Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

AMA C h e vy Trucks U .S . S uperbike S e r ie s Rou n d 7 : New H a m p shi re Intern ation a l Spee dway AMA & ioe S eo umki Accessories 750cc Supers ortSeries R uod 5: New Hampshire lotematio al Speedway B v H E N N V R A V A B RA MS P HO T O BV B RIA N J . N E LS O N LOUDON, NH, JUNE 16 or M ike Cic cotto , the hard est part o f t he G enu in e Su zu k i Acces sories 750cc Supersport race was th e f irst t u rn . Like the rush t o t h e last dough nu t in th e pressroom , it w as fi lled with bumping and sho vin g and grown m en acting generall y uncivil all for th eir o wn sel fi sh needs. St arting from th e pole pos ition, Hooters Suzu k i's Ciccotto got tagged from beh ind , but his progress wasn't im peded and he ended up j ust beh ind Att ack Suzu ki 's Rich ie A lexander go ing through the first and second tu rn sequence . T hat was the hard part . Going through the same patch of g ro u n d on la p t h r e e , he passed Alexander for the lead th en d isap peared. In less than two laps, he had nearl y a three-second lead , which he would cas ually stretch to 8. 180 at the en d of the 16-lap, 3 8.4-m ile race held on a hot an d humid Saturda y afternoon at New Hampshire Internat ional Speedway. " I bas ically j ust wanted to get out th ere an d get t he lead , f irst of all , because I kn ew I could run high 12s in the beg inning," said th e Floridian, who 'd qualified half a second ahead of th e field. "Once I sort of opened up a lead I just sta rt ed cru is ing . I saw F 12 ,JUNE 27 , 2001 • cue I e Mike Clccotto (13) hasn't raced In all of the AMA races this year, b ut when he does he Is usually successful . At Loudon, Clccotto was dominant In winning the 750cc Su p e rspo rt f inal. Chu c k i e [ C h o ui n a r d ] and Ri chi e [A lexand er] go ing at it. Th ey sta rte d cl osing up on m e in th eir battle, th en I was ab le to stretch it out. Lappers worked ok ay for m e; I thought th ey cau ght up with som e lappers." Ciccotto doesn 't do the full AMA schedule, but he ma ke s the most of his limited appearances. His last race was at Road Atlanta , which he also won. Charles Chouinard runs even less AMA races . T he Massachusetts rid er i s a Loudon regular and his knowl edg e shined through. He's been club raci ng here since 1992 and racing the AMA weekend since 199 4 , and th is was his first pod ium . On the victory stand he was overcome with em oti on. " W e j u st struggled all we ekend with th ese guys and m y crew never gave up ," the Sparks Steak House ba cked Suzuki rid er said . " I' ve been try ing since '92 to get up here, and we fina ll y did it ." Chou inard was away in se vent h, qui ckly up to third by the fifth lap , and past Alexander and into second on the 1 1th lap. "The start was real cl ose ; a lot of n e _ s bumping an d ban g ing ," Ch ou in ard sa id . " Ev ery bo d y settled down an d j u st started c lick ing off l ap s, you know what I mean, j ust tr ied to push as hard as I cou ld to c atch Rich ie [Alexander) and I was with him for a coupl e of laps and then got by him and just kept push ing h im and just tried to sta y the same pace th e whole way through and just keep plugging al o n g b e c ause I kn ew Rich i e was behind me and I just k ept on tr y ing to go as hard as I could. " Chou ina rd had a s a f e gap for mu ch of the second ha lf of th e race , finishing 4.5 se c o n d s in front of Alexa nder. Unfort un at ely , fo r Chouinard , it all changed on Mo nday when the AMA announced th at he 'd been disquali fied fo r illegal engine m odificati on s. It moved everyone up a spot. After th e earlier Formu la Xtreme race , Al exan d er n eeded medical attent ion. He st ill carries a trace of the ill effects of the Lym e disease that sidelined him most of last year. The heat st ill affects h im , and he w as dehydrated. Halfway into the Formula Xtreme race , he said he " was about ready to pass out on the track and I j u st m ilk ed it in to get points and came in, and once I got off the bike, I couldn't even sta nd ; I wa s j ust totally dizzy ." The m edical crew and his personal tr ainer ice d h im down and rehy drated hi m for the 20-minute break between t he Xtre me and 75 0 c c Su p ersp ort races . In the late stages of the race , what was a safe third became a po sit ion of p er i l wh en Bru c e Tr an sportat ion Gro up ' s Josh Ha yes, rid in g a Honda F4 i, ma de a lat e run at h im . Hay es came up just .547 of a second short. " I hon estl y got to say if he p ut a pas s on m e I d on 't th in k I had th e stre ng th to do an yth ing with hi m . I wa s pretty content with j ust fin ish ing , so I' m pumped t o b e o n t h e bo x ," Al exand er said. Fifth went to Corona Ex tra EBSCO M ed i a Suzuk i' s Vin c ent Has ko vec , wh o b ro k e fre e of Ves rah Rac ing 's D a igoro Su zuk i la te i n th e r a c e. Haskovec 's teammate, J immy Moore, got by Suzuki with two laps to go to take sixth. It was an eventful ride. Moore was knocked down by the sliding motorcycle of Bruce Trans - Richard Alexander (25) led Clccotto (13) early In the race, but not when It counted. Points leader Jimmy Moore (86) fin i sh ed f"dth. portat ion Group's Roger Lee Hayden while in third on the fifth lap. Hayden sa i d he t h o u g h t he was ahead of Moore when the incid ent occurred, but Moore saw it differentl y . " He pulled up along side of me on the brakes and t h en backed off, I turn ed in and the next th ing I know I'm on m y head," Moore sai d of th e turn -three in ci d en t. " Acc o rd in g to [Jo hn ] Hopk in s [who wa s watch ing nearb y] , h e j ust g o t in too d eep , tucked th e front wheel. and th e slid in g b ik e h it m e . L u ck il y the b ike didn't get beat up too bad. Gr ound the foot peg down, tw isted the tr ip le clamps a little. picked it up and took off. I'll tell you what, I wa s th inking of p ic k ing that thing up long before it stoppe d sli ding," Moore said . By fin ish in g fi ft h , he was ab le to extend h is championship lead, now over A lexander, 150-1 37 . Va lvoline EM GO Suzuk i's Ben Spies entered the race second in po ints. but broke h is coll ar bo ne in qualifying and sat ou t the race. He was passed for third in points by Haskovec, who has 124 . "With B en [Spies] out and M ik e [ Ci cc otto) really dominating th e tr ack , it was in my i n t e r e st, t h e team 's interests , to do the ri ght th ing , ride a consistent pace, finish , ge t the points. and go on to the next race," CN Moore said . 750cc Supersp rt New Hampshire Intematlonal Speedway Laudon, New Hampshire Results: June 16, ZOOl (Round 51 GENUINE SOZOKI ACCES SORIES 750cc SOPER S PORT: 1. Mik e Ci ccotto { Sua} : 2. Rich Al exander (Suz); 3. J osh Hayes ( Hon) ; 4 . Vincent Heskovec (SOl); 5. Jimmy Moore (SOl): 6. Daigoro Suzuki (SOl) ; 7. Matthew Silva (SOl); 8. Tony Meiring SUZ) ; 9. Dav id Ortega (Suz): 10. David Mcin tyre Suz ) ; 11. Ow en Richey (Suz) ; 12 . Rich Coni celli Suz); 13. Roland William s (Suz) ; 14. Michael Niksa Suz); 15. Justin Blake (Suz); 16. Paul Gilbert (Suz); 1: 17. John Lounsbury (Suz); 18. Stephen Cook e (Suz 19 . Paul McGrllth (Sua): 20 . Scott Desmond (Yam ; 2 1. Paul Luevano (Hon) ; 22. David Schweitzer (Hon ; 23 . Dole Seeto n (Vom): 24. Joke Zemk e (Hen): 2 . Adam Vella (SUl); 26. Chris Ulri ch (Suz); 27. Roger Lee Hayden (Hon); 28. Paul Hopkins (Yll m); 29. Eric Wood (SUl ); 30 . Ch ri s Rock well (S uz) ; 3 1. Sco tt Greenwood (SUl) ; 32. Michael Gallagher (SUl ). Time : 29 m ins., 43.775 sees. Dista nce: 24 la ps, 38.4 miles . Average speed: 77.560 mph. Margin of victory : 8.180 sees. GEN(JJNE SOZOKI ACCESSORIES 750cc 5(JPERSPORT C'SHIP POINT STANDINGS (An cr 5 of 1 1 round s): 1. Jimmy Moore ( 150 /1 win); 2. Rich Al exander (1 37); 3. Vincent Haskovec (124); 4 . Ben Spies (1 18 ); 5. Tony Meiring (101 ); 6. Chris Ulrich (82) : 7. Rich Conicclli (81/; 8. Dovid Ortego (80): 9. Mike Ciccotto (76/2 wins ; 10. Brlan Parriott (10/1 win ): 11. Do igo,o Suzuk i (66) : 12. (TI E) Anthony Lupo /A lon Schm idt ~6 0); 14 . (T IE) John Ashmeod/B,i on Glbbs (46 : 16. Dav id Mcintyre (40); 18 . O wen Richey (3 19 . (TI E) Rondoll Mennenga/Jason Pridmore 36/1 win). l I: Upcoming Rounds: Round 6 - Monterey, Califomia. July 6 Round 7 - Lexington. Ohio. July 21

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