Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Roland Sands (1) ended an injury-riddled year with a victo ry In the 250cc GP class over new championChuck Sorensen . ' Randy Renfrow (2) was docked a lap. en en en ~ E -E. (g 14 pl a te on his Yama ha TZ250. Tha t is, until today. Full y recover ed fro m th e probl em s which h ave limited h is sea t tim e this year, Sands showed how he earned the Na tio na l Cha m p ionship las t yea r and w hat so rt of force he cou ld be next yea r, though he was fully tested on his way to winning the red -flagged Mazd a Tru cks 250cc Grand Prix on a brisk 'and cloudy afternoon at Pike' s Peak Interna tio nal Raceway. . "I was pr ett y determined to win this one," Sand s said after his seco nd win of the yea r. The first win had come months ago at Road Am erica in Elkhart Lake. At that race he injured his back and it took him until now to ge t go ing agai n. " I want ed to co me ba ck from m y injury a n d s ho w eve ry body th at I w as s till determined and wanting to win." . To d o it he had to overcome both the new Nati on al Champion, World Sports Im p or ts' Chuck Sorensen , a nd Randy Renfrow, on the se cond Performance Machin es entry, his a Honda RS250. In the end , the race would be called co m plete aft er th e se co nd of tw o re d flags, the second one less than a lap in to the restart on what would have been the . 22nd lap. At the time it was called, Sands was in fro n t of Renfro ~ by 0.344 se conds with Sorensen third. However, Renfrow had been give n a s to p-and-go p en alty fo r jum ping th e start on the second start and was penalized a lap , even though the field d id n't com plete one full tour. He was moved to 11th p lace and has said he wi ll file an appeal. That put Quenni King in third. King had been running by him self for most of the race before it was stopped, and had gated well in the second start. Becau se of the red flag, there was no average s peed o r win n ing ti me fo r Sa nds. That d id n' t matter . Wh at mat tered was his race, an d it was a good one. The b a ttle of num ber ones s ta r ted right off the ba t, th e top three, Sands, Sor en sen, and Renfrow, ge tting away fr om th e field a n d se tting th ei r ow n agenda. The race was 29 lap s, an eternity on the tigh t and twisty course, built in the in field o f th e o ne- mi le oval, so th ere wasn't much ge tting away. "As long as yo u don' t let anybody get real far away from you , you can make it up: ' Renfro w began, "and basically I kn ew going in that this wo uld be a race and you'd have to race to the v ery end." Re n frow ha d tail ed o ff th e pace about a thir d of the way in, Sorensen by now in the lead , having taken over on th e six th la p with a n insi de m ove on Sands in the caro use l. " I was n ' t goi ng so g rea t into th e caro usel back there, and Chuck showed me how deep I could go in back there : ' Sands said. "So I followed him for four or five lap s and I saw I had a little bit of speed on him on top. So I figu red if my bike' s fas te r I ca n' t let h im bea t m e, right?" Sure eno ug h, on, lap 12 it was Sands back in front for goo d . "After Rol an d p a s se d m e b a ck, I aga in saw plus zero; first I saw a p lus one a nd Rand y ca ugh t up: ' So rens en said . "I was just try ing to ride my ow n race, basically, at that point, and no t let him ca tc h m e . I wa n te d to go to th e fro n t. The whole p ack age just wasn' t there tod ay." Renfr ow had dropped off the pa ir on the 13th lap, but mounted a cha rge and came at Sorense n at the end of the backstre tch, br aking for the hairpin. "I go t in th ere prett y hot and knew that I had to ride him in prett y far, and the dri ve out probably wasn' t as good as usu al," Renfrow said . O nce past, Renfrow set out for Sands wh o he h ou nd ed un til the r a ce wa s called when the first red flag came out on the 22nd lap. "My lap time s were bet ter at the end than they were at the beginning: ' Renfr ow said. " A n d I th ou gh t I was smoo ther and more flu id on the bike, I co u ld ma ke th e m ot orcycle do mo re thin gs. I tho ug ht the race was developing well for me. Every thing just got better as the race wen t on, as opposed to deteriorating. Slides we re better, I cou ld go arou n d or inside co rners w he re I tend ed to ru n one line before. Lap times we re bett er than all weekend ." "I looked back one lap fro m the red 'flag and Randy had caught u p and was righ t there, and I was expecting a race of it: ' said Sands, who'd seized his Yamaha in the morn ing warm-u p an d had to re-build it. "And they red flagged it and tha twas tha t." After a short d elay the race was restarted, but it came to a quick end when Chri s Ulrich crashed in the carousel on the firs t lap. Because of the tightness of the sched u le, and the impending televised Su pe rb ike r a ce , th e race w a s called. . Renf row knew he'd been assessed th e mea tba ll penalty for jumping th e start and thou gh t he'd dodged a bullet whe n it was red flagged . But the penalty was assessed and he was dropped fro m the podium. King took the third with Jeff Leggi tt by hi mself in fourth and Der ek Kin g ge tting jus t ahea d of Greg Esser for fifth eN on the fina l lap. Pike's Pea k International Raceway Fountain , Colorado Results : Septe mber 19, 1999 (Round 12) MAZDA TRUCKS 250cc G RAND PRIX: 1. Roland San ds (Yam ); 2. Ch uck Sorensen (Yam ); 3. Quenni King (Yam ); 4. Jeff Leg gitt IH on ): 5. Derek King (Hen ): 6. Greg Esser (Ho n): 7. Jeff Va s (H an); 8. Keller King (Ya m); 9 . Perry Meln ectu c (H o n): 10. C h ris Ul ri ch (Yam ); 11. Rand y Ren frow (Ho n): 12. Lar ry Roberts (Yam); 13. John Fra nce (H e n): 14. Ed Sorbo (Ya m); 15. Coli n Je n se n (A p r); 16. Ge o ff Maloney (Ya m ); 17. Andrew Ed wa rds (Yam ); 18. Tract Scha low (Yam); 19. Tom Christ ian (He n): 20. Edward Marchini (Hon). Ti.me: N / A due to red (Mg. Distan ce: 21 .laps, 27.615 m ill'S. Average speed: N /A due to red flag. Margi n of victory : 0.344 sec. FIN AL M AZDA T RU C KS 250 cc GRAND PRIX C'S HIP PO INT STANDINGS (After 12 of 12 rounds): 1. Chuck Sorense n (340/6 win s); 2. Derek King (263/1); 3. Chris Ulrich (243); 4. Quenni King (237); 5. Jeff Vos (203); 6. Ed Sor bo (200); 7. Greg Es ser (198); 8. Joh n Fra n ce ( 94); 9. Rolando Qu in tero ( 69 ); 10. Pe rr y Meln eciuc (154); 11. Bruce Lind (36); 12. Roland Sands 0 35/2); 13. Geep Terranova (126/1 ); 14. Keller King (lOS); 15. William Himmelsba ch (96); 16. Al Salaverria (93); 17. Rand y Renfrow (91); 18. Colin Jensen (90); 19. James Bonne r (88); 20. Ralph Staropoli (85). Pirelli Formula Xlreme Hayden's race, Roberts' title By Henn y Ray Abrams FOUNTAIN, CO, SEPT. 18 w en ty-five yea rs a fter h is legenda ry fath er ea rn ed hi s la st National Cha m p ions hip, Kurtis Roberts d id the family name proud by w in ning his firs t professional titl e, the Pirelli Formu la Xtreme cro w n, o n a wa r m an d su n ny afte r noon a t Pikes Peak Int ern at ion al Ra cewa y in th e Rocky Mou ntains of Colorado. "It was d efinitely the lon gest 29 lap s I' ve e ver d on e," sa id Rob erts, whos e T fa t her Kenny w on his fi rs t m ile dirt tra ck n a t ion a l in Colora do Springs. "Definitely the slowest I thin k I've rid den a ll year, too ." Rob er ts the elder, w hose la s t Na tio na l C h a m p io n s h ip ca me in 1974, w atc hed the race tracksi de, h is ri g ht han d in a cas t from a recent off-roa d riding accident. The race was wo n by Rober ts' Erion Racing teammate, Nicky Hayden, hi s fourth in a row an d seventh of the seaso n. But Rober ts had come into the final even t on th e 10- race calen dar w ith a yawning lead and needed only to finish ' 22nd or better to take the crown . It was a br eeze, Roberts finishing a controlled six th to ea rn the number -on e p lat e.ihi s first , and th e Hon d a team ' s third in a row . H e h ad put h ims elf in a w inning po sition by finishing every race, rackin g up th ree wins and thr ee other pod iums alo ng th e way . Rob erts too k over th e cha m pionship lead whe n Hayd en was knocked ou t of the Laguna Seca ro und w ith a mechan ical p roblem , and never relinq uish ed it. "This yea r's been ki nd of stra nge: ' the now blond-hai red Robert s said . "I've basically just been tryin g to conserve the cha mpionship lead since Laguna, fourth ro und of the s easo n, after I wo n two an d N icky had a co u p le of problem s. Ju st ride conservative ." As for th e ra ce; Rob ert s said the re wasn 't mu ch to talk about. " It was just kind of ridin g around . I basicall y just did wha t I had to do all year:' he said . Th a t wasn't h o w h e 'd w anted it. He'd been riding well all weekend and had q u alified on th e p ole. With th e cha mpionship on the line there was no wa y he was going to take an y chances, not until he'd mathem ati cally clinched th e titl e. Th at didn't happen until the very last lap, and by then there was no way he was going to catch the leaders. Out fro nt it had been mostly Nicky Ha yden, after a while. The early lead er was Kawa saki Cana da 's Mich ael Taylor, with Hayd en needi ng five la ps to ge t around him. On ce by, Hayden was able to control the pace and win the race in record time. He completed the 29-lap, 38.135-mile race in 27 minutes, 26.646 seconds at an averag e speed of 1,)3.374 mph. The previous speed mar k was 80.060 mph. "I' m happy abo u t th e w in , but I'm just a little bit disappoint ed , just becau se I feel like we had a pretty good sho t at the champion ship," Hayden said . "Kurtis, he did w hat he needed to do and finished all the races. We had th ree DNF s: It killed us for any shot. We go t a lot of ra ce wins a n d I g uess I ca n't be too greedy." The final on e was here. Af ter disposin g of Taylor , Hayden was chased by Josh Hayes, the Valvolin e Suzu k i rid er w ho w ill m ov e t o th e cha m p ionship-w in nin g to catch Hayden, but he had done a goo d job to keep him in his sigh ts. "U p until th en I w as try ing, I wa s keeping him pretty close," Hayes sa id . "He wasn 't reall y th at fa r go ne . I was watching his pit board . He had a plusone th e w h ole tim e. I sai d, all right, I kno w he gets fru strated wit h that. So I kept it th er e. And I sa id when traffic co mes around it' s going to ge t better . I've got a lot of end urance miles and I figu red that might help me a little bit in traffic. And jus t when I thou ght everything was going to go goo d I lost a contact lens, once aga in this year. I thought

• Cover