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AMAIChevy Trucks U.S. Superbike Series Round 12: Pikes Peak 1m ernational Raceway Spies and his Valvoline EMGO Suzuki were impressive throughout, taking the lead in the first corner from holeshot man Richard Alexander Jr. It was a lead he wouldn't relinquish, with the Texan leading by as much as four seconds before slowing in the final laps to win by 2.4 seconds. "It actually felt wrong," Spies said after his first victory. "I didn't see Jimmy [Moore] ahead of me like he had been all season. I wasn't trying to chase him and I didn't know Teally what to do, so I just tried to hit all my marks. Some laps were slower than others when I made mistakes. Lappers were there and they helped me in the beginning and helped him in the end. It stayed about two seconds the whole race and kept the pressure on so I just kept riding hard." Whether or not Moore and his Corona EBSCO Suzuki could have given Spies more of a race won't ever be known. After all, he didn't have to push the issue. On the sixth lap, Moore saw Alexander - his main championship rival coming into the Colorado round on the ground, the New Englander having crashed his Attack Suzuki in tum one. From there, Moore rode smartly, keeping Spies in sight but never threatening the youngster. And he was racing with serious burns on his leg (see Briefly... ), though he refused to use that as an excuse, saying only that the painkillers worked well and that the injury wasn't an issue. The result was a solid second place for Moore and more importantly a whopping 53-point lead in the championship with just two rounds remaining. And it is now Spies who holds down second in the series standings, 278225. Third place today went to Roadracingworld.com's Chris Ulrich, the Californian fighting back from a horrendous start that saw him eighth on the opening lap. Ulrich ended up topping Corona EBSCO Suzuki's Vincent Haskovec to earn the final podium spot with Haskovec holding on to fourth place. Fifth went to Ricci Motorsports' Anthony Lupo. John Dugan, David Ortega, Alan Schmidt, Eric Schnakenberg and Scott Jensen rounded out the top 10 finishers on an overcast afternoon. The race started with Alexander leading the pack off the line, but it was a short-lived lead as Spies was by before they got to the hairpin, tum three. From there, Spies was clear. He opened up a quick gap of half a second to Alexander, a gap that grew to a second and a half by the time the New Englander crashed on the sixth lap. If he wasn't already having an easy time of it, things got instantly easier for Spies with the departure of Alexander. Not necessarily because of the challenge that might have come from the Attack Suzuki rider, but because Moore saw his fallen rival and realized second was good enough. "Really I've been concentrating on Richie [Alexander] almost too much," Moore said. "I forgot about his [Spies] 12 SEPTEMBER 5, 2001 • position in the points; I thought he was way back. Fifty-three is a ways, but not quite enough. I blew the start. I really wanted to get a better start than that. I got stuck behind Richie. He was trying hard, but he was kind of holding us up. I was trying to be patient and not do anything silly. I made my move around him and one lap later I saw him laying up in the banking. I thought, 'That's it.' It pretty much sealed the rest of the race for me. To try and catch Ben, make a move for first, at this point it doesn't seem like that would have been a very wise decision. I just sat back and did my thing." All Spies did from that point on was watch his pit board, monitor the situation and hope his good fortune held up. It did, and the victory was his. "It makes you want to win another one, I know that," Spies said. For Ulrich, things were much more interesting, thanks mainly to a poor start that saw him finish the first lap in eighth place. From there he moved forward - quickly. He was sixth after two laps, fifth after four laps and fourth after six laps. Then he chased down Haskovec, passing his fellow Suzuki rider on the 17th of 29 laps. "I knew I was catching Vince [Haskovec], but I didn't want to get over-an'xious catching him," Ulrich explained. "That was one of the mistakes I did earlier this year, so I just kinda poked away at him. I knew I was catching him, I could see the gap was closing, and I knew I had a big gap to the guy in fourth, so I didn't have to really rush it. Once I caught him, I don't know what he was doing in turn one with that lapper. I managed to get both of them and from there the split just went up. I just watched my pit board and made sure that split went up. I knew I was in third. I knew I wasn't going to catch Jimmy [Moore]; I wasn't going to catch Ben [Spies]. Maybe if we stop screwing up the starts, go to a drag strip or something, we may be able to win one of these things." Haskovec held on to finish fourth, well clear of Lupo. eN Pikes Peak IntematiolNll beewoJ Fountein, Coloredo Results: AuIUs1 Z5, ZOOl 750« SUPERSPORT FINAL: 1. Ben Spies (Suz); 2. Jimmy Moore (Suz); 3. Chris Ulrich (Suz); 4. Vincent Haskovec (Suz); 5. Anthony Lupo (Suz); 6. John Dugan (Suz); 7. Devid Ortega (Suz); 8. Alan Schmidt (SUI); 9. Erik Schn8ckenberg (Suz); 10. Scott Jensen (Suz); 11. Robb Martin (Yam); 12. Jeremy Chisum (Suz); 13. Justin Bielke (Suz); 14. Kurt Marmor (Hon); 15. Mertin Sims (Vam); 16. Jason Chisum (Suz); 17. Justin Roetlin (Suz); 18. Donald Blattert III (Yam): 19. Geoffrey Pestes (vam!: 20. Donald Medina Jr. (Yam): 21. Rick Hogge (Vam : 22. Eric Erling Haugo (5uz); 23. Tony Meiring (5uz : 24. Jeff Bostrom (Suz); 25. Jason Swan (Suz); 26. Jeffrey Tigert (Hon); 27. Rich Alexander (Suz); 28. Stuart Stratton (V8m). nme: 27 min., 46.517 sec. Distance: 29 lllps, 38 miles Average speed: 82.379 mph Margin of victory: 2.475 sec. AMA 750cc SUPERSPORT C'SHIP POINT STANDINGS (Alter 9 of )) rounds): 1. Jimmy Moore (278/3 wins); 2. Ben Spies (225/1 win); 3. Vincent Haskoveo (205): 4. Rich Alexander (196); 5. Chris Ulrich (193/1): 6. Tony Meiring (188): 7. David Ortega (166); 8. Anthony Lupo (157): 9. Alan Schmidt (152); 10. Daigoro Suzuki (133): 11. Rich Conicelli (124); 12. Mike Ciccotto (76); 13. Brian Parriott (70): 14. (TIE) Justin Blake/John Dugan 59}: 16. Randall Mennenga (5B); 17. Josh Hayes 56); 18. Owen Richey (53): 19. Justin Roellin (52): O. Scott Jensen (48). ~ Upcoming Rounds Round 9 - Rosamond, Galffomia, September 15 Round 10 - Danville, Virginia, September 29 cue •• n • _ lIS Lockhart-Phillips USA Fonnula Xtreme: Round 8 a STORY AND PHOTO BV HENNV RAV ABRAMS FOUNTAIN, CO, AUG 25 T hree months ago at Road Atlanta, Jason Pridmore broke his collarbone in one crash and his leg in another. Two weeks ago, he started walking. A day later he started golfing. Today, he was riding his Attack Suzuki GSX-RI000 like he'd never been hurt, surprising all, including himself, with a record-setting win in the Lockhart-Phillips USA Formula Xtreme final on a sunny afternoon at Pikes Peak International Raceway. "I don't know what to say. It's amazing," Pridmore said, before joking, "Actually I didn't even break my leg in Atlanta. I've been out traveling the world for the last three months training." If he had been traveling the world, he'd put the time to good use. Though he wasn't on the pole - that honor went to Graves Motorsports Yamaha's Damon Buckmaster - he was consistently fast all weekend and felt he had a chance to win. "I was really surprised actually on Friday morning when I was quickest for a while," he said. "Maybe they screwed up, maybe there's a number 43 out there I don't know about. I saw it up on the screen as I was going around. I can't believe that." A rider who also couldn't believe what happened was Buckmaster. The championship leader saw his points lead disappear when gremlins struck his Yamaha Rl on the ninth of 29 laps, putting it on three cylinders. The Australian circulated to a 19thplace finish, which, coupled with the fifth-place of Valvoline EMGO Suzuki's John Hopkins, puts them in a championship tie with two races to go. "Now I have to race to win," Buckmaster said. Team owner Chuck Graves said the team was baffled by the problem. "We ran it on the dyno and we can't find a problem," he said. The closest they came to an answer was a defective spark plug, which they replaced. But when they put the older plug back in, the bike ran fine. "At this point, we have to change everything and hope we won't have that problem again." Pridmore had winning on his mind at the start. Erion Honda's Jake Zemke got the holeshot and led the first three laps before Pridmore made his move in the Carousel turn on lap .....ce ge~ four. Pridmore had gotten away third, behind teammate Tom Kipp, who slotted in behind Pridmore on the fourth lap. Kipp, once passed, got into a battle with Zemke for the duration, using lapped traffic to comfortably take second in the closing stages. Pridmore hadn't done more than eight laps at once in practice and qualifying and there was some concern about his endurance. It never showed. Once out front his lead grew in almost linear fashion, ending at 5.004 seconds, even though he wasn't able to ride in his normal style. Pridmore completed the 29-lap, 38mile race in a record time of 27 minutes, 4.206 seconds at an average speed of 84.525 mph. "It reminds for sure," Pridmore said of his injured leg. "I'm not able to get through the right-hand corners and pick the bike up like I'd like to. That gives me a little bit of outside footpeg pressure, because contrary to what some people think, I steer the bike with my lower body a lot. And for me, I can tell when I have a leg injury because I can't steer the bike as well. It definitely plays a part." But not a debilitating part. The race went better than he'd hoped, but he had a premonition that it might in the morning. (Below) Attack Suzuki's Jason Pridmore rode his GSX-R1000 to a convincing victory In the Fonnula Xtreme race, winning by over five seconds·after his three-month hiatus from racing following a crash-strewn weekend at Road AUanta back in May.