Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

DIRT AMA National Hot Shoe Series, Round 12'.E WASHINGTONTRACK .; SPEED WEEK " By Clay Light C.1STLE ROCK, WA,SEPT. 5 Ii Price scored a win in the knockdown, drag-out, 2S-lap 600cc Expert main event at the 12th round of the AMA National Hot Shoe Series at the Castle Rock Race Park. It was Price' s first-ever victory in AMA National competition, and it was earned through persistence , as he trailed Lonny Kop p, rookie Expe rt Toby Jorge nsen and crowd favo rite J.P. Simo nsen for mu ch of the race before moving to the front. Kopp led the first 11 laps of th e Na tio nal final, pu tting toget her a successive string of flaw less laps before a flat tire thw ar ted his own chances for a first Na tiona l win on the histor ic clubgrou nds ' IT course. Simo nsen, w ho over took Jorgensen on the same lap tha t saw the demi se of Kopp, was right there to inherit the lead p osition and ho ld it for the nine laps. But a hea ted knock-down exch an ge between Simonse n and Price, who had also displaced Jorgensen, sen t Simonsen sp raw ling to the gro und . Th is allowed Price to gain possession of the lead position for the single-file restart after the lap-19 stoppage. Pric e the n held his co mposu re a nd staved off th e ad va nce s of Jorgensen, who was makin g hi s alional d ebut. Jeff Annen round ed out th e ro strum posi tion s. An oth er impressive perfor mance came fro m fou rth-place finis her Ron Waters, who led Eric Rickman , Paul Iw an a ga, Tr oy Ro se and Sim onsen w ho moved up eig h t positi ons aft er a 16 th- p lace sta r t - to fin ish ah e ad of Na tiona l number 49 Chris Fitzhugh and Or egon's Beau A. Brown . For Price, the Rainier , Washingt on , rider wh o im p ro ved upon hi s th irdpla ce finish at the Spokane round of the seri es w hile contesting the 7S0cc class, the win wa s worth $1500 of the $8000 pu rse. Jorgensen' s second -place fin ish netted hi m $90 0, while Annen took home $700 for thir d place in w ha t was his seco nd consecutive Ho t Shoe 600cc pod ium finis h. Bob Mora n rode a Yamaha to victory in the IS-lap 600cc Pro-Sport final, beating 16-yea r-old Kur t Hawk to the line. Hawk's cha rge fro m 12th place to second w a s im p re ss i ve , ea rn in g the Preston, Washi ngton, rid er his second sec ond-p lace fini sh in th e cla ss in th e Hot Shoe Series. The third-place finisher was form er Expert Rand y Patterson, who wound up ahead of Wash ington's Beau Z. Brown and Ton y Fox. A total of 28 600cc Pro-Sport and 24 600cc Expert rid ers were on hand, utilizing three hea t ra ces in both classes , which took three riders from the Expert and two from the Pro-Sport qualifiers directly to the ma in, thus finalizing the 17- a nd 12-rider field s, respectively, from two semis. 600cc EXPERT FINAL An nen was the pole sitter for the 25lap Expert finale, takin g the inside position on the fro nt row. He was accompani ed b y Kopp, Jorg ensen, Simonsen, Price and Waters. ' An nen, though, go t th e sq ueeze go ing into tu rn one, a s Kopp had left the line fastest , followed by Jorg ense n, Sim onsen , Price, Wat ers, An nen, Rickman, Rose and Iwanaga on the first of the 25 circuits. Kopp clicked off a success ive string of flawle ss lap s, a s h e h e ld off a n ons la u gh t of challenges fro m rookie [o rgensen , Behind th e lea d d u o ran Simonsen, who in turn was challenged by Jo rg ensen . Price was rig h t in th e th ick of thi ng s, as he clu ng to Simonsen's rear fen der. (Above) Eli Price (30) came from behind and survived a laterace co llisio n with J.P. Simonsen (not shown) to win the Castle Rock TT Hot Shoe event . The win was Price 's fi rst in AMA Nationa l competition. (Left) Thlrdplaced rider Jeff Annen (left ) gave winner Price a " Bud bath" on the podium . while run ner-u p Toby Jorgensen (right) watched. Annen overcame his dismal start by first overt aking Waters to join in th e Simonsen/Price swapfest, which Simonsen would con trol while trying to chase down Kop p - who was long ove rd ue for a Hot Shoe National victory - and Jorgense n. Ho wever, Kopp's stellar performance was th warted by a flat rear tire on the 11th lap , sendi ng the Spokan e ride r on a spiraling descent toward the tail end of th e pa ck and finall y o u t o f t he ra ce e n ti re ly . Kopp' s m isfortune b ecam e Simonsen's momentary fortu ne as, after overta king Jor gen sen for seco nd a la p earlier, Simonsen wa s now in the lead. Jorgensen then lost a spo t to Price, w ho charged forward to se t up a climactic battle for the lead position - a fami liar position for the tw o rid ers, w ho have spe nt much of this season in heated ba ttles. Things went aw ry on the 20th lap when the two riders tangled, enabling Price to take the lead , a lt h ou g h the squabble d id send Simonsen sp rawling to the gro und . "I ha d the line going into the dogleg," Simonsen sa id . "He (Price) just took th e h and lebars r ight out o f m y hands." . While Simonse n d id m ak e t he resta rt, he wo u ld ha v e to co me fro m 16th place. Price had both Jorgensen and Annen nipping at his heels on the restart, but the Ro n & Car ol Kell / Jim Da vis Racing / O' Brien Racing Prod ucts-sponsored Price wo uld hold off all advances fro m both Jorgensen and Annen. Waters, wh o improved his pos ition on th e rest a rt , scored an impressive fourth-place finish , w hile both Rickman an d Iwanaga also capitalized, netting fifth- and sixth-place finish es, ah ead of Rose and Simo nse n, wh ose quick rid e throu gh traffic in pursu it of the fro nt-ru nne rs end ed w ith a cred itab le eig h th -p lac e p erformance . Fitzhugh and Brown rounded out the top-10 finish ers. "Th is sure feels good, " a n ela ted Price said . "I' m sure J.P. thi nks it ( the collisio n) was in tentional. It wa sn't. It's all just a par t of racing. I knew that if I cou ld hold the lead a t the restart , I could w in it." 600cc PRO·SPORT Patterson took the lead at the start of th e IS-lap m ain event , but Moran pushed th e fo rme r N ati onal number hold er for several la ps before the Bellingham rid er would drop a position . Patterson lost yet ano ther spot as Hawk, who s ta rted th e main ev en t from the third row, clawed his way through traffic. Hawk's charge through the pack was the finest of the evening , as he dogged Patterson on the final lap, then made a mad dash toward another former Expert in the field, Moran, to close wit hin stri king range of the vete ran. Moran, thou gh, held u nd er pressure to pick up a win ahea d of Haw k and Patterson. Beau Z. Bro wn netted a fo u r t h -p lace fi nis h 0 ahead of Ton y Fox. Castle Rock Race Park Castle Rock. Wash ington Results: september 5. 1998 (Round 12 of 13) 600 EX 1. Eli Price (W-R); 2. Toby jo rge nsen (CCM); 3. Jeff Anne n ( W~ R ) ; 4. Ro n Waters (W ~ R) ; 5 . Er ic Rickman (ATK); 6. Paul Twanaga (Rtx): 7. Troy Rose (Rtx); 8. J.P. Simo nse n (Rtx); 9. Chri s Fitz hug h (Rtx); 10. Beau A. Brown (W-R); 11. David Anderson (W-R); 12. Kevin Bricker (Rtx): 13. Joshua Currey (Rtx): 14. Jerr y So ut hwo rt h (KT M) ; 15. Jeff H iatt (W -R) ; 16. De l Schnitzer (W·R); 17. Lonny Kopp (W·R). 600 PRo-SPT: 1. Bo b Mora n (Yam); 2. Ku rt Hawk (W- R); 3. Randy Patterson IRtx): 4. Beau Z. Brow n (Rtx); 5. Ton y Fox (W -R); 6. Pe te Med ca lf (Rtx) : 7. Fra nk Ma rker (He n): 8. Geo rge Prindiville (Rtx); 9. Eric Beers (W-R>; 10. Bob Rosie (Rtx): 11. Mark Studebaker (Hen): 12. Aaron w eston (Ho nl. Upcoming Round: Round 13 - Springfield. Illinois. September 5 11

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