Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Timothy Bemisderfer was th ird , well back and u nchallenged . Northland Racing' s Steve Joh nson was fourth, in fron t of Bran don Basho re. " I knew h e (D ie d ric h) was ri ght behind me," H opki ns said. " I kne w I had to get the lappers beh ind me fast or he wo u ld come by on the straightaway." On Sunday, Hopkins was on the sev ent h row for th e Expert Mid d leweight Grand Prix race, w hich mean he had to get by 24 r iders to get to the fro nt. It took a few laps, but he was there entering the chicane on the second lap . Tho ugh he was quickly to the front, he ha d co mpany - Cycles of Pa lm Beach's Mike Luke and No rthla nd Racing's Steve Johnson . Both were Yama ha m ounted a n d chas ing the Suzu ki of Hopkins. With fou r of seven laps co m p leted, the top three began to sp read ou t a nd Hopkins jumped w ell ou t front. At th e en d of th e se ven-la p, 25-mil e race, he had 5.708 seconds in hand. Luke was seco nd and Johnson third, th en ca me Derek Kin g on a H o nd a RS250. "I was just tak ing it easy out there," Hopkins sai d . "I jus t wanted to get the lead a nd get read y for th e EBC ra ce (schedu led for later )." The fi n a l race of th e d ay w as th e Exp ert Heavyweight Su pe rbike . Again from the seventh row, Hopkins, now on a GSX-R75 0, mad e s hort w ork of th e field , taking over third in the chicane on lap on e. Less than a lap later he was in the lead, taking it from T's Team Yarnaha' s Rob ert Jensen traversing N ASCAR Turn Two on the seco nd lap. He might have sa iled away had it not b e e n for KW S Mo torsp ort ' s Da vid McGrath . McG ra th, who'd beaten Hopkins on Satu rday, was even farther back on the grid than Hop kins - on ro w 10. Three la ps in and he was in second , about two seconds back, bu t not gai ning. In fact he lost almost a second on th e next la p , th ou gh no t for la ck of effor t. The effort d idn't pay off; qu ite the oppo site . On t he fifth lap, Mc Grath tu cked the fron t en d in the West End Hor seshoe, leaving Hopkins with a clear path to victory. When McGrath we nt down, Hop kin s had abou t 13 seco nds in hand, which he'd stre tch to 21.893 a t the end of the seven-lap, 25-mile race. Thou gh the weekend ended on a low not e fo r KWS Motorsports' McGrath, there were a few high s, incl udi ng two wi ns , both of w hich ca me on Friday and both came after sta rts from the back p art of th e grid . Both w ins were well earned . Th e fir st w as the 30- minu te Expert GTO . Star ti ng from th e nin th ro w , McGra th bid ed his time and w ork ed his wa y to the front, moving int o third on th e seve nth of 15 laps, and clos ing the ga p on th e leaders. H e took second on lap 11, wi th abo u t seven minu tes to go, then set ou t for leader Mike Ciccotto. With two laps to go McGrath was in po sit ion to wi n, lurkin g behind Ciccotto a n d w aiting for th e a ll-im por ta nt run to the flag. His plans were nearly derailed when th ey came up on a backmarker in the chicane on the final lap. Both mad e it throu gh and Cicc otto took his Cycle Rid ers / Orlando Suzuki GSX-R750 lo w o n the ' b a n k i n g ; McGr ath d id th e same with his Suzuki, never giv ing away his position. As it tu rned ou t, Ciccolto didn't know he wa s there. On the ru n to the flag, McGrath went high and took the win by .258of a second. Asked if he knew McGrath was chasing him, Ciccotto answered, "Not a clue. It's pretty dumb. Once I go t out front and (Right) Tim Cochran ce lebrates his win of the Amateur Middleweight Supe rsport class. Cochran als o won the Amateu r Middleweight Grand Prix final. (Below) Ed Hosack (795) leads Tim Cochran (537) and Laurence Greco (176) in the Amateur Heavyweight Supersport clas s. started st ret ch in g th e lead, I put it on cru ise control. I had no clue he was there. I could n' t believe it when he pulled up to me at the line. I was like, 'Wh o's thisi"" "Th is bike is a mi s sil e, " M cGrath said. He said tha t he could see Ciccotto up ahead and tho ugh he might be having tire problems. "He couldn't get go od dri ves. I knew I just had to set him up. I knew my bike was faster." The next win came a littl e eas ier for McGrath, but not much. Starting from the sixth row, McGrath joined the lead pa ck starti ng the fou rt h lap wi th the leaders going three wide in tu rn one. McGrath e me rged with th e lead , Hopkins took seco nd in the International Horseshoe, moving Diedrich , on th e Capell e Bro s & Diedrich Inc . Yamaha R-1, back to third. Josh Ha yes moved into third on the fifth lap an d the order of finish was set, wi th McGrat h takin g the win by .626 of a second . Among th e Amateurs there were a few rid ers more successful than the others . Meridan Honda's Robert Michael had a productive weekend, winning two races a nd finis hi ng near th e fro n t of a few others. You couldn't hav e asked for a more exciting finish than his first victory. It came in Satu rday's Amateur GTU race that was sch eduled for 30 minutes, but was shortened considerably by a red flag on the first lap . The clock kep t runnin g, and the race wa s about 23 minutes long. Mich a el wo n it by half a wh eel .005 of a second. It was mostly a two-rider race, with Michael in se co n d , cha sing Tim Cochran , both on Honda CBR600s. Page Gathings was a close third for a while, en en en ~ ...; .8 E ~ o Z 15

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