Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Grant Lopez (15) won his second successive 750cc Supersport race when he held off Jake Zemke (98) to win at New Hampshire International Speedway. <::> C") G> c: .., ~ 14 on the final lap, Yates wasn't close enough to beat him to the first turn. "He missed a shift or something and 1 started gaining on him going into the turn but I wasn't close enough to stick it under him and, really, the turn really ain't wide enough to make a good pass there," Yates said. "So 1 thought maybe 1 could make a good pass there, but he just kind of picked up the pace a little coming down the hill and really got through there a littl!<' better than 1 did. He just had too much gap on me. 1 was trying hard, sliding the front and the back. It was greasy. "He had his bike working pretty good," Yates continued. "He could stick the front around. If I stuck the front end, it would just kind of go. He could run it through those turns." "I knew that Aaron was right there," Nicky Hayden said. "I thought it was going to be Vegas (where Yates beat Hayden) all over again. Me and Aaron, we've had quite a few dices. 1 knew he wasn't going to give up. I've watched him a lot here and 1 know where he likes to pass. 'Tm really happy because 1 definitely didn't think 1 was going to pull it off today," Hayden said. "Once I did get there, 1 thought, 'Man, I'm riding too hard. I'm not going to be able to run this pace. I'm going to have to let these guys go.' It seemed that once their tires got greasy, we were all on Dunlops, but 1 don't know if my bike was just set up a little better for when the tires went off. But they started fighting a little more and mine stayed pretty consistent the whole race. The Honda - the thing ran great. I'm just happy to win. They were pushing the whole way. It seems like this whole year it's pretty much been us four. 1 knew, even when 1 got in the lead, they weren't going to let me go." Tommy Hayden finished about half a second back in third. He admitted that it took him a while to recover after he lost the lead. "I started riding really tense," Hayden said. "I just wasn't riding really good. 1 got back in the 12s and kind of caught up to them, but once 1 got there they didn't make any mistakes. There wasn't any way 1 couId get by." Yoshimura Suzuki's Crevier ended up fifth, the only significant move he made coming on the 10th lap when he passed Valvoline EMGO Suzuki's Hayes. "I got behind Hayes and the leaders got away a little bit," Crevier said. "They had some quick laps in the beginning, then they got away and 1 had to contend with Hayes," Crevier said. "He was riding good, but once 1 got by him 1 had a clear track and I was able to pull away. 1 watched them and watched them and watched them. They had about a 3.5, four-second lead, what 1 guesstimate. 1 was trying to pace off them when 1 was behind Hayes." American Honda's Eric Bostrom was seventh, a place he'd slotted himself into early on and held without travail. Then came a string of riders about seven riders long with Erion Racing's Kurtis Roberts at the front. Flashing across the line in quick succession were Yoshimura Suzuki's Steve Rapp, Valvoline EMGO Suzuki's John Hopkins, Yoshimura Suzuki's Jason Pridmore, Parriott Motors Brian Parriott, 4&6 Cycle's Joseph Gill, and Chaparral Suzuki's Tom Kipp. eM New Hampshire International Speedway Loudon, New Hampshire Results: .June 20, 1999 (Round 8 of 13) 600 S/SP'T: 1. Nicky Hnyden (Hon); 2. Aaron Yates (Kaw); 3. Tommy Hayden (Yam); 4. Jamie Hacking (Yam); 5. Steve Crevier (Suz); 6. Joshua Hayes (Suz); 7. Eric Bostrom (Hon); 8. Kurtis Roberts (Hon); 9. Steve Rapp (Suz); 10. John Hopkins (Suz); 11. Jason Pridmore. (Suz); 12. Brian Parriott (Hon); 13. Joseph eill (Kaw); 14. Tom Kip? (502); 15. Damon Buckmaster (502); 16. Sean Kowalski (Hon); 17. Francisco Ramierez (Suz); 18. Dnvid Rose (Yam); 19. Roland Williams (Suz); 20. Roman Frias (Han); 21. John Salemi (Kaw); 22. Michael Gallagher (Yam); 23. Michael Niksa (Suz); 24. Darian Polach (Han); 25. Shane Gonyea (Suz); 26. Christopher Dinoia (Suz); 27. Dale Dandrea (Suz); 28. Jason Late (Suz); 29. Peter Doums (Suz); 30. David Dalzell (Yam); 31. Matthew Silva (Kaw); 32. Bob Laszko (Hon); 33. David Schweitzer (Hon); 34. Roger Lee Hayden (Suz); 35. Takahito Morl (Yam). 600« SUPERSPORT C'SHIP POINT STANDINGS (After 8 of 13 rounds): 1. Nicky Hayden (255/4 wins); 2. Tommy Hayden (24.0/2); 3. Jamje Hacking (215/1); 4. Steve Crevier (191); 5. Kurtis Roberts (180); 6. (TIE) Josh Hayes/ Aaron Yates (175); 8. Steve Rapp (52); 9. Jason Pridmore (148); 10. Rich Oliver (144); 11. Eric Bostrom (131); 12. Tom Kipp (123); 13. (TIE) Se'n Kowalski/Miguel DuHamel (1lS/1); 1S. Brian Parriott (110). Upcoming Rounds: Round 9 - Monterey, California, July 10 . Round 10 - Lexington, Ohio, July 18 AMMockhart Phillips USA 750cc Supersport Series, Round 8: New Hampshire Inl'l Raceway 'wain a row By Henny Ray Abrams Pho.to by Tom Riles LOUOON, NH, JUNE 18 rant Lopez liked winning his first AMA race at Road America last weekend so much that he did it again. For the second week in a row, the Valvoline EMGO Suzuki rider topped the Lockhart Phil.l.i.ps USA 750cc Supersport race, this win coming on a sunny Saturday afternoon at New Hampshire International Speedway. As he had a week earlier, Lopez took command a few laps into the race, then sped away . to an untroubled win, helped, in part, by the crash of series leader Tom Kipp of the Chaparral Suzuki team. "When Kipp went down, 1 was able to close back up," Lopez said. "I never gave up hope because you never know about the track; this track is tight." Officially, he took the l!!ad from Ricci Motorsports James Randolph on the seventh of 24 laps. Randolph led the first five laps before overshooting the first turn and riding the banking around to the exit of turn two. He was assessed a stop-and-go penalty, which put Lopez aut front for good. . From there he gradually left 1-800CYCLEGEAR's Jake Zemke behind to take the win by 5.143 seconds. The time of 29 minutes, 50.265 seconds, at an average speed of 77.218 mph, was a new record, at least partly because the newly reconfigured track was much faster than the old layout, even though the distance remained the same at 1.6 miles. There wasn't much to the race in the way of meaningful passing. From the seventh lap on, the only change in the top five came on the 22nd of 24 laps whe,n Chaparral Suzuki's G Damon Buckmaster moved from fifth to fourth, passing Valvoline EMGO Suzuki's John Hopkins. Still, he was well out of sight of the podium. The rostrum spots went to Zemke and The Edge's Jamie Bowman. Zemke was slotted behind Lopez when Lopez took the lead on seven. That early in the race, it appeared as though Lopez might be having tire troubles, which gave Zemke false hope. As it turned out, Lopez's tires held out, but Zemke faded with tire troubles of his own. "I was kind of concerned with my rear tire because 1 knew it was going to be greasy, being 24 laps and hot today and the sun's out, and there's not a lot of grip on this track anyway," Zemke said. "I was riding the front wheel really hard. And, as you could probably see, Grant (Lopez) was getting away from me on the exits of the corners, but 1 was usually able to make it back up going in. The one place he was a lot stronger than me was going into turn three. He was just killing me on the entrance to three. I know 1 was losing a lot of time to him right there. Then he got a little bit of a gap on me. He had quite a few moments at the start of the race. The thing was breaking loose and snapping back and 1 thought he was really going to burn up his tire. I thought we were going to be right there at the finish - at least that was what the plan was. And the way it worked out, he just kind of got away a little bit and then traffic - 1 think he was able to get through traffic a little bit better than 1 was." Zemke said he never gave up hope. "At the same time, once he pulled out two seconds on me, I knew it was going to be really hard to make up unless traffic really, really started to go my way." It never did. Zemke said he didn't know who was behind him. It was Bowman, and he was far enough back not to be a threat. The longer th~ race went, the more threatened Bowman became, to the point that he was little more than a second in front of Buckmaster at the end. "Halfway through, they had like a second on me, but 1 faded a little bit," Bowman said. "The tires slid a little bit on me. I stayed a ]jttl~ conservative. 1 just stayed conservative. Nobody really got in my way." Buckmaster took fourth, making for a much better day than his teammate Kipp had. The championship leader was in second place when he crashed behind Randolph at the end of the fourth lap. "I just basically hit my footpeg on the inside curbing of the left-hander before the chicane," Kipp said. '1 made a mistake. Randolph had chosen a softer tire than 1 did and he was going pretty strong at the beginning. 1 was just trying to keep pressure on him there; just trying to get him to make a mistake. It was on the one part of the track where 1 seemed to be making a lot of time." After getting back up, Kipp finished a lap down in 22nd. Still, he got a handful of points and leads the series by 28 points, 252-224 over Ricci Motorsports' Jimmy Moore after eight of 12 races. Moore was seventh today, second in a pack of seven behind Randolph who all finished within a little more than two seconds of each other. Behind him came Chaparral Suzuki's Richard Alexander, a rider with immense local knowledge; Parriott Motors' Brian Parriott, the Honda CBR600 rider who was the first finisher not aboard a Suzuki GSXR750; Hooters Restaurants' Mario DuHamel; and 1-800-CYCLEGEAR's Roger Lee Hayden, in his third AMA professional race meeting.

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