Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Road Race On the 14th lap, Hayd en made his mo ve on Zem ke to ta ke over the lead , 'an d fro m th ere he w as nev er head ed , winning the 16-lap ra ce by .630 of a second over Zem ke - who finish ed second for a four th time in 1999. _ Qui te remarkably, th ird plac e wen t to Kipp an d his Chaparral Suzuki. The Ohi oan didn't giv e up once he wa s back on co u rse, a n d he put in a s p i r ite d cha rge tha t eventu ally moved him past both Ja m es Ran d olph and Jos eph Gill late in the race. Gill and his 4&6 Racing Kaw asaki ZX6 ended up getting the better of Randolph on the final lap to finish fourth - by far his best -ever AMA outing . Ran dolph ended up fifth o n the Copier Discount Warehouse GSX-R750. Hooters' Mario DuHamel, Pa rriott Motors ' Brian Pa rri ott, Ric ci Motorsports' Jimmy Moore (who was actua lly r idin g a Hoo te rs ' Su z uki after he crashed and destro yed his own Suzuki earlier in the day), Bell's Suzuki's John Ja cobi a n d Fas t trax' Ja mes Do erfl er rou nded ou t the top 10. Va lvoline EMGO Suzuki' s 16-vearold rookie, John Hopkins, appeared to have eig hth p lace in the bag w he n his GSX-R750 dropped a valve in the waning moments of the race, an d he coas ted across the finish line in 11th place. Wit h Moore sta rting the race from pit roa d on the Hooters bike and ult imat ely racing to an eighth-place finis h, Kipp's third p la ce o n ly furt her exten ded hi s ch ampionshi p p oints lead. W ith tw o races left to ru n, Kipp leads by 34 points over Moo re, 281-247, and he only need s to ea rn two points at Brain erd in order to w rap up his third AMA 750cc Supersport Champio ns hip. Buckmas ter turned his holeshot into a .7-of-a-seco nd lead by the en d of lap five, and that lead instantly increased to 2.5 seco nds a fte r H ayd en an d Kipp' s exce lle nt off-ro ad adventu re - an incid en t caused w hen tw o Tomstried to occupy th e same piece of pavemen t. "At th e beginning , I go t off to a decent sta rt:' Hayd en said . "I was jus t stuc k th er e - I could n' t do an ything . I started ge tting anx ious, and th en I go t by Jak e (Zemke). By then th ey had a little lead, bu t I was able to reel th em in. For me, on my bike, I don 't have a lot of o pportu nity to p ass ou t he re . I had a good run o n Tom, 'a nd .1 th ought th e , hole was going to be a littl e bit bigger. I'd jus t caught up to him, so ma yb e he uses th at line eve ry lap . He star ts a lot wider than me, so I jus t stuck it in ther e. Th en he brought it in rea l tight. It closed up real q uic k. It wasn ' t a ver y strong m ove on my pa rt tha t early in the race. I cou ld have foll ow ed him and tr ied to find a litt le safer way aro und ." , As always, Kip p was m ore gracio us ,than most - altho ug h his mood was tem pe red somewhat by the fact that he was stiIl able to finish third and furth er pad his lead in the title chase. "I was surprised tha t the pace was n' t reall y th at fas t," Kipp said . "The track was really hot, and I we nt with a lit tle softer tire tha n I should have. I was kinda battling with that, an d I wa nted to get ou t ea rly , bu t Dam on (Buckmaster) spoiled tha t one . He was going really good early on , I was usin g up my tire, and when I looked back and saw that 1 hadn' t put really any dis tance on them, I knew it wa s going to be a race to the finish. I knew it was going to be a ma tter of who would ou tride whom to the end . Then Tommy 0> (Hayd en) and I got toge ther, and I go t g: knocked back to sixth or seventh." :;;_ Go t together? N "He d ove inside of me," Kipp ad ded , ~ "Tha t corner is kinda easy to ge t caught .." up in the re because yo u're trail-brak ing 14 reall y hard . Th e lin e th rough th e co r- Chuck Sorensen dominated the 250cc Grand Prix class at Mid-Ohio. ner... you d on 't want to end up too wid e once yo u get in th er e. The guy on the ou tsi de reall y needs to ho ld it in, and the guy coming up the inside - since it' s a decreasing- ra di us tu rn - you g et caught up in there. It's happe ned to me a bunch of times. I got bumped off the track, bu t I was ab le to hang on to it. At the last m inut e, I go t it sideways an d hit the tir es. I d idn't wa n t to da mage the front fender o r th e tir e or an yt hin g . I was n' t going very fast." With h is two m a in prota g o n ist s apparently out of conte n tion, Buckm aster appear ed to have thin gs in control. Then it fell apa rt. ' "I just got in there too ho t," Buckmas ter said . "I wa s still on lin e, but it tu cked the front. I had a few moments in pra cti ce a n d qu ali fyin g , as yo u sho uld, but I wa s able to sa ve it. But not this one. It was my mistake - I just tried a bit too hard. I nev er looked ba ck actually, I can' t at thi s mom ent (Buckmaster br oke his neck early in the yea r). I think I proved that.I' m ba ck and worth y of this rid e. Tom orrow (in the 600cc Su pe rspo rt race), I just want to pick up where I left off. This is a new team, an d KeI (Carru thers - Chaparral's cre w ch ief a n d team m a n age r ) has d one a ll th e d evelopment work him self. All the credit to the team, it's onl y been arou nd for seven months." With Buckmaster gone.Hayde n se t ou t after Zemke. " Da m o n (Bu ckma ster ) was pre tty mu ch gone," .Buckrnaster sa id . "I kinda , counted him ou t and 'tri ed to do so me consistent laps, and try to be ready for the race to m o rro w . T hen Dam o n crashe d and I saw Jake, and he wasn' t tha t far ahe ad of me. I jus t kep t my head d o wn , a nd I w a s ju st b arel y , barel y' catching him . With abo ut five to six laps to go, I th ou ght I had a goo d cha nce of ca tching him. I di d and go t by . Th en I jus t held on." Th e result was so mewhat 'of a surprise for Zem ke, w ho had s truggled all weekend to find th e rig ht se tu p for the bumpy Mid-Ohio layou t. "T hings are wo rking rea lly good rig ht now," Zemke said . "Th is weekend , ac tually, we've been s trugg ling a bit. Yesterday, I d id n' t ge t har dly any track time at all on the 750, and it really hurt me on the setup. At the start of the race, I was fading back and I rea lly d id n ' t have an ything for them. I just ended up in the fort una te position of th ese tw o ta ngling up and Damon (Buckmaster) crashing. It was just circumstances , basically, that put me in the lead. Once I was up th ere, it se emed like I was able to mai ntain abou t two seco nds for a w hile. My times stayed th e same th e whole time, but Tommy (Hayden) 'was ab le to CN catch up. " Mid·Ohio Sports Car Course Lexington, Ohio Result s: Jul y 17, 1999 (Round 9 of 11) 750cc SUPER5PO RT FINAL : 1. Tom m y Hayd en (Ya m ); 2. Ja ke Ze m ke (Suz ): 3. Tom Kip p (Suz ): 4. Jose ph Gill (Kaw): 5. Ja me s Ra ndo lph (Suz): 6. Mari o DuH am el (Suz): 7. Brian Parri ott (He n): 8. Jimmy Moore (Su z ): 9. Jo hn Jaco bi (5U2); 10. Jam es Doer fle (Suz): 11. r Jo hn Ho pk ins (Suz); 12. Ga bri e l He nn ing (Suz): 13. Da vid McGra th (Suz): 14. Jonatha n Bowma n (5uz); 15. Jess Roed er (5uz); 16. Davi d Duprey (Suz): 17. C had Simon s (5uz); 18. Pat Hernon (Suz): 19. Troy Yeomans (Ya m); 20. Nick Dan iel s (Yam); 21. Ed wa rd Bar toli ISuz ): 22. Shane Clarke (Suz): 23. Grant Lo pez (Suz). Time: 24 m in. 51.998 sec. Dis tan ce: 16 laps, 38.4 mi les ' Average sp eed : 92.655 m ph Margin of victory: 0.6..10 sec. A MA 1S0« SU PE RSPO RT SER IES POINT STANDINGS (Afte r 9 of 11 ro u nds) : 1. Tom Kipp (281/ 5 w ins); 2. Jimm y Moo re (247); 3. Jak e Ze m ke (230); 4. Tommy Ha yd en (214/1); 5. Ma rio DuHamel (20 3); 6 . Gr an t Lope z (196 / 2); 7. (TIE) Richard Ale xander Jr.lJa mL Randolph ( 83); 9. Jami e Bowm an >S (17-1): 10. Brian Parri ott 060 ; 11. Joshua Hayes (147/ 1); 12. Joseph Gill (118); 13. John Jaco bi (07); 14. Vincen t Haskovec (96); 15. Dam on Buckma ste r (81). Upcoming Rounds: Round 10- Brainerd, Minnesota, JUly 31 Round 11 - Fountain, Colorado, September 18 AMAlMazda Trucks 250cc Grand Prix Series Round 9: Mid.Qhio Sports Car Course Sorensen conquers By La rry Lawrence Phot o by Tom Riles LEXINGTON, OH, JULY18 hu ck Sorensen has been racing at the Mid-O hio Sports Car Cou rse since 1992, but he has never tasted victory at the famous track - one of the most pr estigious sto ps on the AMA road racing circui t. Alter yea rs of learning the challengin g co urse, So rensen finall y found the key to vi cto ry : The No rthe rn Californian rode to a strong victory aboard his World Sports Imports Yamaha ov er former series cha m p ion Rand y Renfrow a n d up-and -co me r Derek King in the Mazda Trucks 250cc Grand Prix. Th e win was a solid return for Sorensen after he was unable to finish th e Loudon race due to electr icalproblems with his bike. In additi on , it ex te nds hi s s e r ies lead 'over Derek King and Q uenni Kin g (not rel ated ), w ho are tied for se co nd in the s ta n d in g s w ith two r o u n d s remai ning. Sorensen seemed to have everything dialed in all weekend . He sta rted off on a positive no te by ea sil y winning the first q ualifying heat race by seven second s over Renfrow. Ch ris Ulrich continued to show his im proving skills on the Kids: Do n't Smoke! Yama ha w hen he C won the secon d heat by more than eight seco nds over Quenni King . Th e final proved to be a Sorensen be nefit. He led into th e first tu rn and steadily be ga n pulling a way fro m the rest of th e field at a rate of nearl y a second per lap . Near the end, he backed off a .bit and held on to an 11.3-second mar gin of victory . " I really like this trac k - it's as close to a M X tr a ck as you ca n ge t o n as phalt," said Sor ens en . "It wo u ld be a lot be t te r if th e tr ack w e re repa ved , though . You' d see a lot fewer crashes. Th e seams arou nd the concre te patch es are re all y ba d. Ro ad A me ric a h a s pro ven that if they use the right kind of pavem en t, it can wo rk." The real tussle was taking place over seco nd, wi th Renfrow an d Kin g in a pitched battle. Renfrow had th e drives off th e turns a n d Kin g w a s superi or under br aking. The resu lt was an excitin g combination , wit h King tr yin g to stuff u p und erneath Ren frow , on ly to have Renfrow m ov e in and cu t off th e inside p assin g lan e tim e an d agai n . It was high ly en tert aini ng, and in the end · it was Renfrow w ho prevailed . Surprisingly, Renf row's second -place finis h was his best ever at Mid -Ohi o in ' 250cc GP racin g. "I love this facility and th e fans that co me here," sai d th e 43-year-ol d Ren fro w . "Peop le co m e up to m e all th e time and say, ' I saw you ra cing h ere ba ck in 1983.' It means a gr ea t d eal to me to ge t to come ba ck and still be able to turn in a goo d rid e for a ll th o s e folks." King wa s surprised at the abili ty of Renfrow to hold off his repeat ed at tacks. "I don' t th ink someo ne w ho is in se mi reti remen t shou ld be riding .tha t aggress ively," joked King. "He (Randy) has an incred ible machine. It' s as stro ng coming out of the turns as it is up to p. Tha t was a great battle. [ lost m y fron t end with about four laps to go and lost tou ch with Ra n d y . Hopefull y, w e ' ll meet again." Ulric h finished a lonely fourth after an early ba ttle with Jeff Voss. "I th ink we had a s tick floa t in the ca rb ," co m m en ted th e you ng Ulrich. "The bike kep t sputtering m idcorner. I thou ght it was sei zing a t firs t. A lit tle di sappoin ting, but w e'll be read y for Brainerd ." Voss was fifth, foIlowed by Bill Himmelsbach, Greg Esser, Quenni King, Ed Sorbo and Perry Melneci uc, Th e Mid-Ohio win for Sorensen had add ed sig nificance. It ma rked his ninthcareer victory in AMA 250cc Gra nd Prix competition and moved him past Renfro w into a tie with Davi d Em de fo r CN fourth on the all-time win list.

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