Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

(Left) This wa s t he view the co mpetition saw of Thomas Fou rni er in the Expert Supertwins c lsss. (Bel ow) Kevin Link won the Amateur Li ght wei gh t Superbik e class on his Yamah a. Unli m ited Grand Prix, a I :15.9 o n the t hird la p, w h ic h he fo llowed w i th a 1:15.82 and a slew of low 16s. "The ga me p la n was to try a nd get good s tarts, wh ich lucki ly I d id, and just put my he ad down and ru n hard for a co u ple of lap s and g ap th em ," he explained, "a nd the n, bas ically, put it on cruise and keep checking the board and checkin g behind m e to see if any on e was ga ining ." Th e only rider to have a sho t at challen ging C hou in ar d for top-rider sta tus was Texan John Haner. He face d off against Chouinard in a number of races, coming u p sho rt every tim e . It didn 't stop him from win ning a few races, thou gh, in his seco nd trip to Loudo n. He began with a w in in the first race o n Sa tu rd ay , th e Expert Middlew eight End u ra nce race, which he took o n his Suzuki GSX-R600. Then he ju m ped on his Suzuki GSX-R750 for a narrow wi n in the Expert Heavyw eigh t End u ra nce race. After that, he'd be the bri desma id , finishing second four ti mes, mi xin g a win in th e middle of the ru n, wi th his final victory com ing in the Expert Mid d leweight Supersport race. , His first r un ne r-up fini sh was to Yama ha TZ250-moun ted Jeff Wood in ' Sund ay' s opening race , the Expe rt Middleweight Grand Pri x. Th en began the stri ng of seco nds to Cho uina rd, the firs t in Expe rt Heavyweight Supe rbike race. Two races later, he chas ed Cho uinard in th e Expert Un li m ited Superbike race . Ano ther tw o races a fter his final wi n, Hane r followed Chouinar d home in the Exp ert Heavyweight Supersport. " I' m really g lad that C huck d id so w ell today ," H an er sa id . " H e re all y d eserve s it. I end ed up with three wins and four seco nds and ca n't com plain. I st ill have o ne race left to try to get me anot he r wi n und erneath the belt, bu t it's go ing to be tou gh , because I'm go ing to be starting back there o n the third row again and all these fast guys are goi ng to be up front. I'm s ta rti ng to get p retty tired. I've had five races tod ay and had thr ee yest erda y, a nd rode here Frida y a nd Thu rs day and it ' s ju st sta r ti ng to take its toll." Ha ne r op ted ou t of the final showd o w n in the Expert U nlimited Grand Prix due to exhaustion. o othe r rid er wo n more tha n two races, th ou gh th e Wood fam ily took a co llec tive four. With Er ic Wood , la st yea r's Horizon Awa rd wi nner, si tti ng o u t th e races after being na med th e AMA's a mbassador to th e m eet, it was u p ,to h is bro ther Jeff and his father, Je rry, to ca rry th e fa mily name. Jeff began th e family' s wi nning w a ys by takin g t h e Ex pert Lig ht w ei g h t Gra nd Pri x class aboa rd ' h is Yamaha TZ250. Sund ay s tarted well for th e clan . Jeff took the win in the Expert Middleweight G ra nd Pr ix, th e n wa tche d his fat her ta ke th e next race, rid in g his Duca ti Su per mo no to wi n the Expe rt Ligh tweight Superbike race. Jerry Wood wo uld take his o ther victory in the Ex pe rt He a vy w ei gh t Thunderbike. " It's a lit tl e o necy li n de r; it ' s prett y eas y to rid e, a nd wh en you're a 51-year-old grandfather, you need a little ad va ntage," the Penguin Road Ra cin g School ow ner s a id, "so h a vin g a m otorcy cl e that d oesn 't fight yo u around here sure does help." . Je ff Wo od a ls o felt that he had a m achine advan tage. "This tra ck is a lot of co rner speed , and that's what this bike has," he said . "If I get a little motor on it, we'll know how good. " A mo ng the Ex p e rts , T ho m as Fournier and Rich were both two-time wi nners . Fou rnier rod e a pair of Ducatis to wins in Satu rday's Expert Unlimited Su pertwins a n d Exper t Lig h tweight Su pertwins races. He also finished third in the Exp ert Heavyw eight Superbike ra ce . Rich N een an rode hi s H ond a RS125 to wins in the Expert Lightwe ight Enduran ce and Expert Singles races. Kevin Link and Darian Polach both wo n a pair of Amateu r races, Link riding his Yama ha FZR400 to the top of the A ma te ur Ligh twei gh t Superbike and Amateur Lightweight End u ra nce races. Polach won the Ama teu r Middleweight Gra nd Prix on his Suz uki GSX-R600 on Satu rday and took the Ama teur Middleweight Supersport class on Sundav, He also took a third in the Amateur Heavyweight Supe rs po rt. Mari o Martin rod e his Hooters' Suzuki to wins in the Ama teur Heavy weigh t End u ra nce and Am at eur Hea vyweigh t Supe rbike races, but he wa s di squalifi ed from that win. Th e AMA G ra n d C hampion ship Fina le was combi ned with round eight of the, nin e-round Lou don Road Race Series. All of th e races we re AMA Gra nd Champions hip races, with the exce ption of the Junior classes. Th e AMA marked s ix of Sun day's 12 r a ces as Premier classes, and the races went for 12 laps in st ead of eigh t, as in a ll o f th e o ther s p rj n ts . The re were a lso 30- m i n u te end urance races bot h da ys, a few of the ones o n Saturday afternootaJ:>eing shortene d to 20 m inutes due to im pe n d ing da rk ness . Th is was th e second an nual AMA G rand Cha mpionship Fina le a n d th e rules of eligi bility were better- spelled out tha n last year. Rath er than sta te who can race, the rules sta te w ho can' t. The rul es now stipulate that you can't race if you ' ve fini sh ed in th e top 10 of a ny A MA Su per b ike ra ce in the pas t 10 yea rs, if you've finis hed on th e po di um in any AMA Pro 250cc or 600cc or 750cc Su persport race, or if yo u ' ve won an AMA P r o Thunder (old Ha rlev 883 Supertwi ns) or Formula Xtreme' ra ce. T he final rule savs tha t t he "AMA reserves th e right t~ refu se an en try to any rid er wh o wo u ld hu rt the com pe titi v e ba la nce of t he Gra nd Cha mpionship." Choui na rd fit the ru les, though not by choice. He began the seaso n chasing AMA titles, but his traveling partner was hurt ea rly in the season and the cost of d oing the circu it alo ne became prohibitive. So Chouinard has been concentr ating his racing efforts in New England , and it paid off. It d id so again this weekend. Ear ly on Sa turd ay afternoon, Ch ouinard blew by John Haner to take the lead in the 3D-minu te Expert Heavy w ei ght Endurance race . Haner had tak en a six-second win in the first race of the day, th e Expert Midd leweig ht Endurance, but was dropped to second in this race with Chouinard 's ascent. Then Cho u inard pitted on the n int h of w hat would be 22 laps, an d ad justed his su spens io n . He rejoined th e ra ce after losi ng 11 spots bu t quic kly wo rked his wa y back to third , about 30 secon ds behind the lead ers, Haner and Des Co nboy, w ho fou ght to the flag, wi th Ha ner just ge tting the victory . Haner came ou t on the short end in his nex t m eet in g with Cho uina rd , the Expe rt Hea vy wei gh t Su perbike bein g th eir venue . Hane r go t the jump, Choui nard too k the lead , and that was that. Ha lfway in, Choui nard had 7.6 seconds and he had more th an d ou bled it at the flag. Haner was next, followed by Th om as Fournier . "I was running him d own a little bit, but there wasn ' t eno ug h time," lam en ted Fou rn ier. "It's not th e way I kin d of planned it," Ha ne r said . "I wan ted to have tw o wins by this point, but it' s no t wo rking out like that. Ch uck (Chou inard ) rod e a really good race and I jus t d idn' t ha ve 00 0\ 0\ ,...... t"--.' ... III .D o .... u o 11

• Cover