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Round 4: Sears Point Raceway Thomas Montano was the surprise winner of the Pro Thunder class, topping Shawn Higbee, AMA Progressive Insurance Pro Thunder Series, Round 4: searS Point Raceway Surprise, it's Montano By Mark Hoyer Photo by Henny Ray Abrams SONOMA, CA, APR. 25 here was per hap? no one more surprised by Thomas Montano's race-winning pass than Shawn Higbee. Tilley's H-D/Buell's Higbee, who earned pole position by winning the faster of two heat races, appeared to be pulling a disappearing act in the Progressive Insurance Pro Thunder final on a cold and overcast day at Sears Point Raceway. After all, just five laps into the race he had a gap of better than one second on second-placed Dave Estok on the Motorcycle Online Buell, with Monroe Motors' Montano down in third place and seemingly not a factor. And things only looked better for Higbee, riding fast and smoothly on this bumpy, technical course, when his challenger, second-placed Estok, suddenly slowed with transmission trouble that· ultimately forced him out of the race. . "It looked like it was going to go our way from the get-go," Higbee said. "I was just trying to open up a gap of any kind. It went pfetty good. 1 looked back once or twice and then it was about midway or just past midway and I got passed. It startled me a little bit. 1 was a little drawn back by the fact that [ just got passed. It took me a second to readjust and get focused on catching him again. I ran up on a lapper and just lost my focus there for a little bit there and allowed him to get away." Montano had his work cut out for him after getting off the line in fourth place. He was given third when Cory Call's GSRacing Ducati 748 had its clutch let go and then took second over from the fading Estok. "1 got a fairly good start, but 1 think those bikes got a little more poop than ours," Montano said. "We've mostly been just with suspension stuff and not much with the mot~r. I thought it was going to be tough to catch those guys in terms of power, and then 1 put my head down and started reeling them in. Then 1 smelled something and thought, 'Is that my bike?' because I've had bad luck with it. Then Cory all of a sudden just wasn't accelerating anymore and I got him. Then 1 caught up on Dave, and he was riding really hard, and Shawn and Dave were really going at it, so 1 thought, This is going to be tough.''' The Estok.part of the equation turned out not to be so hard. "[ think Dave popped a transmission - ['m sure he missed a shift in the chicane, and then I got him," said Montano. "Then I thought, 'There's the man out there, Higbee, it's going to be tough to get him.' 1 think it was that he got caught off guard. Sometimes it's easier to chase than to lead, T couldn't quite get the drive the way I went in. [ went in kind of hot and squared it in a bit. I didn't have enough for him today. My hat's off to him." . It was Miller's first podium of the year. Not so for third-place finisher Kurtis Roberts. The second Erion Racing Honda rider has now finished first, second and third, which he took today after realihng that he didn't have the machine under him to be competitive. "We were struggling a bit in the race," Roberts said. '1 wasn't going very good. We were a little behind on setup because of how I've been riding this weekend. We went a little better this morning, made some changes for the race, but I was having some problems in some corners that were really slowing us down. I could tell in the beginning r was really slowing Nicky down. When he got past, 1 knew he would, but I wasn't trying to keep him behind me. I knew he could get up there with Miller. So I was just concentrating on getting DY Goshua) Hayes. I could tell he was having some problems, but 1 just coulp.n't get around him till about halfway." Roberts chased the Valvoline EMGO Suzuki of Josh Hayes for the first seven laps before passing him at about the midpoint of the race. By then he was about 6.5 seconds behind the HaydenMiller duel with little chance of catching up. He said that it took him "so long to get by him that the chance of that (catching Hayden) was kind of gone after r got by him." The problem was suspension. "1 just was having a hard time getting it through the esses on line," Roberts said. '1t was running wide there and some other places that you really don't want to run wide at that slow you down. . en en en ~ .n ~ :E 16 1I [n the end he finished a little over 13 seconds behind Miller, with just over 3.5 on Hayes. Roberts said he wasn't sure why he never got up to speed, though it may have had something to do with the nature of the track. "Maybe it's all the walls I don't like," he said. '1 was kind of behind all weekend." Even with his third-place finish, Roberts keeps the lead in the Formula Xtreme championship. After three of 11 races, Roberts has 97 points, Hayes 88, and Hayden 86. Hayes finished fourth, well in front of his teammate Grant Lopez, who was a solitary fifth. Lopez had been in an early scrap with Chandelle Motorsports' Jeff Short before dropping him near the middJe of the race. Short was a secure sixth, though Champion Truck Rentals' Jeff Hagan made a ron at him at the end. San Franciscan Al Salaverria, in his second race on the Dutchman Racing Yamaha R-I, was by himself in eighth, though Graves Motorsports' Paul Harrell, also R-l-equipped, could see him not that far ahead. GSRacing's Cory Call came out on top of a three-way fight for 10th, the Suzuki ricer besting Grigg Electric Company's Steve Grigg and the Yamalla R-1 of Don Greene. - CN Sears Point International Raceway Sonoma, California Results: April 24, 1999 (Round 3 of 11) su OCO RACE FUELS FORMULA XTREME: 1. Nicky Hayden (Hon); 2. Mark Miller (Yam); 3. Kurtis Roberts (Hon); 4. Joshua Hayes (Suz); 5. Grant Lopez (Suz); 6. Jeff Short (Suz); 7. Jeff Hagan (Yam); 8. AJ Salaverria (Yam); 9. Paul Harrell (Yam); 10. Cory CaIJ (Suz); 11. Steve Grigg (Kaw); 12. Don Greene (Yam); 13. Chris Voelker (Hon); 14. Mike SuWvan (Kaw); 15. Rad Greaves (suz); 16. Takahito Mod (Yam); 17. Dean Mizdal (Suz); 18. Harley Barnes (Kaw); 19. Michael Rawlings (Hon); 20. Clint Brotz (Yam); 21. Chad Simons (Suz); 22. Greg White (Suz); 23. Devin Battley (Yam); 24. Michael Gage (Tn); 25. Tony Jimenez (502); 26. Michael Kosta (Suz); 27. Shawn Reilly (Suz); 28. Kiyoshige Watanabe Oi-on); 29. Sean Sweeney (Hon). Time: 25 min., 41.545 sec. Distance: 15 laps, 37.8 miles Average speed: 88276 mph Margin of victory: 1.370 sec. SUNOCO RACE FUELS FORMULA XTREME C'SHIP POINT STANDINGS (After 3 of 11 races): 1. Kurtis Roberts (97/1 win); 2. Joshua Hayes (88); 3. Nicky Hayden (86/2); 4. Grnnt Lopez (73); 5. Mark Miller (67); 6. Mike Sullivan (66); 7. Chris Voelker (61); 8. Cory CaU (60); 9. Rod Greaves (57); 10. Steve Grigg (55); 11. Paul H

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