Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Local favorite Charles Chouinard, of Parkway Cycles, and 4&6 Cycle's Joseph Gill were a t the end of the pack. Among the nonfinishers was fast qualifier Tommy Hayden. The Yamaha rider knew he had a problem on the warmup lap, then pulled out on the first lap with motor problems. _ New Hampshire International Speedway Loudon, New Hampshire Results: June 19, 1999 (Round 8 of 12) 750 S/SPT: 1. Grant Lopez (Suz); 2. Jake Zemke (Suz); 3. Jamie Bowman (Suz); 4. Damon Buckmaster (SUZ); 5. John Hopkins (Suz); 6. James Randolph (Suz); 7. Jimmy Moore (502); 8. Richard Alexander Jr. (Suz); 9. Brian Parriott (Hon); 10. Mario DuHamel (Suz); 11. Roger Lee Hnyden (Suz); 12. Charles Chouinard (Suz); 13. Joseph Gill (Kaw); 14. Vincent Haskovec (Suz); 15. Matthew Silva (Kaw); 16. Christopher 'Rankin (502); 17. Brett Metzler (Suz); 18. Roland Williams (502); 19. Jess Roeder (Yam); 20. David Duprey (Suz); 21. John Salemi (Kaw); 22. Tom Kjpp (Suz); 23. Christopher Dinoia ' (Suz); 24. David Ortega (Suz); 25. Dale Dandrea (Suz); 26. Bob L..'\szko (I-Ion); 27. David Dalzell (502); 28. David Tarc:zynski (Hon); 29. Daniel Fischer (Suz); 30. Brian Livengood (Suz); 31. Darlan Polach (Hon); 32. David Rose (Suz). • Time: 29 min.• 50.265 St."'C. Distance: 241nps. 38 mnes Ave:rage speed: 77.218 mph Margin of victory: 5.143 sec. AMA 750« SUPERSPORT SERIES POINT STANDINGS (After 8 of 12 rounds): 1. Tom Kipp (252/5 wins); 2. Jimmy Moore (224); 3. Jake Zemke (198); 4. Gront Lopez (188/2); 5. Richard Alexander Jr. (183); 6. Mario DuHamel (178); 7. Tommy Hayden (178); 8. Jamie Bowman (170); 9. James Randolph (157); 10. Joshua Hayes (147/1); 11. Brian Parriott (137); 12. Vincent Haskovec (96); 13. Joseph Gill (91); 14. john jacobi (85); 15. Damon Buckmaster (73). Upcoming Rounds; Round 9 - Lexington, Ohio, July 17 Round 10 - Brainerd, Minnesota, July 31 AMAMazda Trucks 250cc Grand Prix Series Round 8: New Hampshire Int'l Speedway King of thellill By Henny Ray Abrams Photo by Tom Riles LOUOON, NH, JUNE 20 Illcan't believe it, I really can't," Derek King said after winning his first-ever AMA professional race, the red-flag-filled and riderdepleted Mazda Trucks 250cc Grand Prix at New Hampshire International Speedway. King, racing in a set of 3-year-old black leathers and riding a Performance Cycles 1998 Honda RS250, only took control of the race on the third tart, with 15 laps to go. Once there, no one could displace him and he rolled to a 2.830-second victory. King credited his victory to some astute tuning choices. "[ used the same jetting as yesterday," King said. "1 just knew that if it got warmer today, we'd be all set. We changed the needles - I went richer on my needles to get off the corners better. We also retarded the timing to get the drive out of the corner. I know that [ was a little flat on my top speed. I just had my head down out there. We had the opportunity to take a spot on the box and [ took advantage of it. 1 don't have any sponsors. I haven't been able to afford new leathers. The money goes to tires and what the bike needs. We have to make do with what we have." Today, it was enough to cover the field, though it was a field thin on talent. Part of U,e reason was that there were a couple of no-shows. The Performance Machines team didn't show up, which meant no Roland Sands and no Randy Renfrow, though Renfrow, in his semi retirement, likely wouldn't have ridden here in any event, the track not being among the safer ones on the circuit. • Derek King won the first AMA 250cc Grand Prix National of his career, taking advantage of a field that was missing both the current championship points leader and the defending series champion. And then there was the problem of . Chuck Sorensen. The runaway championship leader led the first three laps before a red flag brought a halt to proceedings on the fifth lap, with scoring reverting to the end of the third. When the race was restarted, it did so without Sorensen. He suffered an electrical problem and coUldn't get going when the flag dropped. The team replaced the battery, but that wasn't the culprit, and he soon pitted. "We don't know yet what it was," Sorensen said as he was packing up his truck for the cross-country trip home. '1t hit on the start of the restart. It was fine. until then. We put anothE!r battery in it and took off almost a lap down. It tarted failing again." . Officially, he finished 28th and earned three points. After eight of 11 races, Sorensen still has a commanding lead in the championship, 234-185, over Quenni King, fourth today on the Broward Motorsport Yamaha. Derek King is third with 179. Because the race was red-flagged, there was no time of race or average speed. Second on the day went to Kids! Don't Smoke's Chris Ulrich - the best effort of his career. Ulrich led the portion of the race between the red flags, laps four to eight, but that was it. The race was stopped on the ninth lap when Irishman Eoin Smith high-sided viciously in turn 10. He landed on his head and was nearly collected by his Yamal,a, but he was fortunate to avoid it. After an initial medical evaluation at the track, Smith drove himself to a local hospital 'Tm a little di appointed," Ulrich said. "I would like to have won this, but Derek rode a real good race. He deserved it." About 10 seconds back in third came Jeff Wood, of the Penguin Racing School Woods, on the Yamaha sponsored by the school. The young Wood didn't have an easy day, moving up from sixth on the final start to take over third on the final lap. For much of the race he'd contested third with Ranson Street Racing' Jeff Vos and Yamaha-mounted Ed Sorbo. ''I'm pretty pumped," Wood said. "This is my first podium finish in the AMA. I suffered a bunch of bad starts and today was the same. [ rode as hard as I could - hard on the brakes and hard in the corners. I'm glad 1 caught up. It was a lot of work. [ definitely have a lot of laps here. We've tried to get it more competitive for this stuff." On the sev~nth lap of the final start, Wood was six seconds back of Quenni King before whittling his way to the front. Vos passed him on the 19th lap, but he returned the favor two laps later. That one he made stick, and he swapped third with King three time between turns one and three on the final lap before taking the spot for good. Wood finished more than two seconds in front of King, wi th Vos a li ttle more than half a second back. Then there wa.s a ,gap to Sorbo, with Phillips Precision Ral ph Staropoli by him elf in seventh and Team Cycle Depot's Rolando Quintero well behind in eighth. _ New Hampshire International Speedway Loudon, New Hampshire Results: June 20, 1999 (Round 8 of 12) 250 GP: \. Derek King (Hon); 2. Chris Ulrich (Yam); 3. Jeff Wood (Yam); 4. Quenni King (Yam); 5. Jeff Vos (Yam); 6. Edward Sorbo (Yam); 7. Ralph Starpoli (Hon); 8. Rolando Quintero (Hon); 9. Tony Iannarelli (Yam); 10. John France (Hon); 11. James Bonner (Yam); 12. Chris Reynolds (Yam); 13. Michael Zajac (Yam); 14. Dan Rios (Yam); 15. Murphy And""",n (Yam); 16. Gary Berb.'um (Yam); 17. Timothy O'Connor (Yam); 18. Christopher Holskc (Ynm); 19. Adam Neal (Yam); 20. Ri k Moreau (Yam); 21. Tom Christian (Hon); 22. Leon Hor (Yam); 23. Kevin McCrea (Yam). Time: n/a due to red flag Distance: 24 laps, 38 miles Average speed: nla due to red flag Mngin of victory: 2.830 sec. AMA 250cc GRAND PRIX C'SHIP POINT STANDINCS (After 8 of 12 rounds): 1. Chuck Sorensen (234/4 wins); 2. Quenni King (85); 3. Derek King (179/1); 4. Chris Ulrich (169); 5. John France (139); 6. Edward Sorbo (136); 7. Rolando Quintero (35); 8. jeffrey Vas (131); 9. Geep Terranova (126/1); 10. Greg Esser (22); 11. Roland Sands (98/1); 12. Bruce Lind (96); 13. AI Salilverria (93); 14. Perry Melneciuc (88); 15. Keller King (82). Upcoming Rounds; Round 9 - Lexington, Ohio, July 20 Round 10 - Brainerd, Minnesota, August 1 AMA/Sunoco Race Fuels Fonnula Xtrerne Series, Round 7: New Hampshire Int'l Speedway Hayden on a roll By Henny Ray Abrams Photo by Tom Riles LOUOO ,NH, JUNE 18 rion Racing's Nicky Hayden endured two red flags and two restarts before claiming his fourth Sunoco Race Fuels Formula Xtreme race of the season at New Hampshire international Speedway. "Once you get into a rhythm, and especially if you get a lead, you hate to see a red flag," Hayden said. And why not? When the second red flag brought a halt to the race on the 13th of 24 laps - the first start was redflagged on the second lap - Hayden held better than a nine-second lead. The race was gridded from the running order at the end of the 12th lap, with Hayden sharing the front row with E teammate Kurtis Roberts, Valvoline EMGO Suzuki's Josh Hayes, and Attack Performance's Mark Miller. With his nine-second lead down the drain, Hayden .set out to re-establish his dominance, which he did, in short order. After passi.ng hoIeshot artist Miller on the third lap of the restart, and 15th of 24 overall, Hayden edged away, finally beating Hayes by 2.963 seconds. Because of the red flags, there was no average speed or race time. Miller was third and Roberts was fourth. Hayden said that once he was in the lead the second time, he didn't feel he needed as comfortable a cushion a he had in the first leg. "The second time, once [ got up to about six seconds, [ just kind of tried to be smart and conserve everything," said Hayden, whose lead was never quite that big. Hayden was the one constant between the two 12-lap races, out in front both times and on the gas. Second, third, and fourth were most of the same characters, though the red flag shuffled the order. Roberts had gotten the jump, with Hayden quickly by and flying, leaving him to tangle with the rest of the 19rider field for second. The spot was his by less than half a second when the red flag came out, with Hayes moving through the field to third. Miller was a couple of se~onds back in fourth. It was Hayes' teammate Grant Lopez who'd caused the red flag with his second crash of the race. Lopez crashed after hitting a false neutral in turn nine while running well back in the field, the result of an earlier turn-I 0 crash. He wa able to restart after that one. "He (Lopez) had come off the track and gone back out and he wa till trying to roll around pretty fast and it was like you would come up on him and you're thinking, 'Man, I saw him fall earlier: and then all of a sudden he was back in the game again:" Hayes said. "He hi.t the curb over there coming down the hill or whatever, but his bike wasn't working too good. It kind of spooked me a little bit. I lost a little bit of time on it because he crashed and all of a sudden there's bikes and people on the track." After only a hort dela y, the race began for the third time. Miller jumped to the front, with Hayden in tow, but only for a few lap. Once out front, Hayden wasn't to be headed. That left second to Miller, with RobeI:ts and Hayes close by, but that would soon change. , Roberts was into second with a turnsix pass on lap 17, with Hayes following a laplater. Then Hayes used turn six to get Roberts and set out for Hayden, but en g ... o ... M C :> ..., '15

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