Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

AMAICh e vy Trucks U . S . S u p erb ik e S e r ie s R o u n d 9 -1 0 : Mi d - O h io Spo rts C a r C o u r s e m e with five to go . Tha t allowed me to be a little n ic e r to the lappers. I knew I wasn't going to catc h Ji m my. " S pie s ha d ha nded Ulrich the win at Laguna Seca by crash ing in turn 11 with a lap to go. The s pill stayed with him in Ohi o a nd affecte d his riding. Second in the beg inn ing , he continuously lost ground until he wa s a bo ut 12 seconds beh ind Ulric h at the finish , with a 6 00c c Supersport m a c hin e a tta c king him at the end. " I j us t d idn 't h a v e it for the m t o d a y ," Sp ies s ai d . "I t h ink a fte r La guna , lea di ng up till th e last lap a nd losi ng the fro nt, I wasn't goi ng in as h a rd t o th e co rne rs trai ling t he brak es as they wer e and the re 's a lot of co rners where yo u tra il the brakes here a nd th a t was imp or tan t. Little time ad d s up here . If yo u' re g o ing half a second fa s te r a lap yo u ca n 't eve n ha ng with them, a nd th e y were doing just th at. Jus t couldn 't run win th e m , an d jus t t rie d to m ai n tain it over J o sh , who finish e d fourth , a nd came out with th ird." Bru ce Transportat ion G r ou p ' s Josh Hay es compl eted the first lap in e ig ht h , the n went to work on h is Honda F4 i. In a cluster of fo ur riders fo r the m id-part of the race , Haye s c o n t in u o us ly mo ved fo rwa rd until th e 13 t h lap , wh en he m o ve d int o fou rt h . Sp ies wa s ju st a he ad , wit h Hayes clos ing to within two seconds at the e nd. J immy Moore's teammate , Vincent Haskovec , wa s fifth, another five sec onds back with ground on Ve s ra h Racing 's Daigoro Suzuki in s ixth . Ricci Motorsports ' An th on y Lup o, who was fourth for the first three lap s , fell into th e clutches of the pack to fall to seventh, with Tu ff Dog 's Ala n Schmidt eighth. eN Moo re finish e d and finish ed we ll. J etting fro m the new lap -rec ord pole pos it ion , th e O reg on ian set a new race reco rd of 93.85 1 m p h, ra isin g t he a ve rag e set las t y e ar b y Gra nt Lope z, a n d to o k abo ut 14 secon d s less to com plete the race , finis h ing in 24 m in ut e s , 3 2 .9 7 7 s e c o nds . T h e marg in of victory wa s officiall y 6 .733 seconds. Th e g ap to second was over eight seconds in th e la tter pa rt of the ra ce . Halfwa y in he ha d 3.66 seconds, th en be gan to p ull aw a y a t a rate h e 'd n e ve r e xperie nc ed . With n o o ne to race , his m ind wand ered , a nd there w e r e occ as io n a l sli ps , w hich h e fought to co ntrol. "T h e re was a c o u ple of t im e s without anybody to fight with - m y concent ra tio n stra yed a bit, fortunate ly it was not a b ig dea l," Moore said. "Usu ally it wa s just the ba ck end sliding out. J ust tried to put consistent, smooth, in t e llig e n t lap s togethe r. Watch my pit board. 1 could see the gap was slowl y growing . That's the first time I'v e been that far out. 1 didn't know if I should back off. At times in previous races I've backed off and made hordes of m istakes and realized that I've got to keep my concentration up by keep ing the la p times good. So I just kept my head down and tried to at least hold the gap the s a me and im p ro ve when I could , and it just worked out." With four races remain ing in the Genuine Suzuki Accessories 750cc Supers port Championship , Moore leads Alex ander 207 to 164, with Ben Spies, a c a ut io us third today on the Valvoline EMGO Suzuki, third at 162. Three riders are within three points of each other in fourth, Vincent Haskovec ho lding 153 to Tony Meiring's 15 1 and Chris Ulrich 's 150 . Ulrich had won th e previous race at Mazda Race wa y at Laguna Sec a and qualified second to Moor e at MidOh io . Off t he sta rt h e was t h ir d beh ind Moore and Spies , putting his Roadracingworld. com Suzuki past Spies a nd into se cond on the fifth lap. By then Moore ha d ove r 3 .5 seconds and , d esp ite h is b est eff orts , Ulric h conti nue d to lose g round . "I notice d J im my [Moore] wa s ga pping Be n [Sp ies] a nd 1 was catc hing Ben ," Ulrich said . "I ca u ght Ben . I tried to put a cl e a n, good move o n him , 1 th ink comin g off the ba c k straight. Just put m y he ad down tr y to catch Jimmy . 1 thought I could for a while th ere , and we st a rted getting into traffic and my gap was still stay ing the same, gaini ng, staying the same. For a few laps, I wou ld come around off the back stra ight a nd be in the same exact spot every lap. Then we started getting into tra ffic, and he got a little bit more of a break , and 1 noticed that he had five seconds on 14 A UGUST 1. 200 1 • eye I Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course Lexington, Ohio Results: July 21, 2001 [Rou 7 of 111 nd GENUIN E SUZUKI A CCES S O RI ES 7 S 0c< S

• Cover