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ever fin ish in th e class o n h is road racingworld .com -ba cked GSX -R750 .
Ever yth ing finally seem s to b e
c o m ing together fo r Moore . A rme d
w ith ta comp eti t iv e GS X -R750 . h e
seems perfectl y ca pable of winn ing
h is firs t Pro t itl e in 2 0 01. At Road
Am er ica , he had h is hands full with
the tw o youngsters , but he was able
to use his experience and superior
sp eed in the all -important Caro usel
comer to take the victory, a w in that
moved him in to sole possession of
the ch amp io nship points lead .
M o o re now has 12 4 p o int s , six
clear of Spie s . A ttack S uz uk i's
Rich ard A l exa nder , ni nth tod ay , has
105 poin ts .
This race was between three men :
Moore , Spies and Ul rich . Spies led
early, but was passed by Moore o n
the second lap . Spies led the fifth lap
across the stripe, but Moore led all of
the others, though he was never far ther tha n .2 of a second cl ear. Ulrich,
mea nw hile, ha d to fight his w ay to the
front after suffering a lackluster start.
He moved int o t o sec o nd on the fifth
lap and held th e sp ot until Sp ies was
ab le to d raft past on the run up th e
hill to the flag on the final lap .
"It seems like I'v e been second in
q u alify ing and in the race so many
t imes , th is feels l ik e home , y o u
know," Moore said . "I'm reall y happy.
I'm happy for m ys el f bec aus e I've
been trying so hard. I k new th at th is
yea r wo uld be m y best opportunity to
w in a cham pionsh ip and t h at's t he
goal. I've been runn ing, tra ining, riding mountain b ik es. T hese guys ar e
up and come rs, but th ey are flying .
T here i s no sl ac k given b y t h em . I
was reall y surp rised t o see them in
the ra c e. I th oug ht I co u ld put m y
head down and ge t aw ay , pu t some
ti m e o n th em and le t th em bat tl e it
out. I' m not really sure, bu t it see med
like once they got in front of me they
were a littl e bit lost and weren 't as
comfo rtable and I c o uld bomb them
on the brakes. But they just hung on
like there was no tomo rrow . It was
like they had a tow on my bike. Every
time I th ought I pu t a good lap in, one
of them would d raft me d own th e
straightaway . I thought, 'Man, this is
going to be a lo ng stinkin ' rac e."
It came down to the fi nal lap and
Moore's was perfect - j ust as he knew
he had to be .
"I k new with th ese guys hot on m y
he el s , i f I didn ' t pu t som eth ing
toge ther reall y good , I wasn 't go ing to
do it ," Moore said . "That run from th e
last turn is pr etty long, uphill. I'm up
there pushing th e wi nd and I knew I
had to put some time on them . I just
p ut my head down on the last lap. I
just did wh at had to be done and it
worked."
Spies d rafted past Ulrich for third ,
his third pod ium f in ish of th e f our
races he ld thus far.
" T hat ra nked right up there with
me a n d J a son [ Pri d mo re] at Day tona, " t he 16 -year-old Spies said .
" J im m y was rid ing really good . The
first th ree laps it seem ed li k e m e and
J immy w ere getting aggre ss ive and
t hat m ig ht h a v e let Chris [ U l r i c h ]
Lockhart-Phillips USA Formula Xtreme
R
ound 3: RoadAmerica
catc h up , but I thi nk he wo uld ha ve
c a u g h t up an ywa y. He was riding
rea lly good. I would like to say that it
was the best bike out there, but I j ust
couldn't do it today . On th e last lap, I
just went through the k ink and pre tended there wasn't a wall there . I
ca ught back up to Chris and just tried
not to go too hard in the last c orn er
like I'd been doing and ru n wi de , got
a good drive and just drafted Chris as
much as I could and got him at th e
line."
Ulrich , in his first season of fourstroke racing after raci ng his ent ire
career on 12 5 and 250cc tw o strokes , was naturall y plea sed with
his perform anc e.
" It w a s a re ally gr eat race and
those gu y s were rid ing rea ll y well ,"
Ulrich sa id . "I ki n d of ch eesed the
start really bad and I was th inking,
' Oh, man, how am I go ing to get o n
the podium from here?' I just put m y
head down a nd put i n som e go od
la ps. My Me tzeler tires were wo rk ing
rea lly well and those gu ys over in th e
Valvo line team built m e a ripping-fast
b ike. I th in k Spie s ' bik e was jus t
abo ut as g ood as m ine. I w as rid ing
m y butt off and those guys had ju st a
little bit too much for m e toda y. "
U lrich 's t eammate , Mark Jung e ,
fini sh ed fourth , c l ear of Moor e' s
t eammate , Vincent Hasko vec . T on y
Meirin g , Rich Con icell i, D avid Ortega ,
Alexander and Anth on y Lup o round ed o ut the top 10.
eN
Road America
Elkhart lake, W"ISCO sin
Results: Jun e 9, 2001
7S0cc SUPERSPO RT f I NA L: I. I. .Jlmm y
Moor e (S uz }: 2 . Ben Spies ( Suz) : 3 . Chr is Ul ric h
( Suz) ; 4 . M.ark J unge ( SUI); 5. Vin cent Hesk cvec
(SUI ); 6. Tony Mei ri ng ( Suz ); 7 . Rich Con icelli (Suz );
B. Dav id Ortega (Suz); 9. Rich Alexander (Suz) : 10.
Anthony Lupo (Sua): 1 1. Alan Schm idt {Suz} ; 12.
Ow en Rich ey ( SUI) ; 13. Jeffrey Purk (Yam ); 14 .
Randall M. nneng ll (Suz): 15. J ak e Zemke (Hon); 16.
e
Scott Gooch (Suz) ; 17. Scott Hermersmenn (Suz);
18. Ju stin Roetlin (Suz); 19. Monte Nicho ls (Yam}:
20. Brian Selezer {Yam}: 21 . Justin Blak e (Suz) ; 22 .
J ason D'Am ico (Suz); 23 . Ja son Knupp (Suz); 24 .
David Ebben (Yam) ; 25. Eric Dooyema (Suz) ; 26 .
Christopher Monge (50'); 27. Garth Cloyd (50'); 28 .
Todd Vander Ark (Suz): 29 . James Milroy J r. (Suz):
30 . Daig oro Suzuki (Suz) : 3 1. Mauro Cerede (Suz).
TIme: 22 min., 44 .892 sec.
Distance: 10 laps. 40 m iles
Marg in of vict ory: 0.2 26 sec.
Avcr agc speed: 105.503 m ph
AMA 750 cc SUPERSPORT SERIES POINT
STANDINGS ( A ft er 4 of 11 round s) : 1. Jimmy
Moor e ( 12 4 /1 win) ; 2 . Ben Spies ( 1 18) : 3 . Rich
Alexand er (l OS); 4 . Vincent Haskovec (97 ); 5 . Chris
Ulr ich (82) : 6. Ton y Mei ring (78 ): 7. Br ian Parriott
(70/1 win) ; 8. Rich Conicelli (62); 9 . (llE) Ant hony
Lupo /Alan Schmidt (60) ; I I. David O rteg a (58 ); 12.
(TIE) Jo hn Aehrneed/Brta n Gibbs (46) ; 14 . Daig oro
Suz (4 1); 15. Mike Clccotto (38 /1 win ); 16. (TIE)
Randall Menneng a/ Jason Prid more (36/1 win ): 18.
Scott Goo ch (3 0) ; 19. Mark Crozier (28) ; 20 . Mark
Ju nge (27) .
Upcom ing Round s
Round 5 - Loudon, New Hamp shire. June 16
Round 6 - Monterey , California . July 6
Damon B u c kmaster rode his Graves
Motorsports Yamaha to an easy
victory In the Formula Xtreme class.
S T O RY AND PHOTOS B Y
H E N N Y R A Y A B RA M S
EU