p t, and then co rne back dumping th e clutch with a no ther s p in a n d it ' s really ki nd of ha ir y. The bike is accelera ting be tter , it' s clea ner all the way throughou t, and 13

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