Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Formula USA Lockhart-Phillips Unlimited Superbike Series Round 4: Pocono Race y Hlmmelsbllch (left) and Acree (right) celebl'llte on the podium 8t Pocono. Batey. Lopez took over fifth on lap eight, and quickly built a margin on Batey. Up front, Higbee got past Acree for a brief turn in the lead on lap five, the leaders dipping into the 1:4D-Iap range. Losing and gaining time in traffic, the top two continued to run at a hotter than race one pace, Acree ahead by as much as 2.5 seconds on lap 12 only to have Higbee back on his tail on lap 15. Try as he might, Higbee couldn't mount a serious challenge over the final laps, and Acree won by almost six official seconds from the slowing to wheelie Higbee. The action was exciting behind, however, Himmelsbach pushing hard to hold third against the advances of Parriott. The later finally pounced on lap 15, eventually pulling out a one- second advantage at the checkered. Himmelsbach settled for fourth, with Lopez mis-shifting but safe in fifth from sixth placed Batey. Battling with Clarke and the Zlock Kawasaki ZX9R of Ty Howard, Palazzo moved up from tenth to nab seventh in a fight to the finish. Sixth-row starter Howard was a strong eighth, top Kawasaki, from a fading Williams and Clarke. "When he passed me early in the race, I thought we might be in trouble," said "Prince of Pocono" Acree. "But 1 got a gap, I got a little paranoid, so 1 pushed myself and picked it up. The tires were really predictable throughout the whole distance, that really helped." BRIEFLY••• Texas-based Australian Craig Connell, the Lockhart-Phillips Unlimited Superbike Formula USA points leader, has one rough weekend at Pocono. In Friday's first feature-race practice, Connell crashed entering high speed tum one, gelling tangled up with his Advanced Motor Sports Ducati Performance 996. The twin clipped Connell's head before landing on his shoulder. Connell missed the rest of the day with hospital-related activities, reiuming to the track with news of a dislocated shoulder and broken upper right rib. Connell was back on track. on his spare machine, for five laps during qualifying Saturday afternoon. However, his new riding gear proved to be a problem. His untried, brand-new leathers were too tight, sending Connell to the big vendor area in search of a more comfortable suit. Connell was briefly out in Sunday morning's warm-up, selling a reasonable time, 1:44.7. compared to quickest in practice - Lee Acree's 1:40.4. Now wearing a set of beaten up ex-Matt Wait leathers, Connell worked his way to a reasonable ninth in the first Superbike counter. In the more iucrative second leg, Connell was running eighth before another off track trip in tum one. This lime. he managed to save it, but the stress was too much for his shoulder, and the sole Ducati hopeful pulled in and retired. "I tried to keep going, but I couldn't run any pace after that trip," explained an exhausted Connell post race. "I think there's something else wrong with me, maybe my shoulder blade in the back. I'm disappointed, pure and simple - i crashed Friday, that was so amateurish, There's only three of us, it's a big effort for a small team, and now I have to make it up in Portiand." Connell dropped to a distant third in points behind new leader Acree and the resurgent Higbee. Also in trouble with a practice crash was Blackman Aprilia's Tray Batey, the fastest Superbike rider heading into Superbike qualifying. Batey crashed mid-session in daunting tum one, banging up his RSV· 1000 Mille and wrecking his formerly immaculate leathers due to a long, long slide. Batey came to a stop just feet from the ambulance, immediately asking for water to clean the deep wound in his right knee. Batey borrowed some "Gray Ghost" Vanson leathers for Sunday, and ran third quickest in the warm-up, proving his bike was back in good shape. But on the first lap of Superbike, Batey's bike made a strange noise, "I was hoping it was just a loose header with a broken spring, something like that," explained the Arclight WERA Endurance Team member. "But it kept doing it around the banking, so I decided to pull in to save the engine." Batey's crew readied his "B- bike for the second race, a slightly heavier and less powerful Aprilia. Since the VIR round. Batey's crew sourced trick alloy radiators, curing the bike's former overheating problems. "It would run fine on the dyno," explained Batey, "but it would siow down during the races. Now it makes good power throughout. We're still a lillie heavy though, the 'A' bike's around 395 pounds, and I'm not the lightest." Batey is a six-footer. Reigning Formula USA Superbike Champion Grant Lopez had a busy weekend planned in late August. starting with testing and Hammer Riding School duty prior to the Pocono F-USA round. Scheduled to head to the AMA round in Colorado on Wednesday night, Lopez didn't get out until Thursday, due to a concussion suffered in Pocono practice. Following the AMA Formula Extreme round on Saturday, August 25, Lopez left Colorado via plane for Los Angeles, then bounced back east on his" red eye and a half" to arrive in New Jersey at 6 a.m. on Sunday morning. From there, Lopez slept on the way to Pocono, where he got a provisional start from the back of the grid in the opening Lockhart-Phillips Formula USA counter. "I didn't expect to be able to win a race like that, let alone all of them," continued Acree on his perfect Pocono performance. "That's what you set out to do, that's what you're Eric Wood's younger brother Jeff, also a son of the famed auctioneer/Loudon organizer/Classic racer Jerry Wood, dominated the NRRS 250cc Grand Priz event held on Saturday. With most of the opposition at the AMA counter at Pike's Peak, Wood simply took off, lapping most of the field to run away with the win on his all white Yamaha TZ250. After the race, Penguin Racing Schoolbacked Wood admilled that he rushed to catch and pass lapped traffic, "to keep myseif motivated," as well as pulling major wheelies when heading onto the stock car back straight. Run in conjunction with the 250cc National, the 125 GP round was dominated by the Speed Werks Honda RS125 of Brian Kcraget. Early in Saturday afternoon's even numbered Sportbike qualifying session, former F-USA Champion Michael Barnes crashed his Hooter's Suzuki, bringing out the red flag, Barnes' mangled machine was brought to the pits, and since his time was good for third in session, fifth overall, the ballered GSX·R600 had to go to post race tech. Officials allowed the Hooter's crew to pull the sub frame off the rear tire, and the bike ran "as is" on the dyno, complete with dislocated header pipe. Not surprisingly, the Suzuki was nowhere near the class limit of 110 horsepower. Due to a ieft wrist injury sustained in the fall, Barnes opted to sit out the Sportbike round, opting to concentrate on his Buell and Superbike class entries. Barnes dominated the Buell event, but was out early in the first Superbike race with a broken engine, taking a long push back through NASCAR tum one. Horsepower reading. on the Official Series Dynojet Dyno for the Superbike ciass were very close at Pocono, although none of the front runners were penalized due to infractions. The Suzuki GSX-R750 of Roland Williams was closest to the 145 limit with a 142,2 hp reading, Suzukis also next with Higbee at 142 and victor Acree with 141.9. The lightest Superbikes were the GSX-Rs of front·runners Acree and Higbee, weighing in at an identical 381.5 pounds. The Sportbike class for middleweight machines allows for 112 horsepower, and third placed Suzuki rider Chuck Chouinard, probably the biggest of the front-runners, dynoed closest at 110.2 on his Barry Motorsports entry. Fifth placed Shannon Ball's Dallas Cycle Sports Suzuki was lightest at 373 pounds. Best 250cc Aprilia output was fourth-place finis.her Gus Holcomb at 63 hp. right on the class limit. Lightest of the Italian two-stroke twins was the Dan Fischer's Copier1.com-backed example at 305 pounds, well above the 290-pound prescribed minimum. In Buell Ughtning mandatory post race Dynojet dyno testing, Bryan Bemisderfer was closest to the 95 horsepower maximum at 93.8 hp, his Harley powered entry also the lightest at 399.5 pounds, safely clear of the 390·pound standard. Pocono's interesting but rough road course reqUired considerable attention prior to the big Toyota-backed Clear Channel·series round, Formula USA staff arriving early to removed 200 feet of guardrail and 500 feet of fencing, both barriers then required to return to their original spots follOWing the rare bike event. Twenty sections of Air Fence arrived via air straight from the World Superbike round at Brands Hatch, part of the Alpina Air Module Lease System. Parts Unlimited sponsored the shipping, not a small thing given each section weights 200 pounds. The Parts deal also covers the use of the fence at the final two season events at Portland and Daytona. Although no schedule is in place, Buell staff hope that ongoing development will allow their radical new Firebolt XB9R to race before this season is over. The just announced alloy beam framed twin has already tested at Putnam Park in the hands of Tripp Nobles, and if work continues apace, the bike will debut in the hands of a Hal's or Tilley backed rider. Buell staff are also considering including the Firebolt in the current Buell Ughtning one make Formula USA class. Insiders suggest that in stock form, the pushrod equipped, air cooled XB9R would put out about 80 horsepower on a Dynojet dyno, less than the Evo-engined Buells currently racing. Formula USA team owners and managers were invited to an informal meeting on Thursday night at Pocono, to discuss items related to Eric Wood joined the Sportbike wars at Pocono, making his race debut on a fresh from the showroom floor Suzuki GSX-R600. With only 15 laps of running at Loudon, his home track. Wood came to Pocono with no expectations in 600, and wound up qualifying on the outside of the front row. "It's so much fun, I should be riding 600s all the time," explained the former Kawasaki support racer. "It hasn't taken us that long to get set-up, and the motors still completely stock, we haven't taken it apart, and it's good for 107 horsepower with just jelling and an HMF pipe." Sponsorship for the new 600 comes from 14k Productions, the deal put together by Tony Morris, the owner of Keystone Learning Systems, the principal backer of Wood's Superbike GSX-R750 program. 14k is actually the title of a potential film project, described by Woods as, "a 'Days of Thunder' movie, only for motorcycle road racing instead of stock cars. The goal is to maybe start shooting as early as this fall." If all goes well, 14k would be in theaters in the fall of 2002." Wood is finally recovered from the serious, XR 100 training injUry suffered early in 2000, a fall that put him out for all of last season and slowed his progress early in 2001. "I'm gelling used to riding with braces on both knees, we've built up the seat a bit, and I'm finally feeling like I'm back to where I was two years ago. It takes a while to come back mentally when you're off that long.- 56 SEPTEMBER 12. 2001 • II: U II: I • n e _ • supposed to do. 1 guess all of the planets aligned for me this time." Higbee was satisfied with his attack, saying of Acree, "he was going good. I was pushing really hard, the 2002 road race tour. F-USA plans to run 10 events in 2002, up form this year's six-race schedule. High on the wish list of tracks are Road America and Road Atlanta, both circuits already working with F-USA's club racing arm, CCS. Classes are expected to remain the same with only minor changes, while teams were also generally happy with the Dynojet dyno-supervised DOT class rules. The biggest wish from team owners was for a television deal. Formula USA had a very successful TV debut with the Pocono round on CBS in 2000, but have not pursued television since.

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