Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127963
ROAD RACE AMA GRAND CHAMPIONSHIP By Henny Ray Abrams LOUDON, NH, SErf. 27 he AM A' s Hori zo n Awa rd , a pri ze given to the most ou tstandin g rid er at the second a n nua l AMA Grand N a tiona l Cha m pionshi ps at New Hampshire Internati onal Speedway, was mean t to be a closely gua rded s ec ret. It was a secre t ballot and th e results weren' t meant to be known un til they were announced . The only problem w as th a t New England Performance's Charles Chouinard took all the suspense ou t of it wit h a comp letely d ominating weekend on the tigh t Lou don track. Ridin g a pai r of motorcycles, a Suzu ki GS X-R750 and a Ka w a saki ZX-7 , Choui na rd took four w ins on Sunday, all in com ma nd ing fashi on, to easily sew up th e best -rid er tit le a mo ng the 896 entries. He would 've had five win s, but he pitted w hile lead ing an en d ura nce race on Saturday to work on his suspens io n - and s ti ll fini sh ed third. Th e changes paid off. Chou inard lapped the Loudo n circu it in th e 1:15 ra nge, th e fast es t he' s eve r gone a ro u n d th e 12turn track. "W e h ad a real g oo d weeke nd ," Chouinard s.ai d after ending his d ay WIth a W1l1 111 th e Expert Unlimited .Grand Prix. "Everything came together 00 0\ 0\ r-« 1'-' I-< Q) .o o ...... u o 10 - an d I couldn' t ask for a better weekend - four races and four wins." . Cho uinard began by riding his Suz uk i to a 19-s eco nd w in in th e Expe r t Heavyw eigh t Su perbike race. Swi tching to th e Ka w a sa ki, h e won th e Exper t Unlimited Superbike, again by 19 seco n ds . Th en came a 12-second w in aboard the Suzuki in the Expert Heavyweight Su persport ra ce. He ended the d ay by wi nning the Exp ert Unlimited Grand Prix race by 23 seconds aboard his Kawa saki. "My Suzuki was already figured ou t and we just pretty much worked on the superbike a ll w eek end to tr y to make the thing handle," Chouinard said of the' ba ck-and-forth bike switc hing . " It had plenty of motor, bu t we struggled wit h tr ying to find the setu p with th e rake and trail, but we go t it. We go t into 15s, whi ch was the fastest we'v e gone here. It would lose traction on th e ex it and stu ff and midcorner, too; it just w asn 't pl ant ed v ery w ell - lot of s ka t ing around and stuff. We started wo rk in g on it on Friday and th en a little bit of work on it yesterd ay . Pretty mu ch, we had to use one of the races yesterday as a te st s es s ion . Chan ging d ifferen t sp rings and stuff. Today we tried a few other things and it clicked at the end." His be st tim es cam e in the Exp ert (Ab ov e) Charles Chouinard poses w ith the Hori zon Award - hi s prize for being the most successful racer at th e AMA' Grand Champ io ns hip s, held at New Hampshire Intern ati onal Speedway. (Left) Chouinard leads John Scheehser en rout e to one of hi s four victories on the weekend.